Promoting Learning through The Seven Principles for Effective Undergraduate Education

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Promoting Learning through The Seven Principles
for Effective Undergraduate Education

• John Wood Community College
• Susan Hatfield
• SHatfield_at_winona.edu

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Outline

• The Seven Principles
• Best Practices of the Principles

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The Seven
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Seven Principles for Good Practice

• Developed in by a team of renowned educators in
  1987
• Designed to be accessible, understandable,
  practical, and widely applicable
• Widely accepted by educators as a model for
  improving the quality of learning

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Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 900,000 copies distributed internationally
• Self assessment instruments for faculty,
  students, and institutions have been developed.

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The Seven Principles for Good Practice
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The Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 1. Good Practice encourages Student-Faculty
  Contact
• Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of
  classes is the most important factor in student
  motivation and involvement. Faculty concern
  helps students get through rough times and keep
  on working. Knowing a few faculty members well
  enhances students' intellectual commitment and
  encourages them to think about their own values
  and future plans.

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The Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 2. Good practice encourages cooperation among
  students
• Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team
  effort than a solo race. Good learning, like
  good work, is collaborative and social, not
  competitive and isolated. Working with others
  often increases involvement in learning. Sharing
  one's own ideas and responding to
  others' reactions improves thinking and deepens
  understanding.

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The Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 3. Good practice encourages active learning.
• Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do
  not learn much just sitting in classes listening
  to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments,
  and spitting out answers. They must talk about
  what they are learning, write about it, relate it
  to past experiences, and apply it to their daily
  lives. They must make what they learn part of
  themselves

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The Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 4. Good practice gives prompt feedback.
• Knowing what you know and don't know focuses
  learning. Students need appropriate feedback on
  performance to benefit from courses. In getting
  started, students need help in assessing existing
  knowledge and competence. In classes, students
  need frequent opportunities to perform and
  receive suggestions for improvement. At various
  points during college, and at the end, students
  need chances to reflect on what they have
  learned, what they still need to know, and how to
  assess themselves.

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The Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 5. Good practice emphasizes time on task.
• Time plus energy equals learning. There is no
  substitute for time on task. Learning to use
  one's time well is critical for students and
  professionals alike. Students need help in
  learning effective time management. Allocating
  realistic amounts of time means effective
  learning for students and effective teaching for
  faculty. How an institution defines time
  expectations for students, faculty,
  administrators, and other professional staff can
  establish the basis for high performance for all.

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The Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 6. Good practice communicates high expectations.
  
• Expect more and you will get it. High
  expectations and important for everyone--for the
  poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert
  themselves, and for the bright and well
  motivated. Expecting students to perform well
  becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers
  and institutions hold high expectations of
  themselves and make extra efforts.

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The Seven Principles for Good Practice

• 7. Good practice respects diverse talents and
  ways of learning.
• There are many roads to learning. People bring
  different talents and styles of learning to
  college. Brilliant students in the seminar room
  may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio.
  Students rich in hands-on experience may not do
  so well with theory. Students need the
  opportunity to show their talents and learn in
  ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed
  to learning in ways that do not come so easily.

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Seven Objections to the Seven Principles
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Seven Objections to the Principles

• There are seven of them
• They were written 1987
• They are in a list that is practical, portable,
  and memorable
• If the principles are used, the material wont be
  covered

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Seven Objections to the Principles

• They cant be implemented in large section
  courses
• Students are already learning without the seven
  principles
• They challenge assumptions about how students
  learn and how teachers teach

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Learning from the PrinciplesWARNING your
results may vary!
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Results of Data Analyses Using the Student
Inventories

• 1. The use of the principles appears to be
  developmental, with differences between lower and
  upper division students in the areas of active
  learning, cooperative learning, time on task and
  student faculty contact.

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Results of Data Analyses Using the Student
Inventories

• 2. There is a gender difference in the practice
  of the principles in general education courses in
  the areas of student-faculty contact, cooperative
  learning, and active learning.

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Results of Data Analyses Using the Student
Inventories

• 3. Practice of the principles is positively
  related to a student's motivation, as measured by
  the number of hours per week that they engage in
  study.

