The Changing Student Body

1. The Changing Student Body How and Why Does it Matter? 2011 Plater Institute on the Future of Learning Victor M. H. Borden, Ph.D. Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Sr. Advisor to Exec VP for Regional Affairs, Planning, and Policy

2. Overview • Two tracks • Addressing the question asked • Warm-up for “pop quiz” • Handout for keeping score • How and why does understanding the changing student body matter? • Fundamental paradigm shift • From teaching students to learning students

3. Quiz Warm-up Item Total Undergraduates At what average annual percentage rate has the size of the undergraduate student body at IUPUI changed over the last 20 years (since 1991) • -2% • 0% • +2% • +4% +0.2% to be exact

4. Undergraduate Enrollment at IUPUI 30,000 25,000 22,236 22,407 21,193 21,157 20,695 19,950 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016 2021

5. What Really Works for Student Learning? • Research findings converge • Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education • Chickering & Gamson, 1991, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 47. • Insights from Neuroscience and Anthropology, Cognitive Science and Work-place Studies • Ted Marchese,http://home.avvanta.com/~building/lifelong/higher_ed/marchese.htm • National Research Council Research Synthesis • How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11102

6. Seven Principles • Encourages Contact Between Students and Faculty • Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students • Encourages Active Learning • Gives Prompt Feedback • Emphasizes Time on Task • Communicates High Expectations • Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

7. Marchese’s Insights • Good teachers, like "reflective practitioners" in other professions, constantly test, adjust, and reframe their models of practice on the basis of experience and reflection

8. Marchese’s Insights • The more a teacher can emphasize . . . • learner independence and choice • intrinsic motivators and natural curiosity • rich, timely, usable feedback coupled with occasions for reflection • active involvement in real-world tasks emphasizing higher-order abilities • done with other people in high-challenge, low-threat environments that provide for practice and reinforcement • . . . the greater the chances he or she will realize the deep learning that makes a difference in student lives.

9. Conditions for Learning Research Synthesis from National Research Council • Engage preconceptions • Develop a foundation of “factual” knowledge • Develop strong conceptual frameworks • Develop competency in monitoring our own understanding (metacognition) • Regulate our behaviors to optimize our capacity to learn and unlearn where necessary

10. Herbert Simon’s Observation • Learning takes place in the minds of students and nowhere else, and the effectiveness of teachers lies in what they can induce students to do. The beginning of the design of any educational procedure is dreaming up experiences for students: things that we want students to do because these are the activities that will help them to learn this kind of information and skill. And then we can back off and ask what we have to do to get students to carry out these activities.

11. What Doesn’t Work • Passive listening • Obsession with coverage and lower-order thinking skills (i.e., memorization) • Little student choice about what is studied and how it is studied • Fear/anxiety riddled instruction and evaluation • Limited interaction with instructor and other students • High-stakes evaluation • But good students will learn even under poor learning conditions • Can you imagine what they can do under the best conditions?

12. Student Learning and Learning Students • How and why does understanding the changing student body matter? • How do macro-level statistical trends relate in any way to student learning?

13. Quiz Warm-up Item Gender What percentage of undergraduates at IUPUI are male? • 43% • 47% • 51% • 55% A vanishing breed?

14. Percent Male

15. The College Gender Gap ACE 2006 Report (http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pdf/Gender_Equity_6_23.pdf) • Economic Incentives • Degree makes bigger difference for females • Male occupations w/H.S. diploma offer better benefits • School Effects • School/classroom environment biased against boys • Reading and writing emphasis early on favors girls • Social/Psychological Factors • Male role models less academically oriented • Boys don’t follow norms or manage emotions well

16. Quiz Warm-up Item Mode of Admissions What percentage of annual new students at IUPUI are fall, full-time beginners? • 34% • 44% • 54% • 64% Not even one-half

17. IUPUI New Degree-Seeking Undergraduates 2010-11

18. Swirling and Learning • Majority of IUPUI graduates started elsewhere • Many more transferred in credits since starting at IUPUI • Accommodating Student Swirl (Borden, 2004)

21. Quiz Warm-up Item Race/Ethnicity What percentage of undergraduates at IUPUI are members of a racial/ethnic minority? • 26% • 21% • 16% • 11% Still the Midwest, but…

22. Percent Minority

23. Quiz Warm-up Item Non-Minority By what percentage has white student enrollment changed over the past 20 years? • -10% • -5% • +5% • +10% But still the large majority

24. Percent White Students

25. Cultural Bias in Teaching and Testing • The SAT “Regata” question • Runner:Marathon A) envoy:embassy B) martyr:massacre C) oarsman:regatta D) referee:tournament E) horse:stable • Subtle/nuanced bias is much prevalent than flagrant bias • Disciplinary bias as a form of cultural bias • Teaching statistics in psychology

26. Getting a Grip on the Changing Student Body • Keeping students in mind when designing courses, program, curricula • Engaging students in learning • Being different from them is great • Being indifferent to them, not so good • WARNING: Statistics are not relevant to individuals • The average Floridian is born Hispanic and dies Jewish