the jwl difference -- ignatian pedagogy and our academic processes

THE JWL DIFFERENCE JESUIT WORLDWIDE LEARNING

TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION

▸ At the heart of JWL’s mission are these words: “Learning together to transform the world”

Let’s look at the “learning together” part first.


Our model ▸  Student cohorts learn together in an onsite learning

center with dedicated staff hired by onsite partners to guide and mentor them.

▸  We work with partners on the ground because they are already successful at working in the environments where we operate

▸  They are called our ‘implementing partners’▸  Alind (Kurdistan) ▸  ReConnect (Brooklyn) ▸  St. Aloysius Gonzaga school (Taunggyi) ▸  Jesuit Refugee Service (everywhere else)


▸ Our learning centers provide:

▸ Computer access

▸  Internet access

▸ Onsite general tutors

▸ Opportunities for group reflection and discussion

▸ Academic advising and guidance


▸  There is a lot going on behind the scenes with the Academic team of JWL, too.

▸  Director of Academic Operations (DAO) – Dr. Tara Ross – oversees the diploma program for JWL

▸  Head of Faculty – Dr. Marie Friedemann – hires faculty and manages faculty

▸  Student Records Officer – Tracy Jenkins – manages student grades, grade changes, schedules, and enrollment statuses

▸  Academic System Support – Alejandro Brillembourg – works with the DAO to administer the diploma program


Learning Centers ▸  Students come from many different locations: ▸  Amman, Jordan (urban refugees – not in a camp) ▸  Bamyan, Afghanistan ▸  Brooklyn, New York ▸  Domiz, Iraq (Kurdistan) (refugee camp) ▸  Dzaleka, Malawi (refugee camp) ▸  Erbil, Iraq (Kurdistan) ▸  Herat, Afghanistan ▸  Kakuma, Kenya (refugee camp) ▸  Taunggyi, Myanmar


▸ While students come from many different locations, they are mixed together in the online classroom

▸  Thus, students who start in one of our January or August cohorts may see each other every day in their learning center, but they meet other students from our other locations in their online classes


▸ Back to the heart of our mission statement: “Learning together to transform the world”

Let’s look at the “transformation” part next.


▸ Transformation begins with an expertly written and designed curriculum that is sensitive to the culture and context of our diverse student population

▸ Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) write our curriculum, which then goes through two rounds of review – one internal and one external


▸ Once approved, our curriculum is designed into an online framework by our course designers

▸ Courses are 8 weeks long, and are housed on the Blackboard Learning Management System

▸ Regis University, which approves all course content, awards credits for courses


We do more than give lip service to the word “transform.”

▸  We use IGNATIAN PEDAGOGY to:

▸  Keep the curriculum sensitive to a student’s CONTEXT, regardless if they are

▸  in a refugee camp in Africa,

▸  at a living-on-site location in Bamyan, Afghanistan,

▸  an inner city in Brooklyn,

▸  or a remote and rural part of Myanmar.


JWL Perspective

We use a variety of perspectives, and yet we do not leave out the western perspective. English is the language of our program. Ultimately, we let the student bring in their own context. We call this “leaving the doors and windows open.”


▸  Once we open the doors for context, we then:

▸  Give students EXPERIENCES that can help them learn a topic in a meaningful way. This might take the form of:

▸  Providing science kits to our students in the physical science class so that they can conduct experiments (many for the first time)

▸  Watching videos of Northern Ireland ex-combatants talk about their peace building actions today

▸  Listening to jazz music and learning how to use art to tell a story in order to give it impact


Note! ▸  You might be wondering how Northern Ireland or

even Jazz relates to the lives of refugees. First, don’t put your own blinders on…students have tremendous capacity to learn about new contexts regardless of their own.

▸  Second, sometimes we deliberately take students far away from their existing context and let them learn about another context. Once they have learned the information without the benefit of their own environmental cues and/or blinders, they may be more objective. Then they can apply what they’ve learned to their own context and life story.


▸  After experiences, students are then:

▸  Provided an opportunity for REFLECTION so that they can connect the head to the heart, and let what they’ve learned affect what they understand, believe, and feel.

▸  Reflections are journals that students write each week. They are graded pass/fail, and while we want you to read them, and ensure that the student is doing them, we don’t want you to grade them for what they write (unless it’s unrelated to the assignment.)


▸ Reflection then leads one into making changes in the world around them. In the JWL curriculum, we do this through Action.

▸ With ACTION, students have an activity, an assignment, or project that not only helps them apply what they have learned, but also helps them consider how they can transform the world around them.


What happens…

▸  The action element is so transforming that we often see students creating programs outside of their studies that will benefit their community. Once students learn how to think like this, they develop a tremendous sense of personal agency.


