AAC&U High-Impact Educational Practices
This page briefly outlines how BG1000 (music section) is addressing the AAC&U High-Impact Educational Practices (see post 1 below for a short description of the practices).
Post 2 discusses: First-Year Seminars and Experiences, Common Intellectual Experiences, Learning Communities
Post 3: Writing-Intensive Courses
Post 4: Collaborative Assignments and Projects
Post 5: Undergraduate Research
Post 6: Diversity/Global Learning
Post 7: Service Learning, Community Based Learning
Post 8: Internships
Post 9: Capstone Courses and Projects
September 20th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
taken from: http://www.aacu.org/LEAP/hip.cfm
accessed 9/20/09
High-Impact Educational Practices
A Brief Overview
Excerpt from High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, by George D. Kuh (AAC&U, 2008)
Part 1 – High-Impact Educational Practices: A Brief Overview
The following teaching and learning practices have been widely tested and have been shown to be beneficial for college students from many backgrounds.10 These practices take many different forms, depending on learner characteristics and on institutional priorities and contexts.
On many campuses, assessment of student involvement in active learning practices such as these has made it possible to assess the practices’ contribution to students’ cumulative learning. However, on almost all campuses, utilization of active learning practices is unsystematic, to the detriment of student learning. Presented below are brief descriptions of high-impact practices that educational research suggests increase rates of student retention and student engagement. The rest of this publication will explore in more detail why these types of practices are effective, which students have access to them, and, finally, what effect they might have on different cohorts of students.
First-Year Seminars and Experiences
Many schools now build into the curriculum first-year seminars or other programs that bring small groups of students together with faculty or staff on a regular basis. The highest-quality first-year experiences place a strong emphasis on critical inquiry, frequent writing, information literacy, collaborative learning, and other skills that develop students’ intellectual and practical competencies. First-year seminars can also involve students with cutting-edge questions in scholarship and with faculty members’ own research.
Common Intellectual Experiences
The older idea of a “core” curriculum has evolved into a variety of modern forms, such as a set of required common courses or a vertically organized general education program that includes advanced integrative studies and/or required participation in a learning community. These programs often combine broad themes—e.g., technology and society, global interdependence—with a variety of curricular and cocurricular options for students.
Learning Communities
The key goals for learning communities are to encourage integration of learning across courses and to involve students with “big questions” that matter beyond the classroom. Students take two or more linked courses as a group and work closely with one another and with their professors. Many learning communities explore a common topic and/or common readings through the lenses of different disciplines. Some deliberately link “liberal arts” and “professional courses”; others feature service learning.
Writing-Intensive Courses
These courses emphasize writing at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum, including final-year projects. Students are encouraged to produce and revise various forms of writing for different audiences in different disciplines. The effectiveness of this repeated practice “across the curriculum” has led to parallel efforts in such areas as quantitative reasoning, oral communication, information literacy, and, on some campuses, ethical inquiry.
Collaborative Assignments and Projects
Collaborative learning combines two key goals: learning to work and solve problems in the company of others, and sharpening one’s own understanding by listening seriously to the insights of others, especially those with different backgrounds and life experiences. Approaches range from study groups within a course, to team-based assignments and writing, to cooperative projects and research.
Undergraduate Research
Many colleges and universities are now providing research experiences for students in all disciplines. Undergraduate research, however, has been most prominently used in science disciplines. With strong support from the National Science Foundation and the research community, scientists are reshaping their courses to connect key concepts and questions with students’ early and active involvement in systematic investigation and research. The goal is to involve students with actively contested questions, empirical observation, cutting-edge technologies, and the sense of excitement that comes from working to answer important questions.
Diversity/Global Learning
Many colleges and universities now emphasize courses and programs that help students explore cultures, life experiences, and worldviews different from their own. These studies—which may address U.S. diversity, world cultures, or both—often explore “difficult differences” such as racial, ethnic, and gender inequality, or continuing struggles around the globe for human rights, freedom, and power. Frequently, intercultural studies are augmented by experiential learning in the community and/or by study abroad.
Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
In these programs, field-based “experiential learning” with community partners is an instructional strategy—and often a required part of the course. The idea is to give students direct experience with issues they are studying in the curriculum and with ongoing efforts to analyze and solve problems in the community. A key element in these programs is the opportunity students have to both apply what they are learning in real-world settings and reflect in a classroom setting on their service experiences. These programs model the idea that giving something back to the community is an important college outcome, and that working with community partners is good preparation for citizenship, work, and life.
Internships
Internships are another increasingly common form of experiential learning. The idea is to provide students with direct experience in a work setting—usually related to their career interests—and to give them the benefit of supervision and coaching from professionals in the field. If the internship is taken for course credit, students complete a project or paper that is approved by a faculty member.
Capstone Courses and Projects
Whether they’re called “senior capstones” or some other name, these culminating experiences require students nearing the end of their college years to create a project of some sort that integrates and applies what they’ve learned. The project might be a research paper, a performance, a portfolio of “best work,” or an exhibit of artwork. Capstones are offered both in departmental programs and, increasingly, in general education as well.
September 20th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Post 2: First-Year Seminars and Experiences, Common Intellectual Experiences, Learning Communities
BG1000 is a first year seminar with 33 music majors and one non-music major who has experience in music. This represents just under 1/3 of the first-year music major cohort. Although all of our music students have common intellectual experiences among themselves (the core curriculum), those in BG1000 will have similar experiences as students across the university in the other 11 BG1000 classes. These include a grounding in critical and constructive thinking, an emphasis on writing and communicating, and college transition and adjustment experiences.
