2004-2006 Leadership Initiative Seminar

2005 PKAL LI National Colloquium: Translating How People Learn- Kansas City

September 30 - October 2, 2005

Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza
& the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Kansas City, Missouri
September 30 - October 2, 2005

The 2005 PKAL National Colloquium will be an opportunity to envision the college or university of the future that takes student learning seriously, from the perspective of research on "how people learn."

Participants will:

  • explore the implications of what is known about "how people learn" for making decisions in all areas of institutional policies and practices, including those that affect the quality and character of the curriculum, of the faculty and of the facilities.
  • examine effective models for:
    • setting goals for student learning that undergird the design, implementation and assessment of curricular and pedagogical approaches
    • developing faculty expertise with teaching strategies having documented success in strengthening learning of students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics fields
    • designing spaces that accommodate the interdisciplinary, inquiry-based, collaborative approaches that contribute to strengthening student learning in STEM fields
    • ensuring institutional accountability for the quality of student learning, including how to identify and use existing/new resources to facilitate meaningful change.

This 2005 PKAL National Colloquium is part of PKAL's current NSF-funded initiative focusing on building institutional teams for leadership in transforming the undergraduate learning environment. This colloquium begins to tie together many conversations within PKAL and the larger undergraduate STEM community about taking research on how people learn seriously. During the past year, many PKAL Volume IV postings have focused on this issue, which was the theme for the 2005 PKAL Roundtable on the Future.

As with all PKAL events, each individual and institutional team will leave with an agenda for action to implement upon their return to campus. Persons with interest, expertise and responsibility for faculty development, curriculum development, facilities development and/or institution-wide responsibilities relating to student learning are invited to participate.

Logistics

Resources

Background: 2005 PKAL Roundtable on the Future
Notebook Part 1 - Agenda
Part I of the notebook for the 2005 PKAL National Colloquium. Includes the agenda and session abstracts.
Notebook Part 2 - Resources
Part II of the notebook for the 2005 PKAL National Colloquium. Includes resources and recommended readings.
Proceedings and Recommendations
Resources

Reports, Best Ideas, & Proceedings

Best Ideas: A Template
A Road Map for Institutional Transformation
At the close of the final session of the PKAL National Colloquium in Kansas City, individual participants shared some of the best ideas that they were taking back to their campus or office.
Rapporteurs' best ideas
Four “rapporteurs” had responsibility throughout the 2005 National Colloquium in Kansas City to capture some of the best ideas emerging from the formal and informal discussions.
The college/university of 2015
“Jigsaw” teams, with a mix of faculty, administrators and design professionals, were charged to imagine the college/university of 2015. Each group reported out to the larger assembly on Sunday. This exercise, which resulted in both philosophical statements and explicit characteristics, could be an approach for campus leadership teams shaping an institutional vision, and goals and strategies to achieve that vision.

Audio Recordings

Best Ideas and Final Session
Conversations for Design Professionals
Thomas C. Greene, Wendy Newstetter
Presented by
  • Thomas C. Greene, Gaines Professor of Psychology, St. Lawrence University
  • Wendy Newstetter, Director of Learning Sciences, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology
Imagining the College/University of the Future
Diane Ebert-May, Stephen C. Ehrmann, Terence G. Favero, Jeanne L. Narum
Linking what we know about How People Learn (HPL) to the process of:
  • building, nurturing and sustaining a strong faculty
  • creating, implementing and assessing effective pedagogies
  • determining institutional policies and budgets
  • imagining & designing accommodating spaces.
Jigsaw Reports
Edgar R. Blevins, George B. Forsythe, Richard M. Heinz, Beth L. Weatherby
Each jigsaw group presents key issues that touch on its particular topic as it relates to "learning theory." The intent is to explore further how increased knowledge of learning theory can lead to informed decisions and actions about pedagogies, faculty, institutional policies and practices, and facilities— that achieve meaningful change sustained over the long-term.
NSF CCLI Discussion
Myles G. Boylan, Kathleen Parson
Although projects will vary considerably in the number of components they address, in the number of academic institutions, faculty, and students involved, and in the maturity of the products, approaches, and ideas being pursued, all successful projects share certain characteristics.
Snapshots of 21st Century Learning Spaces
James W. Baird, Michael J. Reagan
An exploration of existing spaces presented in the context of insights into how people learn.

Related Pages

Planners and Presenters
Translating How People Learn into a Roadmap for Institutional Transformation
Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza & the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Kansas City, Missouri
September 30 - October 2, 2005

Presenters and Facilitators

Participating Teams (and team leaders)