Jeff King
Executive Director, Center for Excellence in Transformative, Teaching and Learning
University of Central Oklahoma

That Voodoo That You Do: Transformative Learning in Your Classrooms

Thursday, May 19 at 1:00 - 2:15 p.m.
Banquet Rooms (follow-up “Open Conversation” session at 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.)

Transformative Learning (TL) can seem an arcane concept to put into practice, even magical in order to accomplish successfully, but it can be made explicit—the magical art of TL only seems that way because by definition it must involve students’ (and teachers’) limbic system processing, and the limbic system is not the part of the brain that processes language to describe with words the transformative moment. As with all learning, you can’t “make” students learn. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. With good TL practice, though, you can salt the oats. There are explicit, replicable, and effective methods and tools you can use to make TL more likely to happen in your classroom than simply leaving it to chance. Many faculty intuitively know some methods to accomplish this (which itself is a good example of limbic system knowledge and skill kicking in!). Dr. King’s institution operationalizes TL by having faculty intentionally adapt at least one assignment to include the production of a student learning artifact designed to prompt a TL experience. The teaching science lies in scaffolding that experience. TL isn’t voodoo, but the dramatic impact on students can seem magical.

Participants will be able to:

• Describe what transformative teaching and learning is
• Outline specific methods of practice of transformative teaching and learning
• Develop instructional strategies and student activities that will encourage transformative learning

Biography

Jeff King, Ed.D., is Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Transformative Teaching and Learning at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. His research and application interests have long focused on what college faculty can do to help their students learn, to be motivated toward deep learning strategies, and to persist in their educations. His work over the years both as college faculty member and in faculty professional development matches passion to position in helping students learn.

 

Dr. Melissa R. Peet
Director, Integrative Learning and Knowledge Management
Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

Transformative and Integrative Learning:
Fostering Competent, Caring, Engaged and Productive citizens

Wednesday, May 18 at 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Banquet Rooms (follow-up “Open Conversation” session at 2:00 - 3:15 p.m.)

Although a growing body of research shows that embodied (unconscious) knowledge is essential to the development of effective workers, practitioners and leaders in all fields, this knowledge is rarely addressed in higher education. Dr. Peet’s work on Integrative Learning and Generative Knowledge addresses this gap through the development of methods that help students’ identify hidden moments of learning, and connect those moments to academic knowledge. “Generative Knowledge” refers to the hidden strengths, capacities and sources of resilience people develop unconsciously as they learn, grow, and adapt to changing conditions across their lifespan. This knowledge is “generative” (resource generating) because it provides people with a sense of engagement, purpose and direction, which in turn, supports the development of different types of capacities.

Participants will be able to:

• Describe how different types of knowledge (formal, embodied, etc.) influence peoples’ learning and development in both positive and negative ways
• Explain the role students’ identity, agency and beliefs play in their ability to translate academic knowledge into a sense of purpose and skills they can use in work and life
• Help students recognize, value and document the subtle (often unconscious) sensations and insights that accompany deep learning

Biography

Dr. Melissa R. Peet, PhD. is the Director of Integrative Learning and Knowledge Management at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on identifying and refining teaching, learning and knowledge management methods that support effective leaders, entrepreneurs and change agents. Dr. Peet’s methods have been adopted widely by colleges and universities throughout the US to educate leaders, entrepreneurs, and effective change agents for the 21st century.