Ability Based Book. Alverno College Faculty 2005

Ability-BasedLearningOutcomes

Teaching and Assessment

at Alverno College

Ability-BasedLearningOutcomes

Teaching and Assessment

at Alverno College

by theAlverno College Faculty

ii

Other publications available from the Alverno College Institute(www.alverno.edu) include:

Student Assessment-as-Learning at Alverno College

Assessment at Alverno College: Student, Program, Institutional

Self Assessment at Alverno College

Ability-Based Learning Program: The History MajorThe Psychology MajorTeacher EducationThe Religious Studies MajorThe Social Science MajorThe Mathematics MajorNursing EducationThe Professional Communication MajorThe English MajorThe Management Accounting MajorThe Biology MajorThe Chemistry MajorThe Environmental Science MajorThe Business and Management MajorThe Philosophy Major

Copyright ©1976, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1992, 2005

Published 1976-1992 as Liberal Learning at Alverno College by AlvernoProductions

Sixth edition, revised, published 2005 under the present title, Ability-BasedLearning Outcomes: Teaching and Assessment at Alverno College, by theAlverno College Institute

Chris Renstrom, Graphic Designer, Alverno College Graphics

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Table of Contents

Preface ..............................................................................................v

Introduction......................................................................................1

1. Communication............................................................................7

2. Analysis ......................................................................................15

3. Problem Solving..........................................................................23

4. Valuing in Decision-Making ......................................................29

5. Social Interaction ........................................................................35

6. Developing a Global Perspective ................................................43

7. Effective Citizenship ..................................................................51

8. Aesthetic Engagement ................................................................57

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v

Preface

For more than thirty years, we at Alverno College, a liberal artscollege for women, have been working with a curriculum centered onstudent abilities as learning outcomes. More specifically, we havecontinually revised and refined a curriculum that requires all studentsto demonstrate eight core abilities in the context of their study acrossvarious disciplines. Through the years we have developed acomprehensive program of publications for the purpose of sharingwith our colleagues what we have been doing and why and to learnfrom their questions and critique. As the title of this publicationsuggests, we provide explanations of each of the eight abilities thatserve as institutional student learning outcomes for us, and weillustrate through examples how we teach and assess for those abilitiesin general education and the majors.

Across the nation and around the world, colleagues, institutions, andorganizations have been engaged in serious reflection on this questionof how to teach and assess for abilities as learning outcomes. Forexample, regional and professional accrediting bodies now requireinstitutions and programs to clearly identify the learning outcomesthey expect their students to achieve and to describe how they willteach and assess for the learning of those outcomes. We hope thatthis publication can make a contribution to these efforts by drawingon our experience in the teaching and assessing of learning outcomes.

As we have worked with our curriculum, we have come to an evendeeper appreciation that “curriculum” is a process, and ourunderstanding and our practice have shifted over the years. Whatmay look like definitions are really unfolding understandings, andwhat may look like a static articulated system is actually an evolvinginteractive process. The fact that this is the sixth edition of thispublication (previously entitled Liberal Learning at Alverno College) isa testament to that dynamic process.

Ability-Based Learning Outcomesvi

A Brief History

We are often asked how we first developed this curriculum. It isimportant to note that the curriculum was neither imposed norimported. Early in the 1970-71 academic year, our presidentchallenged the faculty with a set of critical questions:

What kinds of questions are being asked by professionals inyour field that relate to the validity of your discipline in a totalcollege program?

What is your department’s position on these?

How are you dealing with these questions in your generaleducation courses, and in the work for a major in your field?

What are you teaching that is so important that studentscannot afford to pass up courses in your department?”

For the rest of that year, the faculty met regularly to hear eachdepartment explain and explore its contribution to undergraduateeducation. Out of these sessions came the question: “What are theoutcomes for the student, rather than the input by the faculty?” –which, in turn, became the focus for our year-end faculty institute. Itis interesting in retrospect that the nature of the question we posedback then reflects much of the recent emphasis in higher educationon moving toward a focus on what and how students learn, not justthe means of instruction. In this publication, however, weconsistently give examples of how our approach to instruction,including assessment, has been informed by the kind of learning wehave articulated in our learning outcomes. In this sense, it is not aquestion of choosing between an instructional and a learningparadigm, but of using identified learning outcomes as the basis fordesign of teaching.

As a result of deliberations during this faculty institute we managedto define four broad outcomes for our curriculum: communication,

Preface vii

valuing, problem solving, and involvement. The curriculumcommittee was charged in the following year with breaking thesebroad outcomes into a more detailed system. By the third year, anexpanded list of “competences” (We now refer to them as abilities orlearning outcomes.) was given to an academic task force for shapinginto an actual curriculum. At the same time, one section of arequired freshman course in each discipline was set aside as alaboratory for developing means to teach and assess selected abilities. The task force’s January 1973 report detailed each of theeight abilities into six sequenced levels of development, and in the fall of 1973 we implemented the curriculum as a requirement for all students.

Lessons Learned

The results of that early work were gratifying and continue to serve asthe foundation for our curriculum. In addition, we learned somethings in the process and have continued to learn in ways that wethink have enhanced the quality of the curriculum.

One thing immediately evident to us was that articulating learningoutcomes was only the beginning. We needed to design our teachingand assessment processes in ways that would foster that learning andmost effectively evaluate whether students were learning what weexpected. For example, we recognized that teaching explicitly for theeight abilities in our curriculum meant that we had to focus not juston the content of our disciplines, but also on the ways of thinkingand doing that were central to the practice of our fields. At the sametime, we knew that trying to teach competence without content wasan error in the other direction; so the design of our courses requiresthat students develop and demonstrate abilities in the context ofstudy of academic and professional disciplines. In this publication weprovide examples to illustrate this principle.

Another important step for us was the articulation of each ability indevelopmental terms, indicating the learning expectations at different

Ability-Based Learning Outcomesviii

levels of the curriculum. We learned to ask ourselves questions aboutthe difference, for instance, between what we would expect ofstudents just beginning their studies and those who were close tograduating. It was not enough to say that we required our students towrite and speak effectively, or to be able to solve problems, but alsoto identify how those requirements looked as students progressed.This emphasis on development has also been essential to the ways wethink about our teaching and design of assessment, and this isreflected in the approaches to teaching and assessment described here.

One other very significant lesson for us was the value of collaborationamong faculty within and across disciplines. The time set aside forthe significant and sustained dialogue about the kind of learning weexpected of our students was instrumental in developing ourcurriculum. We also knew that in order to maintain coherence and toensure ongoing improvement of teaching and assessment within thecurriculum we would need to continue that tradition of collaborationin a systematic way. As a result, in the design of the academiccalendar we do not schedule classes on Friday afternoons. That timeis devoted to departmental meetings and to workshops oncurriculum, teaching, learning, and assessment; and all faculty areexpected to participate. In addition, we hold three faculty instituteseach year—in August, January, and May—also focused oncollaboration around issues that are identified as important for ourongoing development as educators. Faculty participation is not onlyexpected, but criteria for retention and promotion also include anemphasis on contributions to this discourse.

Finally, we also realized that our academic structure should reflectand support the kind of learning we had agreed upon as central toour degree. As a result, we decided to form interdisciplinary abilitydepartments for each of the eight abilities examined in thispublication. Faculty at Alverno, as in most institutions, are hired indiscipline departments, but at Alverno faculty are also expected toserve in an ability department as part of their scholarly and

Preface ix

professional responsibility. These departments are responsible forresearch into the scholarship on the respective abilities, for ongoingrevision of the meaning of the abilities, for review of teaching andassessment materials and processes related to the abilities, and forworkshops and publications to assist our faculty and others in workwith the abilities. For example, the faculty members in the abilitydepartments are the authors of this publication. This structure as wellas the collaborative processes and expectations described above makethis kind of work possible.

It is important to add that we also owe a great deal to the colleaguesoutside Alverno whom we have worked with and learned from for somany years. We have had the privilege of hosting representatives fromhundreds of institutions at our workshops on teaching, learning, andassessment. We have participated in projects and consortia that havehelped us to continually rethink what we do. While the ideas in thisvolume represent the collective wisdom of the Alverno community,they also reflect the insights and questions of the extendedcommunity of educators who have been so helpful to us.

1

Introduction

The description of each of the eight abilities in our curriculum begins with an explanation of how we understand the ability and the dimensions that are at the heart of it. We then focus on thedifferent developmental levels – the learning sequence of the abilities.All students are required to demonstrate the beginning andintermediate levels of all eight abilities – levels one through four – as part of their general education studies. At the advanced levels ofthe curriculum – levels five and six – students learn and demonstratethose abilities identified by faculty as most appropriate to the majorand minor areas of study students have chosen to pursue. For eachlevel of each ability we have provided in this document examples ofteaching and assessment approaches that illustrate how faculty havedesigned experiences that integrate abilities with the disciplines theyare teaching.

Each level of each ability is developed effectively in a variety ofdifferent courses and other experiential settings. For every course,therefore, the instructor develops a syllabus outlining the ability levels to be taught and assessed in that course, the means by whichthey will be taught, and the methods of assessment to be used.Students must demonstrate the abilities at all levels multiple times. As most recent research suggests, abilities are more likely to transferfrom one context to another if students learn them in multiplecontexts. This principle has also informed our design of what weterm “external assessments,” which are assessments designed byfaculty for use outside the course context. These are often simulationsthat place students in situations in which they must demonstrate theabilities and disciplinary understanding they are learning in theircourses. These provide another opportunity for students todemonstrate transfer of learning and to be assessed by faculty who arenot their course instructors or by trained volunteer assessors fromoutside the college.

As indicated in the Preface, we have also developed an academicstructure to support the ability-based curriculum. Parallel to our

Ability-Based Learning Outcomes2

discipline departments, we created ability departments for each of the eight abilities in the curriculum. Faculty members serve notonly in a discipline department but also in an ability department oftheir choosing, depending on expertise and interest. This means that each ability department is comprised of an interdisciplinarygroup of faculty.

Using syllabi, teaching and assessment materials, and results ofstudent performances, each ability department regularly reviews howits respective ability is being taught and assessed across thecurriculum. The members also serve their colleagues throughconsultations, team teaching, workshops, and other means of in-service support to discuss problems, discoveries, and questions thathave arisen in teaching and assessing an ability. In additiondepartments are responsible for inquiry into the latest research ontheir abilities. Based on all of this work, departments continuallyrefine and revise the meaning of the abilities, which is reflected inthis newest edition of this publication.

