Performing Department
AG-AG ED AND COMMUNICATION
Non Technical Summary
The purpose of this proposal is to provide faculty with up-to-date curriculum on critical thinking concepts and instruction through an online academy hosted by three institutions. The Global Thinking Academy (GTA) will promote the strengthening of critical thinking by faculty through direct instruction, but also through the multidisciplinary perspectives shared by other participants and the project team. Other key topics of the GTA include teaching and learning pedagogy, critical thinking pedagogy, international curriculum integration, and case study writing.Context for the GTA will be created through application and study of the NIFA Priority Areas through the examination of the impact of Climate Change on Global Food Security and Hunger. Eighteen participants will participate in the GTA and then attend an international trip with the key members of the project team. Products will include scenario-based RLOs that provide a unique perspective by incorporating not only skills of critical thinking, but also the intersection of each participant's discipline and NIFA Priority Areas.The products of the project would be approximately 18 scenarios written through the Academy experience. One additional product of the project will be a Best Practices Guide for Integrating International Field Experiences into Critical Thinking Curriculum.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
Specific Instructional Problem/ChallengeThe world is rapidly changing and "employers look to colleges and universities to produce employment-ready graduates" to solve tomorrow's problems (National Research Council, 2009, p. 18). Thinking proactively, this proposal will focus on the interaction of two National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Priority Areas, identified as the impact of Climate Change on Global Food Security and Hunger (NIFA, 2012). Future college graduates will need to be capable of solving problems related to these issues that span geo-political borders.In order to solve complex problems of a global nature, students must be able to think critically about them. Thinking is a natural process and can often be biased, distorted, partial, uninformed and potentially prejudiced; excellence in thought must be cultivated (Duron, Limbach, & Waugh, 2006). The way material is presented has a large effect on whether or not critical thinking takes place. Most faculty use a lecture format in their classrooms, but this approach does not encourage critical thinking by the students (Duron et al., 2006). To encourage critical thinking the passive receipt of information must change; faculty must give up the perception that students cannot learn unless a faculty member covers the material (Choy & Cheah, 2009). It is important to consider how much influence a faculty's selection of instructional strategies has on the student's ability to learn and think critically.In today's university climate, it is becoming a necessity to provide the world with informed, productive, and internationally minded citizens. According to the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U, 2007), "it is clear that the United States-and individual Americans-will be challenged to engage in unprecedented ways with the global community, collaboratively and competitively" (p. 2). Internationalization of curriculum is becoming a priority for most universities. Although this problem was noted a decade ago, The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC, 2004) concluded the internationalization of curriculum "helps [students] to develop the global critical thinking essential to contributing as citizens of the world and competing in the international marketplace" (p. viii).In 2004, higher education associations and leaders of institutional accrediting bodies decided critical thinking was one of the six major intellectual and practical skills with which students should leave their undergraduate time (AAC&U, 2004). However, Lauer (2005) indicated faculty expressed difficulty incorporating critical thinking skills into their courses.As a result, students are leaving institutions of higher education with little explicit instruction on critical thinking, particularly experiences that provide a rich global perspective. The instructional opportunity addressed by this project is to reach faculty within the food and agricultural sciences through a Global Thinking Academy (GTA), so faculty are intentional in their critical thinking instruction to prepare students for careers that will help solve global problems. Key personnel for this project are currently conducting research on the implicit impacts of international experiences on critical thinking style. The instructional opportunity will be the development of global scenario-based reusable learning objects (RLOs) focused on the impact of Climate Change on Global Hunger and Food Security to explicitly develop the critical thinking ability of students.Institutions across the United States are struggling with finding effective strategies for teaching and measuring learning outcomes for critical thinking and global competence. Both are commonly included in university-level assessments for accreditation (SACSCOC, 2012). An outcome of this project will be the creation ofscenario-based RLOs addressing the impact of Climate Change on Global Food Security and Hunger and assessment tools to measure learning outcomes specifically for critical thinking in a global context.Anticipated Project AudienceThe audience for this project is faculty with teaching appointments in the (FANH) food, agricultural, natural resources, and human sciences in the southern/southeastern U.S. The intent of the project is to prepare faculty to create and implement explicit instructional strategies to enhance students' ability to think critically about complex global problems. The strategy for reaching this target audience is elaborated on within the Plan of Operation and Methodology.Benefits of this Academy to participants will include national prestige of being a GTA Fellow, peer-reviewed artifacts which could be included in teaching portfolios, national networking with faculty at other institutions for future collaboration efforts, and the ability to evaluate critical thinking for their colleges and universities.Target ObjectivesThe target objectives of this project focus on GTA participants. The evaluation plan will also measure secondary effects on their students, as described subsequently in that section.GTA participants will:1. Report increased knowledge of explicit critical thinking instructional strategies.2. Report increased knowledge of instructional design and scenario development.3. Report increased knowledge of climate change's impact on global food security and hunger.4. Report more positive attitudes about integrating global aspects into teaching.5. Report an increased ability to teach globally-relevant FANH topics.6. Integrate explicit critical thinking instructional strategies into one or more of their courses using scenario-based RLOs.Educational Need AreaThis project is designed to address the educational need area (2), Increasing Faculty Teaching Competencies. Current teaching faculty will have the opportunity to enrich their teaching ability through participation in the GTA, which covers topics related to critical thinking instructional strategies, global curriculum integration, and scenario development.
