Identifying Dimensions of Student Intentionality Christine Brooks Cote and Elizabeth Reilly Bowdoin College Robert Froh New England Association of Schools and Colleges

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Identifying Dimensions of Student
IntentionalityChristine Brooks Cote and
Elizabeth ReillyBowdoin CollegeRobert FrohNew
England Association of Schools and Colleges
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If Intentionality is a Goal, Then...

• We need to understand intentionality.
• We need to assess intentionality as a learning
  outcome.
• We need to evaluate our efforts as educators to
  foster intentionality within our students.

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The Take Aways

• Process listen to students to learn about their
  intentionality
• Process collaborative nature of project brought
  useful synergy
• Process able to involve faculty in meaningful
  ways
• Product sharpened definition of intentionality
• Product dimensions might be useful in
  assessment of intentionality

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The Intentional Learner

• ...is purposeful and self-directed. Purpose
  implies clear goals, an understanding of process,
  and appropriate action. Further, purpose implies
  intention in ones actions.
• ...possesses a self-awareness about the reason
  for study, the learning process itself, and how
  education is used.
• ...makes connections among seemingly disparate
  information and draws on a wide range of
  knowledge to make decisions or solve problems.
• ...connects study to personal life, formal
  educational to work, and knowledge to social
  responsibility.
• 
  -- Greater Expectations

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The Intentional Learner - Operationalized

• How do intentional (purposeful, self-directed)
  students behave?
• What does an intentional learner do in the
  classroom?
• How does an intentional learner make choices
  about courses or other academic options?
• How do intentional students make the best use of
  advising?
• How does an intentional student approach new
  subjects and different areas of the curriculum?
• How do intentional students make sense of liberal
  learning as they think about their life and
  careers after college?

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Four Parts of Todays Session

• Description of Pilot Project Funded by Mellon
  Foundation Involving Several New England Liberal
  Arts Colleges
• Dimensions of Intentionality That Came Out of the
  Project
• Your Feedback
• Fourth Part (only if time remains)
• Description of Other Components of the Pilot
  Project
• Next Proposal

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Mellon Pilot Project

• NEASC/CIHE Accreditation Context
• Articulate expectations and support for
  Assessment and IE
• (throughout the accreditation cycle)
• CIHE Policy on Institutional Effectiveness (IE)
  provides a framework
• Successive approximation (The Science of
  Muddling Through Lindblom
• Variation by type of institution
• Standards (2006) provide more clarity and
  specificity
• Public Admin. Rev. 1979-88, 1959 also Public
  Policy The Essential Readings, Stella Theodoulou
  and Matthew Can, editors. Prentice Hall. 1995. p.
  113-127

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Mellon Pilot Project

• A collaboration of selective liberal arts
  colleges conducting inquiry regarding
• what and how students learn
• addressing The Academic Program (2006
  Standards)

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AssessmentA Conflict in Models

• Skinner Behaviorist Model
• teaching and learning results from defining
  terminal behaviors and reinforcement strategies
• Bruner Scholarly Discipline Model
• a teacher is a model, someone who understands
  and communicates a sense of intrinsic excitement
  about the discipline
• a teacher encourages intuitive leaps and leads
  students to the thrill of discovery
• Paper by Bob Newton Boston College (on the
  NEASC Assessment Web Site

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Learning Understood ThroughCritical Transition
Points

• First Year Experience
• Selecting a Major
• Study Abroad
• Senior Thesis or Capstone Project

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Research Questions

• Round One After arriving on campus
• What are your goals for your education? How did
  you decide upon these goals? What courses are you
  taking? How do you think these courses will help
  you achieve your educational goals? What
  knowledge and competencies or skills do you hope
  to acquire or develop during your first year in
  college?
• Round Two At the end of the first semester
• What have you learned about yourself and your
  academic interests during the first semester?
  Have your educational goals changed in any way?
  How? Why? What courses do you plan to take in the
  spring semester? How do these match with the
  courses you earlier planned on taking in the
  spring? Have you done any thinking about a
  possible major? What are your thoughts?

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Data

• Student responses differed some were more
  sophisticated, more connected, more thoughtful,
  more eloquent than others
• It appeared that some were more intentional and
  others were less intentional in their approach to
  college
• Might some kind of developmental model help us in
  understanding the data?
• Might we come up with some kind of
  intentionality scale?