At different stages in the development of our curriculum, someability departments have worked together on common interests andconcerns. For example, the social interaction and problem solvingdepartments have worked together on such questions as theoverlapping abilities involved in group leadership. The effectivecitizenship and developing a global perspective departments have anextended history of collaboration and have created courses andassessments (described in the text) that integrate the two abilitiesaround significant contemporary issues. We have also recognized thatabilities like analysis and communication are actually central to everydisciplinary context and are instrumental in the learning of the otherabilities as well. Certainly the abilities essential to being an effectivecitizen, for example, involve the ability to do critical analysis. Andincreasingly all of the ability departments see that they havesomething to contribute to the development of civil discourse,something the world surely needs and we are explicitly teaching for inour curriculum now.

Introduction 3

While identifying and fostering these connections, we continue todeal with each ability area discretely as well, and to introduce them all within a student’s first year courses. Our experience hassuggested the value of creating opportunities for the student toencounter each ability as a fairly separate matter, and then assistingher to make connections among her developing abilities as they beginto overlap and complement one another in more advanced work inthe curriculum.

There are thirty-two levels in beginning and intermediate studies –four in each ability area – that each student must demonstrate. Inaddition, she must demonstrate eight advanced level units in abilitiesthat are part of the advanced level outcomes of her major and minorareas of study. For each major and minor, faculty in the disciplineand professional areas have specified advanced level student outcomesthat reflect and build upon the beginning and intermediate abilitylevels, with special emphasis on abilities central to their fields. Forexample, chemistry faculty have determined that one of the outcomesthey require of their majors is to “use the methodology and models ofchemistry to define and solve problems independently andcollaboratively.” Philosophy faculty require that their majors “exerciseconsistency and logic in using/following the argument of selectedphilosophers.” All majors in the college have developed statements ofthe major that articulate the learning outcomes of the major anddescribe connections with the abilities.

We still count semester hours for student transfers, funding, andother outside reporting, and as a record of the student’s knowledgebase. But neither semester hours nor letter or numerical grades areused to measure academic progress. When the student graduates fromthe college she receives a transcript indicating the courses she hassuccessfully completed and a narrative transcript that describes herperformance in relation to the eight institutional abilities and thelearning outcomes of her major and minor areas of study. Themajority of our students find that achieving the thirty-two generaleducation units occupies about half their time at Alverno, most of


that in the first two years. A student is usually absorbed in work forher major and minor, including work in advanced levels of theabilities, for her last two years.

More important than the details of the administrative structure is thecoherent learning framework we have developed over the years. Byrigorously examining ourselves and what we profess and takingcollective responsibility for student learning, we have developed aconsensus about what we expect of our students and of one another.We have been able to articulate that consensus into meaningful,specific detail so that we are indeed working together on the samematters of importance, however diverse our disciplines and teachingstyles. Our expectations have become more clearly stated, and themeans of assessment more clearly defined.

At the same time, we have become increasingly aware of thecomplexity of the educational enterprise. For example, we continuallystruggle to find or create the appropriate language to communicate toone another and to others the many layers of learning we are about.Even in this document we found ourselves wanting to be clearwithout oversimplifying. In discussing the valuing in decision-makingability, for example, we knew that a term like “spirituality” meansmany things to many people. In that instance and others we havetried to walk the fine line between providing some insight into whatwe mean by very fluid terms and allowing readers to imagine theirown take on them. Perhaps the most difficult term of all is“assessment,” a word that has taken on a variety of meaningsthroughout higher education. We hope that through our use ofexamples we make clear how we use the term, while not insisting thatour perspective is the only one.

Finally, we have learned more about the value of metacognitivereflection in student learning, particularly in the area of selfassessment. The reader will note throughout this document how thefaculty consistently require students to assess their performance withthe help of criteria, and to reflect on their learning. We have recently

Introduction 5

developed a Diagnostic Digital Portfolio that houses keyperformances of students on assessments throughout their studies atthe college. Each key performance includes feedback from faculty orvolunteer assessors and a self assessment by the student. Students arerequired at given points in their curriculum to use the portfolio toreflect on their development as learners by analyzing changes inperformance over time. We have learned that self assessment is anability that needs to be developed explicitly and consistently, so wehave articulated in a separate publication the different componentsand levels of self assessment that we have developed based on ourcollective pedagogical experience. Ultimately students will need torely on their ability to independently assess the quality of theirlearning and performance, so we have made self assessment anintegral part of the curriculum here.

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Communication

To become an effective communicator, an Alverno student learns toread, write, speak, listen, quantitatively analyze, and incorporatetechnology across the disciplines. Communication as a requiredcompetence is taught and assessed through an integration of multiplecommunication modes within a variety of disciplinary andprofessional contexts. Faculty teach each student to approach allmodes of communication as processes whereby she develops herability, as a sender or receiver, to communicate clearly and interpretideas critically.

Learning the Communication Ability

In courses across the curriculum—ranging from psychology to musicto nursing—each student is guided to develop her communicationskills through performances within the guidelines of specific criteria.The instructional process emphasizes awareness of audience, purpose,and establishing context so that the student moves to a consciousawareness of her communication processes and an understanding thatcommunication in all modes is contextual. The process includes selfassessment and the analytical skills to assess any given performanceon the basis of specific criteria developed by Alverno faculty foreffective communication. The student may initially communicate outof her own observations and experience. Through thesecommunications she establishes a baseline of performance. Then herdevelopment continues through instruction in the context ofdisciplinary frameworks and knowledge and the application ofcriteria for each of the communication modes as well as forperformances that integrate multiple modes, such as a researchproject in cell biology that includes both a written report and a grouppresentation. Through practice, she learns to be both a competentcommunicator and an active audience.

An Alverno student learns to communicate effectively, not onlywithin extended time frames that allow for regular practice and


multiple drafts, but also within limited time frames that reflecttypical situations in professional and civic life. A student learns andpractices communication modes according to consistent criteriaacross her general education courses, courses in her major, and otherlearning situations outside the course context. Her performance isassessed by both the faculty and the student herself, and sometimesby her peers.

In all courses, students learn to read course materials analytically,write and speak effectively, listen critically, and, as appropriate, thinkquantitatively and use technology meaningfully. Instructors constructappropriate and relevant learning activities and assessments andprovide feedback. All of these are designed to assist students inlearning how to strengthen their communication skills with theincreasingly sophisticated knowledge they are developing in variousacademic disciplines and professional areas.

Assessment of the Communication Ability

A student is assessed in many varied settings. Prior to beginning hercourse work at the college, she takes an integrated series ofassessments in all communication areas. This experience establishesher entering base of performance and provides information for herfirst self assessment and feedback. Results from this assessmentdetermine where the student begins in her sequence of verbal,quantitative, and technology communication courses. A student whois not able to demonstrate college level work in these placementassessments has the opportunity to take preparatory courses to furtherdevelop her skills and abilities.

Throughout her college career, a student’s communication ability isassessed in all her courses and outside her courses in more extensive,integrated contexts, all of which simulate situations that requirestrong communication skills. For example, a business major preparesa plan for a new company and presents it to a local bank’s loan officer for feedback. Assessment becomes a major way of learning;

Communication 9

through feedback and self assessment she learns to judge herperformance on the basis of criteria. In fact, assessment and learningbecome a cumulative interactive process. In every case, the criteria bywhich she is assessed are public so that a student knows what isexpected of her and can gradually understand what constitutes expert communication.

The Developmental Process

Beginning Levels

Each student comes to college with a unique set of experiences in allcommunication modes. Starting with her initial placementassessment, an Alverno student learns to use self assessment toidentify and evaluate her performance. Thus she begins a processof consciously working at her development by recognizing her strengthsand weaknesses in different modes of communication (Level 1).Beginning to understand her own successes enough to build on them,she works to become consciously aware of the processes involved in eachmode of communication. She also learns to recognize the interactionsamong all of them (Level 2).

In first-year communication seminars and all disciplinary andinterdisciplinary courses, instructors focus the student onunderstanding each discrete communication mode, helping her toidentify elements within each, and broadening her use of strategiesand feedback. Faculty in the humanities, fine arts, natural sciences,and behavioral sciences design learning experiences in their coursesthat require the student to practice the skills involved in college-levelreading, writing, listening, and speaking. For example, she readsincreasingly challenging literary texts with the help of worksheets orguides designed by instructors, and responds through writing andspeaking. In the process she refines abilities like recognizing andformulating a thesis, focusing ideas and organizing them into aneffective structure, and consciously using feedback when revising. Shefurther broadens her repertory of communication abilities by working


with a model for effective listening, developing skills in interpretingmathematical models, and gaining proficiency in computer andinformation-media literacy technologies. In a first-year quantitativeliteracy course, for example, a student designs a survey project,gathers data, and uses statistics and graphs to interpret andsummarize the results in a written or oral presentation. The skills andstrategies she acquires in her first year provide the necessaryfoundation for her development as a communicator in all areas.

Intermediate Levels

An intermediate student expresses herself using discipline conceptsand frameworks with growing understanding. She learns to use hercommunication processes purposefully to make meaning in differentdisciplinary contexts (Level 3) so that she can connect the discrete modesof communication and integrate them effectively within the frameworksof a discipline (Level 4). In individual courses, faculty designassessments that are structured to elicit the integration of differentmodes of communication. In a typical example of such an integratedassessment, a student makes an oral presentation based on carefulanalytical reading and synthesis of books or articles. Other studentsin the classroom comment and raise critical questions based on theirown reading of the same or similar sources. And then the speakerdevelops a written report that synthesizes her original ideas withinsights and perspectives she has heard from her classmates. Throughrepeated experiences like these in a number of courses she learns todevelop a stance in relation to multiple sources and perspectives, toexpress herself using discipline concepts and frameworks withgrowing understanding, to make increasingly independent judgments about purpose and audience, and to craft intentionalchoices of expression.