The course itself serves as a learning community. The students formed a close bond at the very beginning with each other and the faculty. We have engaged “the big questions” already in the first 4 weeks of classes by having guest, Kelly Wicks, speak to us about the arts as essential to a community’s economic development. Students then attended the Black Swamp Arts Festival accompanied by faculty and peer facilitator, Molly Swope. In addition, their first critical thinking assignment was to assess various writings, pro and con, on President Obama’s school address, which had occurred just one hour before.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Post 3: Writing-Intensive Courses
In the music section of BG1000 the students will engage in a number of writing projects.
1) students must post a 150-200 word blog describing each of the eight arts events they attend. I return each blog entry to the student with suggestions for improvement along with a grade. Their progress may be tracked by observing posts from Event 1 through Event 8.
2) students will occasionally be asked to either post a blog or write a short response paper to their reading assignments. Again, these will be returned with suggestions for improvement along with their grade. At the end of the semester they will choose which of these short writings (with revision) they wish to post on their E-portfolio.
3) Students and faculty will each write a “This I believe” essay that will go through both peer and faculty revisions. After revision, the essay will be posted to the E-portfolio.
4) Students (in small groups) will write a 4-6 page paper on academic honesty that will be revised in a similar fashion. After revision, the paper will be posted to the E-portf
5. At the end of the semester each student will write a 5-7 page paper that reflects upon his/her work in the course and how course activities have or have not helped achieve the course learning outcomes. After revision, the paper will be posted to the E-portfolio.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Post 4: Collaborative Assignments and Projects
Students will engage in the following collaborative projects:
1) BGSU History & Traditions Presentation – In groups of two, students will work with Mr. Gorman to identify important parts of the history of Bowling Green State University and the College of Musical Arts. Using the BGSU website and “The History and Traditions of BGSU” by Ann Bowers and Linda Swaisgood, as well as personal interviews with faculty and administrators, students will:
–Prepare a short presentation to share with the class that demonstrates their research.
–Hand in to Mr. Gorman an outline of their presentation plus one artifact.
2) Academic Integrity Learning and Practices: Group Project – Students will read a variety of articles on academic integrity and briefly present their findings in class and in a 4-6 page collaborative paper. (A more detailed assignment sheet will be given out later.) The paper will be revised after consultation with instructors and peers and:
–Handed in to Dr. Natvig and posted to MyFiles
–Revised if needed at the end of the semester and posted to the e-portfolio
3) New Music and Arts Festival: Group Project – Student groups (three students per group) will be assigned a visiting composer whose piece is scheduled for performance at BGSU’s New Music and Arts Festival (October 22-24). You will interview “your” composer about his/her career, musical values and style, and the work performed at the festival. You will also briefly analyze the piece and attend rehearsals (unless it is a tape piece). You may also want to interview the performers. After learning about the composer’s composition, you will be asked to find a piece of art (sculpture, painting, drawing, etc.) on campus that reflects similar values, structure, or style as the composer’s piece. Your research will be:
–Handed in to Dr. Natvig in outline form
–Each group will create a research poster to be displayed during the NMAF (place of display TBA).
–At the end of the semester you will post your research results and a picture of your poster to your e-portfolio.
4) Class Community Service Project – As a class, students will work independently of the instructors to design and complete a community service project. The project must: 1) involve music, 2) involve everyone in the class, 3) demonstrate one of the class learning outcomes.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Post 5: Undergraduate Research
Students will engage in one major research project in which they will research a new composition via interviews with the guest composers and performers of the New Music Festival. Students will learn what kinds of questions to ask, they will examine and listen to the works and make connections between the works’ values or structures by finding a comparable piece of art on the BGSU campus. The result will be a research poster displayed at the NMF.
New Music and Arts Festival: Group Project – Student groups (three students per group) will be assigned a visiting composer whose piece is scheduled for performance at BGSU’s New Music and Arts Festival (October 22-24). You will interview “your” composer about his/her career, musical values and style, and the work performed at the festival. You will also briefly analyze the piece and attend rehearsals (unless it is a tape piece). You may also want to interview the performers. After learning about the composer’s composition, you will be asked to find a piece of art (sculpture, painting, drawing, etc.) on campus that reflects similar values, structure, or style as the composer’s piece. Your research will be:
1) Handed in to Dr. Natvig in outline form
2) Each group will create a research poster to be displayed during the NMAF (place of display TBA).
3) At the end of the semester you will post your research results and a picture of your poster to your e-portfolio.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Post 6: Diversity/Global Learning
There is no formal assignment or agenda for Diversity/Global Learning in the music section of BG1000. However, the students’ encounters at the Black Swamp Arts Festival with musical groups from various ethnic backgrounds, as well as with our guest composers will expose them to various manifestations of musical diversity. Furthermore, at the beginning of every class I play and briefly discuss a short composition (or excerpt of a longer piece) from various cultural and historical backgrounds, exposing them to a variety of musical cultures.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Post 7: Service Learning, Community Based Learning
Students are required to design and complete a community service project. The project must: 1) involve music, 2) involve everyone in the class, 3) demonstrate one of the class learning outcomes.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Post 8: Internships
The music section of BG1000 has no provision for internships, however, we have three scheduled class periods to expose students to various career opportunities that might spark interest or opportunities in internships later in their college careers.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Post 9: Capstone Courses and Projects
BG1000 has a required capstone project which is to post various assignments on their E-portfolio, including their final papers:
At the end of the semester each student will write a 5-7 page paper that reflects upon his/her work in the course and how course activities have or have not helped achieve the course learning outcomes.