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Data Analysis

• Read through students responses and recognized
  nine dimensions of student intentionality
• Students were rated on each of the dimensions
• Limitations and inter-rater reliability

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Dimension One Developing Skills

• Low Response
• Students who were rated low spoke about gaining
  proficiency in a laundry list of skills.
• High Response
• Students who were rated high in this dimension
  spoke about their interest and purpose in
  developing proficiency in a skill(s). They spoke
  of the long-term or personal benefits of
  acquiring proficiency in skills.

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Dimension Two Exploring the Curriculum

• Low Response
• Students who were rated low spoke generally about
  getting a liberal arts education or becoming
  well-rounded.
• High Response
• Students who were rated high wanted to explore
  the curriculum and explained why. For instance,
  some students talked about finding a major,
  pursuing personal interests or gaining knowledge
  in unfamiliar academic fields.

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Dimension Three Pursuing Knowledge

• Low Response
• Students who received a low rating spoke about
  the importance of grades or fulfilling course
  requirements.
• High Response
• Students who received high ratings expressed a
  personal interest or purpose in learning that
  went beyond external factors.

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Dimension Four Declaring a Major

• Low Response
• Students were noncommittal and spoke only about
  one or two possible majors.
• High Response
• Students spoke about narrowing their choice of
  majors and why they wanted to pursue a particular
  academic field.

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Dimension Five Declaring a Career

• Low Response
• Students were ambiguous about future career
  plans.
• High Response
• Students spoke of narrowing their choice of
  professions based on personal interest and
  pursuing experience and knowledge that would
  prepare them for their chosen profession.

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Dimension Six Making Connections

• Low Response
• Students did not see a connection between their
  learning inside and outside of the classroom.
• High Response
• Students were able to integrate their experiences
  outside the classroom with the knowledge they
  have gained in the classroom. The students who
  were rated highest were able to demonstrate a
  greater appreciation for learning or
  self-understanding.

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Dimension Seven Planning and Mapping the Future

• Low Response
• Students who received a low rating responded by
  only talking in the short-term about educational
  plans.
• High Response
• Students who had a long-term plan, such as taking
  courses to fulfill a major that would point them
  towards a desired profession(s). Students that
  consciously reflected on plans for attaining
  their goals were also rated highly.
• Note
• Only a small number of students addressed this
  dimension and a majority did not rate as high as
  we would like to see.

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Dimension Eight Reflecting on Own Ideas and
Actions

• Low Response
• Students spoke of only one or two things that
  they had learned about themselves, usually
  pertaining to their interests or aptitude.
• High Response
• Students spoke about one or more things they had
  learned about themselves that changed how they
  were thinking about their educational plans.

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Dimension Nine Owning the Self

• Low Response
• Students spoke about external factors that had
  shaped their goals.
• High Response
• Students spoke about demonstrating a greater
  commitment and interest in pursuing their goals
  by realizing that they were responsible for their
  education and for making decisions about how to
  live their lives.

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Important Points

• Dimensions were derived from the data.
• Low and high ratings were more an attempt to
  understand intentionality than an attempt to
  judge or evaluate students.

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Conclusions

• A comparison of low rated responses to high rated
  responses shows the variability in student
  intentionality in each of the nine dimensions.
  Intentionality can be measured.

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Conclusions

• The range of responses suggests that there are
  ways in which to develop or foster intentionality
  throughout a students education.

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The Take Aways

• Process listen to students to learn about their
  intentionality
• Process collaborative nature of project brought
  useful synergy
• Process able to involve faculty in meaningful
  ways
• Product sharpened definition of intentionality
• Product dimensions might be useful in
  assessment of intentionality

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• Senior data that we later collected contained
  similar variation.

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Links to Presentation

• If you would like additional handouts, including
  quotes from students on each of the dimensions,
  or a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, please
  go to the following link
• http//academic.bowdoin.edu/ir/conferences/aacu200
  4.shtml

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Your Feedback and Participation

• What methods have you used to research
  intentionality?
• What might you contribute to an operational
  definition of an intentional learner?
• What are you doing on your campus to assess
  intentionality as a learning outcome?
• What are you doing on your campus to evaluate the
  effectiveness of programs designed to foster
  intentional learners?

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Next Proposal

• Inquiry-Based Collaborative Assessment of
  Student Learning in Liberal Arts College