2020 Transformative Learning Conference

An introduction to the roots of TL learning theory and contemporary conceptualizations of TL

The North Texas Community College Consortium (NTCCC), a 28-year-old organization, serves 20 community colleges across north Texas and impacts 1/3 of Texas community and technical college enrollments (250,000 students each fall). NTCCC offers a year-long Consortium Assessment Leadership Institute (CALI) in which instructional leaders engage in transformative learning to redesign their androgogy, assessments, and course and program goals. This poster session models the CALI approach, focusing especially on the ways in which CALI cohort members critically review what they do, why they do it, how they view, understand, and interact with students, and how they view, understand, and interact with the discipline, program, and institution to which they belong. In CALI, participants use interviewing, group work, reflection, and mapping to clarify their "why" (why does their assessment/assignment/course/program/institution exist) and to determine the extent to which their "how" (how they engage with students, develop policies, set and review assignments, create assessments and feedback loops) reflects, or does not reflect, their goals. In turn, CALI participants become change leaders for their departments, programs and colleges. Each session serves to "train the trainers," modeling activities for participants to complete between meetings. This recursive approach, involving training, action, and reflection with peers, results in transformative learning for the CALI cohort and equips them with skills to implement transformative learning strategies within their scope of influence. Learn about how CALI uses productive struggle to sensitize faculty to the student experience and to help develop strategies to increase learning depth and quality.