NUTSHELL NOTES "Teaching tips in a nutshell" - The University of Colorado at Denver's One-page Newsletter for Teaching Excellence

    This is the final issue on the Perry model. Perry's  Forms of Ethical and Intellectual Development in the College Years was based on a study of Harvard students. This landmark study provided the first detailed answer to the question: How does college-level education actually change one's ability to think"? A number of subsequent workers have confirmed the validity of the basic pattern described by stages 1-6 of the Perry model. But stages 7-9 are ?fuzzier? and involve a melding of the moral, the affective, and the intellectual. They do not fit easily within the topic of cognitive development. Neither do these stages clearly describe "Ethical...Development? because they were never presented in the context of the more universally accepted principles and rules of ethics. The three stages presented in this single issue reflect their compression into a single chapter of Perry's book. Although these stages were those minimally developed within the original work, R. Slepitza and K. L. Knefelkamp later extended the Perry model beyond college students and into the realm of the career development of professionals. They found characteristics in developing professionals that were consistent with stages 7-9 described by Perry. Young professionals are the clientele often served by our own CU-Denver graduate programs, so awareness of these stages provides some insights about the probable struggles that occur in the minds of our students. Stage 9 was not even expected by Perry's research team to arise from an undergraduate education alone. Such seasoned thinking results from experience itself rather than the idea of experience. Yet, the team did find evidence of stage 9 kinds of thinking in about 10% of the Harvard seniors.

    Stage 7, "initial commitment,? describes a state when students take responsibility for who they will be in some major area of life. For example "I have decided to become a teacher? expresses not merely an important decision, but personal identification with that decision and some awareness that it is a life-changing commitment. When such a statement is made at the undergraduate level, there is often still opportunity to change one's mind. A graduate degree, however, is rarely pursued for the purpose of "general education? or becoming "well rounded." The choice to initiate graduate study is one that has been some time in the making.

    Stage 8, "orientation in implications of commitment,? arrives when awareness permits the decision to be addressed in expanded and more specific detail. An example is "There are many effective ways to teach; what kind of teacher do I want to be and why"? Another might be: "I had no idea how demanding teaching can be! Can a teacher live a balanced life with other interests and a family"?

     Stage 9, "developing commitments,? is a position that Perry relates with "maturity." It describes a self-image that comes from significant experience coupled with reflective thought rather than from reflective thought alone. An example might be "I entered teaching because I was so inspired by the classes I took from a particular professor. But after teaching for a year, I realize that I am not a naturally passionate orator who can easily hold a class spellbound. I need to explore other ways to engage students in order to better promote and inspire their learning." Such a comment shows that strong commitment is not a simple rigid plan, but rather a decision that leads to continual growth, negotiation, searching and the ever-present possibility of change.

    Perry associates stages 8 and 9 with 'stylistic issues"?an association of one's identity with commitment as shaped by "temperament, preferences... courage, understanding, and care." Shaping involves balancing tensions that include: personal choice vs. external influence, doubt vs. security, benefits of specialization vs. loss of alternatives, idealism vs. realism, and self interest vs. interest for others. Awareness grows that life success is not a result of solving problems (even complex ones), but also involves managing onself well within situations that won't have perfect resolutions.
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?Brain-Based Learning?

    Our theme for the first year of the new millennium will be one that is often neglected in both faculty development and in the field of education-namely how the brain works in the context of what we do and try to do in our enterprise of "professoring." Two years ago, I had the honor of being invited to review a book manuscript for Stylus Press called Thinking about Teaching and Learning by Dr. Bob Leamnson of University of MA at Dartmouth. I later carried on discussions by email with Bob and invited him to join us at past July's Boot Camp for Profs®. Bob is a biologist, with an interest in relating how the brain works to what professors do in the classroom. As you might guess, approaching things from a different perspective can produce irreverent questions: Educators talk about "active learning? and "passive learning." Was there ever any learning in which a brain was not active? We talk abut "cooperative learning." Is learning really a cooperative activity, or doesn't it take place in the brain of the individual? Are "multiple intelligences? a major discovery or a writer's invention? We talk about "teaching? and "learning"? To what degree can we decouple those two concepts? When does it make sense to do so, and when can this cause mischief? (Before any of you can beat me to it, I'll raise the ugly quip-- "Whaddaya mean brain-based... learning? Is there any learning that doesn't involve a brain?!?)

    Needless to say, there can be quite a bit of spirited discussion generated by looking at things from a different perspective, and such discussions were greatly appreciated by the Boot Camp participants. We liked them so much that we have invited Bob here to do a "workshop? for us in February on a Friday (date & place to be announced) and he has accepted. This year, we want to do things a bit differently--there will be less presentation and a lot of discussion. In order to facilitate this, I want to put a copy of Thinking About Teaching and Learning in every attendant's hand before December so the book can be read, reflected upon and copious notes of agreement, disagreement and questions can be drafted and brought to the session. Please email me your name to enuhfer@carbon.cudenver.edu and I'll reserve you a workshop space and get you a book.

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Do You Use a Mac?

    It has come to my attention as well as to the attention of Jeanne Harder in CINS that we have a significant number of folks using Macintosh computers. The most recent brouhaha caused when Appletalk was taken down and then brought back a few weeks later made it apparent that we need a list of Mac users in order to notify folks about training sessions, changes that may affect them, and ways around problems that might arise when working on a campus dominated by PC-based computers. Unfortunately, the only list we now have is one composed by faculty member Taisto Makela over a year ago, and we know that it's too incomplete. Because we could not gain access to the ucdfac@lists list-serve as a means to compose the list of Mac users, we'll try to compile the needed list the second best way by soliciting your email response from this newsletter.

    If you use a Mac in your work at CU-Denver, please respond to this request via email to enuhfer@carbon.cudenver.edu in the following way.

In the subject line of your note place "I use a Mac."

In the text of your message provide the following information.

(1) The building and room where your Mac is housed on campus.
(2) The model of the Mac you are using.
(3) The version of operating system you are now using.

    Our request here applies to office computers only. If you use Macs in any departmental lab, and you believe they are serviced by CINS or affected by local area network changes, you can supply that information via email to me if you wish and I'll pass it on to CINS so they'll have a better inventory, But this response regarding non-office Macs is totally optional.

    Please answer as soon as you receive this newsletter. I'll consider the list to be as complete as it is going to get by November 14, and send a copy to respondents, Carl Pletsch, Jeanne Harder, and Taisto Makela.
 
 

Ed Nuhfer, Director Teaching Effectiveness & Faculty Development
CU-Denver Campus Box 137 PO Box 173364 Denver, CO 80217-3364
(303) 556-4915 Fax (303) 556-5855