Teaching toward internationallearning outcomesHilary E. Kahn, DirectorCenter for the Study of Global Change

Teaching with a strategy

• Critically considering one’s teaching• Analytically exploring students’ learning• Rewarding for faculty and students• Fairly simple process (backward course

design is extremely useful; consider the Course Development Institute: CDI)•Once course goals are defined,

everything falls into place….including assessment

Human Rights and the Arts

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester, my students will be able to…

• summarize human rights issues in numerous world areas• analyze a specific human rights issue as it is constituted locally

and/or globally• differentiate complex interrelationships between local and

global phenomenon• recognize and critically explain cultural differences• use art as a form of education and advocacy

Evidence of Student OutcomesSince the course is about the intersection of art and human rights, it made perfect sense to encourage the students to come up with their own forms of art and social action. This lead to the development of the Social Action Art Project.

The Social Action Art Project consists of four parts:• a written proposal• an artistic representation that informs, engages, and encourages

action• a research paper• a class presentation

The other significant medium of assessment of the outcomes is the Final Essay Exam.

Criteria for scoring art piece(created in consultation with students)• EDUCATION (40%): provides content about a particular subject, demonstrates

complexity of research, shares information, explores and expands a topic of human rights, teaches, provides a framework of understanding, i.e., educates

EFFECTIVENESS (25%): this includes the ability of the work to create a reaction, to spur intellectual responses, to move individuals to act, to teach and have an emotional impact, to evoke a response, to make change at an individual or broader level, to alter one’s perspective, to be engaging, i.e., to have agency

• EFFORT AND CREATIVITY (20%): this incorporates most of the pre-product thinking, the conceptual ideas, the complexity of research and thought; also includes overall time and effort, appropriate use of symbols, aesthetics, originality, and overall cohesiveness

• ORGANIZATION (15%): includes the ability to communicate and make accessible a coherent and clearly-defined message. It also includes neatness of presentation, overall cohesiveness, and how well it represents the problem on hand

Why Visual Methods?• Critical Pedagogy for cultural learning• Active Learning: students have the opportunity to work

through and embody a critical understanding of culture as constructed of invisible flows and intersections that provide meaning to the visible

• Challenges dichotomous ways of thinking about the world that often prevent students for recognizing the complex interrelationships of the global and local.

• Art can be guide for seeing the world, for self-reflection, and for facilitating a sense of global responsibility

Blood Diamonds

Commodity Chains and Hijab

Social Action Research Paper: The Criteria DEFINING THE ISSUE (Who? What? When? Where? Why?)****• History, cause, context• Linking the issue to other human rights, to law, declarations, treaties, etc. • Include multiple perspectives (regional, disciplinary, political, community perspectives, etc.)• Case Studies

THE ROLE OF “ART”• Discussing topic through various mediums• Potential of art to make change ACTION (What is the next step?)• Stakeholders that need to be involved for action• How can individuals get involved, in Bloomington and elsewhere BIASES• Thinking about cultural biases (yours and others)• Consider conflicting ideas about human rights (whether culturally determined or more universalistic)• Impact of this issue on your own life and education ACADEMIC ORGANIZATION AND PRESENTATION• Bibliographic scholarly resources (should have at least 12 at a minimum) • Organization • Clarity, grammar, spelling, writing, etc. • Punctuation and punctuality•

Final Essay Exam Question • WHAT DOES ART HAVE TO DO WITH HUMAN RIGHTS? WHAT DO

HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE TO DO WITH ART? WRITE A TWO TO THREE-PAGE ESSAY THAT EXPLORES THE INTERSECTION OF ART AND HUMAN RIGHTS. MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE: • A DISCUSSION ON WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS• A CONSIDERATION OF HOW ART IS A TOOL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS• THE POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE PRODUCTION OF ART

AS A FORM OF ADVOCACY• EXPLAIN RELATIVISM (POLITICAL, HISTORICAL, CULTURAL) AND

UNIVERSALISM OF HUMAN RIGHTS. DEMONSTRATE HOW BOTH PERSPECTIVES ARE IMPORTANT WHEN TAKING ACTION

• MAKE SURE YOU PROVIDE AND DISCUSS AT LEAST THREE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM CLASS AND/OR READINGS.

• THIS IS AN OVERALL SYNTHESIS OF HOW HUMAN RIGHTS IS LINKED TO ART, SO PLEASE CONSIDER THIS ESSAY DEEPLY AND FROM THE MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES DISCUSSED THIS SEMESTER

Final Essay Exam Questions• COFFEE, FAIRTRADE, AND GLOBALIZATION: WHAT CAN COFFEE

TEACH YOU ABOUT THE WORLD? WHAT SHOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR MORNING CUP OF COFFEE?

