DOCUMENT RESUME HE 032 200 ED 432 206 Marchese, Theodore J., Ed. AUTHOR AAHE Bulletin, 1998-99. TITLE American Association for Higher Education, Washington, DC. INSTITUTION ISSN-0162-7910 ISSN 1999-00-00 PUB DATE 162p.; For the 1997-98 Bulletin, see ED 425 677. NOTE American Association for Higher Education, One Dupont AVAILABLE FROM Circle, Suite 360, Washington, DC 20036. Serials (022) Collected Works PUB TYPE AAHE Bulletin; v51 n1-10 1998-1999 JOURNAL CIT MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE College Faculty; *College Instruction; College Outcomes DESCRIPTORS Assessment; Diversity (Student); *Higher Education; Multicultural Education; School Business Relationship; Student Evaluation; Teacher Evaluation ABSTRACT The 10 issues of this organizational journal provide news columns, calls for proposals, conference information, and several major articles. Articles in this volume include: "Restructure? You Bet! An Interview with Change Expert Alan E. Guskin" (Ted Marchese); "The State of the 'Engaged Campus'" (Barbara A. Holland and Sherril B. Gelmon); "What Proportion of College Students Earn a Degree?" (Clifford Adelman); "Powerful Partnerships: A Shared Responsibility for Learning" (Susan West Engelkemeyer and Scott C. Brown); "Essential Demographics of Today's College Students" (Edmund J. Hansen); "How the Corporate University Model Works" (Jeanne C. Meister); "Who Teaches? Who Learns?" (Kimberley Barker); "Institutional "The Case for the Nine-Hour Performance Measures" (Susan West Engelkemeyer) ; "Fostering a Discourse Community: Part One of Campus Course" (Earl L. Conn) ; Conversations" (Barbara Cambridge); "What the Learning Paradigm Means for Faculty" (George R. Boggs); "For Profit: Application of the Corporate Model Business: A to Academic Enterprise" (Richard Ruch); "Liberal Arts for Partnership Built by Faculty" (Michael Rao); "Solving a 'Higher Ed Tough One'" (Dan Tompkins); "Building Multiculturalism into Teaching-Development "Connecting What Programs" (Constance Ewing Cook and Mary Deane Sorcinelli); (Claire H. Major); We Know and What We Do through Problem-Based Learning" "Spirituality in "Two Steps to Creative Campus Collaboration" (Jane Fried); the Workplace: An Interview with Father William J. Byron" (Kathleen Curry Santora); "Learning Through Evaluation, Adaptation, and Dissemination: The LEAD Center" (Susan B. Millar); "Post-Tenure Review: Rehabilitation or Enrichment?" (Joan North); "Doing Assessment As If Learning Matters Most" (Thomas A. Angelo); "How To Get the Ball Rolling: Beginning an Assessment Integral Part Program on Your Campus" (Catherine Wehlburg); "Assessment: An and of the Teaching System Two Models" (John Biggs); "Research, Ethics, "Looking Public Discourse: The Debate on Bilingual Education" (Jim Cummins); Forward to 2000. 'To Form a More Perfect Union: Diversity and Learning'" (Margaret A. Miller); and "On Diversity: A Board Statement to AAHE's Members." (DB) AAHE Bulletin 1998-1999 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY arit44,14- 4124 P4V-d TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 C)6 C)c BEST COPY AVAI BLE 2 September 1998 Vol. 51 No. 1 A Publication of the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION aqiumoaDuumei GifemEEI heng® ; ,,, " ;- ttt't An Interview With ' ,, _, t4., '"-,t r ° te -,*"-`70-. 'i.;,.... - Alan Guskin - ..,' ' ''' `-,,tt ' ."? .- - - . , .,.,.. _!,_, . -,- .. 4* '4 -.1.'" .f ' :-. i- ..,. --0,... 4 A. p-A .+4 P , ,. *...., . . "410, ' , :4,. -« °*°°: ' . - f.,, .. .. , ,«-4;#''''4, ,:.."';,..' .4 ,--' .4 ,,,, 4,4 . ,), , c- 4 4 .... A, '..3 .. ' ;-c, *°:/:,,1,7, , ,;-, ..,4"`, .., - : r/4' ,,,, ....", . ''''' , ,-...,,...., . ''.. ..... 4' ......0. ,' ,..., 46-3 A. 4,t, .:: ':'..: 4-44 '-'1. ''.:..4,: 1, ., 1999 National Conference r',4: - '',... "- -,,- 4-7 i ; I- .414:s :.:.- 4... - j.',..; VI S' i".,41 ,,,- r,r,:N'9'.,,, , A s° , 4° "4,4,,..4.°. 1. ... - '4-; 3;:!1°-°.' ,"' .f7 on Higher Education ;11,;.47.;i'V- '....tr,riC''...- --: .. a , .. 1 ..E. :' ..,?1,, : .,,,.2:.' ,' , rg , izi .° ;. VA l', .34 4-4 al' March 20-24, Washington, DC Call for Proposals Deadline: October 15 Also in this Issue: AMIE News New Partnerships Balletin Board AMERICAN ASSOCIATION by Ted Marchese FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. ICES ,3 BEST COPY AVAILABI.E Contents Restructure?! You Bet! Let us hear from you Antioch's Alan Guskin talks about faculty worklife, learner Welcome to another year of the AAHE Bulletin! outcomes, and transformational change. We open this September with a new look and a new Interview by Ted Marchese shape. The updated design is intended to convey Organizing for Learning ideas in a clear, uncluttered way; our new dimen- sions should make it easier for you to share articles 1999 