Harriet Schwartz from Carlow University talked about “Connected Teaching” as part of the 2021 Lilly Conference Online. The recording started a little bit (I hope) into the conversation, yet just in time to watch Schwartz talking about the importance of relational teaching. Schwartz mentioned being authentic yet knowing how much to disclose and still help students learn. Understanding the vulnerabilities and imperfections of instructors as humans was a concept I heard repeated several times. Relational Cultural Theory (RCT) starts often from a place of vulnerability and disclosure. Schwartz did acknowledge that we all have different levels of privilege. I enjoyed hearing from Schwartz that we don’t have to go on the journey alone and that “people don’t succeed in isolation” which was heartening to hear after pitching to the REU students the importance of co-creating. Schwartz also talked about de-centering whiteness and discussing the influence of whiteness on professionalism in academic settings. Questioning conventional wisdom and being explicit about expectations must be considered depending on our context and personal boundaries. I thought this was really thoughtful… and thought-provoking. We have to set boundaries. Availability is one aspect of boundaries and the other is social media, according to Schwartz. Someone in the chat mentioned that “weekends with family are sacred” and Schwartz said this is a good way to model boundaries and self-care to continue doing this work and avoid burnout. I appreciated how Schwartz acknowledged her position and resources when responding to questions. She encouraged people to find a way to take a break… even twenty minutes outside really do help. The book Schwartz wrote sounds really interesting. Todd also mentioned a post I will have to look up.
Next, Bridget Arend presented on “Bloom and beyond: Expanding Our Ideas About Learning Outcomes.”Arend talked about the history of Bloom’s taxonomy and that there are three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The revised Bloom’s from 2001 flipped the two top categories and moved to verbs. Arend described the assumptions of looking at the taxonomy as a pyramid. The example Arend mentioned was that in some disciplines create is valued more where as in others evaluate is critical. A three-dimensional Iowa State University representation includes the Knowledge Dimension and the Cognitive Process Dimension. While comprehensive, it does look overwhelming! Next, Arend did something I had not seen before: asked the audience to respond in the chat with a B for benefits and an L for limitations of Blooms. An interesting finding from the research that Arend mentioned was that it is not the verb you select but the context and application that changes the level. There are some things that don’t fit nicely within Blooms, and AAC&U has created Essential Learning Outcomes that include teamwork and career skills. The neglected “Bloom” domains are the psychomotor and affective domains. Arend cited Wiggins & McTighe and their Six Facets of Understanding, focusing on transferability and enduring understanding. Arend then talked about Dee Fink’s Significant Learning Taxonomy and the impact you want to have on students: “starting with the big dream.” In Finks system, learning is change and they should be able to understand, remember, use, and relate the concepts. Importantly, Fink has added the social and personal implications of knowledge, value, and learning about learning/ metacognition. Fink integrated these dimensions and at the center is significant learning. Arend described caring as developing values and demonstrating commitment. Arend then asked: can we list this on our syllabus? How is it going to be measured? Arend mentioned something that I loved: if we articulate a goal with caring, it will change the course. Is there in a course an identifiable opportunity to connect caring? Arend then talked about the idea of learning how to learn. For this, we can ask students what their goals are and how they are doing! Self-awareness and collaboration are part of the human dimension that Arend thinks we can begin with reflections and self-assessment. Perspective taking activities were also included and bring an important awareness of collaboration and self-awareness. While we often think only of Bloom’s, I agree that I value and would like to emphasize metacognition and human connections as well as job skills as learning goals in the courses I teach. How to measure these objectives may be challenging; yet we do have non-graded ways of doing so.