At these levels, instructors assign topics that are sufficiently limitedfor the student to understand thoroughly. Yet, they are complexenough that she must combine her growing competence incommunication with her abilities in application, analysis, and

Communication 11

synthesis. In an organic chemistry course this might mean developingan oral presentation that uses a chemist’s perspective to explain howthe molecular structure of aspirin can be used to address the questionof whether all brands of aspirin are the same.

In her second year and beyond, a student is challenged to make moresophisticated use of her repertory of strategies and her ability to assessher own performance. She firms up her confidence to learnincreasingly complex material through reading and listening. She alsobecomes more assured that she can speak or write purposefully aboutthat material. She analyzes and evaluates data within disciplinarycontexts like history or philosophy and incorporates meaningfulapplications of technology. She gradually learns to communicateeffectively in new situations with new audiences.

Advanced Levels

At advanced levels, the learning focus moves more directly towarddevelopment of autonomy as a learner. A student has alreadyanalyzed components of effective performance and has demonstratedover time her ability as a speaker, writer, listener, reader, quantitativethinker, technology user, and self assessor. Now she synthesizestheoretical perspectives in disciplinary and professional contexts. Asshe progresses, she exercises control over her communicationprocesses, enabling her to perform clearly and sensitively inincreasingly more creative and engaging presentations. Selfassessment at the advanced levels includes a monitoring process ofher ongoing performance, whereby she makes adjustments as needed.

With this new knowledge base, she internalizes integrating conceptsin the context of her major. She increases her understanding of how toselect, adapt, and combine communication strategies in relation todisciplinary and professional frameworks and theories (Level 5). Further,she communicates with creativity, using strategies, theories, andtechnologies that reflect engagement in a discipline or profession (Level6). Such engagement involves both independent and collaborative


work: discipline-based research, creative production/artisticexpression, academic and professional discourse, and application oftheory and practice in internships. Performances representingadvanced-level ability include an ethnographic study of contemporaryfamily dynamics conducted by social science majors in which thestudent explains how she addressed the ethical and politicaldimensions of her research through a formal presentation and writtenself assessment. In mathematics, an advanced-level student researchesa topic in modern abstract algebra not considered in the course andincorporates a detailed proof of an applicable theorem into a researchreport and presentation in which she fields questions from othermathematics majors. Advanced students increasingly perform inprofessional and public contexts, such as an environmental scienceassessment in which students work together to write and present anenvironmental impact statement for a development project thatanticipates and addresses the concerns of various stakeholders.

As students develop from beginning through advanced performance,they move from presentation and discrete response to seamlesscoordination of communication situations for varied audiences andpurposes. They have developed an understanding of how meaning ismade from experience in the process of communicating. They havecultivated a repertory of abilities with which to contribute to themaking of meaning in their professional, personal, and civic lives.

Communication 13

Beginning Levels: Uses self assessment to identify and evaluate communicationperformance

Level 1 – Recognizes own strengths and weaknesses indifferent modes of communication

Level 2 – Recognizes the processes involved in each mode ofcommunication and the interactions among them

Intermediate Levels: Communicates using discipline concepts and frameworks withgrowing understanding

Level 3 – Uses communication processes purposefully to makemeaning in different disciplinary contexts

Level 4 – Connects discrete modes of communication andintegrates them effectively within the frameworks ofa discipline

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Performs clearly and sensitively in increasingly more creative andengaging presentations

Level 5 – Selects, adapts, and combines communicationstrategies in relation to disciplinary/professionalframeworks and theories

Level 6 – Uses strategies, theories, and technologies that reflectengagement in a discipline or profession

15

Analysis

At Alverno, we believe that analytic ability is a major contributingfactor to critical thinking. Analysis is the active process of examining,searching, comparing, dissecting, synthesizing—all in the pursuit ofunderstanding and knowledgeable judgment. Analysis is at the heartof most disciplines. Mathematicians stress the inherent logic thatenables number systems to describe and predict; philosophers rely onsystematic investigation of arguments and issues; natural andbehavioral sciences teach the imperatives of careful data analysis and scrupulous verification of hypotheses. With this in mind ourfaculty teach and assess for analytic ability in almost every course inthe curriculum.

When we analyze, we use a set of mental tools that we have acquiredover the years from our experience and our education. We call such amental tool a framework. Frameworks help us organize data, makepredictions, and draw conclusions. They shape analysis. We may bemore or less conscious of the tools that inform our thinking, and oneimportant dimension of teaching analysis at Alverno is assistingstudents to more consciously learn and appropriately applytheoretical frameworks in a variety of contexts.

The entire range of what is generally called “cognitive skilldevelopment” is included in the developmental levels of analysis. Thestudent learns to analyze problems, situations, issues, ideas,substances, and processes. She is consistently required to assess herown progress in analysis and habitually engage in reflection on heranalytic ability. At the beginning levels of analysis, a student focuseson accurate observation and reasonable inferences in the context oftheories and frameworks provided in her courses. At intermediatelevels of analysis, she learns that a framework is not a given but achoice, and that she might choose to use different frameworks andcome to different conclusions as a result. At the advanced levels, sheuses a variety of different frameworks to create a complex analysis of


some phenomenon, problem, or issue, bringing different perspectivestogether to create her own perspective and response.


Beginning Levels

In developing an understanding of anything as a whole, a studentmust learn to observe the individual parts and their relationshipsto one another. Generalizations about meaning or significance arepossible only after this careful consideration has been undertaken.The student first learns to observe accurately (Level 1) and then todraw reasonable inferences from her observations (Level 2),distinguishing between fact and inference, evidence and assumption.

A student designing her own experiment in a natural scienceinvestigative learning laboratory, for example, learns to hypothesizeabout possible results after recording preliminary data. A student in apsychology course on life span development learns to infer theories ofhuman development based on observations she makes as a result ofinteracting with people at different stages of life.

Although levels one and two are conceptually distinct, in practice weteach them together. In our experience the student is often quicker tomake inferences than to observe carefully. Thus, in the early stages ofanalysis there is constant emphasis on grounding these inferences inthe reality of the observable, in the “facts” she is dealing with.

At levels one and two the student also learns to understand and useanalytic frameworks to inform her observations. She learns how theguiding questions of a discipline or a theory help her to decide whichaspects of a phenomenon are most important. In beginning studies inthe humanities, for example, the student learns how the questioningframework of philosophy places greater emphasis on inferringquestions and issues that are common aspects of thought andbehavior, while history focuses more on the unique dimensions of

Analysis 17

very specific contexts. As the student becomes familiar with the waysuch concepts and questions work to shape thought, she begins toidentify how these frameworks can be applied by analogy to createher own explanations or to make predictions about how aphenomenon or system will behave.

Intermediate Levels

The intermediate student uses disciplinary concepts andframeworks with growing understanding. She begins to see howsome of her inferences about specific, isolated parts of a work relateeither causally or functionally to one another. She learns to perceiveand make relationships (Level 3). She applies disciplinary frameworksto organize her understanding.

A student in psychology, for instance, might apply the principles ofdevelopmental theory as a guide when interacting with a young childor interviewing a grandparent. After carefully examining herobservations and inferring the subject’s stage of development, thestudent would review theories of human development that she hadlearned in class to see how her concrete experience reinforced hermore abstract understanding and how her inferences corresponded tothe theories.

A key feature of level three is the application of theoreticalframeworks to illuminate something new about the data or materialstudied. In order to promote this, faculty engage students inexploration that extends beyond absorption and mastery ofinformation. As a science student begins intermediate analysis, forexample, she learns more complex frameworks that build on the basicones from her previous science courses. She builds on the principlesof chemical diffusion to learn the more complicated processescovering the movement of water into and out of cells. A student in ageneral education history course is required to hypothesize about thelong-term effects of historical events such as the unprecedented, butshort-lived employment opportunities for women in time of war.


At level three the student has not necessarily shown how all thepatterns or relationships she has identified fit with each other toexplain an entire work or to address a problem or issuecomprehensively. As she becomes more adept at making suchrelationships she begins to choose and apply frameworks to analyzestructure and organization (Level 4), discovering organizational unityand overall meaning. A student in a nursing course, for instance,might be asked to analyze the relationships among certain key factorsknown to influence nutritional adequacy in individuals adapting toadolescence, pregnancy, lactation, or old age in order to plan diets fora series of clients. The student chooses among nursing concepts andframeworks and applies them to integrate her observations andinferences into a meaningful diagnosis.

A student of intermediate-level analysis learns many frameworks andbegins to work on developing principles for choosing among them.In a course on practicing literary criticism, for example, a studentlearns the methods and assumptions of four critical frameworks andreflects on the suitability of different schools of criticism for gaininginsight into the meaning of different novels. Similarly, inintermediate calculus the student evaluates models of projectilemotion. She asks questions about which factors each model takes intoaccount and when one model will be more appropriate than another.

Advanced Levels

The advanced student consciously and purposefully appliesdisciplinary frameworks to analyze complex phenomena. As astudent learns more explanatory frameworks from differentdisciplines, she refines her understanding of those frameworks, andidentifies criteria for determining what frameworks are suitable forexplaining a phenomenon (Level 5). She asks questions about “fit” andappropriateness – does a theory she is considering deal with the mostimportant aspects of the situation she wants to analyze? She evaluatesthe power of a framework – will it give her any new insight into thesituation? And she asks critical questions about a framework’s

Analysis 19

limitations—what are its biases? What kind of information does itleave out, and what kind does it overemphasize? She developsmethods of correcting for the limitations of a single framework, suchas by applying multiple frameworks to analyze complex situations.She also learns to vary her analysis by the application of differentframeworks. This means, essentially, that she learns to analyze from a variety of perspectives, not always taking the same approach toevery situation.

In the area of management, for example, a student works with afaculty member to learn to develop marketing strategies. She works ina simulated setting for a company she creates herself. She analyzeseconomic, social, political, and technological factors in order todevelop new product opportunities for the company. With theguidance of the instructor, she learns to use the analytic strategiesappropriate to the field of management. The simulation provides aneffective yet safe “testing ground” for the student’s analysis and helpsher develop into an independent, reflective professional.

