Promoting Essential Learning at UW-Madison (and beyond)

Let us know about your LEAP-related activities!

We know that many people at all levels across the UW-Madison campus engage in activities that promote the goals of liberal education. We're always interested in hearing what you do. Please send information to emklein@ls.wisc.edu, or contact one of the UW-Madison LEAP liaisons.

Activities

LEAP Spotting: Where do we see Liberal Education?

• The Center for the First Year Experience promotes Essential Learning with the UW-Madison Experience in several ways by:
• Presenting these learning goals to students at their first advising opportunity, at Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR), and in the SOAR Orientation Handbook;
• Articulating outcomes expected for the student's First-Year Learning; and
• Inviting members of the faculty and staff to present their thoughts on the first-year experience and its connection to liberal education in its regular publication, Our First-Year Experience (available http://newstudent.wisc.edu/faculty/index.html). In recent issues, several articles have featured LEAP's Essential Learning Outcomes as especially important to the students' first year:
  • "College Learning in the Twenty-First Century: Intentional Teaching and Learning" by Nancy Westphal-Johnson and Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor (Volume 2, Issue 2)
  • "Why the First Year Matters," by Aaron Brower (Volume 3, Issue 1)
  • "Why the First Year Matters," by Nancy Westphal-Johnson (Volume 3, Issue 2)
• Influenced by the campus-wide audit of undergraduate learning goals (see below), the University Assessment Council has adopted a "preface" to the university-wide assessment plan. This document articulates the overarching goals of undergraduate education at UW-Madison. Please see http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment/Assessmentplan2003_R2008.pdf
  The council issues an annual call for proposals, http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment/Assessment_Funds.html. The 2007-08 call linked funding priorities to the "Wisconsin Experience" and the Essential Learning Outcomes.
• Campus-wide Audit of Undergraduate Student Learning Outcomes
• University General Education. From the 2009-2011 Undergraduate Catalog: "The purpose of the General Education Requirements is to ensure that every graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison acquires the essential core of an undergraduate eductaion. This core establishes a foundation for living a productive life, being a citizen of the world, appreciating aesthetic values, and engaging in lifelong learning in a continually changing world. These requirements provide for breadth across the humanities and arts, social studies, and natural sciences; competence in communication, critical thinking, and analytical skills appropriate for a university-educated person; and investigation of the issues raised by living in a culturally diverse society."
  Also noted on the General Education assessment webpage, the University General Education Committee has drafted a new plan for assessment of the undergraduate general education requirements, and has mapped the existing GERs to the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes.
• College of Letters and Science, "Goals of a Liberal Education"
• The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) "engage" project provides several examples of how the use of technology may be used to promote essential learning at their website.
• University Housing: Chadbourne Residential College, "What is a Liberal Arts Education?"
• Professor William Cronon, "Only Connect"