CIEL Features Best Practices in Reflective Learning and Assessment
The importance of consistency and clarity were the principal themes from two panels of CIEL representatives at the 2008 national meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Achieving significant learning outcomes for students has everything to do with articulating and maintaining a meaningful institutional philosophy to unite the work of the college.

CIEL’s panel on “Fostering Engaged Student Learning: NSSE as a Tool for Understanding and Building a Campus Culture” reinforced the importance of innovative, highly student-centered learning environments in promoting high achievement. The panel featured initiatives at Johnson C. Smith University with freshman learning communities and at Daemen College with their ambitious general education core program, coupled with outcomes research from the more established programs represented by New Century and Marlboro colleges. Like other CIEL member campuses, outcomes revolve around clear, shared institutional priorities that include:
• Taking on challenging and important intellectual and social problems
• Engaging effectively with people and issues, on and beyond the campus
• Working collaboratively to identify and solve community-based problems
• Pushing the application and integration of academic knowledge through interdisciplinary learning and practice

The panel emphasized that on campuses where innovation and engagement are strong values, a culture of collaboration around pedagogy, curriculum, and outcomes becomes possible. Tools like the National Survey of Student Engagement help to legitimize and unify the work of the campus, and the expectations surrounding that work. Challenging self-perceptions and continually re-grounding experimentation follow.

The second CIEL event at the AAC&U meeting described the kind of reflective culture that supports engagement. When students are asked to evaluate their own learning, they have a greater stake in their work and understanding of its effects. When faculty help students develop their abilities to analyze and reflect
on their work, and when faculty and administrators use those reflections to refine practice, evaluation rises above the routine ranking and sorting characteristic of traditional grading. A half-day workshop, “Reflective Self-Evaluation: Connecting Pedagogy, Engaged Learning, and Assessment” showcased reflective learning practices and their effects on courses, programs, and the institution as a whole. CIEL schools represented in the workshop included Alverno College, Fairhaven School of Interdisciplinary Studies, New Century College, New College, and Prescott College.

An extensive bibliography on Reflective Practice, prepared by Marie Eaton, is available on the CIEL website at www.cielearn.org/educators/readings.htm and the handouts and power point slides are available on the AAC&U website, www.aacu.org.

CIEL presentations at the AAC&U meetings have attracted growing audiences over the last several years – suggesting that our work is becoming more than just a curiosity to more mainstream colleges. Participation has helped CIEL members sharpen our focus internally, see it in the larger context of the other consortium schools, and disseminate what we are learning.
Thanks go to Nance Lucas of New Century College, Mimi Steadman of Daemen College, Deborah Quick, of Johnson C. Smith University, Sirkka Kaufman of Marlboro College for their work on the NSSE panel, and to Paul Burkhardt of Prescott College, Andrew Wingfield of New Century College, Char Callahan of New College, Kathleen O’Brien of Alverno College, and Marie Eaton of the Fairhaven School for their workshop.

International Service Learning, Internships, and Research Opportunities in Global Health for CIEL Members
Global health issues are threatening the viability of all peoples, cultures, and nations. The Interdisciplinary Consortium for Global Health is an alliance of eight North American colleges and universities lending their interdisciplinary expertise to improve the health and welfare of the world’s most vulnerable populations, and to increase the number of people actively promoting global health and welfare. In partnership with the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office and other groups, the ICGH responds to community-identified needs with evidence-based solutions to create sustainable, replicable projects. Current member institutions include CIEL members, Berea College and Daemen College, Highline Community College, St. Francis Xavier University (Canada), University of Wisconsin System, Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico), Universidad de LaSalle (Mexico), University at Buffalo, University of Northern British Columbia. The initiative is open to participation by all CIEL campuses.

The ICGH is working with the World Health Organization on diverse topics, including: food safety and security, enteric diseases, communicable diseases, measles eradication, maternal and reproductive health, tobacco control, micro-nutrition and anemia, environmental health and resources planning.

The Consortium seeks to:
• focus its responses on community-identified needs
• disseminate evidence-based approaches that support sustainable, replicable projects; leverage human and financial resources to build capacity
• apply interdisciplinary and ecosystemic approaches in problem-solving
• employ process-oriented, outcomes-based project design
• implement culturally appropriate training and applications
• increase the pool of concerned world citizens promoting global health
• provide professional research and service experiences for faculty and students
• utilize ongoing assessment and evaluation to better ensure the success of our activities.

One of the projects is The “Silk Homes” project (a maternal waiting home) that provides health education, skill based training (i.e. silk, handmade paper, bamboo production) and a place for safe delivery to women coming from remote locations in Laos, where medical services are not available. Women are taught skills in areas such as silk weaving and papermaking with the hope that they will be better able to support their families and transfer the skills to their communities.

Internally, the ICGH is working on the development of a North American database of specialties of faculty and others seeking to make contributions in global health care; follow-through training in leadership advocacy to promote greater health care equity; and the sharing of knowledge gained through the publication of research, project papers, student journals, etc.
Potential opportunities for CIEL members include: (1) excellent internship positions for students from many majors and at the undergraduate and graduate levels, (2) significant research potential for faculty, (3) opportunities for faculty to work on socially responsible projects outside of the U.S., (4) enhanced institutional commitment to promoting socially just health among some of the most vulnerable populations, (5) shared grant monies raised to support institutional-level projects or individual faculty and students. There are no membership costs, but a campus representative must attend the annual meeting.

For more information, contact Ed Clausen, Vice President of Academic Affairs, at eclausen@daemen.edu. More information may also be found on the blog – http://blogger.daemen.edu/globalhealth/

CIEL Spring Student Symposium, April 10 – 12
A celebration of collaborative inquiry, the fourth annual Spring Student Symposium, will be held at Western Washington University in Bellingham. This year’s event is co-sponsored with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, along with the Fairhaven School of Interdisciplinary Studies, the Western Washington Teaching-Learning Academy, and the Western Washington University Student Voices Club.

Registration for the Festival is now open and can be completed on-line at www.festivalofscholarship.com. Even if you are not able to attend, check out the Program at www.festivalofscholarship.com/program.html. It’s an exciting mix of creative performance, papers, workshops, roundtables, and poster presentations. Presenters represent the rich collaborations of faculty, students, and community members. The festival is both a celebration and an inquiry into collaborative inquiry, an exploration of “virtues and values of engaging multiple partners, perspectives, techniques, and modes of inquiry in our research projects.”

CIEL Occasional Paper Series
In January, CIEL initiated its Occasional Paper Series, an on-line resource of scholarship that reflects the special concerns of those involved with innovative approaches to higher education. The first two installments in the series are available on the CIEL website: Creating Space for Change by Karen Spear, CIEL Executive Director and Reclaiming Lost Ground: Creating Academic Coalitions by Rita Pougiales, Dean of Faculty Hiring at The Evergreen State College.

The hope is that this series will create opportunities for sharing opinion, research, and best practices within the CIEL community, adding to the “Resources for Educators” that are already available on the website – and to open doors for more formal publication. If you have material you would like to submit, please contact Karen Spear at spear@lorenet.com.

Newsletter Editor: Karen Spear, CIEL Executive Director