Grant Summary
$25,000 over 12 months. Hendrix College, Birmingham Southern College, Millsaps College, and Southwestern University will explore how colleges can accurately assess and assign value to students' engaged learning, that is, learning that brings critical thought into action. Such learning, the institutions argue, leads students—guided by faculty—to reflect on what they do, ultimately enhancing their capacity for analytical and critical thought, for problem solving, and for communicating this action to the broader public. Two working sessions, both led by national assessment authorities, will anchor the project. At the first meeting, institutions will share existing data, discuss how best to understand what the data say about the relationship between their academic curriculum and engaged learning initiatives, and determine next steps (either more data gathering or more intense study of current data). The second meeting will focus on a discussion of how institutions can apply the data they have gathered. At this session, they would also like to develop a pilot instrument to measure the effectiveness of programs that make engaged learning central to students' academic work, as opposed to those that consider it ancillary to the curriculum, as well as to assess one component of engaged learning, perhaps internships.