1. Engaging Faculty in the Purposes of General Education
and the Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
at Michigan State University
Duncan Sibley
Director for Center for Integrative Studies General Science
Mark Sullivan
Assoc. Professor of Music
Suzanne Wilson
Professor of Teacher Education
For more information on this project please see our website:

2. MSU’s Program in Liberal General Education
Integrative Studies –
MSU’s Program in Liberal General Education
CIAH
CISS
Team Work
different expertise ,
different cultures
working together
as equal partners
CISGS
Project Goals
strengthen faculty culture and capacity
to assess student learning outcomes
2. mobilize campus expertise
initiate systematic classroom-embedded
assessment of student learning

4. To change the culture costs money:
Pervasive, faculty driven assessment of student learning outcomes is a cultural change and one
that we have partially affected at our university.
To change the culture costs money:
$75K MSU
$75K Hewlett Foundation

5. Assessment in General Education Michigan State University January 18, Presented by Trudy W. Banta Vice Chancellor Planning and Institutional Improvement Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
To change the culture requires expertise

6. The Design and Development of Assessments
Our own experts create the sense of community
The Design and Development of Assessments
Innovative Teaching to Achieve Active Learning
Mark D. Reckase
Diane Ebert-May

7. Cultural change takes time
24 2-hour meetings over 2 years

8. Multiple types of class-embedded instruments
Pre-post multiple choice
Extended responses with rubrics
Case-based studies
Faculty ranking (modified Bloom’s taxonomy) of test items
Concept mapping

9. Assessment Mark Sullivan
From Hostility to Productivity

10. Hostility, Indifference, Dread
The initial attitude toward issues of assessment
Fear of bureaucratic “bean counting”
Looked at assessment as another form
Of unproductive, administrative harrassment

11. Hewlett Project
Provided the necessary experiences over a sufficient period of time to create a new model of, and disposition toward, assessment
Provided examples of assessment I had never considered, provided models of assessment used by my actual peers
Provoked a meaningful debate about which forms of assessment were productive in relation to our actual disciplines, teaching styles and philosophies, and so forth

12. First tries Pre-test, Post-test – confirming the obvious
Assessing the introduction of students to a body of material and knowledge
Conceptual spirals in writing assignments
Themes related to racism
National context in the thirties Langston Hughes
International context in the recent past – Idi Amin, Mississippi Masala
Recycling writing under different themes

13. What next? Some ideas I plan to try out in the future
Use of interviews and ethnographic profiles
Of students
- Use of faculty visitation among peers teaching in general education

14. Consequences
Faculty Meeting with other Music Faculty teaching general education who did not participate in the institute
Initial attitude: from hostility to indifference
Became interested when presented with models they deemed to have promise, in terms of helping them do something they wanted to do, or in terms of finding out something they wanted to find out

15. Professional Development for University Faculty
Suzanne Wilson
Creating a New Generation of Subject-Specific, Targeted Support

16. Traditional Professional Development
For a long time, K-12 teachers have found professional development, or “inservice” as it is traditionally called, unhelpful
So it is with University faculty who often find talking heads and one-day workshops devoid of content meaningless

17. “Best Practices” of Professional Development
Professional Development Practices
focuses on teachers as central to student learning;
focuses on individual, collegial, and organizational improvement;
focuses on student work;
is long term
respects and nurtures the intellectual and leadership capacity of teachers, principals, and others in the school community;
reflects best available research and practice;
enables teachers to develop further expertise in subject content, teaching strategies, uses of technologies, and other essential elements in teaching to high standards;
promotes continuous inquiry and improvement embedded in the daily life of schools;
is planned collaboratively by those who will participate in and facilitate that development;

18. Next Steps Sustainability of such professional development requires:
substantial time and other resources;
a coherent long-term plan;
On-going evaluation of its impact on teacher effectiveness and student learning

19. To sustain change requires:
I. Challenges: (at your institution) A. B. C.
II. Strategies for engaging faculty (at your institution)

20. II. Strategies for engaging faculty (at MSU)
I. Challenges: (at MSU)
A. Assessment takes time away from other things
B. Faculty believe essential aspects of quality teaching are intangible
C. Faculty are unsure of the reward for teaching general education
II. Strategies for engaging faculty (at MSU)
A. Lilly Fellows
B. Peer reviewed teaching awards
C. Curiosity