CRITICAL REFLECTION

COURSE DESIGN STRATEGIES:

Equipping Students for Transformational

Dialogues in Civic Contexts

Dr. Jeralyn Faris, Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University

with Community Partners

Peggy Mims, Chaplain, Signature HealthCARE Lafayette, IN

Keith Baker, Volunteer Services Dir., Indiana Veterans’ Home, W. Lafayette, IN

INTRODUCTIONS

• Special thanks to Kristin Norris of IUPUI and the many

other scholars whose works have taught me this material.

• Who we are and what we bring…a brief history

• Who you are…please introduce yourselves:

• Your name

• Where you serve

• Your goal in being in this session

KEY TERMS…

Why “Critical” reflection course design?

It is a pedagogy that can transform students’ way of knowing and lead to action…and we must understand WE are with them in this process!

1. Generates learning that helps students--Articulate questions--Confront bias--Examine causality--Contrast theory with practice--Point to systemic issues

2. Deepens learning--Challenges simplistic conclusions

--Invites alternative perspectives

--Asks “why?” iteratively

3. Documents learning--Produces tangible expressions of new

understandings for evaluation

Ash & Clayton (2009)

• Key outcome at Purdue: A student “demonstrates understanding of the rights and

obligations that students have as citizens in communities, nations and the world.”

• Definition from AAC&U: Global citizenship and social awareness is

1. Civil discourse on complex issues

2. Ability to appreciate and critique multiple perspectives

including one’s own

3. Self-reflective examination of values

4. Self-reflective awareness of oneself as a global citizen

5. Ethical citizenship and leadership in a global civil society

6. Commitment to community service

What learning outcome goals does your university have for students regarding

civic engagement or a sense of community responsibility?

CIVIC LEARNING: RELEVANT ACROSS THE DISCIPLINESBattistoni (2002) offers a wide variety of conceptualizations for various disciplines

for “civic” such as:

Participatory Democracy

Social

JusticeEthics of Care

Corporate Social

Responsibility

HOW DO WE ENABLE STUDENT CIVIC GROWTH?

3 dimensions:

• Civic learning: knowledge, skills, values necessary to be

effective society member

• Civic identity: individualized voice …engaged, contributing to

greater good

• Civic agency: deliberate choice in action or inaction to live out

that voice, acting

Kristin Norris: “Civic-mindedness” is an integration of all 3

AGENDA

1. Syllabus Design

2. Scheduling and Assignment Design

3. Course Final Project:

Critical Digital Storytelling

4. Final take-aways and conclusions

SYLLABUS DESIGN

• 1st Step…begin with the end in mind: What are the desired learning outcomes?

“This is key to an intentional instructional design process.”Ash & Clayton (2009)

Components

Academic

Material

Critical Reflection

Relevant

Service

Service-

Learning

Personal

Growth

Civic

LearningAcademic

Enhancement

Service-

Learning

Learning Goal CategoriesCritical thinking within all categories

The role of Reflection in achieving categories of Learning Goals

All of us…

Community Partners,

Students, Instructors

Community Partner

Input is critical:

The EXPERTS

Bloom’s taxonomy with associated learning behaviors

Provides the foundation and drives the rest of the process

Remember, name, list,

recognize, identify

Classify, describe,

explain, interpret, report

Use, implement, execute,

demonstrate, apply

Organize, structure,

outline, integrateAnalysis

Comprehension

Knowledge

Hypothsize, judge,

check, critiqueEvaluatation

Design, construct, invent,

create, devise, authorSynthesis

Application

Hig

he

r O

rde

r S

kil

ls

BREAK INTO SMALLER GROUPS?

• Pass out handouts for syllabus design work

1. Example: Small Group Com course goals and

learning outcomes table

2. Blank table for you. Begin using Bloom’s Taxonomy

for the foundation

3. Sample syllabus application of the above

Category:

Personal Growth

Category:

Civic Learning

Category:

Academic Enhancement

Learning

Objective

Levels

Learning Goal:

Students will consider ways to improve their small

group com competencies and intergenerational

com skills

Learning Goal:

Students will become more aware of needs of the

elderly and collaborate to meet the needs of elderly

they serve

Learning Goal:

Students will understand the Social Change Model of

Leadership Development

(aka, Transformative Leadership)

(Cress, pg.61-63)