As she advances toward graduation, the student demonstrates herability to apply frameworks from her major and minor disciplineindependently to analyze complex issues (Level 6). A student of nursingmight use part of a nursing process model to assess a client’scondition. After applying this specific theoretical structure to developher diagnostic statement, she might use a framework from thehumanities—a philosophical or religious approach, for example—todeepen her understanding of the issues facing the client and help hercreate responses to them. An education student undertakes ananalysis of learner needs and learning effectiveness for each teachingsetting in which she works. Whether working with young children oradult learners, the student who has mastered advanced analysisapplies appropriate frameworks and theories from education, frompsychology, and from her other subject areas. She makes analyticconnections among all her education-related experiences in order todevelop her own interdisciplinary repertoire of frameworks out of


which she will design future learning strategies. She can confidentlyintegrate theory and practice as an independent and analytic teacher.

The student ultimately demonstrates that she can use all herpreviously developed analytic skills to unravel the complex questionsinvolved in bringing many frameworks and systems into a coherentwhole. She shows that she can draw verifiable conclusions whiledealing with an array of differing and even contradictory perspectivestied together by her own analytic insights. She designs her ownapproaches, in consultation with her professors and, perhaps, withpractitioners in the field. This helps to demonstrate that she canthink through large, complex undertakings logically and can engagein serious discourse about them in her professional, civic, andpersonal life.

Analysis 21

Beginning Levels: Observes individual parts of phenomena and their relationships toone another

Level 1 – Observes accuratelyLevel 2 – Draws reasonable inferences from observations

Intermediate Levels: Uses disciplinary concepts and frameworks with growingunderstanding

Level 3 – Perceives and makes relationshipsLevel 4 – Analyzes structure and organization

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Consciously and purposefully applies disciplinary frameworks toanalyze complex phenomena

Level 5 – Refines understanding of frameworks and identifiescriteria for determining what frameworks aresuitable for explaining a phenomenon

Level 6 – Applies frameworks from major and minordiscipline independently to analyze complex issues

23

Problem Solving

Asking a critical question, making an educated guess, proposingalternate solutions—these are generally recognized as distinctivefeatures of human intellect. Adapting a plan to the constraints oftime and resources, critically evaluating performance in midstream,seeing a project through to its conclusion—these, too, are admittedhallmarks of applied intelligence.

At Alverno, a deliberately planned outcome of education is the abilityto solve problems, which includes defining a problem, selecting andapplying problem solving processes, and critiquing one’s own actions.We have designed a plan for student development in response to theneed for the educated person in our society to enter into importantprocesses of planning and change, in both public and private life.Problem solving is focused on developing a student’s ability to getthings done through a conscious, organized process. At the advancedlevels, it explores the transferring of problem solving from a variety ofdisciplinary contexts to professional and personal experiences.

Problem solving clearly overlaps other ability areas in the Alvernocurriculum. It draws on analysis and valuing in decision-makingabilities to accurately observe situations and make reflectivejudgments. It also involves the ability to formulate goals and toarticulate ideas and strategies in collaboration with others—skillsdeveloped in communication and social interaction.

At the same time, problem solving calls for its own unique and often difficult-to-assess qualities. One is the imaginative ability toproject consequences, and to pursue intuitive “hunches.” Another isthe perseverance to risk implementing a solution in the face ofobstacles. A third is the flexibility to adapt to constraints and to learnfrom results.



Beginning Levels

At the beginning levels of this ability, the student learns to articulateher problem solving process and understand how a disciplineframework is used to solve a problem. When given a problem, thestudent articulates her problem solving process by making explicit thesteps she takes to approach a problem (Level 1). This means the studentneeds to be introduced to, and use appropriately, a problem solvingvocabulary. She is also introduced to problem solving processes, bothgeneric and discipline specific. As a general process, for example, shelearns to distinguish carefully between an existing condition and adesired state or outcome, and she learns to identify possibleconstraints that may affect her actions and choices. She also learnsmore discipline-specific methods. A student in a beginningmathematics course, for example, is taught to use the Polya methodfor systematically approaching quantitative word problems.

As she progresses, the student practices using elements of disciplinaryproblem solving processes to approach problems (Level 2). Facultypresent students with typical problems from within a discipline anddirect them to apply specific frameworks, such as the scientificmethod, the communication process, adaptation theory in nursing,or artistic design principles. Although both the problems andapproaches are usually quite specific, instructor feedback and peerdiscussion help the student recognize the possibility of alternativeproblem solving methods and gain insight into the nature of problemsolving processes generally.

At the beginning levels the student may be introduced to both well-structured and less-structured problems within the discipline,although problems that are linear and readily solvable provide moreopportunities for the student to practice all dimensions of a processand to experience how practitioners in the discipline solve problems.

Problem Solving 25

In less-structured problems, the student must identify some elementsof the problem, such as determining what information is necessary, orprioritizing goals. For example, in a computer simulation ofaquaculture, students identify and investigate variables that influenceprofitability of raising fish commercially. The student is assignedsome variables to optimize, then presented with others that may ormay not be important depending on the fish she is raising. She mustuse her data to decide which variables to manipulate.

Repeated practice in applying disciplinary problem solvingframeworks, coupled with detailed improvement-oriented feedbackfrom instructors provides the student with the experience andconfidence needed to develop intuition and creativity as the studentprogresses in her problem solving ability.

Intermediate Levels

The intermediate student takes thoughtful responsibility for herprocess and her proposed solutions to problems. While thebeginning student is learning vocabulary and practicing steps withina problem solving process in the context of instructor-definedproblems, the student now becomes more aware that she is a problemsolver. Whether in “real world” or simulated situations, she performsall phases or steps within a disciplinary problem solving process,including evaluation and real or simulated implementation (Level 3).She is no longer simply practicing a modeled process; she is activelysolving problems, while accepting responsibility for the risks inherentin proposing solutions. In economics, for example, the studentdetermines the applicability of various theories to a scenario providedby the instructor and then goes on to apply the appropriate theory tomake predictions. In a three-dimensional art studio course, thestudent may be given the task of creating a sculpture that reveals nohint of the nature of the original raw materials. She then articulatesthrough an oral presentation of her work how principles of problemsolving informed her creative process. Instructors continue to provide


advice and support in helping the student tailor a chosen problemsolving process to a specific situation, but the activity is centered onthe student as disciplinary problem solver.

As the student gains confidence in carrying out sustained disciplinaryapproaches to problems, she independently analyzes, selects, uses, andevaluates various approaches to develop solutions (Level 4). Instructorsno longer frame specific problems in the discipline. Instead, thestudent is responsible for approaching the thought and practice of thediscipline as a problem solver. In an education course on theexceptional learner, for example, the student examines the case of apupil with exceptional educational needs. Using educational anddevelopmental frameworks she has learned in this and othereducation and psychology courses, the student identifies the child’slearning needs and designs instructional strategies that respond tothose needs. Faculty support this growing independence by helpingstudents reflect on the broader implications of discrete problemsolving experiences for their stance and self awareness as disciplinaryor professional problem solvers.

Advanced Levels

The advanced student uses problem solving strategies in a widevariety of professional situations. Since real-world problem solvingalmost always involves interaction among professionals and withrepresentatives of different interests, she demonstrates the capacity totransfer the understanding of group processes into effective performance incollaborative problem solving (Level 5). As an experienced problemsolver, the student participates in intellectual exchanges withcolleagues, recognizing their expert knowledge, to gather informationnecessary to define problems. Her instructors encourage her to thinkbroadly about problem situations, recognizing their interdisciplinarynature and the potential resources of conceptual frameworks she haslearned while solving problems in different disciplines. Seniormanagement students in a policy and strategy course, for example,work as members of a multifunctional team in a simulated company

Problem Solving 27

to evaluate the risks and advantages of various global growthstrategies in order to select the most appropriate strategy to achieve asignificant presence in a given country. In other disciplines thecollaboration involves students and practicing professionals in thecommunity. Education students in their student teaching placementwork with a variety of professionals in their buildings to select,implement, and evaluate strategies for addressing the learning needsof diverse learners.

As she nears graduation, the student demonstrates advanced facilityin attempting to solve problems in a variety of professional settingsand disciplinary applications. She applies the methods and frameworksof her profession/discipline(s): integrating them with her personal valuesand perspectives; adapting them to the specific field setting;demonstrating independence and creativity in structuring and carryingout her problem solving activities (Level 6).

She critiques the effectiveness of the problem solving methods andframeworks of each of her disciplines. She habitually develops herown criteria and uses them to evaluate the problem solution and herperformance. She recognizes contextual factors in negotiatingproblem situations, communicating outcomes and monitoring theconsequences of implementation. She demonstrates a commitment toher discipline or profession by following through on the results of theproblem solving process.

Through development of her problem solving ability, the studentintegrates aspects of the complex demands of field settings within aprofession or discipline with awareness of the broad consequences ofher actions. She communicates, analyzes and interacts as she solvesproblems in the field setting. She considers values, effects on thebroader community, and aesthetics when she makes decisions.


Beginning Levels: Articulates problem solving process and understands how a disciplineframework is used to solve a problem

Level 1 – Articulates problem solving process by makingexplicit the steps taken to approach a problem

Level 2 – Practices using elements of disciplinary problemsolving processes to approach problems

Intermediate Levels: Takes thoughtful responsibility for process and proposed solutions toproblems

Level 3 – Performs all phases or steps within a disciplinaryproblem solving process, including evaluation andreal or simulated implementation

Level 4 – Independently analyzes, selects, uses, and evaluatesvarious approaches to develop solutions

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Uses problem solving strategies in a wide variety of professionalsituations

Level 5 – Demonstrates capacity to transfer understanding ofgroup processes into effective performance incollaborative problem solving

Level 6 – Applies methods and frameworks ofprofession/discipline(s): integrating them withpersonal values and perspectives; adapting them tothe specific field setting; demonstratingindependence and creativity in structuring andcarrying out problem solving activities

29

Valuing in Decision-Making

Because decisions about “What is the good, the true, the beautiful?”“What is worth striving for?” and “What ought to be done?” areimplicit in every human endeavor, Alverno includes valuing indecision-making (referred to as “valuing” in the remainder of thistext) at the core of each student’s educational process. Expressing andacting upon the values embodied by our decisions is often a difficultbut important process. It is no small task to sort through the manyintertwined factors—like tradition and hope for change, reasoningand emotion, personal goals and social forces, imagination andeffort—that can underlie our value positions. Therefore our maingoal in teaching and assessing for valuing is for the student to developthe ability to make decisions in all realms of her life using a moreconscious awareness of this complexity, of how her values emerged,how they are changing in light of new experiences and learning, andhow they affect how she chooses to think and act.

