“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
– Albert Einstein
On January 14, fifty UBC faculty and staff members gathered to learn about emerging best practices in higher education, in a Teaching and Learning with Technology series session organized by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology and Student Development & Services. The session invited higher education experts Dr. Richard Keeling, M.D. and Dr. Richard Hersh, Ed. D. of post-secondary consulting firm Keeling & Associates to deliver a unique session on the latest research in the scholarship of learning. Their presentation challenged the notions that some individuals hold of the purpose of post-secondary institutions today, and discussed emerging best practices that could re-shape universities for truly higher learning.
Dr. Keeling began the session by speaking to the role of universities in today’s society. University, he explained, is the grounds for a unique kind of learning and change in a person’s early life: “By using the term post-secondary, we suggest that learning must be very different from what happens before.” He noted that by providing a new culture, one overflowing with “different values, and different people” than students have previously encountered, universities create transformational learning. Dr. Keeling explained that transformational learning is a process that “throws students into a state of disequilibrium,” creating a conflict that leads to a change in perspective. The university experience is more than content comprehension, it is transformative – “the person who finishes the degree is different than the person who started it.”
After discussing the transformative role of universities, Dr. Keeling then raised a key concern, that universities are shifting away from this essential purpose. Too often, he finds that universities transform from a place focused on learning and change, into an enterprise delivering on a simple economic exchange. He explained that many universities have taken a misstep, allowing the degree to become their primary purpose, rather than the learning itself. “The purpose of universities is not to grant degrees. It is becoming increasingly common to think of students as consumers, and universities as businesses. Instead, the mission is about learning, it’s about change.” Dr. Keeling points to the move toward three-year bachelors degrees as a clear example of the trend, which suggests that the degree is the sole objective of the program, rather than a set of learning outcomes.
To illustrate the implications, Dr. Keeling cited results from the US National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), an annual survey instrument that is used widely in North American institutions to measure participation and engagement in undergraduate education. In recent years, the survey has found that US students are spending as few as fourteen hours a week on their studies, in comparison to the norm of twenty or thirty hours just a few decades ago. UBC was the first large Canadian research university to adopt the study, in 2003. With the 2010 study currently underway, the 2008 installment offers the most recent findings, which can be viewed on UBC’s Planning and Institutional Research (PAIR) website.
Dr. Keeling urges universities to reverse these trends. He advocates for academic institutions to adopt what he calls “a culture of serious learning.” This culture is an intense and immersed academic environment – one in which learning is “a full-time activity for all students and faculty.” To create that culture, he says that universities should develop a set of learning objectives for students, based on their mission, values, and goals. The objectives should be fundamental skills that bridge all academic disciplines – subjects such as writing, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. He explains that universities should be asking, “What is it that we want students to learn, independent of their specialized studies?” In doing so, the focus shifts to ensuring that students depart with “a certain set of objectives” that reflect the university and its standards of learning. These standards raise the bar for students.
Addressing the large group of instructors in the audience, Dr. Hersh discussed how instructors and students could work to achieve the institution-wide student learning outcomes. He suggested that the ideal relationship between instructor and student is a continuum which should develop from a parental and nurturing relationship, to a mentorship, and finally a colleagueship. In students’ early development, instructors must establish high expectations for students. Dr. Hersh commented that at this point, students do not always know what is best for their own learning, despite what they may think. He explained that students tend to dismiss the need for hard work during a course, even though it is in fact the hard work and high level of challenge that contributes to transformation. To improve learning outcomes, instructors must raise their expectations, requiring students to do more work in and out of the classroom. He added, “Students will rise to the occasion, if the occasion is created.” Instructors also play a strong role in students’ transformation by asking challenging questions. “A teacher asks you a question in a way that makes you question what you just said… over time, through readings and development, you change the way you view what you viewed before.” In addition, instructors must set clear expectations when they raise the bar. This avoids a “guessing game” for students, and ensures that the assessment scheme funnels their efforts toward the objectives. If this were the case, Dr. Hersh explained, “students could see, we, UBC, stand for certain kinds of outcomes.”
Dr. Hersh then discussed how emerging scientific fields of learning are informing best practices. Today, he explained, fields such as neuroscience and neurophilosophy (an interdisciplinary field combining philosophy and neuroscience) validate theories about students’ learning, and enable a new depth of understanding of the transformation that occurs. “It is now possible to watch what happens…we are understanding how it is that learning occurs.” As an example of the scientific findings, he discussed how recent research has dispelled the widely accepted Cartesian thought, a theory that proclaimed the mind and body to be separate entities. He explained, “We used to think that students took their bodies to the residence halls, and their minds to class.” The research has changed the way we think about students’ learning. “The change of perception [in transformational learning] happens precisely because they [classroom and student life] happen together. Those interactions produce actual changes in the brain.” Dr. Hersh elaborated on this notion, explaining how a university experience is far more than just the classroom learning that takes place. “We are asking to make people accustom to a new culture.” Looking ahead to the future, Dr. Keeling is optimistic about how the emerging scientific capabilities can add to learning outcomes. As one example, he said that advancements could allow universities to improve the learning capabilities for students with depression, which can be a significant barrier to student learning. New capacity to screen for depression at the outset of university would enable universities to begin to offer, and students to begin to benefit from, tailored interventions at an early phase in their university experience.
Following the presentation was an opportunity to address the speakers in a Q&A format, and audience members approached UBC’s challenges head-on. One instructor wondered how she could integrate best practices in assessment, while her department still required instructors to scale students’ grades. Dr. Hersh agreed with the instructor’s concerns, calling the practice “an inherent contradiction” in assessment. A second comment addressed the policies that support UBC’s reputation as a world-leading research university, and the institution’s incentives, which tend to emphasize research as opposed to teaching excellence. While there were no immediate answers to these questions, they elicited a strong dialogue, and raised some important issues for the UBC community going forward.
As a sign of progress, several members of the audience said they have already begun the process of tackling these issues, in committees within their departments. With more sessions such as this that unite a versatile group of faculty and staff to challenge established norms and practices, UBC can further pursue the university’s commitment to “support students in their learning experience through transformative teaching, research, and rewarding campus life,” as identified in Place and Promise: The UBC Plan.
For future programs focused on teaching and learning offered by CTLT, visit our events website at http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca.