Professor Barbara A. HollandPro Vice Chancellor - Engagement

Engagement, Learning, and Research: Toward a More Integrated View of Knowledge

The Current Academic World

Students:• Consume what we serve them• Listen, transcribe, absorb, repeat, return info• Focus on costs more than value• Do the minimum; negotiate assignments• Vocationally-oriented and already workingAcademic Staff:• Continue to teach the way they were taught• Pursue traditional research even when essential

expertise and wisdom regarding critical questions reside outside the academy

• Don’t see that local questions = global implications

A Hopeful Vision

Students who:– Are “engaged” with learning– Prepare to participate in class– Ask great questions– Support each other as learners– Gain skills and confidence as well as knowledge– Develop further learning goals and plans

Academic Staff/Faculty who:– See themselves as learners– Demonstrate enthusiasm for discovery and reasoning– Actively link research and teaching ideas– Engage with external partners

Time for a Change

Organising and rewarding research and teaching as separate silos limits our capacity to achieve institutional goals.

An integrated view of learning and discovery increases student and academic staff capacity and success by reducing unproductive fragmentation and isolation.

Why is Community Engagement Important?• Engagement promotes an integrated view of

learning and research• Communities have ideas; they want access to

new information, skills and partners• Higher education must learn new modes of

teaching and research to advance knowledge • Contemporary students crave active and

experiential learning – see knowledge in action• Students must learn skills for life as well as work• Universities have a moral and social purpose to

contribute to the public good

Community Engagement

• Community Engagement describes the collaboration between higher education institutions and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. (Carnegie Classification

Project, 2005)

Defining Features of Engagement

• Partnership• Mutually beneficial outcomes

– Addresses a community-identified need – Through an intellectual activity of importance

• Reciprocity– Enhances community capacity– Enhances student learning and/or research studies

• Knowledge exchange relationship– 2-way, co-creation

• Deliverables for academy and for community

Other Terms = Different Meanings

• Public Service– Public lectures– Media interviews, broadcast programs– Cultural events– Adult and continuing education– Professional development– Facilities use

• Consulting• Pro bono• Service (to campus, to discipline, to community

as a volunteer)

Research Teaching

Service

Community

Community-based orParticipatory action research

Collaborative research on public issues

Problem-based research

Collaborative research, innovation & transfer

Collaborative community servicesClinical servicesTechnical assistanceIncubators – business or nonprofitContinuing education

Community-based learningService-learningResearch Service-learning

Community Engagement

“Community as ‘knowers,’Not just as subjects.”

Engagement as Connected Learning and Discovery

• Interdependent knowledge relationships – Intellectual activities are connected to external expertise, assets, questions, and opportunities

• Students, community members, staff, and faculty work together to learn, explore, discover, and apply knowledge to beneficial ends

Engagement’s Active Link

Engaging students, their instructors, and community partners in high quality interactions

• meant to promote student learning • while meeting community needs,• Will almost inevitably do two things:1. Turn the partner and instructor into a

teacher/learner2. Trigger new research questions

Engagement and Learning

Engaged Learning/Learners• Academic Service-Learning• Community-based Learning• Other Experiential Learning

• Cooperative Education• Work-integrated Learning• Internships• Practica• Clinical • Undergraduate research

Kolb’s Learning Cycle

• Concrete experience

• Reflective observation

• Abstract conceptualization: apply concepts, models, theories, skills to explain or interpret the experience

• Active experimentation – testing knowledge in new situations

• Improved retention• Enhanced academic outcomes• Improved higher order thinking skills;

understanding complex problems• More confident choice of course of study• Personal outcomes – self-esteem,

empowerment, motivation• Social outcomes – pro-social behaviors,

multicultural skills, risk reduction• Civic outcomes – interest in community

issues; knowledge, skills, attributes associated with involvement/action

Evidence of Impacts of Engaged Learning

Why do these methods work to improve student learning?

• Learning by doing, yes, but more important, learning with consequences

• Learn that knowledge has power• Demonstrate the usefulness of abstract ideas

and theories• Students explore and identify their interests and

talents• Enhances motivation through a sense of

responsibility to others• Inspires students and instructors to ask

questions!

