Liberal Education and America's Promise

UW-Madison participates in the Association of American Colleges and Universities' national project, Liberal Education and America's Promise. Wisconsin - and the University of Wisconsin System, specifically - was the pilot state for this project, which now has institutions all across the nation participating.

This ten-year long initiative seeks to identify and clarify the the goals and learning outcomes essential for all college students in the 21st century if they are to engage successfully with rapidly changing global economies and interdependencies. This project reaches out to students in technical and professional programs, not just those in the humanities and social sciences, and recognizes the need for scientific and quantitative literacy for students who are not pursuing technical or science majors. In so reaching across disciplines in support of this range of technical and intellectual skills, this initiative builds upon the foundation laid in a broad program of general education.

Studies conducted by the AAC&U found that employers and recent college graduates recognize the importance of interdisciplinary and flexible learning as key to success in the new global century. The traditional notion of liberal education—an elite curriculum for a small group that could afford liberal arts education for its own sake—is outmoded. Today, all students need to have the experiences and develop the skills inherent in liberal education if they are to succeed in a rapidly changing economy.

The LEAP Project on the UW-Madison campus has begun with efforts to improve, internally, our ability to communicate effectively and to work more intentionality to promote the goals of a broad-based, liberal education. We hope to help each other (faculty, staff, and students) become more articulate about the role of this philosophy of education, to foster “ah-ha moments” in which our colleagues recognize the value of discussing the goals and outcomes of liberal education in order that our students, their parents, and others across Wisconsin recognize its value. Furthermore, by being articulate and intentional with our students in discussing liberal education is empowering for students because they will be better able to gauge their own development and articulate their own skills and talents as they prepare for life beyond the university.

UW-Madison LEAP Activities

UW-Madison LEAP liaisons:

• Professor Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
  Department of German
  jvtaylor@wisc.edu
  
• Associate Dean Nancy Westphal-Johnson
  Undergraduate Education and Academic Administration
  College of Letters and Science
  westphal@ls.admin.wisc.edu

Do you want to incorporate the Essential Learning Outcomes into your program, to assess student learning in these areas?

Please feel free to use this template, which provides a simple framework for assessing student learning in terms of what they know, can do, or value in the essential learning outcome areas, as found in the distinctive context provided by your program. Users will note that this framework can be applied in academic, co-curricular, and student service programs.

We'll be happy to share examples, too, so feel free to send them to us c/o Assistant Dean Elaine Klein (kleine@ls.admin.wisc.edu).

2008 Teaching and Learning Symposium, "Shaping our Future: Teaching and Learning at UW–Madison."
(May 21 -23, 2008).

This annual symposium brings faculty, staff, post-docs, and graduate students together in support of teaching and learning at UW-Madison. The symposium's goal is to "share best practices, celebrate accomplishments, discuss new teaching pedagogy, and explore themes of mutual interest." This year, the call for proposals included an invitation to focus on the Essential Learning Outcomes for liberal education, and several sessions address specific elements of the ELO's. Two sessions discuss them explicitly:

• Establishing Institution-wide Expectations for Student Learning at UW–Madison

  Participants in this session will learn about the Essential Learning Outcomes devised in the LEAP project, and their connection to the development of university-wide expectations for student learning, which provide an important framework for setting a university-level academic direction. (Jocelyn Milner, Academic Planning and Analysis, and Mo Noonan Bischof, Office of the Provost)

• Learning Circle: How Do We Focus on Essential Learning Outcomes?

  (Facilitators: Nancy Westphal-Johnson, and Elaine Klein, College of Letters and Sciences; Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, German)

Please consult the website (http://www.learning.wisc.edu/tlsymposium/) to view the program and obtain information about registration .

Showcase 2008, "Sharing our Best Practices" (April 1, 2008)

Members of the Convergence Group presented a poster for the 2008 Showcase. The presentation highlighted the "bottom up" adoption of the Essential Learning Outcomes, and invited participants in the event to join the movement to embrace essential learning.

Focused Discussion: "Essential Learning - What do we already do to promote Essential Learning?"
(March 12, 2008)

In Spring 2008, the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning invited a small group of faculty and instructional staff who teach or who influence the 15-20 courses most frequently taken by first-time/first-year and new transfer students to meet and talk about student learning in their courses. They were invited to review the Essential Learning Outcomes, and to consider what their courses, in particular, convey to students. The participants in this discussion were invited from the schools/colleges that teach undergraduates. Members and friends of the Convergence Group led discussion on two broad topics: Beyond the specific disciplinary content of your course, what do you want students to learn that will stay with them into the future? That is, what are the your student learning beyond the content you teach them? In considering the more focused goals of "General Education," what do you try to teach students in your course's general "breadth" or Gen Ed area (communciation, quantitative reasoning)? How do you make the ideas that are implicit in the requirements, explicit for students?