• HOW IMPORTANT ARE MEMORIES AND TRUTH IN RECONCILIATION AND OVERCOMING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES? HOW DOES ART BECOME AN AVENUE FOR THIS REMEMBERING AND RECOGNITION? PROVIDE EXAMPLES FROM READINGS, LECTURES, AND DISCUSSIONS. MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE A DISCUSSION ON TESTIMONIO AND TESTIMONY.

• MURALS AND PUBLIC ART: CONSIDER THE USE OF MURALS, GRAFITTI, AND OTHER FORMS OF PUBLIC ART AS A FORM OF PROTEST OR AS VICTIMS OF CENSORSHIP. PROVIDE EXAMPLES FROM CLASS AND READING.

Category Description Your Evidence of Student Learning (Outcomes)

Knowledge(World Languages and Cultures Common Ground)

Understands culture within a global and comparative context (that is, the student recognizes that his/her culture is one of many diverse cultures and that alternate perceptions and behaviors may be based in cultural differences).

Demonstrates knowledge of global issues, processes, trends, and systems (that is, economic and political interdependency among nations, environmental-cultural interaction, global governance bodies, and nongovernmental organizations).

Demonstrates knowledge of other cultures (including beliefs, values, perspectives, practices, and products).

 

 

Skills(World Languages and Cultures Common Ground)

Uses knowledge, diverse cultural frames of reference, and alternate perspectives to think critically and solve problems.

Communicates and connects with people in other language communities in a range of settings for a variety of purposes, developing skills in each of the four modalities: speaking (productive), listening (receptive), reading (receptive), and writing (productive).

Uses foreign language skills and/or knowledge of other cultures to extend access to information, experiences, and understanding.

 

 

Mapping to Gen. Ed. Outcomes

Category Description Your Evidence of Student Learning (Outcomes)

Knowledge(World Languages and Cultures Common Ground)

Understands culture within a global and comparative context (that is, the student recognizes that his/her culture is one of many diverse cultures and that alternate perceptions and behaviors may be based in cultural differences).

Demonstrates knowledge of global issues, processes, trends, and systems (that is, economic and political interdependency among nations, environmental-cultural interaction, global governance bodies, and nongovernmental organizations).

Demonstrates knowledge of other cultures (including beliefs, values, perspectives, practices, and products).

 

• My question about Fair Trade, Coffee, and Globalization on my Final Essay Exam would provide sufficient evidence (or lack of evidence) of this outcome. We spent much class time discussing how the commodity chain is full of inequalities that traverse nations and peoples, the role of NGOs and human rights treaties, and the ramification of these broader global issues on local practices and peoples. A very successful essay would represent this knowledge and complex interconnections.

Skills(World Languages and Cultures Common Ground)

Uses knowledge, diverse cultural frames of reference, and alternate perspectives to think critically and solve problems.

Communicates and connects with people in other language communities in a range of settings for a variety of purposes, developing skills in each of the four modalities: speaking (productive), listening (receptive), reading (receptive), and writing (productive).

Uses foreign language skills and/or knowledge of other cultures to extend access to information, experiences, and understanding.

 

• The Social Action Research Paper and the Final Essay Exam both specifically require students to speak about relativistic and universalistic understanding of human rights and how these perspectives are vital in promoting social change

If I were to map my outcomes to Gen. Ed….

Category Description Your Evidence of Student Learning (Outcomes)

Knowledge(World Languages and Cultures Common Ground)

Understands culture within a global and comparative context (that is, the student recognizes that his/her culture is one of many diverse cultures and that alternate perceptions and behaviors may be based in cultural differences).

Demonstrates knowledge of global issues, processes, trends, and systems (that is, economic and political interdependency among nations, environmental-cultural interaction, global governance bodies, and nongovernmental organizations).

Demonstrates knowledge of other cultures (including beliefs, values, perspectives, practices, and products).

 

• The question from my final essay exam on murals and public art will demonstrate knowledge of other cultures. We discussed murals in at least five different cultures and world regions. Students will be expected to provide examples from multiple regions and cultures.  

Skills(World Languages and Cultures Common Ground)

Uses knowledge, diverse cultural frames of reference, and alternate perspectives to think critically and solve problems.

Communicates and connects with people in other language communities in a range of settings for a variety of purposes, developing skills in each of the four modalities: speaking (productive), listening (receptive), reading (receptive), and writing (productive).

Uses foreign language skills and/or knowledge of other cultures to extend access to information, experiences, and understanding.

 

•  The Social Action Art Project is specifically designed to educate, inform, and create an experience that leads to greater understanding of human rights and culture. They are graded on how well the art projects educate and engage, i.e., how well they communicate and disseminate information about other cultures and the world.

If I were to map my outcomes to Gen. Ed…

Concluding..• My outcomes are obviously easy to map onto the Gen Ed.

Outcomes due to the subject matter of the course• However, I imagine that most faculty can find intersections with

the Gen. Ed. outcomes • The most important thing is to focus on what you want your

students to learn• Then focus on how you will know when they learn it• Everything else will fall into place…