National Conference Call for Proposals with colleagues, file past issues, and fax our pages. Theme statement by Margaret A. Miller All of these changes were made to help readers use Three theme tracks the Bulletin; please let us know what you think. Proposal guidelines Content is still what matters most, and we're committed to bringing you the best articles on policy Pullout issues , academic affairs, and, of course, teaching and learning. We need your ideas and, if you have 1999 Proposal Submission Form something to say, your manuscripts. Guidelines for Deadline October 15 authors are posted to AAHE's website (www.aahe.org) and to our FaxlAccess service (5101271-8164 11). We're looking forward , item Departments to hearing from you. 13 AAHE News Eds. Conferences Campus Conversations Pew Quality Assurance Project 15 Bulletin Board By Ted Marchese AA H E Bulletin Vol. 51, No. 1 / September 1998 Editor: Theodore J. Marchese Managing Editor: Carrie Witt Director of Publications: Bry Pollack AAHE Bulletin is published by the American Association for Higher Education, One Dupont Circle, Suite 360, Washington, DC 20036-1110; ph. 202/293-6440; fax 202/293-0073. President: Margaret A. Miller. Vice Presidents: Theodore J. Marchese and Kathleen Curry Santora. The Bulletin accepts unsolicited manuscripts, subject to editorial review. Guidelines for authors are available by calling 5101271-8164, item 11. AAHE eulletM (ISSN 0162-7910) is published as a membership service of the American Association for Higher Education, a nonprofit organization incorporated in the District of Columbia. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC and at additional mailing offices. Annual domestic membership dues: $105, of which $65 is for publications. Subscriptions for AARE Bulletin without membership are available only to institutions: $35 per year, $45 outside the United States. AAHE Bulletin is published 10 times per year, monthly except July and August. Back issues: $5 each, including postage, while supplies last. AAHE Bulletin is available in microform from University Microfilms International. Printed in the United States of America. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to AAHE Bulletin, Attn: Membership Dept., One Dupont Circle, Suite .360, Washington, DC 20036-1110. BEST COPY AVAILABLE Cover illustration ©Jonathan Evans. Production and printing by HBP. Design concept by Manger, Steck & Koch. ure?! es ruc You Bet! An Interview With Change Expert Alan E. Guskin by Ted Marchese of a gain given the salary losses earlier this finalMhezeg Alan, your two Change articles decade. Yes, there are increases in enrollment, in 1994 [see box on page 61, on how to but no increases in the number of faculty in restructure institutions and academic work, most cases. In fact, faculty find fewer full- have been among our most discussed pieces time colleagues and more part-timers or in recent times. What feedback have you non-tenure-track folk. gotten? Ria@Mheses Institutions, then, may be ©widow. I've spoken at 30 campuses and doing better, even as the people who work in more than 15 national and regional meetings, Each September, the AAHE Bulletin them may be no better off. starts the year with a theme announce- giving keynotes, consulting, and so on. And ment and call for proposals for AAHE's @usktims Right. The root problem, now as you know, Ted, I expected a lot more National Conference on Higher in 1994, is that the underlying expense criticism. Here and there I get some negative Education, in March. For an opening structure in higher education is simply reaction. But what I've heard is mostly comment on this year's theme, beyond the long-term capacity or willingness positive, especially from faculty. There is "Organizing for Learning," we turned to of society to fund. Even with more dollars unease out there, a feeling that something is Alan Guskin, whose writings on the coming in now, administrators read the amiss and that things will have to change in topic turn up repeatedly in footnotes numbers and look at the future and know some way. People aren't sure what that and conference packets. Guskin's semi- nal works appeared in consecutive that they still can't afford to replace all means, but they're concerned about their issues of Change four years ago: first a retiring full professors with like appointments future. And in a lot of places, too, they feel piece on "restructuring the administra- . .. thus the "off-track" hires. their leaders aren't on top of things. tion" (July/August 1994), then and finaiveheze: And students? Inwoheses I'm wondering about only then a follow-on article about @widow, Aside from plant improvements differences between 1994 and 1998, though. "restructuring the role of faculty" and financial aid, what are they seeing in In '94, all we heard about was recession, (September/October 1994). We spoke terms of.letter'education? I don't see smaller restructuring, and reengineering. I don't hear with Guskin on July 24th. cla:s, many more educational options, or those words so much now, but instead about more faculty contact being funded. One higher education's "good times": more . students, state appropriations up 11%;record major change from 1994 is that students and the public now won't put up with the kind of capital campaigns, student aid flowing again, tuition increases we put through earlier, new buildings going up . . . which makes our underlying expense @widow. True, the talk about restructuring structure even harder to sustain. was more intense when you had three years of PACPAGSGS Let me take you back to your no salary increases in some places, but I don't original articles, then, Alan. You predicted see any fundamental change now. We that the three pressures that would push us to shouldn't be fooled by short-term changes in restructure were costs, learning, and the economy or by a few more dollars for technology. Bring us up to date on these. financial aid. Faculty salary increases this past year were 2%-3% on the average, not much a.' 5 Bulletin BANE change lies in faculty thinking hard about their own future. ©uzldous We've talked about cost structures, but let me If faculty, especially those who are young to early middle age, add this, Ted. Lots of the eye-popping successes we hear begin projecting their own professional future, then many of the $1-billion campaigns, and so on about today are them will realize that the present academic structures will concentrated in a tiny number of wealthy research need to significantly change. universities and a few elite liberal arts colleges. They'll not 620:030teses For faculty, this is too important an issue to be touched for some time by most of what we're talking leave to administrators? about, though they'll have their own issues. Most students Ouskigos Absolutely. We kid around about it, but you aren't educated in those places but in primarily know administrators come and go. The average length of stay undergraduate institutions, in state and regional universities, for presidents is five to seven years; for deans and VPs, it's in smaller colleges, in community colleges. Those are the less than five years. But a process that would bring places with unsupportable cost structures that face these fundamental, structural change takes five to 10 years. You issues big time and can't raise look around a place and notice that it's faculty who stay at tuition or fund-raise their way out 0 that institution. Administrators may lead, facilitate, or of them. support a change process, but it ultimately goes nowhere The whole issue of student What I learned unless and until it captures the imagination of faculty, learning outcomes is just taking especially the more creative risk takers. They and their off, far more so than in 1994. Our in my campus colleagues who will follow them are the ones who will have publics are really taking this more to live with it. seriously. And higher education is visits is that too When I talk about change, I don't get resistance from quite unprepared for it. much emphasis is faculty at all. Quite the reverse. They are very attentive The third issue is technology, because they are already sensing that their role is getting which is coming at us faster than put on cost clipped and changed. Too many of the most creative people ever, and now with a new twist: are retiring early. The younger faculty are looking ahead and issues we're facing aggressive, for-profit . worrying a lot. competitors whose whole mode is ignavateses Alan, we have a "new" factor in the picture, technology based, and whose the emergence of well-heeled, for-profit competitors. We see investments we'll have great established universities responding in kind, with for-profit difficulty matching. Gnaugheses arms created by administrative acts. What twist does this put Alan, I'll come back to these competitors, but on the picture? I want to stay with your arguments for restructuring. @uskrums An interesting twist, because most of the for- Rereading your original articles, and thinking back on lots of profit ventures don't have a full, stable faculty. They don't presidential statements, the bottom-line reason always seems invest in a faculty infrastructure, which by itself should give to be financial. most faculty members pause. What these ventures do is live 6tiosidirms What I learned in my campus visits is that too off the faculty of established colleges and universities and the much emphasis is put on cost issues. They are a major force, fruits of their labors. At best, it's a symbiotic, and at worst a and