2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

One of the most important aspects of an education is preparation for a career. Surveys indicate that employers perceive graduates to not be career ready (see attached AACU report). The majority of employers place value on skills such as written and oral communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings, among others. These are the skills they feel graduates do not adequately possess. Applied learning through internships, senior projects, field-based research, etc. is overwhelmingly popular among employers as avenues for learning skills to be career ready upon graduation. In addition, when these applied learning and undergraduate research opportunities are designed to respond to community needs, they are a critical tool for engaging and retaining underrepresented minority students in the environmental and natural resource fields. This panel considers various applied learning tools that relate knowledge in a real-world, community-based setting to provide students with the required skills employers seek and the drive to successfully complete their degree programs, leading to the diversification of the environmental and natural resources fields. In particular, these types of activities provide a more culturally responsive learning environment for many Hispanic and American Indian students, while providing them with the necessary skills to achieve long-term success in their careers.

Proposing Appreciative Inquiry to supplement applied learning

John F. Cabra

Educational trends have more and more highlighted the fact that creativity and innovation are essential 21st century skills.  In an era of increased complexity, turbulence and change, educational experts and business leaders have consistently cited creativity, innovation as crucial for professional success in the new millennium. A 2013 report from the Association Of American Colleges And Universities noted: Employers say colleges should place varying degrees of emphasis on the ability to analyze and solve complex problems, and the ability to innovate and be creative.  While in 2015, Bloomberg Business Week asked 1320 corporate recruiters to name the skills they value most, creative problem-solving was top-ranked. In this discussion, Appreciative Inquiry (AI), which is a creative process based on positive psychology is introduced as a process to supplement applied learning. What scholars have discovered was that when dealing with difficult, emotionally charged, problems, participants found it much easier, and more effective to focus on what was working, and build from there. This isn't to say that problems, and systemic failures should be ignored, but rather that starting from the positive position of "what is working?" within the problem space helps to create the momentum and optimism that enables people to invent, and implement new solutions.