2006 PKAL Leadership Seminar

Plenary: Influencing Positive Change in Parallel Universes

Who are our students, those now on our campus and those in the pipeline? What is their background, what skills, interests, and career aspirations do they bring into our classrooms and labs? What skills and capacities will they need to become 21st century leaders, innovators, life-long learners? In this plenary we delve more deeply into institutional strategies that center on strengthening student learning in STEM fields, considering by what measures we can determine how and if goals for student learning can be aligned with institutional policies and practices.
  1. Conceptual Change Model Activity
      2. The audience actively involved in a learning situation illustrating the CCM with student learners.
  2. Reflection on how the learner is impacted by the activity
      3. Audience will break into small discussion groups to determine the major attributes of what goes on with a learner.
  3. A Parallel Universe: Institutional Change
      4. At this point we will draw parallels between student learners and institutional change. Many of the same affective components need to take place in our faculty communities for institutional change to take place and become sustainable.
  4. Another Parallel Universe: Motivation Theory and application to learners and Institutional Change
      5. The simple motivation theory of M = E * V will be explained. M=Motivation; E=Expectancy for Success; V=Value of the activity or course.
  5. A Universe Populated with New Learners
      6. The session will close with a description of the new learners that are entering our institutions and how CCM, institutional change, and motivation theory can strategically be best applied.