you can't avoid them, but everyplace I go faculty respond parasitic, relationship. The reason the for-profits make negatively to the idea that we have to change or restructure money is because they don't have to support a lot of faculty because of "unsustainable cost structures." For them, that activity that doesn't pay off directly to the bottom line. means cutting faculty. The whole thing turns into an The other side is that these for-profit ventures are very administration-faculty fight, rather than an issue of what's student oriented, and they are challenging traditional higher best for the institution and all of us in it. education where I think we need to be challenged. Whatever EnavAsse: And the argument you now make...? their motives are, they've realized that if they're going to be @usblotig The key issue is the impact of the three forces on successful, they have to really understand where students are faculty themselves and the quality of their worklife. Faculty and appeal to them. will join in that discussion. If nothing changes, as they Llikoaeses The for-profits pick off, of course, the cream indeed sense, they are going to find themselves fewer in of programs, the ones that will attract the most students and number, with more and more duties they don't like, in ever are the easiest to mount. more prescribed roles, with less and less room to do the ©QosIdms That's okay, that's to be expected. But the key things they were trained for. I believe that the major lever for learning for us is that students, especially working adults, care about the time it takes to go from home to a facility, they care about scheduling, they want assured routes to a 6 September 1998 degree, they care about responsiveness to their situations, &Achy: Yes. And I put special emphasis on the learning and they're willing to pay a premium for that attention. So side. If we were clearer about the kind of learning we want that's a good message for us to think about, instead of and how it can be brought about, we'd see that students can worrying about profit versus not-for-profit. Think about it for learn in many different places, with different people and on a minute: every nonprofit in the country lives off its their own, and we'd leverage all of those toward the profitable programs, by using low-cost, popular programs to outcomes we wanted and not assume that the only creditable fund the high-cost, less popular ones. learning results from faculty teaching in classes. I don't Alan, whether there are hard times or new believe you can solve any of the three problems within our 0k:0'00110SG: competitors, the advice we hear is "Know your own values, present delivery system. hold on to what's worth keeping." What is worth keeping? INconheze: To paraphrase an old saying, that system is Whenever you're involved in any significant or perfectly set up for the learning outcomes it achieves .. and OUSkilITS . transformational change, the key for me is the vision of for what it costs. &Auk): It's based on the whole where you're going. You don't change just to change, you change for something, to something. And whatever the financial structure of the past, not vision of the future is, for any institution, it has to be on who we are and what we have Assessment of grounded in the values of that institution and no other, or it to do now and in the future. has no meaning. That's the problem. student learning The problem is that most institutions haven't thought in LMfflpohese: As the CQI folks is contrary to depth about their real values. I don't mean the published say, "It's the system, stupid!" mission statements. I mean what's the nature of their being, &DOAN): A major problem I run many of the their underlying core values? For undergraduate institutions, across in my travels is that most the nature of their being should be student learning. But you people on campus don't understand underlying have to dig deeper than that. What is the character of how to manage a change process, assumptions of a learning that we want for students? The best ways for that and they especially don't learning to occur? What should the degrees that we award understand the concept of systemic faculty -oriented change. It was realizing this that signify? Gnagehese: This is asking a lot. Most faculty and led me to write the article on the teaching-learning administrators don't think of themselves as scholars of the change process ["Facing the process; teaching-learning process or of the organizational structure Future," Change magazine, of universities. July/August 1996; see box on page assessment is a @ushrim: In the end, though, if you hope to conceive of an 6]. Most of our people in leadership real value if we academic organization that can achieve a different order of positions