Dimensions of the Valuing Process

From more than thirty years of teaching experience and systematicscholarship regarding this process, we have identified some generalpatterns in student learning and performance that represent how anAlverno student learns to develop, articulate, and apply her valuingstance. In order for the student to effectively construct her valuingstance and act out of it accordingly, we find that she must pursueseveral key, interconnected dimensions of development over thecourse of her academic program.

One dimension is value examination and interpretation. Throughthoughtful introspection, careful listening and connectedconversation, as well as both appreciative and critical interaction withhumanistic, artistic and scientific works, the student becomes moreconscious and systematic in identifying the values and principles inher life. She sees that value decisions usually are embedded in thediverse array of relationships that the learner holds with other


students, friends, family, co-workers, as well as the broaderrelationships with institutions, cultures and societies. Because suchexamination always happens in relation to other people who aresimilarly searching for their own best path and invested deeply intheir choices, the student learns to explore values in both a cognitiveand emotional way, in the languages of both principles and feelings.

Another dimension is moral sensitivity. A central feature of ourcontemporary life is its cultural diversity. Such diversity is anopportunity for growth but also a challenge, and the valuing processmust incorporate tools for navigating it. Thus as she advances in herunderstanding of how various, often competing, value systemsoperate at the core of broader institutions, communities, andcultures, the student discerns the reasons for different moralperspectives. She can clarify relationships between moral worlds andcan appreciate value differences with greater empathy.

And yet another dimension is moral and ethical reasoning. Applyingvalues in decisions involves the formulation of a living ethic. Toengage in responsible, ethical decision-making means to use specificframeworks to think through moral positions on important questionsand issues, and to act with integrity. Aware of the emotional power ofvalues for herself and others, and having analyzed moral questions,the student comes to examine value issues within her field of study orprofession, as well as within her civic and her personal life, and workswith others to effect the positive changes she seeks.

Teaching and Assessing for Valuing

To bring these dimensions alive in student performance andencourage their lifelong development, we structure our curriculum inparticular ways. First, because valuing is pervasive, it is taughtexplicitly and implicitly in a wide range of disciplinary andprofessional contexts. Valuing is embedded across the curriculumfrom freshman through senior years in many relevant courses.

Valuing in Decision-Making 31

Second, we teach and assess valuing in holistic ways that requirerelational thinking. As the student proceeds through both generaleducation and her more specialized areas of study, she mustrepeatedly examine the relation between values and emotions,between values and spirituality, between value systems and their socialcontexts, and between values and actions. Assignments within andexternal to courses reflect these learning goals, as do the student’speriodic self assessments.

Third, we know that the ability to make decisions informed by valuesis developed over time. While such development is not often linear,there are empirically recognizable steps students tend to take soonerrather than later. Foundations must be established to help build moresophisticated constructs in later areas of study. The work iscumulative and iterative and increases in complexity. The standardsfaculty and students use to describe and to assess effective valuingperformances in courses or other learning experiences are structuredinto three basic tiers: beginning, intermediate and advanced. As afurther subtlety, within each tier are two levels that express the roomfor movement and change in the student’s engagement with theoverall ability. Here is a brief narrative description of the levels.


Beginning Levels

Since we believe valuing questions emerge in all areas of life, studentsbegin immediately as freshmen by exploring the valuing process indiverse courses across the curriculum. The student identifies her ownand others’ values and some key emotions they evoke (Level 1). Sheconnects her values to her behavior and she is able to articulate thecognitive and spiritual dimensions of this process (Level 2). She alsoshows an awareness of the voices of valuing that are present in theworld around her. She may, for instance, infer the valuing process ofa character in a novel, or of a person theorizing about a psychologicalprinciple or scientific phenomenon.


Intermediate Levels

Toward the middle of her academic program, we expect the studentto broaden her understanding of the cultural mosaic of valuing ofwhich she is a part, by more precisely analyzing the role of groups,cultures, and societies in the construction of values and theirexpression in moral systems or ethical frameworks. We want herto examine ways that she both affects and is affected by the widercircle of culture (and cultures) that surround her. In this way, thestudent grows to critically evaluate her values with an informedawareness of the processes of value diffusion, conflict, transformationand change. She sees where she stands in the midst of many places tostand.

The student analyzes the reciprocal relationship between her own valuesand their social contexts and explores how that relationship plays out forher (Level 3). She can also explain how her actions or decisions mayinfluence the values and decisions of the broader community. As thestudent advances through this level, she shows an awareness of theways that moral conflicts are rooted in different value systems withinand across communities. For example, in a humanities course shereflects on the relationship between the spiritual principles of acommunity and their socio-economic practices; or in a psychologycourse she studies the ways in which child-rearing practices shape themoral attitudes within a society.

As the student progresses in her learning she starts to use themes andideas from her major areas of study more frequently to organize herapproach to value questions. While she may not yet be completelyrooted in a major, she is better able to use the perspectives and conceptsof particular disciplines to inform moral judgments and decisions (Level4). She can specify core values at the heart of a particular discipline,and she can make connections between those values and the widerprinciples and policies of the communities that the discipline affects.As she advances, she grows in her ability to constructively critique

Valuing in Decision-Making 33

decisions and policies that emerge from various value frameworks andshe can talk about her own value stance. She can, for example, applyethical principles in nursing practice, or analyze how ethics violationsin an investment firm impact both individuals and society itself, oruse her understanding of chemistry to explore issues regardingregulation of chemical weapons.

Advanced Levels

Advanced levels of valuing are pursued primarily within a student’swork in her major and/or minor, so the criteria for achievement arecast more directly in the language of the discipline or profession than criteria at previous levels. As she works within the contexts ofmore specialized and advanced courses, the student explores andapplies the value systems and ethical codes that are at the heartof the field.

The student uses valuing frameworks of a major field of study orprofession to engage significant issues in personal, professional, andsocietal contexts (Level 5). She consistently examines and cultivates hervalue system in order to take initiative as a responsible self in the world(Level 6). Advanced level valuing also recapitulates all earlier levels onall the key dimensions, but on a more sophisticated plane. The goalhere is to foster the student’s encounter with the heart of her fieldthrough practice – thinking, researching, delivering care, producing,directing – as a member of the field or profession. Advanced levelsare thus strongly about integration of learning: the integration ofemotion, thought and belief, and behavior. They are also about thestudent consolidating her own stable center of care and strength, thatwhich is at the “heart” of her decision-making.


Beginning Levels: Explores the valuing process

Level 1 – Identifies own and others’ values and some keyemotions they evoke

Level 2 – Connects own values to behavior and articulates thecognitive and spiritual dimensions of this process

Intermediate Levels: More precisely analyzes the role of groups, cultures, and societies inthe construction of values and their expression in moral systems orethical frameworks

Level 3 – Analyzes reciprocal relationship between own valuesand their social contexts and explores how thatrelationship plays out

Level 4 – Uses the perspectives and concepts of particulardisciplines to inform moral judgments and decisions

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Explores and applies value systems and ethical codes at the heart ofthe field

Level 5 – Uses valuing frameworks of a major field of study orprofession to engage significant issues in personal,professional, and societal contexts

Level 6 – Consistently examines and cultivates own valuesystem in order to take initiative as a responsible selfin the world

35

Social Interaction

The ability to deal with others is crucial to personal and professionalsuccess. A society that accomplishes the bulk of its work inconversation, consultation, discussion and debate, on committees andtask forces, must depend heavily upon those members who can beeffective in interpersonal situations.

We have depended, as a society, on learning social skills almost totallywithout formal attention to their development. We learn interactioninitially the same way we begin to learn our oral and written language– by being born into a family of persons who speak and interact. Yetwe supplement language development with years of elementary andsecondary school instruction in reading and writing (with lessattention to listening and speaking). College curricula continue thedevelopment of writing, but have rarely included the development ofinteraction skills in their scope – assuming either that students comewith these skills or that their growth in effectiveness is somehow a by-product of the total experience.

It is also more important, as we attend to the development of socialskills, to extend them to incorporate awareness of and competence incivil discourse. Drawing upon work in the behavioral disciplines thatprovides tools to describe, assess, and develop social interaction indiverse contexts, the Alverno faculty define social interaction as anintegral part of the learning program.

Effective social interaction, as defined at Alverno, involves threedimensions: analytic frameworks, self-awareness, and willingness toengage. Analytic frameworks refers to a broad range of knowledge,information and sources that enable students to interact effectivelywith others in diverse social and cultural contexts. Self awareness,grounded in Alverno’s philosophy and practice regarding selfassessment, refers to the student’s conscious awareness of herattitudes, beliefs, emotions, and cognitive processes and how theyaffect her behavior and reactions. Alverno’s philosophy and practice


regarding self assessment form the foundation for this dimension.Willingness to engage refers to the student’s disposition to be open tointeraction with others, in particular those whom she perceives asbeing different from herself.

Throughout this document we refer to the social and culturalcontexts of interaction, so we think it is important to clarify ourmeaning of this phrase. Social and cultural contexts refer to amultitude of factors that interactors need to consider in makingdecisions about appropriate interaction behavior. Factors includeindividual characteristics (e.g., interaction skill level, state of mind),group and member identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, sexual orientation,political affiliation, socio-economic class), intergroup dynamics (e.g.,history of interactions, power and privilege, stereotyping,discrimination), the setting (e.g., classroom, professional, civic,personal), and social meanings of important symbol systems (e.g.,language, verbal and nonverbal communication) as mediated through culture.


Beginning Levels

The social interaction ability begins as the student interacts in smallgroups and learns terms, behaviors, and frameworks that make foreffective social interaction. The student learns about frameworksand self assessment skills to support interpersonal and task-oriented group interactions. Along with these explicit frameworksrelated to interaction, the student also explores the varied categoriesby which differences between people are constructed and the force ofthese differences in people’s lives.

The beginning student recognizes analytic frameworks as an avenue tobecoming aware of her own behaviors in interactions and toparticipating fully in those interactions (Level 1). In her first semester,

Social Interaction 37

instructors prepare the student to participate in a simulated task-oriented group interaction. Her participation is observed by a facultymember or a community volunteer assessor who makes writtenobservations about her behavior. Following the interaction she sitsdown with the assessor to discuss her performance in the group,coming to a common understanding of what she demonstrated andhow it helped the group complete its task. The student then workswith the assessor to set goals for future interactions. A key aspect ofthe level one experience is accurate self assessment.