The results of these conversations will be analyzed to consider what might be done to better assess student learning in the General Education program, to promote more effectively a shared set of First-Year Learning goals, and similar projects.

The Center for the First-Year Experience (formerly, the Office of New Students and Programs) publishes a newsletter, Our First-Year Experience. 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)

First Year Conference. On October 11, 2007, 160 people spent the morning examining how the LEAP essential learning outcomes can be introduced to first year students, to lay a foundation for further exploration to come in their future years at the university.  Provost Patrick Farrell delivered a keynote address in which he praised the outcomes, which speak to those things that are most important not only to our students, but to their families, their future employers, and to the people of Wisconsin and of the world. (See http://www.newstudent.wisc.edu/firstyear/conference.html for links to the conference archive, program, and other information.)

Advising Summit: March 15, 2007. “Liberal Education for a Lifetime: What You and Your Students Need to Know About Liberal Education”

• Keynote speaker: Dr. Debra Humphreys, Vice President for Communications & Public Affairs, Association of American Colleges and Universities.
  • Missed the talk? Download the file here.

• Sessions
  • “Crafting Our Message”: Follow-up with Debra Humphreys
  • “Our First Contacts with Students: Integrating Our Messages”
  • “Integrative Experiences: International Education, Service Learning and Internships”
  • “How Do We Know Our Advising is Effective: Accountability and Advising”
  • “Student Panel: How We Come to Our Understandings and Knowledge of the Importance of Liberal Education”
  • “Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities: Liberal Education’s Three-Legged Stool”

LEAP Spotting: Where do we see Liberal Education?

• 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 has also issued its annual Call for Proposals Seeking Assessment Council Funds. This year's call links funding priorities to the "Wisconsin Experience" and the Essential Learning Outcomes:
  http://www.provost.wisc.edu/assessment/Assessment_Funds.html .

• University General Education: 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 education that establishes the foundations for living a productive life, being a citizen of the world, appreciating aesthetic values, and engaging in life-long learning in a continually changing world. For this reason, these core requirements provide for breadth across the humanities and arts, social studies, biological sciences and physical 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.
  
  As noted elsewhere on this site, the UGEC 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.
  
• UW System Liberal Arts Essay Competition Open to any UW System undergraduate student with a current GPA of at least 3.4 who also meets specific enrollment criteria; three winners receive a $2,000 UW System scholarship.
  
  • UW System Scholarship Competition - Congratulations to UW-Madison's Rebecca Ford, for her winning essay, “Interrogating Rajasthan:  Poverty in the Developing World and the Liberal Arts.”
    
• College of Letters and Science "Goals of a Liberal Education"
  
• University Housing: Chadbourne Residential College, "What is a Liberal Arts Education?"
  
• Professor William Cronon - "Only Connect"
  
• Our First-Year Experience: "College Learning in the Twenty-first Century: Intentional Teaching and Learning"
  
• First-Year Learning Goals
  
• Campus-wide Audit of Undergraduate Student Learning Outcomes

Please 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 webmasterls@ls.admin.wisc.edu, or contact Professor Vanderwal-Taylor (jvtaylor@wisc.edu) or Associate Dean Nancy Westphal-Johnson (westphal@ls.admin.wisc.edu).

If you'd like to become an planning partner to help promote LEAP, please contact:

Nancy Westphal-Johnson
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
Chair, University General Education Committee
westphal@ls.admin.wisc.edu

The Convergence Group

This group consists of a small set of "early adopters" of LEAP on the UW-Madison campus. These individuals are not the only people who have an interest in LEAP or in Essential Learning, but they meet periodically to discuss how to promote the project and have a campus-wide impact. A fundamental principle of this project is that no entity or group is vested with sole responsibility for promoting LEAP - rather, interested members of our university community are invited to develop and enact LEAP-related endeavors adapted to the interest, expertise, and mission of their sphere of influence. Members of the convergence group are happy to advise, to collaborate when possible, to advertise, and to promote those activities and events. In addition to the two UW-Madison LEAP liaisons, the "convergers" include the following people. Where possible, we've included links to websites relevant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Experience and Essential Learning, too.

• Lori Berquam (Dean of Students) - see http://www.wisc.edu/students/wiexperience.htm
• Aaron Brower (Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning) - http://www.provost.wisc.edu/teach.html
• Ann Groves Lloyd (Associate Dean for L&S Student Academic Affairs)
• Elaine M. Klein (Assistant Dean and Director, L&S Academic Planning, Program Review & Assessment)
• Jocelyn Milner (Director, Academic Planning & Analysis)
• Mo Noonan Bischof (Co-Chair, University Assessment Council)
• Becky Ryan (Associate Director, Cross-College Advising Services)
• Wren Singer (Director, Center for the First-Year Experience)

We describe this as a "convergence" because that term seems to capture best the way in which various groups have adopted (or embraced) the LEAP learning goals. We envision that many groups across campus will become sites of convergence around this topic.