have learned in a trial- results for learners, at an affordable cost and with a decent and-error way how to do their work, focus on student worklife for faculty, you have to look at the institution's core without any in-depth conceptual processes, which brings you to teaching and learning. Most tools or thought about organizations learning. faculty up to now, as you say, haven't been scholars of the as systems. They add a program teaching-learning process. They spend very little time here, fix another there, but it's all thinking or reading about it, so they wind up with a paucity incremental and disconnected, so of ideas for dealing with it. Over and over again faculty will there's no real change in overall justify lecturing, not because they've thought about it in any performance or costs. All the tinkering never gets to how the depth but because it's what they've always seen and assumed system itself is organized or to root assumptions about core to be the role of a faculty member. Once you assume that processes. But you'll never get a different order of result learning means 20, 30, 40, or more students in a classroom without significant or transformational change, and for that three times a week with a faculty member up front lecturing, you have to think systemically. you've locked yourself into the present system. You'll never Tinewatiezes That's what AAHE means by "organizing for create an effective, affordable, faculty-attractive college. learning." There are no good guys and bad guys, just powerful MD:0013SW Alan, my short sense of what you're saying is systems and unexamined assumptions. that the answers to the three challenges you see facing us @uslem: People are doing the work they do because that's lie within a deeper costs, outcomes, technology what we've asked them to do. The practice of faculty-bashing examination of how we think about teaching and learning. upsets me. It's just untrue that the overwhelming majority of faculty are "lazy" or "resistant to change." Faculty are doing what they've been trained and asked to do, often for long hours and modest salaries. 7 BANE Bulletin Maudasse: Alan, let's turn a corner here. We've been rin@milimse: In just a handful of years, private medical talking about problems: How about your solutions? practice has all but vanished. You hear doctors saying, "This COuskagn Most of them are not new. We have to focus on isn't the profession I committed my life to; I'm retiring as student learning outcomes and build our undergraduate soon as I can." 'ankh): You can hear that on campuses now, too. You programs to produce more learning at less cost. Basically, we have to move from a faculty-teaching focus to a student- know, there was probably no more powerful profession than medicine. Who would have believed that the freedom of learning focus. If we do that in a systemic way, then many of the innovations of the last decade will be more powerful diagnosis and patient care would be taken away from doctors? And here it's happened. And faculty are nowhere near as interdisciplinary problem-focused learning, cooperative learning, service-learning, learning communities, and so on. powerful as a group as doctors were. If we resist this whole This will mean changes in how we use time (the calendar) movement to become more efficient and effective and and changes in how students use technology. concerned about learning outcomes, we'll get blown away, too. That's my biggest fear, that faculty and institutions won't One major entry point in restructuring our undergraduate make the adjustments they have to make, that the quality of institutions is enabling faculty to project how the present academic processes and structures (and those costs) will faculty worklife will deteriorate, the best people will leave or continue to diminish the quality of their worklife. Another not enter, and this wonderful system of higher education we have will be torn apart. entryway is through assessment, which raises the right questions and provides evidence to boot. I know you'll tell Ironically, when changes are forced on us they'll be in me, Ted, that assessment is struggling. But that's no mystery: the name of students, but what will be undermined more where are the rewards for it? Assessment of student learning than anything else will be genuine student learning. iringv¢hese: Alan, a last word. is contrary to many of the underlying assumptions of a ©agsldnu I think we have to build a sense among senior faculty-oriented teaching-learning process; assessment is a real value if we focus on student learning. faculty that they have a responsibility to the next generation OaffJP0Buese: Whew. . that's a lot of ground to cover. of faculty, a responsibility to create a profession that allows . . eusklion It's the sense of