In her courses the student gains insight into the affective and practicalramifications of her interactions in their social and cultural contexts(Level 2) by observing examples of others’ interactions, byexperiencing new situations, and by applying analytic frameworks.For example, in a course focused on interpersonal and groupcommunication, the student formally learns two basic interactionmodels distilled from interpersonal communication literature, onefocused on task-oriented group situations and the other addressinginterpersonal conflict. Within the course she has multipleopportunities to learn the terms and practice the behaviors associatedwith these two models, not only in her own interaction but also inanalysis of the interaction of others. She also advances herunderstanding of the many dimensions of social interaction, learningbasic social and psychological concepts that are relevant to interactionin a variety of contexts. As she develops facility in applying theinteraction models, she builds a firm foundation for furtherdeveloping her effectiveness in social interaction situations.

Intermediate Levels

With a solid sense of the stages and behaviors of social interactionmodels, at the intermediate levels the student focuses on her owninteraction, using analytic frameworks and self awareness as sheengages with others in increasingly effective interaction across arange of situations.


The student purposefully extends herself in concrete actions and plansaimed toward increasing her effectiveness in group and interpersonalinteraction, based on a careful analysis and awareness of self and othersin social and cultural contexts (Level 3). By attending to herinteraction in and out of the classroom setting, she evaluates theeffectiveness and appropriateness of her own responses in interactionwith others. She recognizes her own possible misinterpretations andconsequent behaviors, examining how these attitudes and behaviorsaffect herself, others, and the group as a whole. She takes intoaccount both her emotions and their sources when deciding onfuture action. In order to increase her understanding of similaritiesand differences among people, she seeks perspectives from thoseoutside her circles, including the perspective of those with whom sheis interacting, in order to become more receptive to others ininteraction situations.

In a professional communication course, for example, facultyvideotape students in group interaction settings, asking them to usethe task-oriented model to analyze how their interaction impactsindividual members of the group as well as the functioning of thegroup and the quality of the product. Faculty also require eachstudent to keep an interaction journal, carefully describinginteractions, interpreting them using relevant frameworks, andevaluating the effectiveness of these frameworks. In each mode, thestudent also incorporates into her analysis a projection of how shemight change her behavior and what impact the change would have on the outcomes of the interaction or her relationships withothers involved.

As she moves into interaction related to her discipline or professionalmajor, the student displays and continues to practice increasinglyeffective interactions in group and interpersonal situations reflectingcognitive understanding of social and cultural contexts and awareness ofaffective components of her own and others’ behavior. (Level 4).Interpreting complex and subtle cues in specific interactions, sherecognizes the limitations and flexibility of frameworks and models,


consciously adapting her interaction style to a variety of social andcultural contexts. In working with others, she is able to considerchallenges to ideas, behaviors, and choices without perceiving them aspersonal attacks. Incorporating the results of her self assessment, shecreates action plans for effectiveness in interpersonal situations andwith groups and assumes a conscious responsibility to interacteffectively with others.

Education field-work assignments, for example, are designed byinstructors to assist the student to build an effective workingrelationship with her cooperating teacher, accurately recognizing theroles that each plays in the classroom context. The student isproactive in asking questions and proposing activities that will assisther to become a part of the social and cultural context of theclassroom. She is open to the reflections and suggestions of hercooperating teacher, recognizing the valuable perspective of anexperienced professional. In the classroom, she develops lessons thatengage learners, showing respect for their ideas and interests andadapting her interaction style to their developmental needs. In fieldlogs and in self assessments of lesson presentations, she thoughtfullyreflects on her performances and sets goals to guide her ongoingdevelopment as an effective interactor.

Advanced Levels

At the advanced level the focus is on effective interaction in complexprofessional settings. The student integrates discipline-specificframeworks with the social interaction models in order tofunction effectively with diverse stakeholders as she collaborates,negotiates, and coordinates in her professional role.

The student consistently and with increasing autonomy demonstrateseffective professional interaction using multiple disciplinary theories,frameworks, and models to interpret behavior and monitor her owninteraction choices (Level 5). She demonstrates confidence in applyinga range of frameworks and models in interpreting interaction among


persons with whom she has varied types of relationships, e.g., client,peer, subordinate, or supervisor. In working with diverse others, shefocuses on professional goals, seeking to build not only consensus fora particular action, but ongoing collaborative working relationshipswith others. She addresses conflict as an opportunity to exploreperspectives that can lead to more effective decisions, showing agenuine respect for persons, even when she disagrees with their ideas.She internalizes the process of self assessment, monitoringinteractions both as they happen and in thoughtful reflection.

In nursing, for example, the advanced student takes on professionalroles in relationship both to the range of patients/clients and to theteam of health professionals with whom she works. With clients shehones her ability to take appropriate responsibility and action tomove them to functional health patterns, using a range of diagnosticframeworks to determine interaction needs. She applies therapeuticinterventions to help clients express their emotional needs and thencreates care plans that include her holistic understanding of theclient. Becoming part of nursing as a collaborative profession, shedraws upon professional models of interaction to enhance herworking relationships with peers and other professionals. From thatbase of collaboration, she is able to facilitate teamwork and manageconflict in order to advocate effectively for her clients’ needs.

As she moves toward graduation, the student uses leadership abilitiesto facilitate the achievement of professional goals in effective interpersonaland group interactions (Level 6). Recognizing her growing level of skillas a professional, she takes responsibility to initiate consideration ofissues that affect professional goals, inviting others to join her intaking responsibility for moving those goals forward. She recognizesthe strengths and limitations of herself and others and works to drawupon strengths and find ways to balance weaknesses, so that allcontribute most effectively to the successful accomplishment of tasks.She actively seeks the perspectives of a range of stakeholders, not only


to assure that all necessary information is available but also to engageall participants in ownership of the decisions.

Advanced work in a capstone course for business majors, for example,emphasizes leadership and professional responsibility. The studentserves as a member of a small team of external consultants for aWisconsin corporation wishing to develop its Asian market. Thestudent collaborates on research tasks and negotiates the developmentof recommendations for the team to present to their client. Throughinteractions with her peers, discussions with the corporation-client,and in a simulated meeting in the new market and country, thestudent develops and demonstrates professional interaction skills,including problem solving, teamwork, and conflict management. Theproject ends with a power point presentation and question-answersession with the corporation-client regarding the group’srecommendations

Regardless of a student’s career aspirations, she will need to be able toengage in effective interaction in personal and professional settings.The development of the social interaction ability positions her toapply meaningful analytic frameworks, to thoughtfully practice selfawareness, and to engage others with an openness to what she canlearn from them.


Beginning Levels: Learns frameworks and self assessment skills to support interpersonaland task-oriented group interactions

Level 1 – Recognizes analytic frameworks as an avenue tobecoming aware of own behaviors in interactionsand to participating fully in those interactions

Level 2 – Gains insight into the affective and practicalramifications of interactions in their social andcultural contexts

Intermediate Levels: Uses analytic frameworks and self awareness to engage with others inincreasingly effective interaction across a range of situations

Level 3 – Increases effectiveness in group and interpersonalinteraction based on careful analysis and awarenessof self and others in social and cultural contexts

Level 4 – Displays and continues to practice increasinglyeffective interactions in group and interpersonalsituations reflecting cognitive understanding ofsocial and cultural contexts and awareness ofaffective components of own and others’ behavior

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Integrates discipline-specific frameworks with social interactionmodels to function effectively with diverse stakeholders inprofessional roles

Level 5 – Consistently and with increasing autonomydemonstrates effective professional interaction usingmultiple disciplinary frameworks to interpretbehavior and monitor own interaction choices

Level 6 – Uses leadership abilities to facilitate achievement ofprofessional goals in effective interpersonal andgroup interactions

43

Developing a Global Perspective

The complexities of modern life increasingly demand the informedinvolvement of every citizen. Decisions made in one part of theworld have the potential to affect events in another part of the world.It is now possible to see the world as a global village, where actionstaken by citizens in one country may have long-term consequencesfor inhabitants of another country. Global thinking – the ability torecognize and understand global interconnections – is a crucial aspectof today’s life.

To think globally, however, is not simply a matter of deciding what isbest for everyone, everywhere. First, such thinking could become soabstract that we oversimplify issues, looking for only one solutionwhere many are needed. Second, generalized thinking could lead usto minimize, or even dismiss, the many cultural differences that giveour world much of its vitality. We need to find a delicate balancebetween recognizing our diversity and maintaining an awareness ofour common interests as citizens of the world and to engage in thekind of discourse that fosters a truly global perspective. The faculty ofAlverno College teach our students how to achieve such a balancethrough an ability we call developing a global perspective.

Like our world, the ability to develop a global perspective is complex.The student needs to understand how issues are globallyinterconnected – geographically, culturally, and temporally – and shemust be able to make informed judgments regarding them. She mustalso use other abilities, such as analysis, valuing, and communication,to understand not only her own point of view – what it is and how ithas been shaped – but the points of view of others. Through eachdiscipline and each course a student takes at Alverno College, she hasan opportunity to consider both the personal and the globaldimensions of humanity and the world in which we live.



Beginning Levels

At the beginning levels, the student identifies what shapes heropinions and judgments with regard to global issues, as well asthe extent to which these opinions and judgments reflectmultiple perspectives. The student assesses her own knowledge andskills with regard to her ability to think about and act on global concerns(Level 1). She begins to identify her own point of view inrelationship to the points of view held by other individuals or groups.She learns to identify what she needs to know, for example, aboutother cultures, institutions, economies, ethnic communities, religions,ecologies, and so on, to better articulate those points of view. In theprocess, she begins to understand a variety of disciplines, usingconcepts and frameworks to explore global issues.

For example, in a first year humanities course that focuses on pointof view, the student explores literary texts and films that presentperspectives different from her own. She might read the story of awoman who was a member of the Communist Party in the UnitedStates during the 1950s, or view a Hungarian film depicting theeffect of the Holocaust on Jewish citizens of a small Hungarianvillage. Through a variety of written exercises and self assessments,she monitors her developing awareness of both her own and others’points of view.

