The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) invited Elizabethtown to participate in the organization’s Capstones and Signature Work project. The two-year program, supported by a $200,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, focuses on integrative learning, signature work and culminating experiences presently taking place at just eight colleges and universities across the United States.
Invited, in addition to Elizabethtown, are Augustana, Bates, Connecticut and Oberlin colleges; Clark and Nebraska Wesleyan universities; and the College of William and Mary.
This program is the next frontier in the AAC&U’s ongoing educational change initiative—Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP). The LEAP Challenge calls for college students to integrate and apply their learning to complex problems and projects important to the student and to society. The philosophy states that all students can and should be afforded the opportunity to produce “signature work” throughout their undergraduate experience.
We have really made a strong effort to get real-world learning in the curriculum for all students not just some.”
Elizabethtown was selected because the College has “intentional and progressively challenging curricular designs that encourage students to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to produce a significant piece of work on a problem they define,” noted the invitation from the AAC&U.
“When done well,” the invitation continued, “signature work represents liberal education at its best—helping students become critical thinkers skilled in analysis and argument.”
The core question for the LEAP project is how to give students the opportunity to do signature work in capstone research, field-based activity, internship, performances, etc. These signature opportunities require colleges to prepare students for and support them while they conduct a significant integrative or culminating project, which requires time and resources and, perhaps more importantly, coordination and commitment across the institution.
Participation in the week-long AAC&U’s Summer 2015 Institute on Integrative Learning and the Departments, held July 14 through 18 at University of Delaware, gives college teams the opportunity to attend sessions on integrative learning and develop multi-year plans to take back to their institutions.
As an innovator, with Signature Learning Experiences (SLE) already in place for several years, however, Elizabethtown’s focus is to continue to offer stimulating experiences but also find ways to increase the quality.
“Elizabethtown was included (among the invited institutions) because of the great progress we have made with the SLE,” said Betty Rider, the College’s associate provost, associate academic dean and registrar, who is part of the E-town team. “We have really made a strong effort to get real-world learning in the curriculum for all students not just some. They will be able to leave the College with greater strength than what they otherwise would have.”
In addition to Rider, Elizabethtown College’s LEAP team comprises Kristi Kneas, associate professor of chemistry and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Kyle Kopko, assistant professor of political science and director of the Honors Program; and Michele Kozimor-King, associate professor of sociology and director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
With 85 percent of E-town students presently graduating with two or more SLEs E-town’s focus is in the signature learning practices. “We are far ahead of other schools in making this a graduation guarantee,” Rider said. It is hoped that participation in the Institute offers not only suggestions on how to engage the remaining 15 percent of students who have completed just one SLE – and a few who have completed none, but also on ensuring that SLEs are truly meaningful.
“Do (students) really get an opportunity as they come into the College to think about which ones they choose to get where they want to be in life, not just at graduation?” she pondered. “What we want to do is take it to the next level and make sure it’s truly signature, truly preparing students to be out in the world.”
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations grant supports travel and expenses for all E-town participants for project meetings over the next two years and for the summer institute. It also covers housing, meals and fees for the summer institute; travel and expenses for selected participants to make presentations at AAC&U meetings; and support for institutional surveys of signature work.
“This is a great opportunity for E-town,” said Rider of the invitation. “Elizabethtown is pleased to be part of the program. We are pleased to be with these other schools. We are in good company.”