Quality Enhancement
Challenge
S. David Stamps, Provost
and Vice President for Academic Affairs
University of South Florida
1
SACS Reaffirmation
• Compliance
Certification
Report
Due August 2004
• Quality
Enhancement
Plan
Due January
2005
2
Quality Enhancement Plan
• An opportunity to
improve the quality of
programs and services
3
QEP
Institutional Improvement
with
Special Attention
on
Student Learning
4
A Plan
For The Next
Ten Years
5
We would have improved
General Education.
• Reasons
– These have changed since originally
conceived.
– Exit courses were never funded or
adequately supported.
– It is just time for a re-examination.
6
Broader Approach
• Look at how we deliver undergraduate
curriculum
• Raise questions and introduce
ideas for consideration
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Reinvention Center
Stony Brook
Reinventing Undergraduate Education
– Bruce Cochrane
– Georg Kleine
– Stu Silverman
– David Stamps
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/pres/boyer.nsf
8
Boyer Commission Report
1998
• Research-Based
Learning
• Inquiry-Based
• Freshman
Foundation
• Interdisciplinary
• Communication
Skills
• Information
Technology
• Capstone
Experience
• Apprentice Teachers
• Faculty Reward
Systems
• Community
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Why is this important to USF?
• Research 1 status
• Evidence-based decision making
• Undergraduate students for graduate
school
• Research-based community engagement
• High technology and information-based
society
10
Why do we hear?
• Graduates are not independent thinkers
• They don’t make rational choices
• They don’t pursue their aspirations
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What have we learned
about past history
that can enlighten us about
the future?
12
The Challenge of
Liberal Education
• Go beyond the traditional conception
• Lagemann: “the practical liberal arts”
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/lag
emann02012003.html
13
Carnegie
• Higher education is far more oriented
to professional and technical
degrees than in 1970s.
• 1970s – over 50% in liberal arts
• 2000 – over 60% in pre-professional &
technical fields
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Many Students
• I need to get a job!
• I just want a degree!
• Students:
– Seek relationship between
course of study and job
– Graduate without a clear sense of direction
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Question
• Are colleges and universities
developing narrowly designed
professional and technical fields
of study with liberal arts
components that are without
direction?
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USF – Research 1 University
• Prepare students for graduate study?
• Provide insights and skills necessary
for career entry and change?
• Provide learning experiences for
better appreciation/understanding of
world?
17
Practical Liberal Arts (Lagemann)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Having a calling . . . Knowing who one is
Beliefs, values, where one stands
Choices
Social interconnectedness
Civic responsibility
Respect for tolerance
Evidence-based decision-making
Respect for values of due process
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This is not about one
individual’s calling but about
one’s calling in society and
across societies.
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Research-based
Undergraduate Curriculum
• Begin by asking …
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What Conditions
• What conditions currently
exist that would enhance
an undergraduate research
program?
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What Changes
• What policies, structures,
expectations, etc. need to
be changed to establish an
undergraduate research
program?
22
Research 1 quality
• How does the quality of
instruction differ in a
Research 1 university from
that of a comprehensive
university?
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Assumptions
• For consideration ..
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Assumption
• Undergraduate students
will go to graduate school.
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Assumption
• Undergraduate students
will have a research and
inquiry experience.
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Assumption
• The undergraduate
research program will be
comprehensive in
approach and conceptual
in nature.
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Assumption
• Undergraduates will
receive a value-added
education if they have a
research experience even
if they do not continue to
graduate school.
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Assumption
• The undergraduate
research experience will
provide an emphasis on
evidence-based decisionmaking.
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Assumption
• The undergraduate
research experience will
provide opportunities for
research that is
community-based.
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A liberal arts curriculum
can support a researchbased undergraduate
experience.
31
Possible Gen Ed Core
Levels Approach
1. Writing, argumentation,
and library skills
2. Oral presentation skills
3. Writing in the major
32
Undergraduate Research
is Developmental
• Beginning – ideas & interests
• Intermediate – experience & skills
• Advanced – independent research
33
- Our Challenge How to overcome faculty
and students’ lack of
concern or appreciation
of the value of
undergraduate research.
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A possibility –
Introductory Seminar
• Lay groundwork
• Mentoring relationships
35
Research 1 University Challenges
Balancing roles
• Curriculum
• Pedagogy
• Experiential learning
36
Curriculum Aspects
• Intellectual Skills
– Critical thinking
– Critical reading
– Problem-solving
– Analyzing, integrating, etc.
– Writing effectively
– Ability to formulate questions
37
Curriculum Aspects
• Broad Definitions/Understanding
– Epistemological sophistication
– Cross cultural understanding
– Scientific/qualitative literacy
– Collaboration
– Civic and social responsibility
– Life-long learning self-regulated
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Pedagogy Change
•
•
•
•
Process of inquiry
Make observations
Pose questions
Learners engaged in questions
posed by faculty
• Directed to collect certain data
• Learners select among questions and
pose new questions
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Pedagogy Change
• Directed to collect data
• Guided in process of evaluating data
collected
• Identify sources of information
• Analyze
• Identify assumptions
• Propose explanations
• Guiding learning should be role of faculty
40
Pedagogy of Engagement
• Problem-based learning
• Experiential learning
• Service learning
41
A Challenge for
Quality
Enhancement
Undergraduate Research
University of South Florida
42