Pedagogo

 As deeply committed professionals, we often see our willingness to take extraordinary measures as our badge of honor. However, constantly leaning in, striving forward, and sacrificing for others can cause stress, increase anxiety, and deplete the energy that we need to be fully present to our students, colleagues, and loved ones. Dr. Bheda interviews Libby Smith, an organizational healing facilitator, about the mindset changes and daily actions that we can adopt to take self-care as seriously as our other responsibilities. 

Join us to learn how you can gain time by making time for yourself.  

• How can “pouring ourselves into our work” be a form of unhealthy distraction? 
• How can self-awareness help us cope with stressful times and situations? 
• How do we draw boundaries and focus our energy? 
• Why is self-care an ongoing process and an everyday practice? 
• How do we stop others—and ourselves—from sabotaging our self-care? 
• How can healing ourselves enable us to help others? 
• How can academic and business leaders create space for self-care? 

In today’s episode, Dr. Bheda interviews Dr. James Earl Orr Jr., a senior higher education administrator who currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Center for Academic Integrity. Dr. Orr discusses the principles of restorative justice and the educational benefits that can be realized when they are applied to situations involving academic misconduct. 

Listen in as Dr. Bheda and Dr. Orr explore: 

• Principles of restorative justice and benefits for higher education 
• Detriments of one-size-fits-all sanctions 
• Disadvantages of too-stringent and too-lenient sanctions 
• Issues with courtroom-style academic integrity hearings 
• Conducting restorative, learning-centered conversations with students 
• Fostering a culture of honesty, integrity, and engaged learning 
• Centralized implementation and facilitation of restorative practices 
• Student involvement in policy development and peer-to-peer mediation 

In today’s episode, Dr. Bheda is joined by Dr. Amber Garrison Duncan of Lumina Foundation*, which seeks to expand the share of Americans who have a post-secondary education, training, and certification. They discuss the demographic changes and workplace trends that are reducing the high-school-to-college pipeline while increasing older learners’ demand for education and training. 

Stream this episode to hear more about: 

• Social mobility and emerging needs of uncredentialed adults 
• Prior learning assessment and comprehensive learner records 
• New pathways and partnerships for credentialing and certification 
• Challenges in cross-institutional collaboration and coordination 
• Alignment of competency-based learning with skills-based hiring  
• Opportunities for employer-informed and co-created curriculum development 

*This interview was recorded when Dr. Garrison Duncan was at the Lumina Foundation. She now serves as the Executive Vice President of the Competency-Based Education Network.

In competency-based education, the focus is on the mastery of knowledge and skills and the rigorous assessment of those competencies. Advancement is not based on the number of weeks in a classroom or the number of credit hours earned, but on performance-based assessments. In this episode, Dr. Bheda interviews Dr. Charla Long, the Executive Director for the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), to explore the challenges and benefits of this big idea. 

Listen as we discuss: 

• Evolution of competency-based education 
• Differences between time-based approaches and competency-based approaches 
• Benefits to institutions, faculty members, learners, and employers 
• The importance of “backward design” to identify competencies and develop the learning journey that will lead to mastery 
• The use of data analysis to personalize education and foster student attainment 
• The Competency-Based Education Network’s quality framework and program design principles 
• Results achieved by institutions that have implemented competency-based programs 

As the student population becomes more diverse, we are increasingly aware of the need for  assessment methods that better support diverse learners. In this timely episode, Dr. Divya Bheda is joined by Dr. Gianina Baker, acting director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).  

Tune in for insights about: 

• Healing-centered practices in education 
• Principles of equity-minded assessment  
• Meaningful student involvement in assessment practices 
• Interrogation and disaggregation of data to check assumptions 
• Development of rubrics and standards-based grading  
• The essential role of feedback and formative assessment  

At the turn of the 21st century, Art Pearl and Tony Knight published a trailblazing volume, The Democratic Classroom: Theory to Inform Practice. In this episode, two of Dr. Pearl's former students discuss his influence on their views and careers, and the potential of democratic education to empower students, foster problem solving, and build strong citizens. Join Dr. Divya Bheda and her guest, Dr. Robin Harwick, founder of The Pearl Remote Democratic School. 

