Encouraging teachers to reform their courses using “the three R’s of education,” Brent W. Chowen, Assistant Professor in the BYU-Hawaii School of Education, urged educators to create a more global university and improve students’ learning experiences during his Convocation address September 9.
University Convocation, which takes the place of a weekly devotional each Fall Semester, is an opportunity for the faculty to open the new school year with an invitation for thought-provoking discussion.
The reform recommended by Chowen, which he explained via his address and a colorful slide presentation, detailed the three R’s – rigor, relevance and relationships. They were first introduced by the U.S. Department of Education, which created a program called Smaller Learning Communities in the 1990s, explained Chowen.
“The purpose of this reform,” said Chowen, “was to bring students in large high schools together into smaller learning groups based on common interest and career goals.” He added, “Although BYU-Hawaii stands as a smaller school in comparison to many larger state or national universities, the student needs on this campus are just as great and perhaps even greater due to our demographics. Yet BYU-Hawaii may not need the structural changes larger universities may need.”
Rather than a complete overhaul of BYUH’s structure, he encouraged a re-examination and possible reorganization of the curriculum of each teaching staff member by studying each of the three R’s and how they best fit their respective curricula.
Rigor
“First, rigor implies focusing on clear standards of academic learning and holding students to these standards. Rigor is not simply assigning difficult tasks for the sake of having difficult tasks, or adding more tasks to overburden students. Rather, a standards-based system has a minimum set of expectations that students must achieve to be successful, based on the standards of the field or the discipline… This standards-based approach allows students multiple opportunities to show mastery of expectations and outcomes, or in other words, competency in their subject.”
He suggested this system of resubmitting work until standards are met would allow students to achieve stronger growth for all students, not just those who are having a hard time with class materials. “The standards-based movement began as a reform to help struggling students and has been successful in pushing students from all demographic groups to higher achievement. A number of BYU-Hawaii students completed their secondary schooling under this type of system,” said Chowen.
Relevance
“The second area of curriculum and school reform is the concept of relevance. The move to include relevance in the curriculum takes many names: problem solving, problem-based learning, real world experiences, authentic learning, and engaging classrooms, among others… The objective is to shape education in ways that require new information students acquire to blend with background experience and prior learning at the institutional and individual level.”
Chowen also said a teaching curriculum that considers this idea of relevance will help keep students involved in the classroom because it will “engage their interest and keep them on task towards the learning standard.”
He also mentioned a more important aspect of the relevance issue: “Building skills and knowledge students will need for lifelong use is the key in creating engaging, relevant classrooms. We live in a dynamic world where market forces will drive changes in career offerings. But what will not change is the need for students to synthesize past knowledge and experiences with material, ideas, and technology they will encounter in the future. Instructors continue to have the responsibility to provide current, relevant material in the classroom while students maintain the responsibility to seek learning.”
To help illustrate this point, Chowen shared the following story about Socrates and his feelings on education: “One day a young man came to Socrates seeking knowledge. He flippantly asked Socrates, Will you teach me today all that you know? Socrates took the young man to the river, and wading in, pushed the young man under the water. The young man fought to rise, only to have Socrates push him further down. The young man resisted and eventually broke free. After several episodes, the young man cried, Why did you do that? The reply came, When you want knowledge as much as you wanted air, then come return and I will teach you.”
Improvements in technology have changed education and the needed preparation for students who are entering the work field. “While it is relevant for students to practice learning and meet the standards of their selected field, they must also be prepared to collaborate across disciplines,” argued Chowen. A live-video project in Italy to increase the learning and enjoyment of tourists visiting the ruins of Pompey, he explained, will necessitate the collaboration of computer software and hardware designers, historians, archeologists, anthropologists, architects, linguists, fashion designers and art historians. “Each group plays a vital part in developing a successful project. If successful, such projects could spread to other parts of the globe as a way of preserving culture.”
Relationships
The third and final step in reforming education to a more global and adaptive scale is the focus on building relationships between teachers and students, and students with fellow students. “How often, especially at the university level, has a student sat in class not understanding the material, but been afraid to ask for help, either because they feared the reactions of peers or the reaction of the professor? Building relationships is not the proverbial touchy-feely approach, but one in which an open learning environment is created. Students feel free to take academic risks and to be mentored in their learning.”
Chowen shared six ideas that come from one educational reformer, H. Lynn Erickson:
- Modeling values and ethics
- Knowing and connecting interpersonally with each student
- Supporting risk taking
- Building on success
- Providing clear directions and expectations
- Allowing and planning for different patterns of learning
Chowen further encouraged the faculty on campus to begin focusing on building these important relationships in order to better meet needs and more fully enrich the education of each student.
“BYU-Hawaii, because of its unique ability to build a multi-cultural learning environment while maintaining a common spiritual focus, is well placed to become what a global university should be. This campus is home to many success stories, of students who have entered to learn and who have gone forth to serve. A number of instructors have spent hours creating rigorous courses that focus on learning standards that produce students capable of entering their chosen professions prepared to serve and lead.”
“The prophetic vision of this great university can be realized upon understanding these points. BYU-Hawaii, as it states on the website, truly is a unique university. Representing so many regions of the world, and pulling in students from such far places into one, this university has the opportunity to continue its global perspective and background. As the challenges of the global environment encroach upon this small campus, may we come together this year with increased effort to make BYU-Hawaii a more effective university in preparing students to meet these challenges.”
Photo by Monique Saenz