As she progresses, the student begins to apply concepts andframeworks from the disciplines to examine the complex relationshipsthat make up global issues (Level 2). Her work in the natural sciencesenables her to understand some of the biological, chemical, physical,and technological aspects of these issues. The behavioral and socialsciences help her examine the psychological, sociological, political,and economic dimensions; and the humanities provide her withperspectives to consider the artistic, historical, philosophical, and

Developing a Global Perspective 45

religious dimensions of global issues. Faculty across these disciplinesdesign learning experiences and assessments in their courses thatrequire the student to identify which disciplinary strategies,frameworks, and skills will be of use to her as she gathers informationshe needs to render her own judgments on various global issues.Finally, she learns to distinguish between opinion and informedjudgment as she begins to examine the data.

Intermediate Levels

With a practiced focus at the beginning levels on how she and othersthink and act with regard to global issues, at the intermediate levelsthe student incorporates her response to multiple perspectives anduses the frameworks from the disciplines to reflect on her ownjudgments about issues. Through her study in particular disciplinesshe turns her attention toward the interconnections between localand global issues.

The student uses disciplinary concepts and frameworks to gatherinformation that allows her to explore possible responses to global issues(Level 3). By responding to multiple perspectives on a variety ofissues, the student broadens her own understanding of whatconstitutes informed judgment.

In a nursing course, for example, faculty require the student toresearch the health and hygiene behavior of an ethnic or culturalgroup different from her own, examining economic and social factorsthat influence those behaviors, ultimately comparing her previousperception of the group’s practices with what her research hasrevealed. In a communications course the student uses the principlesof general semantics to examine the validity of television’s portrayal ofa selected minority group, considering the perspectives of thetelevision producers, the viewers, and members of the group beingportrayed. And in a literature course a student examines thetreatment of an issue by several different writers.


As she progresses, the student integrates the skills and knowledge shehas developed to demonstrate her ability to think in aninterconnected way about global issues. She chooses one of a series ofspecial topics courses to explore a global issue from multipleperspectives across cultures, time, and place. The courses areorganized around a comparative approach to a global topic such ashuman rights, water use and development, global migration ofpeoples, or crime and punishment. The student uses frameworks froma variety of disciplines to clarify and articulate her own informedjudgment on the issue (Level 4).

At the end of the semester, all students who have completed one ofthis series of courses participate in an external assessment in whichthey apply what they have learned in their special topics courses. Inthis simulation, students represent a non-governmental organizationin a presentation to a bipartisan congressional hearing convened togather information for setting the U.S. agenda for engaging globalproblems. Students from different courses in this series are groupedtogether to get the widest range of topics, problems, and solutions.After the presentations are completed, students sit down with facultyand community volunteer assessors to discuss the nature of globalchange among diverse peoples and nations. Finally, students selfassess their performance, considering both the formal presentationand group discussion, in terms of how the experiences haveinfluenced their understanding of political change, global diversity,and interconnectedness.

At this point, the student can analyze and comprehend complexglobal issues. She has also created a viable framework for articulatingher worldview and acting responsibly within the global communityby integrating various perspectives and disciplinary frameworks. Shehas gained experience in expressing her own perspective andidentifying how her global thinking has developed.


Advanced Levels

At the advanced levels the student refines her general abilities byintegrating them with the frameworks and concerns of her majorareas of study and uses this synthesis to further develop her ownglobal perspective. Through her understanding of theinterconnections between local and global issues, she sees herself as apotentially effective member of the global community. She identifiesglobal issues that concern her and takes positions based on analysis oftheir contexts and an understanding of the multiple disciplinaryperspectives that contribute to the formulation of those issues.

The student uses theory to generate pragmatic approaches to specificglobal issues (Level 5). She identifies an issue that is germane to herdiscipline and, building on the process she has demonstrated at levelfour, uses theoretical constructs and paradigms from that discipline toformulate alternative resolutions. A social science major, for instance,uses her understanding of organizational behavior to analyze theineffectiveness of a campus organization devoted to raising awarenessof human rights. She also proposes a strategy for linking humanrights concerns to students in a variety of disciplines as a way to helpbuild a broader and more effective organization. A history student inher study of modern Eastern Europe applies her understanding ofshifts in the geography of nations and ethnic and national identity inthe context of post-World War II Europe to understand present dayattitudes regarding the Holocaust and pre-war Jewish life.

In her most refined work, her proposed solutions to a selected globalissue reflects an integrated synthesis and a discussion of thelimitations of those resolutions from cultural or technologicalstandpoints. At this point the student creatively and independentlyproposes theoretical and pragmatic approaches to global concerns. (Level6) She articulates, defends, and advocates for her understanding andjudgment. She actively engages her research, observation, andanalytical skills to further her understanding of issues mostconcerning her and acts as a leader to bring these issues to public


awareness. A student of professional communication, for instance,would build on her research on gender and its impact on war crimesto present her findings at a student peace conference. Anenvironmental studies student researching candidates’ attitudestoward financing of mining in rural areas might create a public forumto bring out the issues and raise awareness of the significance of theseconcerns to a state-wide election.

At this point in her studies, the student’s performance is characterizedby an engagement with complex issues, an awareness of the contextsand perspectives active in the formation of diverse cultures,imagination regarding the best means to collaborate and draw out thebest resolutions, and a willingness to reflect on the viability andprocesses she uses to attain her goals. She commits herself to the ideaof lifelong learning because she understands the constantly changingnature of global interrelationships. She is aware of the power of herability to voice her concerns out of an informed foundation and hasan appreciation of her capacity to help create a better world byenvisioning it in her daily interactions and relying on her ability to beinformed and explore the fine points and subtleties of global issues.


Beginning Levels: Identifies what shapes own opinions and judgments with regard toglobal issues, as well as the extent to which these opinions andjudgments reflect multiple perspectives

Level 1 – Assesses own knowledge and skills with regard toability to think about and act on global concerns

Level 2 – Examines the complex relationships that make upglobal issues

Intermediate Levels: Incorporates response to multiple perspectives and uses frameworksfrom disciplines to reflect on own judgments about issues

Level 3– Uses disciplinary concepts and frameworks to gatherinformation to explore possible responses to globalissues

Level 4 – Uses frameworks from a variety of disciplines toclarify and articulate own informed judgment on theissues

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Refines general abilities by integrating them with frameworks andconcerns of major areas of study to further develop own globalperspective

Level 5 – Uses theory to generate pragmatic approaches tospecific global issues

Level 6 – Creatively and independently proposes theoreticaland pragmatic approaches to global concerns

51

Effective Citizenship

Civic responsibility involves direct, meaningful participation inpublic life and includes political engagement as well as many othertypes of public activity. Consideration of the realm of social life thatexists beyond the private and personal is a significant component of aliberal arts education.

Effective citizenship as we define it at Alverno College develops thestudent’s capacity to feel socially responsible to her community andto take corresponding action to support its assets and to deal with itsconcerns. As a basis for involvement, the student learns aboutcommunities and organizations, and similarities and differencesamong them.

Inherent at all levels of this ability are four identifiable dimensions:awareness, information gathering, judgment, and communityinvolvement. These provide the framework for the developmentalsequence for each level of effective citizenship. As an effective citizenshe knows herself, her communities, and her world. She is able togather information and identify credible sources. She appliesprinciples of sound judgment as she gets involved in the civildiscourse surrounding issues, choosing when to lead or follow inorder to contribute.

As the student demonstrates the first four levels of effectivecitizenship, she integrates substantive knowledge about society andher involvement in it. Since this ability is taught within all disciplinesand professional areas at Alverno, the student is encouraged to see allof her education as a resource for life in her community. This visionis a hallmark of a liberally-educated person.



Beginning Levels

At the beginning levels of this ability, the student identifiessignificant community issues and assesses her ability to act onthem. She examines her knowledge base and her capacity toparticipate effectively in addressing community issues.

Introductory courses give each student opportunities to develop herself assessment skills and to begin to identify frameworks that she can useto describe her community experience (Level 1). As she assesses what sheknows about her communities, she examines what influences heropinions and what motivates her involvement in community issues.For example, in an introductory psychology course, students analyzearticles about local and global issues as they develop as criticalthinkers. Through these analyses and a series of self assessments, withfeedback from faculty, students develop a deeper awareness of theprocesses necessary to apply an informed psychological perspective tocivic issues.

Using the results of her self assessment as a starting point, the studentuses course concepts to describe what makes an issue an issue and todevelop the skills necessary to gather information, make sound judgments,and participate in the decision making process (Level 2). In anintroductory biology course, the student researches an environmentalconcern in her community. She identifies and gathers the kinds ofdata and information she needs to clearly understand the differentperspectives on the issue and to develop her own point of viewregarding various action plans. A student might research a proposeddevelopment project in her home county and the impact of thatproject on the county’s watershed and consequently on theendangered wildlife in a neighboring unprotected park. By attendinga public hearing to learn the perspectives of developers, area businessowners, and concerned citizens, and by interviewing members of

Effective Citizenship 53

environmental agencies she would gather the kind of informationnecessary for sound judgment.

Intermediate Levels

At the intermediate levels, the student works within bothorganizational and community contexts to apply her developingcitizenship skills. Primarily through internships and other appliedlearning experiences in her major, she makes connections between hertheoretical understanding and real life settings as she exploresdifferent roles as a citizen. These learning experiences are included inexisting courses and in external experiences (volunteer activities oractive participation in an organization dealing with an issue) that aredesigned and directed by faculty. The experience must focus in asubstantive way on the issue and the student’s strategy for affecting it.It must also provide her with the opportunity to reflect on theeffectiveness of her plan.

The student learns how to “read an organization” in terms of howindividuals work with others to achieve common goals (Level 3). Shealso analyzes the ways that organizations interact with each other inorder to understand the context in which all operate and thedistinctive contribution of each. For example, in an art therapyinternship, a student is required to understand how her sponsoringorganization operates, both in theory and in practice. She learns howthe organization connects to government funding sources. In anadvanced level interdisciplinary course, students examine how thegovernments of various countries interact with non-governmentalorganizations about contentious issues.