denial about all this that alarms younger people to experience the joys and accomplishments me, Ted. Physicians said the same thing that faculty are of the professoriat that we have enjoyed over the past 40 saying now: "We're professionals, we understand, trust us." years. If our senior people bail out, which more than a few But people don't buy that anymore. The doctors dug in their are tempted to do, I think that's very unfortunate. Because heels about any proposal for a more affordable health care most senior faculty, people in their early sixties, can have enormous influence within their institutions, and they have system. They got blown out of the water. to be party to any larger change in faculty worklife. So we as have to faculty and administrators alike leaders convince those senior people that before they retire, they have a responsibility to pass on to the younger generation a For Further Reading better environment, that they must have a sense of stewardship for academic life. Guskin's Change magazine articles are available from AAHE's linaughese: Alan, thank you very much. Fax/Access service, 510/271-8164. "Reducing Student Costs and Enhancing Student Learning: The University Challenge of the 1990s, Part I Restructuring the Alan E. Guskin served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside from Administration," Change, July/August 1994; seven pages. 1975 to 1985. From 1985 to 1997 he served as the chief executive officer of Fax/Access item 17. Antioch University, as president (until 1994) and then chancellor; from 1985 to "Reducing Student Costs and Enhancing Student Learning: The 1994 he also served as president of Antioch College, one of the university's five University Challenge of the 1990s. Part II Restructuring the campuses. He is presently distinguished university professor at Antioch, where he Rote of Faculty," Change, September/October 1994; nine pages. spends his time writing, teaching, and consulting on change and restructuring in Fax/Access item 18. higher education. "Facing the Future: The Change Process in Restructuring In addition, Guskin is working with Columbia University Teachers College Universities," Change, July/August 1996; 11 pages. Fax/Access and its president, Art Levine, to create a new institute on the future of higher item 19. education. Contact him at 3626 Fidalgo Drive, Clinton, WA 98236 or [email protected]. September 1998 The 1999 National Conference on Higher Education March 20-24, 1999 Washington, DC Call for Proposals Organizing Sessions and workshops will focus on evolving policies and practices at every level of campus organization: classroom, department, program, college, institution, and for state. This year's conference tracks are: Alternative pedagogies and structures. This track examines the structural implications of the new pedagogies and teaching Learning: technologies. How must we organize and operate for deep and durable learning? Leading the effective institution. This track focuses on how Constant institutions can enact their values and missions more effectively and manage themselves strategically. Values, The competitive environment. These sessions look at the larger environment of higher education and at the competitors, partners, and public policies that institutions Competitive need for success in the future. Szoofiem Pswellepicemg Contexts Because the National Conference on Higher Education is the cornerstone of AAHE's work, the program will be shaped in part by AAHE's programs and projects: its Teaching This year's theme statement. Initiatives, Forum on Faculty Roles & Rewards, Assessment by Margaret A. Miller, President, AAHE Forum, Service-Learning Project, Quality Initiatives, and Program for the Promotion of Institutional Change. We will also solicit ideas for sessions from the TLT Group: The Converging forces are reshaping the environment in Teaching, Learning & Technology Affiliate of AAHE, from which higher education operates. Shifting student our partners in various projects, and from AAHE's member demographics, funding patterns, and political and caucuses and networks. But to make the conference effective, market pressures on the one hand, and promising new we need your help. teaching technologies and pedagogies on the other, require With this Call for Proposals, AAHE asks you to changes in the ways we organize to ensure deep learning for generate sessions that address questions implied by the three all students. Within this flux, we must think harder about conference tracks. People who attend the National how to preserve the academy's core values, not the least of Conference look for models that can help them address the these our commitments to access, quality, diversity, liberal challenges they face. If you have such models or insights