The K Plan:

1
The K Plan Experiential Liberal Education at
Kalamazoo College Joseph Brockington,
Ph.D. Associate Provost for International
Programs Kalamazoo College brocking_at_kzoo.edu www.k
zoo.edu/cip
2
Mission

• The mission of Kalamazoo College is to prepare
  its graduates to better understand, live
  successfully within, and provide enlightened
  leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly
  complex world.

3
Outcomes of a K Education

• Lifelong learning
• Career readiness
• Intercultural understanding
• Social responsibility
• Leadership

4
Betting the Store

• 1962 K moves from Semesters to an innovative
  curriculum with a year-round calendar that
  alternates rigorous on-campus coursework with
  off-campus experiential learning opportunities.
• 1995 Curriculum revision preserves the
  combination of campus coursework with
  experiential, while changing the calendar

5
Elements of the K Plan

• Coursework in the Liberal Arts
• Career Development
• Study Abroad
• Senior Individualized Project

6
Where is the Power of the K Plan?

• Learning is the process whereby knowledge is
  created through the transformation of
  experience. (Kolb 1984).

7
If you want to feel at homestay home!

• The power of the K plan is in its combination of
  on-campus course work and off-campus experiential
  learning.
• Students willingly put themselves into situations
  of cognitive (and affective) dissonance and
  disequilibrium, and then work hard to make sense
  of it all.

8
Experiential Learning Goal for Study Abroad

• To have students learn how to work with local
  people on local projects of local importance
  using the local language and local resources in a
  locally culturally appropriate way

9
Reflection From Experience to Learning

• Being in the vicinity of experience is not
  learning (M. Bennett)

10
ICRP Integrative Cultural Research Project

• improved target language use
• increased understanding of the local culture
• first-hand experience with a facet of everyday
  life in the host culture
• opportunities for interaction with local people
• opportunities to apply skills and knowledge to a
  real-life situation in host culture

11
ICRP Clermont-Ferrand, FranceKate Nichols K 99
IAS
12
ICRP Quito, EcuadorPhil Mather K99 Physics
13
ICRP Madrid, SpainJulie Paavola K 02 Psychology
14
KPIC

• InThe Discoverers, Daniel Boorstin distinguishes
  between discovering and learning. Finding new
  things out is only half of the adventure of
  education. One of the real values of discovery,
  and one that is central to the goals of
  undergraduate liberal education, comes when the
  discoverer returns home and tells others about
  the sojourn and the experiences abroad.

15
KPIC Course Design

• First Half
• Intercultural communication theory
• Core values of US and other cultures
• Second Half
• Apply what learned in first half
• Write home about how it is going
• Third Half
• Begin to make sense out of the exprerience
• Communicate experience to others

16
Does the K Plan Work?
17
(No Transcript)
18

• I feel that the independence, confidence and
  problem-solving abilities fostered by Career
  Development, Foreign Study and the SIP are
  critical to my being where I am today. K81,
  PhD Chemistry
• The total K-Plan, in my opinion, fosters and
  independence and confidence that makes graduate
  school a logical next step. Continue to throw
  them out there continue to put your students in
  new, and perhaps uncomfortable, situations both
  at K and away. K71, PhD Microbiology and
  Immunology

19

• Upon entering grad school, I realized I had taken
  fewer psychology courses and had fewer research
  opportunities compared to my peers. However, I
  had some once-in-a-lifetime experiences on my
  Career Development and Study Abroad that really
  helped me define who I was. That was definitely
  worth a few courses. K91, PhD Psychology
• Mix together bright, curious minds, inspiring
  instruction, demanding curriculum, mind-expanding
  experiences, and an open, nurturing and
  supportive environment, and young adults get
  jazzed about lifes possibilities, lifes big
  questions, and they develop a will and confidence
  to go out and answer them! K78, PhD Chemistry

20
K Plan Internationalization at Home

• International/Intercultural Learning Outcomes
• Kalamazoo College graduates will be equipped with
• attitudes and skills of intercultural
  understanding
• knowledge about historical events and the
  relevance of history to understanding todays
  world

21
K Plan and Internationalization

• knowledge about global economic, political and
  social trends and issues
• understanding of and appreciation for the worlds
  cultural and biological diversity

22
Connecting the Dots

• K students are using the tool of critical
  reflection to connect the dots of their varied
  undergraduate learning experiences. There is
  thus, a meta-reflection on the undergraduate
  education at K as meta-program in
  experiential learning.

23
The K Plan

• Whole Person Education in a Whole World Context