1. Identify

Identify competency and intergenerational com

skills you most need to work on

Identify the class’ collective objectives and the

approaches you took to meet them

Identify the Social Change Model of Leadership

Development

2. Explain

Explain the competency and skill so that someone

who does not know can understand

Explain the objectives and the approach you and others

took to meet them so someone not involved can

understand

Explain the model so that someone unfamiliar with it can

understand it

3. Apply

Apply your understanding of the competency and

intergen com skills in the context of the S-L project

and other areas of your life

Apply your understanding of the approach you took in

the context of the objectives at stake

Apply your understanding of the model in the context of

the S-L experience with the residents at the Vets’ Home

or Signature Healthcare

4. Analyze

Analyze the sources of these skills in your life Analyze the approach taken in light of the alternatives Analyze the differences between the model as

presented in the text and as it emerged in the S-L

context

5. Evaluate

Evaluate your strategies for refining your skills over

the long term

Evaluate your approaches in terms of prospects for

long-term sustainability or systemic change

Evaluate the completeness of your understanding of the

SC Model of L’ship Dev’ment and its use in a community

6. Synthesize

Develop the steps necessary to improve these skills

in the short term, in your service learning activities

and other areas of your life

Develop the steps necessary to make any needed

improvements in your approaches and/or the objectives

Develop an enhanced understanding of the Social

Change Model of Leadership Development in light of

the experience

Faris Small Group Com Learning Goals and Objectives Table

Adapted from Ash & Clayton (2009)

SCHEDULING AND ASSIGNMENT DESIGN

To give greater understanding, we look at the end result:

Examples of Digital Storytelling, Com 320, Fall 2018Shown by permission of students

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCek0TGq5HW8EcaycENmUHaQ/playlists

How do we get

to this point?

SCHEDULING AND ASSIGNMENT DESIGN

Scaffolding assignments to build toward Critical Digital Storytelling begins with your course calendar:

1. Start with the end of your semester calendar and count back 6 weeks, counting the week you want

the projects presented in class.

2. March 19: Explain the assignment in depth and give specific instructions and time line of

assignment due dates.

3. March 26: An in-class assignment to increase their critical reflection of the semester experiences

4. April 2: Instruction in video production

5. April 9: Peer-to-peer reviews of scripts

6. April 15-19: 20-minute personal appointments with me for feedback on storyboard images

7. April 22: Final Projects due on COM 320 private YouTube channel

8. April 23 & 25 view and comment on Digital Stories

SCHEDULING AND ASSIGNMENT DESIGN:SCAFFOLDING

• You have your goals and objectives in mind

• You know the importance of reflection to get to the final

• Now build with the end assignment in mind

• With the help of your Community Partners

How many times in the semester will the

students be with them?

How much class time in the semester will be

given to students being on site?

Decisions to be made with your community partners… Indiana Veterans’ Home

How will you begin?

SCHEDULING AND ASSIGNMENT DESIGN:….with the syllabus goals and objectives?

Consider sending

an email to the

students a week to

ten days before

classes begin.

Invite them to read

the syllabus before

classes start.

Express your

excitement with the

expectations of

what you can learn

together as you

partner with those

you serve.

➢ Have any of you been in a service-learning course?

➢ Service-learning: How would you define it?

Teacher Student

Academic

Course

Content

Community

Service

Experience

Learning(reflection)

Cress, Collier, & Reitenauer, 2005

SCHEDULING AND ASSIGNMENT DESIGN:

• When and how often will reflection occur?

-- Before, during, and after the experience?

• Will students reflect iteratively such that

reflection builds on itself over time?

• Where will reflection occur?

-- In or outside the classroom?

• Who will facilitate and/or participate in

reflection?

-- Instructors, members of the community

and/or workplace, peers?

• How will feedback be provided and/or

reflection products graded?

-- What is the relationship between amount of

feedback and level of expected outcomes?

-- What is the relationship between the

reflection products and the overall grade?

Questions to guide the

design of reflection

strategies and mechanisms (Ash & Crofton, p.34)

• Toward what specific learning goals and objectives will

the particular activity be guided?

(See table of Objectives and Goals covered earlier)

• What medium will be used for the activity: Written

assignments, worksheets, spectrum activities,

photographs, videos, games, drawings, online forums,

in-class discussion, out-of-class reflection sessions,

concept maps, etc.?

• What prompts will be used to guide the activity?

(See “Examine” prompt table…discussed hereafter)

• What products will demonstrate the learning the activity

generates: essays, PowerPoint or poster presentations,

oral exams, etc.?

Note that in a critical reflection process, the products used

to demonstrate learning are in many cases the same as the

medium used to generate it.

Category:

Personal Growth

Category:

Civic Learning

Learning

Objective

Levels

Learning Goal:

Students will consider ways to

improve their small group com

competencies and intergenerational

com skills

Learning Goal:

Students will become more aware of

needs of the elderly and collaborate to

meet the needs of elderly they serve

ASSIGNMENT DESIGN (PARTIAL EXAMPLE):

Learning Goals Examine PromptsStudents will consider

ways to improve their

small group com

competencies and

intergenerational com

skills

--What was I / someone else trying to accomplish?

--In taking the actions I / they did, was the focus on

symptoms or causes of problems?

--Was the focus (symptoms or cause) appropriate to

the situation?

--How might I / they focus more on underlying causes

in the future?Students will become

more aware of needs of

the elderly and

collaborate to meet the

needs of elderly they

serve

--In what ways did power and privilege emerge in this

experience?

--What are the sources of power and privilege in this

situation?

--Who benefits and who is harmed?

… to Blackboard to review details of Final Digital Storytelling Assignment