The student tests her developing citizenship skills in a communitysetting through her involvement with an issue of personal,professional, societal, or political concern. She responds to herconcerns by developing both a strategy for action and criteria forevaluating the effectiveness of her plan (Level 4). The student usesframeworks to organize her strategies, develops solutions to problems,


interacts with others, and develops strategies for dealing withconflicts that might arise. For example, in a nursing course wherestudents work in community health contexts, the student spends timeanalyzing community strengths and needs. Based on this analysis, sheidentifies a specific need and then works with communityrepresentatives to meet this need. In one instance, a studentrecognized that many of the families she visited were unable to affordage-appropriate toys for their children. She worked with healtheducators and nurses to develop a colorful brochure about usingcommonly found home resources to make toys, e.g., rolling a sockinto a ball. The brochure was so well received that it was approvedfor distribution through the health department.

Advanced Levels

At the advanced levels, the focus is on integration – integration of astudent’s community, academic, professional and political life – withincreased emphasis on involvement, initiative, and leadership. Sincecivic responsibility involves direct, meaningful participation, thestudent takes a leadership role in addressing organizational andcommunity issues. Meaningful participation in community life hasmany facets. The student may work through an existing organizationto address a social or organizational problem or she may start a newgroup to address a perceived need.

However the student chooses to participate, she demonstrates thatshe can work effectively in the civic or professional realm and can workeffectively with others to develop their ability to participate (Level 5). As she develops a plan for action, she identifies what the issueinvolves, who the key people are, what other perspectives exist, andwhat conflicts between different interests need to be resolved. Increating a strategy for dealing with the issue, she includes a profile ofresources and articulates the consequences she foresees for the strategyshe has designated.

Effective Citizenship 55

She integrates the cognitive and experiential dimensions of the earlierlevels of effective citizenship into a cycle of learning, systematicallyimproving her civic participation. She tests her developing theory,anticipating problems that are likely to emerge, and devising ways to dealwith them (Level 6). She learns to more astutely recognizeopportunities for constructive action, and to create ways to capitalizeon them. She seeks feedback from her environment to improve herunderstanding of what is happening. In short, she exercisesleadership, becoming a reflective practitioner who can make adifference in her community.

In making opportunities available to students to develop theircitizenship skills, the Alverno faculty are practicing one of the earliesttraditions of liberal arts colleges, a tradition which emphasizes publicinvolvement as a means to express one’s commitment to ideals andone’s responsibility to the community.


Beginning Levels: Identifies significant community issues and assesses ability to act onthem

Level 1 – Develops self assessment skills and begins to identifyframeworks to describe community experience

Level 2 – Uses discipline concepts to describe what makes anissue an issue and to develop skills necessary togather information, make sound judgments, andparticipate in the decision making process

Intermediate Levels: Works within both organizational and community contexts to applydeveloping citizenship skills

Level 3 – Learns how to “read an organization” in terms ofhow individuals work with others to achievecommon goals

Level 4 – Develops both a strategy for action and criteria forevaluating the effectiveness of plans

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Takes a leadership role in addressing organizational and communityissues

Level 5 – Works effectively in the civic or professional realmand works effectively with others to develop theirability to participate

Level 6 – Tests developing theory, anticipating problems thatare likely to emerge, and devising ways to deal withthem

57

Aesthetic Engagement

Aesthetic engagement is the student’s ability to participate in the arts,both as creator and as active audience member. She develops thecapacity to engage with the arts by learning processes associated withcreative endeavors. The student makes and interprets artistic forms,such as creating a sculpture, delivering a dramatic monologue,writing historical narrative, analyzing a poem, designing a web page, or responding to a film. These experiences help the studentdevelop her understanding of artistic forms and broaden her artistic preferences.

Educators recognize that participation in the arts is not an electiveaspect of education, but an integral component of studentdevelopment as critical thinkers and learners. Engaging creatively inthe arts provides the student with strategies that enhance her abilityto learn and perform across the curriculum. Specifically, engagingwith the arts:

• Balances the intellectual and emotional• Asks the student to learn in the experience, by doing• Makes the student aware of how her own choices shape her

learning• Develops the student’s awareness and appreciation of the

role, value, and power of non-verbal forms ofcommunication

• Requires the student to recognize her own culture and toengage with other cultures

• Opens up new ways of ongoing and integrated selfassessment

• Returns the student to the ways that humans begin theirlearning, through their senses

• Leads the student to tolerate and appreciate ambiguity• Challenges the student to take risks• Illustrates to the student that learning is an ongoing process


While the formal contexts for learning aesthetic engagement are, bydefinition, those courses and disciplines in the humanities and thearts, the processes associated with this learning leads to a heightenedsensibility in and application to all areas of study.


Beginning Levels

At the beginning levels of aesthetic engagement, the student makesinformed artistic and interpretive choices, in both the role of artisticcreator and of responder/ interpreter of the arts. Through two first-year courses, one focused on a particular artistic medium and theother on a particular humanistic mode of inquiry, she develops anopenness to the arts, to a variety of artistic forms and styles, and avariety of modes of expressing cultural meaning.

In order to develop this openness to the variety of choices she maymake in expressing herself through the arts, the student must firstbecome aware that she has choices and that she is an activeparticipant in making cultural meaning. Therefore, beginning coursesin the arts and humanities provide opportunities for the student tomake informed artistic and interpretive choices (Level 1). In her roles ofartistic creator and responder/interpreter, she learns to articulate herrationale for her artistic choices and interpretations (Level 2). As shelearns more about art forms through participation in the creativeprocess and as an audience member, she develops a vocabulary of thearts that enables her to communicate more precisely about herchoices. She uses her growing understanding of artistic elements tocreate and interpret meaning in artistic and humanistic works.Through her participation in creative processes, the student integratesthe analytical with the emotional and intuitive dimensions of herartistic choices. A student in a beginning arts or humanities coursemight be introduced to different poetic forms and asked to write asonnet, experimenting with the structure and language of formalpoetry. A student in a music course might analyze the structure of the

Aesthetic Engagement 59

twelve-bar blues, improvise with percussion instruments, and createher own blues lyrics.

Intermediate Levels

In her intermediate courses, the student deepens her understandingof her engagement with the arts by exploring the factors thatinfluence her aesthetic preferences. She refines artistic andinterpretive choices by integrating her own aesthetic experienceswith a broader context of disciplinary theory and cultural andsocial awareness.

Typically the starting point for the refinement of her choices is herrecognition that her engagement is shaped by, and often changes,according to the context in which she encounters or creates art. Sincethe student is required to study in several different arts andhumanities disciplines, she comes to recognize the way in whichdisciplines frame the creative and interpretative experience of the artsin different ways. She revises her choices by integrating disciplinarycontexts (Level 3). A theatre student may be asked to research thephysical and psychological impact of Hurricane Camille on GulfCoast residents as she prepares to embody a character from BethHenley’s Crimes of the Heart, which is set in Mississippi five yearsafter this catastrophic event. A student in an intermediate literaturecourse researches historical contexts surrounding The Great Gatsby inorder to deepen her understanding and interpretation of charactermotivations and behavior. She is asked to give a speech in which shearticulates ways that her interpretation has been shaped by gainingknowledge about 1920s America.

As the student works with her expanding body of disciplinaryknowledge and insight as an integral aspect of her personal aestheticengagement, she comes to understand that she is changing as alearner, and not merely acquiring additional knowledge. She developsawareness of her creative and interpretive processes (Level 4). Forexample, as her aesthetic engagement develops, her emotional


repertoire, her ways of engaging with people, subjects, and the worldalso expand.

At this level, the student’s understanding of the complexity of herown engagement makes her more attentive to various points of viewon artistic works and processes, and she recognizes how her ownengagement influences the responses of others. For example, in a filmclass, students collaborate on storyboards that use film elements toconvey their response to a short story. Each student explores waysthat literary criticism influences her interpretation of the story, andways that technical details of film can help her engage an audience inher vision.

Advanced Levels

The advanced student of the arts and humanities independentlydevelops criteria for creating and judging works of art, reflecting agrowing openness to diversity of cultures and genres. The studentuses these criteria to create significant works of art, such aschoreographing and performing a dance, installing a senior artexhibit, or to develop theories of aesthetics within the context of herliterature and philosophy courses. In her advanced arts or humanitiescourse, the student creates works of art and/or interpretivestrategies and theories that synthesize personal preferences anddisciplinary concepts. A theatre student writes and directs a play forpublic performance, collaborating with actors and designers todevelop and express her personal aesthetic vision (Level 5). In anadvanced senior humanities seminar, the student composes anintellectual autobiography that uses creative writing techniques todevelop and convey her worldview. A major assessment in anadvanced course on British Modernism asks students to read andsynthesize several theories of aesthetics written by modernist authors.The student is then asked to develop her own theory of aesthetics,and to present this theory to the class for criticism. In thispresentation, the student demonstrates the relationship between her

Aesthetic Engagement 61

theories of art and those held by modernist authors, and presents awork of art that reflects her definition of art.

At the advanced level of aesthetic engagement, the student integratesaesthetic vision into her academic, professional, and personal life (Level6). For students majoring in the arts or the humanities, thisexploration may be focused more directly on aesthetic theory or oncreation in the arts. All students, however, continue to reinforce theiraesthetic sensibilities in different ways through their majors. Forexample, the education student creates a philosophy of education thatintegrates attention to classroom design with pedagogical theories. Anursing student learns to develop an aesthetic environment thatenhances comfort and healing, recognizing the role of personalbelongings or cultural symbols to facilitate patient memory. At thispoint in her development, the student uses the aesthetic engagementability as part of an ongoing process to create and discover meaningin her life.


Beginning Levels: Develops an openness to the arts

Level 1 – Makes informed artistic and interpretive choicesLevel 2 – Articulates rationale for artistic choices and

interpretations

Intermediate Levels:Refines artistic and interpretive choices by integrating own aestheticexperiences with a broader context of disciplinary theory and culturaland social awareness

Level 3 – Revises choices by integrating disciplinary contextsLevel 4 – Develops awareness of creative and interpretive

processes

Advanced Levels in Areas of Specialization: Creates works of art and/or interpretive strategies and theories thatsynthesize personal preferences and disciplinary concepts

Level 5 – Develops and expresses personal aesthetic visionLevel 6 – Integrates aesthetic vision into academic,

professional, and personal life

Documents

Ability Based Book. Alverno College Faculty 2005