A very optimistic look at the future of undergraduate education and a refreshing change from the catalog of books on this subject that are convinced that universities are finished.
The authors (Peter Felten, John Gardner, Charles Schroeder, Leo Lambert and Betsy Barefoot) hail from US universities and colleges of various shapes and sizes. The book is easy to read and crammed full of examples of undergraduate innovation at a multiplicity of institutions.
The premise of the book is simple – there is lots we can do to improve the undergraduate experience and it really is not that difficult. The book is arranged around six themes: learning, relationships, expectations, alignment, improvement and leadership. The book articulates action principles for each of the themes along with examples.
Leadership
- Lead through collaborative practice.
- Articulate clear aspirational goals linked to mission and values.
- Cultivate a culture that puts student learning first.
- Foster shared responsibility and leadership at all levels.
- Make strategic choices and informed risk.
- Focus on dynamic, improvement-oriented planning, executing and communicating.
Improvement
- Recognize assessment is fundamental to improvement.
- Focus assessment on what matters most.
- Commit to using evidence to inform change.
- Involve everyone in the process.
- Adapt best practise from elsewhere.
- Cultivate positive restlessness.
- Model the process of improvement.
Alignment
- Make alignment a shared goal.
- Align admin and academic practice.
- Align programs and campus practices.
- Challenge students to align their learning.
- Leverage the benefits of alignment.
Expectations
- Focus expectations on what matters most to student learning and success.
- Communicate and reiterate high expectations.
- Set expectations early.
- Implement policies and practices congruent with espoused expectations.
- Help individuals and groups develop the capacity to set and meet their own expectations.
Relationships
- Make relationships central to learning.
- Create pathways to lead students into relationships with peers, faculty and staff.
- Nurture both learning and belonging through relationships.
- Encourage everyone on campus to cultivate relationships.
- Celebrate and reward relationship building.
Learning
- Take institutional responsibility for student learning.
- Create opportunities for learning in and out of the classroom.
- Recognize the complexity of meaningful experience.
- Help students integrate learning experiences.
- Promote and reward learning for everyone at the institution.
While many of these principles are self evident, the examples of these principles in use at various institutions are very useful. In fact this book taken with We’re Losing Our Minds supplies a pretty good recipe for the optimized undergraduate experience at almost any institution.