Integrating Student Learning and Pedagogies Across the Professional Studies/General Education Divide: Re-engineering a Liberal Education Capstone Course Philadelphia University

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Integrating Student Learning and Pedagogies
Across the Professional Studies/General Education
Divide Re-engineering a Liberal Education
Capstone CoursePhiladelphia University

• International Society for the Scholarship of
  Teaching and Learning
• Commitment, Community and Collaboration
• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Sunday, October 16th, 2005
• Susan Frosten, Associate Professor of
  Architecture
• Marion Roydhouse, Dean, School of Liberal Arts
• Tom Schrand, Associate Professor of History

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Philadelphia University

• Founded in 1884 as Philadelphia Textile School
• Currently 40 professional majors architecture
  to conservation biology
• Mission founded to raise the art and technology
  of the textile industry to international
  standards offers a unique blending of the
  liberal arts and sciences with professional
  studies

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Curricular origins and evolution

• Middle States report inspired new general
  education curriculum (1986)
• FIPSE grant to develop interdisciplinary learning
  across three years (1993-1995)
• Development of College Studies program and
  liberal-professional education (1991-present)

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Assessment and its impact

• Ongoing assessment drives change 1993 to 2005
• Qualitative outcomes assessment
• Driven by examination of student work
• Unique capstone connects liberal arts/
  professional majors to develop integrative
  learning.

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College Studies Program sequences- arrows show
prerequisites
Year Two
Year Three
Year One
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Capstone course with liberal-professional themes

• General education capstone Contemporary
  Perspectives
• Explores current global trends and issues
• Focuses on liberal-professional integration
• Taught by liberal arts faculty
• Culminates in advanced research project linking
  global issues to students career fields

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Capstone student project

• The seminar paper
• 12-15 page academic research paper with 3
  components
• Analysis of a major global trend
• Examination of trends impact on students
  professional field
• Case study example of the global trend
  interacting with professional issues in a
  specific foreign country

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Global (or regional) trend Big, free-standing
topic, independent of your profession
Entire global trend
Case study An example of your trend affecting
your profession in a specific foreign country
(find the overlap with the previous two topics)
Foreign country
Impact on profession How is this trend creating
changes in your profession (find the overlap with
global trend)
Your entire professional field
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Topic example
Global trend Increasing water scarcity and
pollution worldwide(change over time on a global
or regional scale)
Professional impactIncreasing pressure on
textile industry to reduce water use and pollution
Case studyTextile industry in Turkey responding
to issues of water use
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Capstone project assessment

• Formal departmental assessment (1996)
• Liberal-Professional Scholarship Awards (1999 -
  present)
• Outstanding student projects nominated from each
  professional program
• Projects read and scored by capstone faculty and
  faculty in the professional programs
• Award meeting held with both professional and
  liberal arts faculty to discuss projects and
  choose winners

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Capstone assessment results

• Assignment was overly structured?
• Liberal-professional integration could be uneven
  or mechanical
• Assignment emphasized traditional scholarly
  research, liberal arts skills and content
• Some professional faculty seemed uncomfortable
• Assessment conclusions
• Can the integration be deeper, more authentic?
• Can the assignment require more professional
  skills and knowledge?

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Experiment problem-based learning

• The problem-based learning (PBL) assignment
• Students identify a problem related to their
  profession in a specific world region
• Develop a scenario that places them in a
  realistic professional role
• Play out the scenario to produce a
  professionally-appropriate response (the
  deliverable)

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PBL example HIV/AIDS in South Africa(architectur
e project)
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PBL example HIV/AIDS in South Africa(architectur
e project)
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PBL example HIV/AIDS in South Africa(architectur
e project)
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PBL assessment

• Liberal arts faculty felt under-qualified to
  critique professional work
• Professional faculty supportive?
• Integrative PBL assignment disoriented students

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Analyzing our integration anxiety

• Professional format of deliverables created
  faculty anxieties about content Thats not my
  field
• Integrative Learning Project helped us consider
  deeper questions
• Do we understand how knowledge is constructed and
  student learning is demonstrated in different
  professional disciplines?
• How would these be different when the goal is
  liberal-professional integration?
• Must disciplinary differences in pedagogy and
  epistemology be addressed?

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Assessment from the professional perspective

• Architecture as intrinsically integrative
• Concerns with the traditional capstone
  assignment
• Intrigued by the PBL experiment
• Examining the South Africa HIV/AIDS student
  project

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PBL from the professional perspective
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Integration and pedagogy

• Could we achieve our integrative student learning
  goals without the final design piece?
• Pedagogical questions
• When and how does the student learning take place
  in different disciplines?
• Is there any common ground between pedagogies and
  student learning across professional disciplines
  and the liberal arts?
• Should we be examining the signature pedagogies
  that shape student learning in different
  professional fields?

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Pedagogies and performances

• Architecture
• Studio involves individual and group
  interaction, including lectures and seminar
  discussions
• Interaction during production (studio, desk
  crits)
• Visual performance
• Public, oral presentation of visual deliverable
• Public, oral evaluation, followed by private,
  individual evaluation
• Emphasis visual and public communication

• Liberal arts
• Seminar lectures, group discussions around
  common readings, little individual interaction
• Isolation during production (solo research and
  writing)
• Written performance
• Private presentation of written deliverable
• Private, written evaluation
• Emphasis written and private communication

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Comparing pedagogies and performances

• Similarities
• Seminar and studio formats both
• encourage interaction between the students as a
  group and the instructor
• involve individual performances
• Differences
• Written vs. visual communication
• Interaction vs. isolation
• Private vs. public performance
• Amount of individual interaction
• Analysis vs. practice

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Comparing processes for creating deliverables

• Liberal Arts
• Assignment topic is given or discovered
• Research academic
• Analysis
• Conclusions based on evidence from research and
  analysis related to the defined problem
• Deliverable research paper
• Purpose conclusions presented, hypotheses
  evaluated

• Architecture
• Assignment design problem is posed
• Research academic, programmatic, precedent, and
  site context
• Analysis
• Definition of design parameters based on
  conclusions substantiated by research and
  analysis
• Setting the criteria for design
• Deliverable design
• Purpose solution proposed for design problem

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The critical middle

• Despite differences, both pedagogies have
  distinct stages as performances are created

Research Information gathering Exploring context
Conclusions Performance Design
Analysis Evaluation Connections Integration

• The middle stage is where we find the most
  commonality between fields
• Its also where students have the hardest time

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Next steps pursuing the signature pedagogies
question

• Workshops for the fall semester faculty in the
  liberal arts and professional majors analyzing
  their different pedagogies
• Assessment of fall semester projects with the
  workshop faculty
• Questions to be examined
• Can we (faculty AND students) recognize parallels
  between the distinct pedagogies, performances and
  deliverables?
• Do we agree that the middle stage is a place
  where subject matter expertise is less relevant,
  and critical integrative thinking skills are
  universally applicable?
• Should the capstone assignment place a special
  emphasis on this middle stage, to reduce the
  anxieties created by different deliverables and
  the pedagogies that shape them?

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Ongoing research questions

• Can a focus on signature pedagogies help
  resolve the dilemmas of integrative learning?
• Can problem-based learning encourage more
  integration across the liberal-professional
  divide?
• Susan Frosten, Associate Professor of
  Architecture FrostenS_at_PhilaU.edu
• Marion Roydhouse, Dean, School of Liberal Arts
  RoydhouseM_at_PhilaU.edu
• Tom Schrand, Associate Professor of
  HistorySchrandT_at_PhilaU.edu

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