DEEPENING THE PEDAGOGY OF THE FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE Laura I. Rendn - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

DEEPENING THE PEDAGOGY OF THE FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE Laura I. Rendón California State University-Long Beach International Conference of the First- Year Experience Maui June 14, 2004

Transforming Teaching & Learning • If we can see it is our agreements which rule our life, and we don’t like the dream of life, we need to change the agreements--Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements (1997) • Teaching and learning are based on certain privileged agreements that govern the present pedagogical Dreamfield

1. The Agreement to Privilege Mental Knowing • Privileges cerebral abilities such as verbal, scientific and mathematical ability • Prizes and rewards outer knowing (intellectual reasoning, rationality, and objectivity) at expense of inner knowing (deep wisdom, wonder, sense of sacred, intuition and emotions)

2. The Agreement of Separation • Distances faculty from students • Faculty become sole experts • Teaching is separated from learning • Validation/support are forms of “coddling” students

3. The Agreement of Competition • Students pitted against each other in a competitive environment • Survival of the fittest-Darwin • Testing mania is predicated on competition, sorting and ranking • “Merit” defines the “best and brightest” through standardized tests

4. The Agreement of Perfection • Little, if any, room for error in the classroom • Learning occurs in a context where human imperfection is downplayed

5. The Agreement of Monoculturalism • Almost exclusive validation of Western structures of knowledge (course offerings, teaching and learning styles, lack of diversity, etc.) • Dominance of faculty and administrators who subscribe to monocultural paradigms

6. The Agreement of Workaholism • The “best” academics rarely rest and renew. They are constantly busy working on multiple projects, traveling, and putting in long hours • Rest and replenishment associated with laziness • Reflection and contemplative practice associated with being “soft,” “touchy-feely”

Purpose of Study • Uncover holistic, connected teaching & learning practices in higher education • Develop a holistic, relationship-centered model of teaching and learning in higher education

CELEBRATION OF THE MARRIAGE OF HEART AND MIND Why does one write, if not to put one’s pieces together? From the moment we enter school or church, education chops us into pieces: it teaches us to divorce soul from body and mind from heart. The fishermen of the Columbian coast must be learned doctors of ethics and morality, for they invented the word, sentipensante , feeling-thinking, to define language that speaks the truth. --Eduardo Galeano, The Book of Embraces (1989)

METHOD • One-on-one, in depth, semistructured interviews (1-2 hours) with faculty. Also interviewed some of their students. Purposeful sampling employed. • Sample, N=14 (adding more) Name Discipline Institution Gender/Race Sam Mathematics 2-year M/W Becky Chemistry 2-year F/W Norma English 4-year F/L X. Communication 4-year F/W Mary English 2-year F/W Bill Physical Education 2-year M/W Alberto Ethnic/Chicano Studies 4-year M/L Herman African American Studies 4-year M/AA Susan Psychology 4-year F/W Xin Education 4-year F/Asian Candance Education 4-year F/W Barbara English 2-year F/W Robert Education 4-year M/W Sam Education 4-year M/W • Audiotaped and videotaped

Inner Outer Sentipensante Orientation Orientation (Feeling/ Thinking ) Faculty • Student Centered • Searchers/Reflective • Intellectual • Serving Higher Purpose • Passionate About • Engaged in Journey Teaching & Learning Balanced • Called to Teach • Value Excellence Approach • Embrace Not Knowing To • Embrace Their • Take Risks--Break Away Discipline/Field of Study Life /Work

High Expectations • No Limits • High Standards Faculty Strategies Traditional That Cognitive Skills Assessment Engage The Intellect* • Critical Thinking • Tests • Quizzes • Problem Solving • Essays • Reading/Writing • Research • Decision Making Demystify Content • Technology • Demystify • Re-do and Resubmit * Intellectual reasoning, rationality, objectivity

Relate Content • Engage Student Lives To Life • Employ Personal Experience Faculty Strategies Incorporate That Contemplative Practice Engage The Heart* (Active/Quiet) • Journaling • Free Writing Reflective • Sitting in Silence Assessment • Meditation • Rituals • It’s Feedback, Not • Postcards Proving Anything • Art/Music/Theatre • Student Calls/Visits • Set Up Constant • Listen/observe Pattern of Reflection Growth • Ask Questions * Inner knowing such as cultivating wonder, sense of the sacred, appreciation of emotions, meaning and purpose in life .

• Diverse Learning Styles Diverse Ways • Inclusive Curriculum of Knowing • Challenge Stereotypes/Judgments Relationship-Centered Student /Faculty Facilitate Classroom Context Community Interaction • Group • Faculty/Students Bring Work/Collaborative Selves to Class Learning • Establish Trust • Service Learning • Food Validate Students • Become Accessible • Stress Connectedness • Students are Colleagues, to Others/World Fellow Teachers • Cooperation on Tests • Academic Validation • Share Phone Numbers • Interpersonal Validation

SENTIPENSANTE PEDAGOGY FOCUS ON: • Teacher HEART INTELLECT • Student • Awareness • Cognitive Skills • Subject Matter • Reflection • Content • Process of • Service Learning • Technology Skills • Context for • Cooperation Learning • Connections Learning • Humanity Strategies

Deepening the Pedagogy of the First-Year Experience • Engage in transformation of teaching and learning • Reframe higher education’s privileged agreements • Restore the essence of education: to educate for wholeness and to make our love and compassion work for ALL the people of the world!