What Is Cluster Pedagogy?

Keynote address for the 2019 Plymouth State University January Jamboree.

Transcript

1. What (the hell) is Cluster Pedagogy? Robin DeRosa Tweet along at #PSUopen
2. I would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is within the traditional territories of the Abenaki peoples.
3. Q. What (the hell) is Cluster Pedagogy? A. It isn’t.
4. The Law of Initiative Fatigue Emotional energy is variable but has limits that are exhausted quickly when we ignore the reality that even the most dedicated employee can be resilient but will refuse to be an eternal Bobo doll, rising from each punch to endure another blow. Douglas B. Reeves
6. Clusters launched in a landscape of hope and turmoil, and part of why they are fraught is because they’ve become a panacea for the hopeful and an indication of what’s going wrong for those who feel concern about the state of Higher Ed. Panacea: Increase retention Generate valuable IP Increase enrollments Meet market demand Secure private partnerships Increase student engagement Problem: Privatize public education Allow revenue to drive learning Misconstrue consolidation as innovation Decrease academic freedom and protections Forget about real students in the rush to be shiny
7. Reject panaceas and problems Go back before clusters to take stock See what we’ve done in three years that’s been helpful Bring the focus back to teaching and learning Prioritize… Stabilize… Feel brave, energized, mission-driven, and open-minded again…
8. Reject panaceas and problems There is no THING that will save us. There is no THING that is killing us.
9. • Active/engaged/HIP • Hands-on, Minds-on • IDS, INCOs • Open Education, DoOO • Writing Center & NWP & WAC • Contemplative/Curious • Ut Prosim/Service Learning • Small Business/MAPS • Student-Fac Collaboratives • TRIO & PASS Before clusters
10. • 7 clusters • Four Tools of Clusters • First-Year Seminar (wicked good) • Open Labs (kinda) • Themed Gen Ed & Certificates (kinda/kinda/wha?) • Integrated Capstones (getting there) • Gen Ed Habits of Mind • purposeful communication • problem-solving • integrative perspective • self-regulated learning • Toolkit Courses • Cluster Projects Since clusters
11. Teaching & Learning
12. • Interdisciplinarity and integration: Students are challenged to understand and use various disciplinary perspectives and to integrate those perspectives to create new and unique projects and/or solutions. • Project-based work that extends beyond the walls of the classroom: Students work on projects that impact the world outside of the classroom in some way. • Sharing with an external audience: Student work is shared with an audience external to the course.
13. Interdisciplinarity and integration: Students are challenged to understand and use various disciplinary perspectives and to integrate those perspectives to create new and unique projects and/or solutions. Project-based work that extends beyond the walls of the classroom: Students work on projects that impact the world outside of the classroom in some way. Sharing with an external audience: Student work is shared with an audience external to the course. Interdisciplinary Approaches • Content, Methods, Epistemologies • Multidisc, interdisc, transdisc • Assignment, project, course, program, institutional levels Project-Based Learning • Meaningful, authentic question • Sustained inquiry • Student voice & choice • Reflection & revision Open Education • Removing educational barriers • Students as contributors • Public impact • Knowledge commons
14. Interdisciplinary Approaches • INCOs • InCaps • IDS • Cluster Projects • Cross-Course Collabs • Assignments • Colloquia • Certificates • Themed Sequences • Cluster Majors
15. Project-Based Learning • Independent Studies • Cluster Projects • Practica • Assignments • Service Learning • FYS: Wicked Problems
16. Open Education • OER adoption • OER creation • Student-generated OER • Accessibility & UDL • Reduced Barriers (Expanded “Academic”) • Non-disposable assignments • Access to knowledge & knowledge creation
17. • Clusters as fluid structures that enable this kind of pedagogy: interdisciplinary collaborations; projects; open learning. • Cluster pedagogy is cluster-enabled, but not cluster-dependent. • Cluster pedagogy is a way of teaching and learning. • Cluster pedagogy is not the only awesome kind of teaching and learning at PSU.
18. Community-Customized Wheel Interdisciplinary theory, project-based learning, open education, and connected learning are rich areas in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), informed by long histories and diverse movements, practitioners, and fields. We want those who are new to these ideas to get a foundational understanding, and those with expertise to help lead and complicate our learning.
19. Support Davis Foundation USNH Open Education Initiative
20. Open Teaching & Learning Lab • Design help and informed practice for cluster pedagogy • Prioritizing and assisting with institutional initiatives related to teaching & learning • Revisioning goals, strategic plans, & PD as we learn and change • What makes an open lab “open?” and other overgrown amusements • Support for Gen Ed pedagogy & curriculum initiatives underway • Building coherence across local pedagogy & curriculum initiatives
21. • Learning Communities • Design Sprints • Liaisoning and Alignment • Open Learning Tools and Techniques • Praxis: Research & Practice in Cluster Pedagogy • Funded Curriculum Development Projects • Scaling Successes • Support for Public Sharing of Research
22. “Scale is as much a qualitative as a quantitative problem. Barriers to effective implementation include the difficulty of designing innovations that are usable for teachers who have modest professional knowledge and few common professional standards, the difficulty of addressing weaknesses of capability, and the difficulty of devising means to manage the environment and support implementation. To solve the problem of ‘scaling up’ requires ‘scaling in’ –by this we mean developing the designs and infrastructure needed to support effective use of an innovation. That, in turn, requires consideration of the problems that have made some sorts of innovation difficult, and taking these into account in deciding what to change, and how to design the means to do so. It also requires significant attention to designing the use of innovations by practitioners, in the environments in which they work.” David K. Cohen and Deborah Loewenberg Ball
23. Sorry if this makes you think of hummus Innovation • Focuses on solutions (products, outputs) • Favors disruption (cult of the new) • Covets scale (bias toward quantity) Huminnovation • Focuses on access (process, ecosystem) • Favors praxis (iteration and historical context) • Values learning (bias toward quality)
24. Teaching & Learning Dazed & Confused (wha?) The Wizard of Oz (getting there!)
25. Teaching & Learning Dazed & Confused (wha?) The Wizard of Oz (getting there!)
26. Teaching & Learning Misery (please go away) Where The Wild Things Are (must be tamed)
27. Teaching & Learning Misery (please go away) Where The Wild Things Are (must be tamed)
30. Who Do You Drive For? How do we refocus our university on teaching and learning? How do we grow clusters from and for our students? Open Open PBL PBL Inter
31. Who Do You Drive For? How do we refocus our university on teaching and learning? How do we grow clusters from and for our students?