learning, free inquiry, and community. into the issues we need to address we hope you will AAHE's 1999 National Conference on Higher propose a session and presenters for it. The Call for Proposals Education will focus on the interplay among the forces contains questions to prompt your thinking about the kinds driving change in higher education, our new knowledge of sessions you might propose, but others pertinent to the about how to organize more effectively for deep learning, and topic may occur to you as well. what we want to preserve in the process. The theme is We look forward to hearing from you and to seeing you consonant with AAHE's mission to "promote the changes at the conference, March 20-24 in Washington, DC. higher education must make to ensure its effectiveness in a complex, interconnected world." At this conference, AAHE continues its efforts to equip "individuals and institutions committed to such changes with the knowledge they need to bring them about." AAHE Bulletin The 1999 National Conference on Higher Education March 20-24, 1999 Washington, DC Call for Proposals Organizing compelling problem to work on. A host of successful teaching strategies, many of them featured at the 1998 for Learning National Conference, bear witness to these lessons. Service- learning; learning communities; collaborative, cooperative, and problem-based learning; undergraduate research; and the thoughtful use of the new teaching technologies all provide students the chance to link theory with practice and to put Questions to think about in developing their learning to work. sessions for the National Conference's Too often, though, students have a rich learning experience one year, only to find themselves back in "the three tracks. old school structures" the next. Since deep learning is cumulative, this discontinuity of experience diminishes The 1999 National Conference on Higher Education is the efficacy of even the most powerful pedagogies. organized around three theme-related tracks. AAHE Organizationally, the question is this: What separates an invites you to submit session proposals and suggestions interesting but isolated educational experiment from a for presenters in any of these areas. The following questions strategy with the potential to transform student learning are meant to stimulate your thinking, not constrain it. throughout an institution? Why do some promising approaches languish, while others provoke a flurry of Track 1. Alternative pedagogies and structures. innovation? How can the structural barriers to change At AAHE's 1998 National Conference, plenary speaker culture, calendar, buildings, and reward systems, to name just K. Patricia Cross summarized the meta-lesson learned from be overcome? a few all our research on teaching and learning: students learn best Questions: when they are actively engaged in their studies (read her splendid speech on the AAHE website, www.aahe.org). What new configurations of classroom time and space are Students also learn more deeply, we know, when their minds, required by the new teaching technologies, by pedagogical hearts, and hands are engaged; when they have the benefit of innovations such as service-learning and learning a rich social and sensory environment; and when they have a communities, and by interdisciplinary curricula? How can they be planned for and managed? How can we make the most effective use of faculty time? What combinations of faculty instruction, independent Opportunities for Students learning, peer coaching, computer-aided instruction, and In recent years, the involvement of students at the National group-based projects can optimize learning? Conference has noticeably increased. We are pleased to have an What changes on behalf of learning are enabled by breaking active group of students interested in the programming of the the connection of contact-hour and course-credit, conference and invite you to join this group and to look for experimenting with the calendar, and separating teaching student-sponsored sessions at the conference. AAHE would like from credentialing? to increase the number of general sessions presented by, and for, How can the curriculum and the cocurriculum be better students. In addition, the AAHE Student Caucus welcomes yoked on behalf of learning? How can academic and student additional volunteers who would like to help in planning affairs staff work together more effectively on behalf of conference events and programs. student development? For more information about the AAHE Student Caucus or Given the risks and work involved in change, how can the its conference activities, contact Kendra Lalluca, director of vigor and satisfaction of faculty and staff be sustain6J? conferences and meetings, 202/293-6440 x18 or [email protected]. 1 0