If we were a hospital: Toward a healthy GE
and closing the Graduation Gap…with the
students’ voices represented
Janet Hecsh
Jesse Cuevas
Angelica Tellechea
Sac State Compass Initiatives
• GE Reads
• GE Seeds
– Pilot GE
– 10 Word/One Book
– Concept Development
– Faculty Interest Groups
Compass at Sacramento State University
Goals (January, 2009)
Accomplishments (May, 2010)
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Mobilizing support for LEAP+
outcomes and process/criteria for
“area” objectives etc.
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Support and strengthen the projects
underway (FYE SacReads, One Book,
English Pilot)
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“Seed” GE Pilot’s Using LEAP+ Goals,
Outcomes and Objectives as a
framework
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Gather data about student/faculty
perspectives on student learning in
GE
Faculty Senate adopted new
Baccalaureate Learning Goals with LEAP
embedded (Nov., 2010) and alignment
of goals, area objectives, and
assessment using VALUE rubrics
underway.
GE Reads—Faculty Inquiry Group and
10 Word One Book projects completed,
documented, disseminated and
expanded for AY 2010-11
Sacramento State Studies
(DELIVERED!!!)
Qualitative data (open ended surveys,
student panels, faculty workshops,
discussion boards) about
student/faculty perspectives on student
learning in GE
Nevertheless…
Think, Pair, Share
• How does the “hospital” metaphor play out in
your institution? Is it an apt one?
• What other metaphors do your colleagues use
to describe their work or their institutional
culture?
• What sorts of metaphors do students use?
(How) do we know what they think? What
their parents and families think?
• How/why does it matter? Implications
Charged Conversations
• Does something need to be “broken” to be
improved?
• Whose voices are heard, need to be heard,
never heard and what does it take to give
voice those who are silenced?
• What does it take to move beyond being
“museums of virtue” or “hospitals” to really
becoming the centers of innovation and
experimentation?
Over regulated/Underexamined?
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Educational Assumptions of the Sac State GE Pilot Proposal
Approved by GE Workgroup 2/8/10
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Education is more than knowing; it includes knowing how to think and know,
how to learn, how to communicate, and how to do what one knows in an
ethical, responsible, and effective way that contributes to the self and to the
public. Hence, the four lower-division semesters are organized according to
themes.
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Educators are obligated to make learning outcomes clear to their students and
to provide ongoing opportunities for students to develop them; educators must
agree and share understandings of core learning outcomes in a way that fosters
student motivation and willingness to do rigorous intellectual work to
accomplish them over long time periods.
Learning activities assigned to students must be carefully connected to learning
outcomes and to contemporary local and global civic engagement. Such
activities are subject to continuous improvement based upon feedback from
students.
Assessment is a crucial element of learning and must include self-assessment on
the part of teachers and learners individually and collaboratively. All teachers in
the GE curriculum must act on their responsibility to collaborate with colleagues
on program assessment.
Every unit, every course, every block of courses must be built to contribute to
the whole program and to the holistic development of each student.
The GE curriculum must evolve and change over time as the faculty learn more
collectively about what works well and what doesn’t work in relation to student
achievement of the learning outcomes.
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No one College, department, or discipline owns the
GE curriculum in part or in whole. The GE curriculum
belongs to the entire faculty.
• In a general sense, I
think it is important
to note who
approved the
Educational
Assumptions of the
Sac State GE Pilot
Proposal. I assume
that it is the
Senate’s GE Policy
Committee, but you
don’t say that.
Student GE Experience
 GE Requirements
Curriculum and Faculty
Contribution to the human capital
 Transient voice
Faculty needs to include student voice in their
decision making.
 College Graduates Alignment Disconnect
Baccalaureate Learning/LEAP Goals
Translate into the world?
Student Compass
What do you want to be when you
grow up?
Academic
Advising
Degree
Evaluation
(Registrar)
Disconnect between realities
= student confusion
Think, Pair, Share II
• How do faculty think about, discuss, reflect
upon their teaching, student learning?
• What is the student role/voice/input beyond
the traditional evaluation process?
• What potential exists for Faculty Interest
Groups on your campus?
• How are students engaged in the academic
side of the house beyond their role as
recipients of the gift of knowledge?
Student Involvement
Who are students?
School, work, spare time?
Transient voice
Student population turnover
Membership of policy makers
Administration, Faculty, Students
Committee discussions
Dictated by Chair
Student Voice is About
Outcomes and People!
What Can Student Voice Positively Affect?
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School improvement goals
Academic achievement
The "engagement gap"
Students' feelings of agency
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Drop out rates
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Retention of students: under
represented populations
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Curricular effectiveness
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Teachers' feelings of efficacy
Still….