Quality Community Engaged Learning Requires:

• Specific learning objectives related to the experience; intellectual rigor

• Integrated into course of study• Specific and structured reflection strategies• Connect community experience to classroom

learning• Community-identified needs & benefits• Logistical support• Partner and student involvement in activity

design, learning, and assessment

Partners Contribute to Student Learning

• “Our common ground is a profound commitment to students.” – Achieve their academic learning goals– Awareness of community issues and connections– Role of the non governmental sector– Understand role of policy and stakeholders– Develop an activist spirit

• Partners understand the institution’s goals• Partners value the relationship(Sandy and Holland, 2006)

Benefits to Community

• Enhance organizational performance• Personal and staff learning; new methods • Access to expertise and learning• Client outcomes improve through interactions

with students and faculty• Leverage resources• Identify future employees• Build new networks and social capital(Sandy and Holland, 2006)

Engagement and Research

• Community-based research• Participatory Action research• Transdisciplinary research• Public Issue research• Collaborative, networked research• Translational research• Undergraduate research/honours/postgrad study

Engaged Learning becomes ResearchScenario 1 – Evaluative Model

• What is the goal of the learning partnership?– For the Uni? -For the partner?

• What strategies are chosen to work toward the goal?– What assumptions/conditions inform the choices?

• What measures/indicators will we look for to test the strategies?– Specific impact/outcomes/benefits– How do different aspects of the strategy affect the

outcome? What needs improvement/deletion/emphasis?

Engaged Learning becomes ResearchScenario 2-Discovery model

• Partnership focuses on student learning through activity meant to meet community need. This is an opportunity to:– Test/compare intervention strategies – Collect data on community issues/conditions;

gain access to existing data– Involve community in participatory research– Publish findings for community and academy

08 Carter Partnership Award

Students (HS,UG and PG), Science faculty, City Water Agency, State Enviro Agency, Citizen volunteers, etc.

Project: Mapping, measuring, testing water quality in the entire urban watershed of a city of 2m.

-Longitudinal data -Research publications –NSF/EPA $$

-Mandatory data reports for govt; saved city $ and penalties-Students learn field techniques, analysis, reporting,

academic writing, explore science careers, enviro ethic, science policy, social/economic inequities

-Students work with residents to develop pubs and workshops to train residents to reduce pollutants and to monitor their local streams

-Over 10 years, project has involved more than 60K people

A UWS Example

Cohort of nearly 500 Year 10 students across 11 schools; similar traits

Goal: Transform smart students with low academic motivation, low self esteem

Intervention: 5 component parts running for the last three years, involves Uni students and staff (teachers and parents) in delivery

Anecdotal evidence is that almost all are continuing on to Y11 and Y12 – but why?

• Did the program make a difference? If so, which part(s) and why or why not? What other factors intervene?

• Presents many interesting design challenges that could lead to important new approaches to research on interventions meant to affect student persistence

UWS Engagement ThemesLocal = Global

• environmental stewardship and a concern for climate change

• a special focus on vulnerable populations including advocacy for children

• SME economic development• collaborations to improve educational

opportunity and attainment, especially for the historically underrepresented including our own indigenous peoples and new migrant communities

• Intercultural understanding/social and civic capital

An ACU Example

Volunteers provide both food and nutrition info to children at Atherton Gardens. A good work to be sure – but loaded with research possibilities….

• Test different education strategies• Involve children in recording data about their food habits;

documenting food issues and health problems in their community;

• Develop wider community strategies and studies – what data/approaches will reveal and inform change in nutrition patterns?

• Research informs policy and business advocacy• This type of project changed West Philadelphia

Learning is the Connection

• Learning:– About each other’s capacity and limitations– About each other’s goals, culture,

expectations– To develop students as community members– To exchange expertise, ideas, concerns– To share control and direction– To adapt based on assessment and

documentation– To experiment; to fail; to try again – To Trust!

The Challenge of Change for Higher Education

• Come to the table as a problem-solver• Learn to work with communities and students as

co-learners and discoverers• Adopt a sense of moral responsibility to

contribute to public good• Increase capacity for collaborative work• Develop a capacity for risk & experimentation• Focus on impact, outcomes, benefits• Change traditional academic cultures/habits that

separate teaching from research

Creating an environment for change

• Instill a discipline of reflection and a culture of evidence.

• Expect a thoughtful warrant for action.

• Create new patterns of conversation and interaction.

• Recruit new people to the work and support the people already involved.

Creating an environment for change

• Engage in honest conversation about difficult and controversial subjects.

• Encourage and model clarity of purpose and thoughtful, respectful discussion.

• Adopt a philosophy of experimentation, assessment and management of reasonable risks.

• Make engagement a value in hiring and rewards.

Change to support engagement requires…

• The possibility of reward or benefit for all participants

• Individual influence and inspired leadership throughout the institution, not just at the top

• An institution that is responsive to and involved in its communities

• Planning and intentionality that integrates engagement into learning and research

• A willingness to adopt a shared agenda and a shared resource base over which the institution has only partial control

• An ongoing capacity to change (Ramaley 2006.)