Spine Development
I have played a valued role in developing the new ISAT spine. I'll highlight two specific roles here.
ISAT 190 Development
In the Spring 2015 semester, I collaborated on a team with Mike Deaton, Catherine De Ridder Vignone, and Paul Henriksen to develop the first draft of learning objectives and a syllabus for the new ISAT 190 course. The notes that I produced were then used by the team that met over the summer of 2015 at the CFI Faculty Institute for ISAT 190. Of particular note, this is the first time that I explicitly introduced my favorite definition of learning into the ISAT curriculum:
"From a sociocultural perspective, learning is perceived through changing relationships among the learner, the other human participants, and the tools (material and symbolic) available in a given context. Thus learning involves not only acquiring new knowledge and skill, but taking on a new identity and social position within a particular discourse or community of practice. As Wenger puts it, learning “changes who we are by changing our ability to participate, to belong, and to experience our life and the world as meaningful.” (Moss, P. A. (2003). Reconceptualizing validity for classroom assessment. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 22(4), 13-25. p14)
What I like about this definition is that it moves us away from the psychometric definitions of learning that are couched in terms of points and test scores. Instead, it emphasizes that learning is fundamentally relational--what we know is determined by what other people recognize us for, and the ways that we are allowed to participate in the world.
Following from this, I designed what Mike Deaton later described in a faculty meeting as "the most popular assignment of the course": the students were given the assignment of interviewing and getting to know a professor. This assignment has become a staple part of the course and is already establishing itself as a part of ISAT culture. Incidentally, in my original design for the course, the students were also to be asked to meet and interview their upperclass colleagues, and also ALL of the members of their own cohorts. Perhaps these assignments will make their way back into the course.
Spine Rubric Development and Testing
In the Summer of 2014, I was a member of a team that honed and empirically tested the first draft of the ISAT Spine Rubric. This work led to my leading an effort to purchase video cameras and train ISAT students to record ALL of the ISAT Senior Symposium presentations. This has culminated in the creation of a YouTube channel where all of the BSISAT presentations are posted.
In the summer of 2017, I organized the effort to get the Assessment Committee to collectively watch all 48 of the videos that are online and revise the rubric. We now have all of the data we need to empirically validate our rubric and use it to begin gathering evidence as to the effectiveness of the ISAT Spine. Given all of the time and effort that has gone into developing the Spine over the last few years, it is important to know whether or not it is meeting the objectives for which it was devised.
In spring 2018, I again supervised the collection of videos for all of the BSISAT Senior Symposium presentations. They are currently in the process of being uploaded to YouTube.