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Results of Data Analyses Using the Student
Inventories

• 4. Students who have higher GPAs practice the
  principles more frequently in their gen ed
  classes than those students with lower GPAs.

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Results of Data Analyses Using the Student
Inventories

• 5. Students do not perceive the principles
  promoted effectively in lower division courses

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Results of Data Analyses Using the Student
Inventories

• 6. Fewer than 30 of our lower division students
  self-report their cooperative learning skills
  were enhanced through their general education
  coursework.

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Using the Data for Goal Setting and Planning
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Using the Data for Goal Setting and Planning

• Faculty cannot assume that practicing the Seven
  Principles is something that all students do or
  do equally well.

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Faculty-Student Contact

• Faculty need to make an extra effort to assist
  lower division students in the achievement of
  this goal. Passive methods of inviting
  interaction with students outside of class
  (posting office hours) are not likely to foster
  much interaction between faculty and lower
  division students. More active initiation by the
  faculty member is necessary.

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Faculty-Student Contact

• Cultural Issue Though virtually any academic
  department and individual faculty member will say
  that they value interaction with students, a
  critical analysis of the cultural symbols might
  indicate whether or not the department and
  faculty really value this principle.
• spaces, dining facilities

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Faculty-Student Contact

• Structural Issue course schedules, faculty
  schedules, events, study spaces, dining
  facilities

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Cooperative Learning

• It cannot be assumed that students come to our
  campuses skilled in the art of cooperation.
• Cooperation is a skill which must be taught and
  valued

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Active Learning

• The data provides some indication of what our
  students are doing with those hours spent outside
  of the classroom and should serve as an agenda
  for faculty to help students achieve the goal of
  active learning.

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Active Learning

• Helping students identify related events and
  resources might be a tremendous help to students
  who are interested in exploring a topic further,
  but don't know where to begin.

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Prompt Feedback

• While attending to feedback would seem a natural
  and obvious part of the learning process, too
  often is seems that the grade becomes the goal,
  and the specific suggestions or comments go
  unnoticed. Students need to understand that
  feedback is part of a dialogue between the
  student and faculty, not a monologue.

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Prompt Feedback

• Timing is critical

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Time on Task

• Need to teach our students time management
  skills, assist them in making time for study,
  and to use that time effectively.
• It is important for faculty to help students
  understand that the process of learning takes
  time and that they need to be willing to devote
  that time to learning-related endeavors

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Time on Task

• Keeping students on task may be encouraged
  through the use of intermediate deadlines and
  time lines to help students plan accordingly.

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High Expectations

• Make the expectations clear for each class and
  each assignment.
• Students need to understand the expectations
  that faculty have of the student's contribution
  to the learning process.

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High Expectations

• Often it is assumed that students know what they
  should be doing, when in reality, they don't.

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Respect for Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

• Emphasizing sensitivity to others
• Respect for individual differences

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Facilitating the PrinciplesBest Practices
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Translating Data into Action
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Making Plans to Achieve Goals

• The developmental differences between the ways
  that first year students and seniors practice the
  principles brings up an interesting question
  How can we facilitate the practice of the
  principles in the first two years of a students
  college career?

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Faculty-Student Contact

• How can your faculty and department assist
  students in the achievement of this goal while
  theyre on your campus?

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Cooperative Learning

• How can cooperative learning be taught and
  facilitated your department and classrooms?

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Prompt Feedback

• How can feedback become part of a dialogue
  between your students and faculty, not a
  monologue?

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Active Learning

• How can active learning be promoted in your
  department and classrooms?

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Time on Task

• How can faculty and your department help students
  learn time management skills, assist them in
  making time for study, and to use that time
  effectively?

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High Expectations

• How can your faculty and department communicate
  and encourage high expectations?

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Respect for Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

• How can your faculty and department create
  learning experiences that respect diverse student
  talents and ways of learning?

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Promoting Learning Through The Seven Principles
for Effective Undergraduate Education

• John Wood Community College
• Susan Hatfield
• SHatfield_at_winona.edu