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Designing for Difficulty: Social Pedagogy as a Design Framework for Liberal
Education
Randy BassGeorgetown University
April 20, 2012
Indiana UniversityScholarship of Teaching and Learning Seminar
Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, “Designing for Difficulty: Social Pedagogies as a Framework for Course
Design in Undergraduate Education” (White Paper, forthcoming, 2012)
2
Funded by the Teagle Foundation
Working group and case studies from 24 faculty on 14 campuses
Why Social Pedagogies?
3
Digital stories created by students in general education history courses as a way of experiencing what it means to construct historical narrative.
Senior Biology majors creating biology lesson plans for implementing in DC Public Schools as a way of deepening their knowledge of biology as their senior thesis.
What do they have in common?
• In each example, students are developing their knowledge in contexts that centrally ask them to think of their audience as someone other than the professor.
4
What do they have in common?
• In each example, learning is not only distinctly a social activity, but the implementation of social learning— the act of constructing and communicating understanding to an authentic audience— is a central part of the learning design of the course.
5
What do they have in common?
• In each example, the evidence of learning was not necessarily in the “product.”
6
Why social pedagogies?
• We believe it calls attention to an under-appreciated common thread of a growing range of effective pedagogical practices: the role of social learning as an essential and integrating component of rigorous course design that can achieve higher-end learning outcomes.
7
“Chance favors the connected mind.”
8
“Chance favors the connected mind.”
Steven Johnson
Integrative thinking
socially networked
9
“She has to speak from a position of authority.”
“She has to speak from a position of authority.”
Threshold Concepts (Meyer and Land) Ways of knowing, acting, and
speaking, and sometimes identity
Instructional Bottlenecks (David Pace)
Understanding where students get stuck based on disciplinary thinking
“She has to speak from a position of authority.”
“She has to speak from a position of authority.”
Critical thinking?Inquiry and Analysis?Oral Communication?Written Communication? Integrative Learning? Lifelong Learning?
Where do we find evidence of someone learning to speak from a position of authority?
Digital Stories
https://commons.georgetown.edu/projects/digitalstories/
For whom were you writing? I thought if I had never heard of this then other people haven’t…
I was definitely writing for my generation
I’m writing for others who had been tokenized
I wrote it for myself.
I’m writing for women, and definitely for young girls
Social Pedagogies
Framework
17
Social pedagogies design framework*
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, White Paper, “Designing for Difficulty: Social Pedagogies as a Framework for Course Design in Undergraduate Education.” 2012; Funded by the Teagle Foundation 18
“We define social pedagogies as design approaches for teaching and learning that engage students with what we might call an “authentic audience” (other than the teacher), where the representation of knowledge for an audience is absolutely central to the construction of knowledge in a course.
Social pedagogies build in iterative cycles of engagement with the most difficult material, and through a focus on authentic audience and representation of knowledge for others, help students deepen their understanding of core concepts by engaging in the ways of thinking, practicing, and communicating in a field. Ideally, social pedagogies strive to build a sense of intellectual community within the classroom and frequently connect students to communities outside the classroom.”*
Social pedagogies design framework*
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2012; Funded by the Teagle Foundation
Social Core
19
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding
Social Core
Design Layer
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2012; Funded by the Teagle Foundation 20
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding
Social Core
Design Layer
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2011; Funded by the Teagle Foundation
The interdependence of the three layers…
21
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding
Social Core
Design Layer
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2011; Funded by the Teagle Foundation 22
The interdependence of the three layers…
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Deepened and contextualized understanding
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding Flexibility with knowledge in
open-ended contexts
Voice and a sense of purpose in a specific domain or community
Ability to give and get feedback from multiple perspectives
An integrated sense of intellectual and personal significance
Social Core
Design Layer
Broad student learning outcomes
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2012; Funded by the Teagle Foundation23
Three findings for the effective application of social pedagogies to course design…
1. You have to value social pedagogies centrally (have a social pedagogies ethos) even if social pedagogies constitute only one component of a course experience.
2. Social pedagogies require the alignment of a constellation of elements (i.e. linking knowledge, practice, audience, assessment) and rarely work well in isolation or as an “add on” to a course design.
3. If you have social pedagogies in a course they must be valued, somehow, in assessment to have value for students.
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2011; Funded by the Teagle Foundation24
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Deepened and contextualized understanding
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding Flexibility with knowledge in
open-ended contexts
Voice and a sense of purpose in a specific domain or community
Ability to give and get feedback from multiple perspectives
An integrated sense of intellectual and personal significance
Social Core
Design Layer
Broad student learning outcomes
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2012; Funded by the Teagle Foundation25
Case Study: Bioethics and Moral Imagination (Profs Bass and Little)
Case Study: Bioethics and Moral Imagination (Profs Bass and Little)
General education course: either Writing or Ethics
27 students
Bioethics topics:
Refusal of medical treatmentSexual refusal and Sexual flourishingAbortionEnhancement (cognitive, reproductive)
28
Initial Thoughts Survey
29
Personal Synthesis (halfway point)
30
Contraception Project
31
Contraception and Conscience
32
Contraception and Conscience
33
“dually educate and engage readers to examine their own beliefs”
“academic endeavor through a bioethical lens”
Working Space: Wiki
34
Committed Catholic Positions
Public Policy and Health
Conscientious objection (medical)
Working Space: Wiki
35
Working Space: Wiki
36
Working Space: Wiki
37
• Key Source Documents• Empirical Data• Thoughtful Perspectives
Building the site
38
Building the site
39
Working Space
40
Obama Video: Locating Evidence of Learning: Reflection (Blake, David, and Charlie)
: Bioethics and the Moral Imagination:Obama Video Annotation (Blake, David, Charlie)
Obama Video Annotation (Blake, David, Charlie)
Obama HHS Announcement Video
Obama HHS Announcement Video
Working Space & Intermediate process
46
Where is evidence of learning?