Content, Ownership
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SSS Proposed Common
Interdisciplinary Themes---to which
faculty may adjust or repurpose or
invent interdisciplinary courses. The
themes below will guide faculty as •
they develop curriculum.
– •Globalization
– •Sustainability
– •Technology, Society and the
Digital Age
– •Social Change and Social Justice
– •Culture and Ideas
– •Sacramento and California in
21st Century
– •Body, Mind, Well Being
I think the science and math departments may
have a problem putting 12 units of math and
science in these headings.
My own department has a significant
investment in GE service course: We primarily
teach upper divisions classes to transfer
students and would not be heavily affected by
the GE PP in the short term. However, as
written, the GE PP does remove a significant
number of students from the open pool of
people searching for stand-alone GE courses
at the lower division level. As such, I think it
would be reasonable to be concerned about
fiscal implications if one’s department is
heavily invested in those offerings. Clearly,
that doesn’t make the GE PP either good or
bad, but it does remain a necessary topic for
discussion and concern.
Multiple Audiences, Multiple Lens
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The Sac State Studies program is
organized around the LEAP outcomes
embedded in the newly adopted
Baccalaureate Learning Goals as outlined in
EO 1033.
Pilot Sacramento State Studies courses—
Learning Collaboratives-- will be taught
by interdisciplinary teams of faculty working
closely with a designated “pilot” librarian.
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Instruction takes place in a series of 9-unit,
lower division interdisciplinary courses
Each Learning Collaborative enrolls
approximately 150 students
The successful completion of four Learning
Collaboratives is the equivalent of 36 Units of
credit applied toward GE A-E and Graduation
Requirements one course taken in each of a
student’s first four semesters.
Each of the three faculty members receive 6
WTUs for planning, teaching, and evaluating
student learning.
Faculty will assign and submit grades
according to current practice.
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It is really important to make this clear.
You should show how the newly designed
courses will meet the A-E mandate of EO
1033 and Title V 40405.1
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Also, we talk about learning
collaboratives, but I actually
think we're talking about
Teaching Collaboratives (e.g.,
three faculty teaching across
disciplines, departments and
colleges). We really do have to
explain things in a bit more of
an organized and systematic way
assumes that most readers will
not understand most of the
words being used
Germinating….
• Student Interest
Groups
• Faculty Student
Interest Groups
Working with, talking to each other…
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Annual GE Recognition
Workshops sponsored by Compass
Student Panels
GE Themes Survey
“One-on-Ones”
Discussion Boards
Newsletters (GE, Assessment)
*How the Faculty Interest Group
worked…
• Two day Summer Retreat-Reading Focus
• Established “place” for resources/communication:
– gereadsgooglegroup
• Monthly meetings
• Inquiry agenda
– Research questions (Reading in GE—in Biology, Honors Humanities,
First Year Seminar,)
– Data collection
– Data analysis
– Paper product (I-Search papers, monograph)
– Documentary Film
• WASC
• UTUBE
*A DIFFERENT WAY TO THINK ABOUT DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION:
FACULTY INQUIRY IN ACTION
GUIDELINES FOR WORKING TOGETHER TO IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING BY ROSE ASERA (CARNEGIE, 2008
*How the FIG worked…
• Two day Summer Retreat-Reading Focus
• Established “place” for resources/communication:
– gereadsgooglegroup
• Monthly meetings
• Inquiry agenda
– Research questions (Reading in GE—in Biology, Honors Humanities,
First Year Seminar,)
– Data collection
– Data analysis
– Paper product (I-Search papers, monograph)
– Documentary Film
• WASC
• UTUBE
*A DIFFERENT WAY TO THINK ABOUT DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION:
FACULTY INQUIRY IN ACTION
GUIDELINES FOR WORKING TOGETHER TO IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING BY ROSE ASERA (CARNEGIE, 2008
Sacramento State Studies
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Provost called for a “work group” (Jan. 2010)
“Work group produced a proposal (March 2010) based feedback from students,
staff and faculty.
– Highly contested
– One member “walked”
Rumors spread about “changing GE without following policy” (April, 2010)
– Union sent out a note for representation at the policy meeting
– Campus “oracle” heavily consulted to see if process or policy had been
violated
– Memos varying in civility (some public, some private) circulate
– Public discourse is heated and somewhat incivil
Public Meetings and Consultation (April, May, 2010)
– Policy and Process are validated
– Proposal is revised with consultation
Motions Passed GE (May, 2010)
– On the way to the Senate
Students are not sick people trying to
get well….Faculty are not
doctors…universities are not hospitals
• But….if the metaphor is at all useful, how do
we improve the experience and the outcomes
for all the stakeholders, especially those least
empowered to participate in determining
their experiences?
Speaking of Students….