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THEORIES& RESEARCH

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  • Underlying premise - students will transfer what they learn in one course/module to subsequent courses/modules  and apply knowledge in the context of the real world.

  • Identify and use  pedagogical strategies to foster students' transfer of concepts.

  • Teach students context analysis strategies and other heuristics for examining new situations and modifying prior knowledge for new applications.

  • Invite students to contribute to discussions by providing interdisciplinary knowledge and suggest ways to identify transferred knowledge.

  • Enable students to identify past knowledge and experience and purposefully adapt to differences expanding upon previous strategies.

  • Incorporate reflection activities and prompts for students to contemplate changes to  self-identity and worldview.

  • Prompt students to articulate how new knowledge informs future decisions and actions in the workplace, co-curricular and other concurrent activities and how disparate pockets of knowledge is connected.

  • Mapping of concepts should include both what students might transfer out to courses/workplace/co-curricular activities and for what students bring with them into the course.

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Source:

Moore, J. (2012).  Designing for transfer: A threshold concept. Journal of Faculty 

        Development, 26(3), 19-24.

Scholarship of Engagement

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The term "scholarship of engagement" is an emergent concept first used by Ernest Boyer in a 1996 article by that title.  Engaged scholarship is defined by the collaboration between academics and individuals outside the academy - knowledge professionals and the lay public (local, regional/state, national, global) - for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.  Boyer proposed four interrelated dimensions of scholarship:

  • The scholarship of discovery refers to the pursuit of inquiry and investigation in search of new knowledge.

  • The scholarship of integration consists of making connections across disciplines and advancing knowledge through synthesis.

  • The scholarship of application asks how knowledge can be applied to the social issues of the times in a dynamic process that generates and tests new theory and knowledge.

  • The scholarship of teaching includes not only transmitting knowledge, but also transforming and extending it.

  • The scholarship of engagement connects any of the above dimensions of scholarship to the understanding and solving of pressing social, civic, and ethical problems.

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Michigan State University's Points of Distinction:
A Guidebook for Planning and Evaluating Qualitative Outreach

 

Guidebook Values:

1) Mutuality and Partnering - Both the university and its stakeholders collaborate in the learning or discovery process and are enriched by the process.

2) Equity - Collaborating on a project brings varying assets and strengths to the

relationship, yet all groups share an underlying equity of status.

3) Developmental Processes - Evolve, grow, and progress over time.

4) Capacity Building - Develop human, institutional, or social capital and create abilities for higher order functioning, independence, and creative expansion of ideas, not just to fix a problem or provide a service; incorporates participatory evaluation or reflection that assures those experiencing the program are better equipped for future, independent action.

5) Communityness - Develop “communities,” whether communities of place, of profession or of interest that can help people coalesce around interests or

issues for either immediate or long-term attention to change processes.

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  • National Academy of Sciences, Education for Life and Work:  Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/13398/education-for-life-and-work-developing-transferable-knowledge-and-skills#research

  • Clusters of 21st Century Competencies

  • Comparative content analysis aligned various 21st century skills with each other and with the two taxonomies.

  • Aligned O*Net skills and additional noncognitive competencies with two taxonomies, resulting in each competency cluster containing the main factor and the associated 21st century skills and O*Net skills.

Knowledge                                          Novices                                         Experts                 

Expert-Novice Differences on Five Kinds of Knowledge

Facts                                                     fragmented                                  integrated                    Concepts                                              surface                                         structural

Procedures                                          effortful                                        automated

Strategies                                             general                                         specific

Beliefs                                                   unproductive                               productive                                                                       

Source:

National Research Council (2012). Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century.   

         Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13398.

John Holland's Theory of Career Choice (RIASEC) maintains that in choosing a career, people prefer jobs where they can be around others who are like them. They search for environments that will let them use their skills and abilities, and express their attitudes and values, while taking on enjoyable problems and roles. Behavior is determined by an interaction between personality and environment. Holland’s theory is centered on the notion that most people fit into one of six personality types: http://www.careers.govt.nz/practitioners/career-practice/career-theory-models/hollands-theory/

Deeper Learning & 21st Century Skills 
Holland's Theory of Career Choice 

Transfer of Learning: is the ability of a learner to make productive use of their knowledge and skills in new and improved ways based on past experience, but in response to new challenges.  Learners will also be able to transfer what they’ve learned in the college environment to the workplace.

 

Threshold Concepts – Core of the disciplinary world view (beyond key concepts)

  • design authentic tasks with authentic exigencies to practice generalization of knowledge

  • teach learners context analysis strategies and other heuristics for examining new situations and modifying prior knowledge for new applications

  • invite students to bring interdisciplinary knowledge and suggest ways to identify transferred knowledge to increase visibility to others in the learning environment or activity system

  • identify students as “agents of integration” facilitating student’s authority to bring disparate pockets of knowledge from across his/her course-based and other activity systems to convey connections among systems to instructors/peers

 

Source:

Elon University Center for Engaged Learning - International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning http://blogs.elon.edu/issotl13/studying-and-designing-for-transfer/

Designing for Transfer: A Threshold Concept (module/course design)

Source:

Barker, D. (2004). The scholarship of engagement: A taxonomy of five emerging practices.  Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 9(2), 123-127. Retrieved from http://wartburg.edu/cce/cce/scholarship%20of%20s/The%20Scholarship%20of%20Engagement.pdf

Scholarship of Engagement Additional Resource

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Overview of Scholarship of Engagement - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51a00182e4b00ebfe3c66f62/t/522647c4e4b0c81608f93373/1378240452314/defs_re_engagement.pdf

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National Review Board Evaluation of Criteria for Scholarship of Engagement.

Driscoll, A., & Sandmann, L. (2001). From maverick to mainstream: The scholarship of engagement. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 6(2), 9-19. Retrieved from http://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/index.php/jheoe/article/viewFile /1597/916

 

McNabb, J., & Pawlyshyn, N. (2014). Northeastern University Online, Defining scholarship: Boyer’s 4 models and the new digital scholarship: A faculty conversation. Faculty Fellows in Higher Education Administration, Faculty Professional Development Day. Retrieved from http://www.northeastern.edu/cpsfacultycentral/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Defining-Scholarship-with-Boyers-Four-Areas-of-Scholarship-Explored-and-the-New-Digital-Scholarship-A-Faculty-Conversation.pdf

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Loyola University - Chicago, Center for Experiential Learning

http://www.luc.edu/experiential/engaged_scholars.shtml

TAXONOMY - FIVE PRACTICES OF ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP

Boyers Scholarship of Engagement

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Examples of application:

  • Consulting activities in field or industry that directly relate to the intellectual work of the faculty member

  • Support or development of community activities in the field or industry that link with academic discipline

  • Formal development and /or oversight of practica/partnerships on behalf of the University that connect students with the field/industry

  • The application of theory in the field to real world problems.

  • Development of centers for study or service

  • Media contributions (newspaper, magazine, etc.)

 

Examples of scholarship of teaching:

  • Development of new or substantially revised courses, curricula

  • Innovative teaching materials/strategies

  • Educational research projects resulting in findings disseminated at professional conferences and/or in peer-reviewed publications

  • Projects funded by external or internal grants to support instructional activities

  • Production of videos for instruction

  • Technical, procedural or practical innovations made clinically or professionally

  • Publication of textbooks or teaching materials

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