Project Methods
Phase 1 - Global Thinking Academy Planning and DevelopmentAs a result of Phase 1 project team members will develop and design the overall GTA, create modules to accompany each topic of the GTA, design the international field experience component of the GTA, and faculty will be recruited to participate as Fellows in the GTA.In order to accomplish this phase, project team members will meet for a face-to-face planning meeting to begin the project. During this time, modules addressing each topic area - teaching and learning pedagogy, explicit critical thinking pedagogy, team development, global curriculum integration, and scenario writing - will be developed with specific content and learning objectives. Each module will be in the form of an interactive narrated presentation with supplemental material, including but not limited to video, graphics, photographs, and assessment. Additionally webinars will be planned and scheduled. Project team members will bring specific expertise to this process (see Key Personnel).Delivery of the GTA will be through UF's learning management system (LMS), Canvas. This platform has great flexibility in offering participants access to a wide variety of tools to complement the requirements of each module.GTA Fellows will be recruited from across the southern/southeastern U.S. including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. This was deemed appropriate to allow for team development and interdisciplinary collaboration. Nominations will be solicited from administrators (ex: academic associate deans) at 1862, 1890, and other colleges of FANRRS. Administrators will be asked to nominate faculty who have expressed interest in teaching and pedagogy, who are innovative, and teach large numbers of undergraduate students (approximately 100 students per semester). A total of 18 GTA Fellows will be selected through a review process conducted by the project team. Efforts will be made to recruit a group who is academically and demographically diverse.During Phase 1, project partners will collaborate to plan the international field experience to Belize. A scoping trip will be conducted to plan the contextually appropriate educational components for the experience and make logistical arrangements.Phase 2 - Global Thinking Academy and Scenario DevelopmentAs a result of Phase 2, GTA Fellows will gain greater knowledge of explicit critical thinking instructional strategies, instructional design and scenario development, and climate change's impact on global food security and hunger. They will develop more positive attitudes about integrating global aspects into teaching, and increase ability to teach globally-relevant FANH sciences topics.The GTA will begin with a face-to-face session in Orlando, FL for the purposes of ease of travel. The face-to-face session will establish expectations for GTA Fellows and provide a charge to begin the program. GTA Fellows will be organized into teams of three who will work together throughout the Academy in creating scenario-based RLOs. Tuckman and Jensen's (1977) Team Development Model will be utilized in the forming and development of the teams. Experts in the field of Climate Change and Food Security and Hunger will present to the GTA. Fellows will also be oriented to the online module portion of the GTA.Faculty will be engaged in a 10-week program including asynchronous modules, webinars, and teamwork experiences. As a part of this ten-week experience, GTA Fellows will work in their teams to outline the scenario-based RLOs they will develop and gather background data.The culminating experience for the GTA Academy will be a six-day international field experience to Belize to gather the contextual data (e.g. video, interviews) for developing the scenario-based RLOs. In total 18 interdisciplinary scenario-based RLOs will be developed examining the impact of Climate Change on Global Food Security and Hunger in a Belizean context. Just prior to the international field experience, GTA Fellows will also attend three video conferencing sessions, focused on the Belizean context, with special attention to agriculture, natural resources, and culture, expectations for GTA Fellows, and trip logistics.Key project team members will travel with the participants during their international field experience to facilitate their on-site learning and to provide critical support in capturing the global context for the scenario-based RLOs through a variety of multi-media including photography, audio recordings, and videography.A media specialist (videographer) will help each team obtain artifacts for their scenario-based RLOs. GTA Fellows will also work with an instructional designer during the international field experience to begin the scenario production process. The instructional designer will continue to work with each team to finalize their scenario-based RLOs. The instructional designer will ensure the production quality of scenario-based RLOs, a project team member will review them for strong pedagogy, and a peer review process among GTA Fellows will be used to ensure content quality of the case studies.The Global Education Lab website (www.globaleducationlab.org) will be used to host the scenario-based RLOs. The site currently hosts a variety of reusable learning objects and case studies created through two previous USDA HEC projects. The scenario-based RLOs developed by this project will enhance the depth of current offerings by providing interdisciplinary scenario-based RLOs to incorporate in their courses. The use of the Global Education Lab website will provide open access to the scenario-based RLOs.Phase 3 - Scenario ImplementationAs a result of Phase 3, GTA Fellows will implement explicit critical thinking instructional strategies into their undergraduate courses as evidenced by the use of the developed scenario-based RLOs.As a result of Phase 3, undergraduate students taught with scenario-based RLOs will demonstrate a greater ability to think critically about complex global problems and develop more favorable attitudes about pursuing careers and graduate studies in the FANH sciences.During Phase 3, each GTA Fellow will integrate at least three scenario-based RLOs into one of their undergraduate classes. This is estimated to approximately 450 students. Critical thinking abilities will be assessed through content analysis of students' written work, based on samples submitted at the beginning and end of the semester. A standard post-then-pre survey design will be used to measure changes in students' attitudes; an existing instrument from a prior Higher Education Challenge grant will be used.Phase 4 - Dissemination and Summative EvaluationAs a result of this phase, the project team will complete the summative evaluative component of the project and disseminate findings associated with the project outcomes and impacts.During this phase the project evaluator will complete a summative evaluation, which will assess the effectiveness of the project in accomplishing the measurable objectives. Consideration will be given to process indicators as they relate to the accomplishment or failure of project outcomes. The summative evaluation will be informed by data collected during formative evaluation. A detailed description is provided in the evaluation plan in subsection c.Lastly, this phase includes the dissemination component of the project, described below. During this time, project team members will disseminate findings and outcomes related to the project through a variety of outlets. These outlets include, but are not limited to, conferences (regional, national, and international), journals, and other trade publications. Additionally, project team members will share the project outcomes with their respective institutions through seminars, colloquiums and workshops.