47
And what is it that we’re looking for evidence of?
Web Literacy Assignment: Self Assessment
Web Literacy Assignment: Self Assessment
“The Obama video would not have been possible without the collaborative work of David and Charlie. The three of us met on three occasions for several hours to “hammer out” drafts of the video. I believe I made a large contribution to this aspect of the project and took a lot of initiative during each meeting to make sure we each knew what to do. Furthermore, I made sure that our annotations were related to either bioethics or the video directly. I focused on the “context” and “argument” annotations. I believe both of these helped me further apply bioethical principles, including conscientious objection, individual liberties, and equal access.”
From the Self-assessment by one of the Obama video annotators:
naming key concepts in bioethics
intermediate choices were being made (but no examples)
Web Literacy Assignment: Self Assessment
“Working on the Obama video annotation and American Congress of Obstetricians Gynecologists source document analysis allowed me to apply concepts of bioethical analysis within this project. Through these two tasks I learned the importance of examining information without letting personal predispositions guide my thinking. It was important to stay unbiased and simply look at the sources from a perspective of explaining the meaning and adding more depth to the conversation. In the beginning this was more difficult, but as the project progressed, I learned how to do it with greater success. I think my work on the video and source document shows my ability to analyze information from an unbiased, bioethical perspective that aims to increase contemplation of the topic at hand.”
Beginning to address how this work helps with what is “necessarily difficult” in bioethical analysis?
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding
Social Core
Design Layer
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2012; Funded by the Teagle Foundation 51
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding
Social Core
Design Layer
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2011; Funded by the Teagle Foundation
The interdependence of the three layers…
52
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding
Social Core
Design Layer
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2011; Funded by the Teagle Foundation 53
The interdependence of the three layers…
Constructing and Communicating
Understanding for an Authentic Audience
Deepened and contextualized understanding
Communicating Understanding
Authentic Audience
Constructing Understanding Flexibility with knowledge in
open-ended contexts
Voice and a sense of purpose in a specific domain or community
Ability to give and get feedback from multiple perspectives
An integrated sense of intellectual and personal significance
Social Core
Design Layer
Broad student learning outcomes
* Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, 2012; Funded by the Teagle Foundation54
Social Pedagogies and Questions of Evidence
55
The Formal Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High-impact practices
Experiential Co-curriculum
What are the shared and salient features of participatory cultures in Web-based environments?
Jenkins, et. al., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (MacArthur Foundation, 2006)
wikipedia
Video gaming communities
grass roots organizations
fan sites
Participatory Culture of the Web
• Features of participatory culture – Low barriers to entry– Strong support for sharing one’s contributions– Informal mentorship, experienced to novice– Members feel a sense of connection to each other– Students feel a sense of ownership of what is being
created– Strong collective sense that something is at stake
Jenkins, et. al., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (MacArthur Foundation, 2006)
Formal undergraduate
curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Formal undergraduate
curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Study abroad
Ug research
Community-based learning
Formal undergraduate
curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Study abroad
Ug research
Community-based learning
$$$
Mission and Brand
Core Practices
Core Values
Formal undergraduate curriculum
The recentered curriculum: from the perspective of high-impact learning
And a percentage of other courses that student identify as transformative and/or highly engaging…
High impact practices:
First-year seminarsCapstonesWriting-intensiveCourses w/ experiential component
Experiential co-curriculum
The recentered curriculum: from the perspective of high impact learning
Study abroad
Undergraduateresearch
Community-based learning
LeadershipSocial entrepreneurship
High-impact experiential curriculum
Formal undergraduate curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
The recentered curriculum
From the perspective of significant learning, this is the new center of higher
education.
For a fuller treatment of that argument see a recent article in Educause Review, March/April 2012
High impact experiential curriculum
Formal undergraduate curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
Moving target… What does learning look
like in this space? How do
we design to capture it?
Assess it?
High impact experiential curriculum
Formal undergraduate curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
The recentered curriculum
Authentic
Integrative
Social
Adaptive
High impact experiential curriculum
Formal undergraduate curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
The recentered curriculum: questions of evidence
Authentic
Integrative
Social
Adaptive
Capture of intermediate stages
Capturing and interpreting “activity”
NOVICE MIRACLE EXPERT
product product
Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice
NOVICEprocesses
EXPERTpractice
LEARNINGprocesses
LEARNINGprocesses
How can we better understand these intermediate processes?
How might we design to foster and capture them?
evidence of process
Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice
LEARNINGprocesses
Social pedagogies and intermediate processes…
(one version of) Learning Analytics
71SNAPP Group: http://ceit.uq.edu.au/content/snapp-group
(one version of) Learning Analytics
72Blackboard ™ Analytics / Bb Learn
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
• Using Wiki’s to teach history
• Students work in collaborative teams to write history wiki-texts on subjects that interest them in historical context
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
High impact experiential curriculum
Formal undergraduate curriculum
Experiential co-curriculum
The recentered curriculum: questions of evidence
Authentic
Integrative
Social
Adaptive
Capture of intermediate stages
Capturing and interpreting “activity”
How to make meaning from experience: “reflection”
Comments [email protected]
77
Thanks to:
Margaret Olivia Little (Philosophy, Georgetown)
Our students in Bioethics and the Moral Imagination
Heidi Elmendorf (Biology, Georgetown)
Steven Johnson, “Where Good Ideas Come From,” TED
Ali Erkan and Michael Smith
The Teagle Foundation