▸  Constant improvement is a good educational practice. We accomplish this through EVALUATION

▸  Students are evaluated in what they have learned formatively (asynchronous discussions), and summatively (assignments, journals, projects, and tests).

▸  Students evaluate the curriculum and their faculty member through an end-of-course evaluation.

▸  Faculty evaluate the curriculum and the course design through a faculty end-of-course evaluation

▸  The academic team at JWL evaluates the outcomes to determine next steps.


▸  The evaluation results we receive then enter a feedback loop that involves our academic team and our course designers.

▸ We use the results and outcomes to improve the curriculum, the design, and the program as a whole.


▸  Some examples of feedback and changes include:

▸  Using unified rubrics so faculty members feel less burdened by grading

▸  Modifying some course content to require less busy work and richer, more meaningful (but fewer) assignments.

▸  Suggesting that our learning centers hire an alumni to tutor current students in Algebra on-site

THE JWL DIFFERENCE

Context

Experience

Reflection Action

Evaluation

Thus, our model looks like this:


▸  Is transformation just a personal event?

▸  Transformation is personal – the student combines their prior life experiences with their newly acquired knowledge and, based on their current context, begins to change how they approach problem solving.

▸  More personal agency

▸  Begin to see options

▸  Recognize opportunities

▸  Crave “what’s next” – want to go beyond the JWL program


▸  Is transformation just a personal event?

▸  No; transformation is also cultural, societal, and global.

▸  We don’t aim to change culture; it enriches the lives of our students.

▸  We aim to have students transform their societies and their world within their cultural context.

JUST SOME BACKGROUND….JWL HAS:

325 active students,

from 9 sites,

with43% women, and 57% men.

DIPLOMA FACULTY IN 2016:

86 individual faculty members taught 135 sec4ons and are from 24 colleges and universi4es,

2 high schools, and 4 non-‐profit organiza4ons

MAINTAINING THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION RECEIVED

▸  So what affects the quality of the education received?

▸  The student’s background and abilities ▸  The curriculum ▸  The availability of on-site tutors ▸  The structure of program ▸  and teaching practices

(Su-Ann & Van Der Stouwe, 2008).

Let’s look at teaching practices!

JWL TEACHING PRACTICES

▸ Online teaching effectiveness uses social, teaching, and cognitive presence -

  SOCIAL is the ability to project oneself and establish rapport,

  TEACHING PRESENCE is how the instructor shares their subject matter knowledge,

  COGNITIVE PRESENCE is how they help students construct meaning and knowledge of the content

  (Gorsky & Blau, 2009)


▸  SOCIAL PRESENCE

▸ Welcome announcement with your photo, signed by you, and includes your email

▸ Weekly announcements that guide the students for what is coming up in the week ahead

▸  If your course carries an introduction discussion, reply to each student individually to welcome them

▸ Be active in the weekly discussions at least 3 times per week, replying to students’ posts and encouraging students to check out points made by other students as well

▸ Reply promptly to student emails


▸  TEACHING PRESENCE is how the instructor shares their subject matter knowledge

▸  While the course, syllabus, rubrics, and assignments have already been created for you, we ask that you contribute your subject knowledge in the online discussions

▸  You can also share your expertise in feedback to student assignments

▸  Finally, you can share subject content using the announcement feature

▸  While faculty have used Skype to communicate with students, we cannot require it because of bandwidth and time zone differences.


▸  COGNITIVE PRESENCE is how the instructor helps students construct meaning and knowledge of the content

▸  This combines the design of the course with your expertise

▸  Much of this is accomplished through our curriculum and course design, but is enhanced through your discussion posts with students

▸  Bring in your professional experiences and insight

▸  Share new perspectives and understandings

▸  Motivate and encourage student involvement


▸ Provide timely feedback

▸ Students crave your feedback

▸ They do not have the same reliable access to their courses, so getting them feedback that allows them to maximize the online time they do have is very helpful

▸ Please have each week’s grades completed one week from when it ends.


▸ Communicate high expectations▸ Despite the challenges of our JWL students, we

still need to have high expectations ▸ Flexibility is warranted due to internet outages,

power outages, sickness in the camps, but we also want to avoid extending every deadline, or allowing non-emergency extensions ▸ Policies regarding plagiarism, final grades,

course extensions, and more are found in the Faculty Quick Guide

REFERENCES

Gorsky, P., & Blau, I. (2009). Online teaching effectiveness: A tale of two instructors. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 10(3), 1-27.

Su-Ann, O., & Van Der Stouwe, M. (2008). Education, diversity, and inclusion in Burmese refugee camps in Thailand. Comparative Education Review, 52(4), 589-617.