January 27th, 2012
thebriefingroom

Stanford releases recommendations to revise undergraduate education

Yesterday Stanford University unveiled a set of 55 recommendations to put a priority on teaching undergraduate students a set of skills on top of requiring them to take courses in specific fields. The proposed changes, described as emphasizing “ways of thinking, ways of doing,” are in keeping with a growing emphasis among PSE institutions on core skills rather than on specific disciplinary content. The Stanford committee that drafted the report identified 7 skills areas as important for students: aesthetic and interpretive inquiry; scientific analysis; formal and quantitative reasoning (2 courses in each); as well as one course in engaging difference, one in moral and ethical reasoning, and one in creative expression. The recommendations also support the idea that first-year students be exposed to a range of learning environments, including lectures, discussion sessions, and intimate seminars. The recommendations would require freshmen to take seminar courses with senior faculty members, which is currently optional. Stanford News Release | The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) (Academicagroup)

Standford University undergraduate education
September 14th, 2011
thebriefingroom

A new resource to promote quality undergraduate education

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada has followed up its spring workshop on transforming undergraduate education with a new online resource, entitled Great Beginnings: Enhancing quality and innovation in undergraduate education. This sub-site on the AUCC website contains a full report on the workshop, eight case studies of university programs in Canada that promote innovative teaching, a fairly extensive bibliography for further reading and other related links.

AUCC president Paul Davidson joined McMaster University President Patrick Deane at McMaster today to unveil the new resource and to affirm, in the words of an accompanying AUCC press release, that “Canada’s university presidents have made excellence in undergraduate education a priority and are taking action to strengthen the learning experience and outcomes.”

The workshop to revitalize undergraduate education was held in Halifax in March. Attended by presidents, vice presidents, other university administrators and student leaders, it generated frank discussions about the current state of undergraduate education and what must be done to ensure that universities meet the needs of students… Read More

AUCC Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada Great Beginnings: Enhancing quality and innovation in undergraduate education undergraduate education
June 16th, 2011
thebriefingroom
Universities have ‘lost their way’ on undergraduate education We can do better to improve the student experience, senior administrators. The gauntlet was thrown down early, in the opening keynote address by Robert Campbell. Speaking about undergraduate education in Canada, the Mount Allison University president said: “For many university presidents and senior administrators, their experience over the past decade has been a frustrating one.… In my view, the collective university membership has lost its way over this time.” The venue for Dr. Campbell’s frank and pointed remarks was a workshop on “transforming Canadian university undergraduate education” held in Halifax in early March by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Sixty-five participants attended, including 13 university presidents, 25 vice-presidents, academic, or other senior administrators, and 15 student representatives. In his address, Dr. Campbell listed a litany of public pressures and policies that have conspired to force universities to focus on the “high-end” outputs of research and graduate studies. At the same time, the university’s foundation – the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate education – has been undermined… Read More

Universities have ‘lost their way’ on undergraduate education

We can do better to improve the student experience, senior administrators.

The gauntlet was thrown down early, in the opening keynote address by Robert Campbell. Speaking about undergraduate education in Canada, the Mount Allison University president said: “For many university presidents and senior administrators, their experience over the past decade has been a frustrating one.… In my view, the collective university membership has lost its way over this time.”

The venue for Dr. Campbell’s frank and pointed remarks was a workshop on “transforming Canadian university undergraduate education” held in Halifax in early March by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Sixty-five participants attended, including 13 university presidents, 25 vice-presidents, academic, or other senior administrators, and 15 student representatives.

In his address, Dr. Campbell listed a litany of public pressures and policies that have conspired to force universities to focus on the “high-end” outputs of research and graduate studies. At the same time, the university’s foundation – the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate education – has been undermined… Read More

PSE education Robert Campbell undergraduate education transforming Canadian university undergraduate education
June 15th, 2011
thebriefingroom
Six suggestions for presidents to improve undergraduate education An open letter. by Arshad Ahmad Would you, as president of this university, make the following statement in a public forum? I quote: “For many university presidents and senior administrators, their experience over the last decade has been a frustrating one. In my view, the collective university membership has lost its way… As an administrator, I have mainly managed crises, juggled loaves and fishes, raised funds and learned alchemy. Is this my legacy?” Would you follow it up with this? “Canadian universities are tied at the hip to Canadian communities in an aspirational, experiential and consequential way. This need not be our narrative’s exclusive focus but its foundation. All the rest emanates from this. And this foundation rests on the quality of the undergraduate student experience.” These were the refreshingly frank words of Robert Campbell, president of Mount Allison University, in an opening keynote address to the two-day workshop on transforming undergraduate education held recently in Halifax and organized by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Intense discussion, brainstorming sessions and questions followed. The leading question was how university leaders can affect changes that students can actually experience. As the current president of the Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, I left wondering what the STLHE can do to help define a new student-centered, learning-focused covenant in Canadian higher education. If you, as university president, were to genuinely refocus your leadership efforts, what kinds of questions would help you to raise the quality of student learning? How does one instill an institutional culture committed to student-centered thinking? How do efforts to improve educational quality count in defining the prestige and reputation of the institution? What aspects of good teaching should be made public within the institution, with students and with their parents?Here are six suggestions to improve the quality of the student experience that might move this important conversation forward. Each of these suggestions is supported by ample evidence and references from the educational literature. Read more click HERE

Six suggestions for presidents to improve undergraduate education

An open letter.

by Arshad Ahmad

Would you, as president of this university, make the following statement in a public forum? I quote: “For many university presidents and senior administrators, their experience over the last decade has been a frustrating one. In my view, the collective university membership has lost its way… As an administrator, I have mainly managed crises, juggled loaves and fishes, raised funds and learned alchemy. Is this my legacy?”

Would you follow it up with this? “Canadian universities are tied at the hip to Canadian communities in an aspirational, experiential and consequential way. This need not be our narrative’s exclusive focus but its foundation. All the rest emanates from this. And this foundation rests on the quality of the undergraduate student experience.”

These were the refreshingly frank words of Robert Campbell, president of Mount Allison University, in an opening keynote address to the two-day workshop on transforming undergraduate education held recently in Halifax and organized by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Intense discussion, brainstorming sessions and questions followed. The leading question was how university leaders can affect changes that students can actually experience. As the current president of the Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, I left wondering what the STLHE can do to help define a new student-centered, learning-focused covenant in Canadian higher education.

If you, as university president, were to genuinely refocus your leadership efforts, what kinds of questions would help you to raise the quality of student learning? How does one instill an institutional culture committed to student-centered thinking? How do efforts to improve educational quality count in defining the prestige and reputation of the institution? What aspects of good teaching should be made public within the institution, with students and with their parents?

Here are six suggestions to improve the quality of the student experience that might move this important conversation forward. Each of these suggestions is supported by ample evidence and references from the educational literature.

Read more click HERE

undergraduate education Arshad Ahmad Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education STLHE Canadian higher education
January 24th, 2011
thebriefingroom

New book argues US institutions failing at undergraduate education

A book released Tuesday suggests that for many students, 4 years of undergraduate classes make little difference in their ability to synthesize knowledge and put complex ideas to paper. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses cites data from student surveys and transcript analyses to show that many students have minimal classwork expectations, and then tracks the academic gains (or stagnation) of 2,300 students of traditional college age studying at a range of 4-year institutions. For example, the book reports that 36% of the students saw no statistically significant gains in their College Learning Assessment scores between their freshman and senior years. The book is already drawing critics, who say the analysis falls short in its assessments of certain teaching and learning methods. The Chronicle of Higher Education (free access) | Inside Higher Ed |

Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses college and learning undergraduate education
December 8th, 2010
thebriefingroom
Time to shift undergraduate education from teaching to learning ”We need to seek new and better ways to satisfy the hunger of our students,” write University of Sudbury president Pierre Zundel and McMaster University president Patrick Deane in an article published by University Affairs. What is needed, they state, is a radical re-conceptualization of the teaching and learning process in which the goal becomes ”helping students learn” instead of ”teaching.” By thinking of teaching as helping students learn, teachers become more concerned with what the students are actually doing and begin to think more broadly about the kinds of situations in which students learn. Zundel and Deane give examples of initiatives focused on learning rather than teaching, including those at their respective institutions. University Affairs (Academicagroup)

Time to shift undergraduate education from teaching to learning

”We need to seek new and better ways to satisfy the hunger of our students,” write University of Sudbury president Pierre Zundel and McMaster University president Patrick Deane in an article published by University Affairs. What is needed, they state, is a radical re-conceptualization of the teaching and learning process in which the goal becomes ”helping students learn” instead of ”teaching.” By thinking of teaching as helping students learn, teachers become more concerned with what the students are actually doing and begin to think more broadly about the kinds of situations in which students learn. Zundel and Deane give examples of initiatives focused on learning rather than teaching, including those at their respective institutions. University Affairs

(Academicagroup)

undergraduate education learning vs teaching styles

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