Tune in to learn about: 

• The principles of democratic education 
• The mental health and social benefits of the democratic classroom 
• The skillsets that you need to implement these principles 
• Practical strategies and techniques to apply in your classroom, whether K-12 or higher ed 
• Resources to learn more and network with other educators who are adopting democratic education 

With the challenges posed by COVID-19, the many socio-economic issues that are impacting education, and the advent of technology as an essential element of education, managing change has become increasingly important. Join host Dr. Divya Bheda and her guest, Dr. Catherine Wehlburg, Athens State University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, as they share insights and advice for becoming an effective change agent at your institution.

Learn about:

• understanding organizational culture, tradition, and mission to prioritize initiatives
• building relationships across the institution to co-create change
• establishing ongoing scenario-planning conversations to anticipate change
• identifying issues that can impede change
• creating psychological safety to support faculty, staff, and students while implementing change

In our final episode of the season, we talk assessment. How do we determine what students really know about what they know? Join Dr. Allison Case and guest Dr. Natasha Jankowski, Executive Director of the National Institute of Learning Outcome Assessment (NILOA) and Research Associate Professor at the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, as they take a deep dive into establishing impactful practice in assessment. Learn about the four lenses through which assessment can be viewed to add value for both faculty and students.

Show Notes and Resources:

NILOA: National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment

Natasha talks about the Spellings Commission and their work in 2008 for standardizing measurement

AAC&U : The mission of the Association of American Colleges and Universities is to advance the vitality and public standing of liberal education by making quality and equity the foundations for excellence in undergraduate education in service to democracy. 

TILT: Transparency in Learning and Teaching project which aims to advance equitable teaching and learning practices that reduce systemic inequities in higher education through two main activities:

• Promoting students' conscious understanding of how they learn
• Enabling faculty to gather, share and promptly benefit from current data about students' learning by coordinating their efforts across disciplines, institutions and countries

Infographic

What is enablement-minded leadership? How can programs and institutions resist the stigma attached to being promoted to leadership roles and prepare faculty for future success from day one? Join Dr. Allison Case and guest, Dr. Brian Goldstein, Chief Academic Officer and Executive Dean of the College of Rehabilitative Sciences at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, as he shares his personal story about the journey from faculty member to administrator, what he learned along the way, and how he champions identifying others to tap for leadership roles.

Show Notes and Resources:

Brian suggests the following books on leadership:

Bolman and Deal: Reframing Organizations

Bolman & Gallos: Reframing Academic Leadership

Steven Sample: A Contrarian's Guide to Leadership

Jim Collins: Good to Great

Buller: Academic Leadership

Buller: Academic Leadership Day by Day

Anything by Chip and Dean Heath; e.g., Switch; Upstream

Susan Scott: Fierce Conversations; Fierce Leadership

Kim Scott: Radical Candor

Grawe: Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education

Websites:

Chronicle for Higher Education

Inside Higher Education

Education Dive

Have you ever given an assessment that was not about content? While content may still be king, it is not in the castle alone. Join Dr. Allison Case and her guest, Dr. Christina Paguyo, Director of Academic Assessment at the University of Denver, as they explore inclusive assessment—the layering of non-content based assessments on top of traditional content assessments as a way to better serve and respond to our students so they can fully engage with our class and our content.

Show Notes
Dr. Virginia Pitts talks about having clarity about what you want students to walk away with when they leave your class five years from now, they're looking back and thinking about your class, what knowledge, what ideas, what feelings would you want to have endure? https://otl.du.edu/what-to-do-when-it-all-feels-new-teaching-at-a-social-distance/

Christina referenced the writings and practices of Rachel Toor, Professor at Eastern Washington University, in using low stakes, ungraded assignments to check in on students. You can read more about her work here:  https://community.chronicle.com/news/2367-turns-out-you-can-build-community-in-a-zoom-classroom

Christina referenced the book "Small Teachings Online: Applying Learning Science Online" by Flower Darby and James Lang. https://www.amazon.com/Small-Teaching-Online-Applying-Learning/dp/1119619092

Additional resources:
North Star reference: https://otl.du.edu/courses-opportunities/workshops/course-design-institute/
Stress test: https://otl.du.edu/mitigating-increasing-inequity-as-we-move-online/

For a transcript of today’s show, additional resources, or to listen to previous episodes, come visit us online at ExamSoft.com/Pedagogo.