Summary
Notes on Powerful Partnerships: A Shared Responsibility for
Learning, A Joint Report by the American Association for Higher
Education, the American College Personnel Association, and the
National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 2 June
1998 [included in the packet of TAMU 2nd Assessment
Conference on 12 February 2002]
Summarized by J. T. P. Yao (2/15/02)
"… This report makes the case that
only when everyone on campus… shares the responsibility for
student learning will we be able to make significant progress
in improving it. … Learning is a social activity, and modeling
is one of the most powerful learning tools. …"
"The following ten principles about learning
and how to strengthen it are drawn from research and practice
and provide grounds for deliberation and action. All those who
participate in the educational mission of institutions of higher
education… share responsibility for pursuing learning improvements.
…
1.
Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections: biologically
through neural networks; mentally among concepts, ideas, and meanings;
and experientially through interaction between the mind and the
environment, self and others, generality and context, deliberation
and action. …
2.
Learning is enhanced by taking place in the context of a compelling situation that balances challenge
and opportunity, stimulating and utilizing the brain's ability
to conceptualize quickly and its capacity and need for contemplation
and reflection upon experiences. …
3.
Learning is an active search for meaning by the learner - constructing knowledge
rather than passively receiving it, shaping as well as being shaped
by experiences. …
4.
Learning is developmental, a cumulative process involving the whole person, relating past and present, integrating
the new with the old, starting from but transcending personal
concerns and interests. …
5.
Learning is done by individuals who are intrinsically tied to others as social beings, interacting as competitors or collaborators,
constraining or supporting the learning process, and able to enhance
learning through cooperation and sharing. …
6.
Learning is strongly affected by the educational climate in which it takes place: the settings
and surroundings, the influences of others, and the values accorded
to the life of the mind and to learning achievements. …
7.
Learning requires frequent feedback if it is to be sustained, practice if it is to be nourished, and opportunities to use what has been learned. …
8.
Much learning takes place informally and incidentally, beyond explicit teaching
or the classroom, in casual contacts with faculty and staff, peers,
campus life, active social and community involvements, and unplanned
but fertile and complex situations. …
9.
Learning is grounded in particular contexts and individual experiences, requiring
effort to transfer specific knowledge and skills to other circumstances
or to more general understandings and to unlearn personal views
and approaches when confronted by new information. …
10.
Learning involves the ability of individuals to monitor their own learning, to understand
how knowledge is acquired, to develop strategies for learning
based on discerning their capacities and limitations, and to be
aware of their own ways of knowing in approaching new bodies of
knowledge and disciplinary frameworks. …"
"The evolving principles of learning, continually
informed by future advances in our understanding and knowledge
of the learning process, hold great promise for improved student
learning. By applying these principles to the practice of teaching,
the development of curricula, the design of learning environments,
and the assessment of learning, we will achieve more powerful
learning. Realizing the full benefit of these applications depends
upon collaborative efforts between academic and student affairs
professionals…"
"We call all those who serve the goals of
learning to contribute to these collaborations. We ask that:
Students
take charge of their own learning and organize their educational
programs to include a broad array of experiences both inside and
outside the classroom; become aware of the cumulative nature of
their education, and consequently plan and monitor their development;
and establish personal relationships with faculty and staff as
an essential part of their education.
Faculty
become masters of cognitive studies; develop pedagogy and curricula
that draw upon and embody learning principles; become involved
in all aspects of their institution's community life; and work
in partnership with staff and community supporters to create learning
activities based on the learning principles.
…
Alumni
reflect upon how what they learned in college contributed to their
life after graduation and share these observations with current
students and institutional officials; provide learning opportunities
and mentorships outside the classroom for students; and contribute
financial support to programs offering students the chance to
use their knowledge in a variety of settings.
…
Professional
associations disseminate best practices of collaboration on
behalf of student learning in their programs, publications, and
awards; exemplify the importance of partnership for learning by
establishing cooperative programs with other associations; and
emphasize learning as a field of knowledge essential for graduate
students planning careers in colleges or universities.
…"
[Readers who are interested in this
report are encouraged to read the original report in its entirety.
Other summary notes on faculty reward systems are available on
the Internet at http://lohman.tamu.edu
under the heading "Summaries of Papers ..."]
