Lessons from the edge: what we can learn from colleges that have broken the rules - Perspectives - experimental education

Liberal Education, Spring, 2003 by Michael S. Bassis

Removed from the mainstream of American higher education, out on the edge, stand a handful of undergraduate colleges commonly referred to as distinctive, innovative, or experimental. Some are private, others public. Some are small stand-alone colleges. Others are colleges within larger universities. Most are acknowledged to be unusually powerful places for learning. But what defines these institutions, and makes them so interesting-and potentially important-is that they have broken some of the most fundamental and widely accepted rules for how to structure quality undergraduate programs.

At the majority of colleges and universities in the U.S., the rules for structuring undergraduate degree programs are well institutionalized. Following the rules means such things as using the Carnegie credit and the grade point average to denote the quantity and quality of learning, structuring the curriculum to include a major, general education, and free electives, using norm-referenced evaluation or grading on the curve to evaluate the academic work of students, and focusing on discipline-based instruction. Only a small number of institutions have organized their undergraduate programs around alternative sets of rules. Over the last fifteen years I have served in senior leadership roles at three of them- Antioch College, Olivet College, and New College of Florida. While in many important ways these institutions are different from one another, each has distinguished itself by adopting educational practices that depart from the mainstream.

Antioch College has gone beyond an exclusive focus on discipline-based learning by including an emphasis on social justice and responsible social action throughout its educational program. Student learning is evaluated through narrative evaluations instead of grades. In addition, Antioch students alternate periods of study on campus with periods of employment in a variety of off-campus settings. At Olivet College, a comprehensive institutional change process produced a curriculum focused not only on disciplinary based learning but on helping students develop ethical and civic virtues. This curriculum is integrated through a portfolio assessment process. A requirement for graduation that students begin in their first year of study, portfolios provide the means for faculty to advise and evaluate students across the full range of learning outcomes that the college has identified as important. At New College of Florida, the emphasis is on the independent pursuit of discipline-based scholarship. An academic contra ct, developed each term in consultation with a faculty advisor, defines a unique curriculum for each student. In order to graduate, a student must complete seven such contracts, plus three independent study projects, and a senior thesis. As at Antioch, narrative evaluations take the place of grades.

What can we learn from these unique institutions? My experience suggests some simple lessons for those at mainstream institutions who are seeking to create and to sustain powerful designs for learning at the undergraduate level.

Lessons learned

1. Create a self-fulfilling prophecy. In mainstream institutions, faculty and students take for granted the traditional rules for organizing an undergraduate program. No one explains to new students or new faculty why student achievement is measured through grades or why courses carry credits. And no one raises questions about why these practices are in place. At innovative institutions, however, alternative rules and their associated practices are a prominent part of how these institutions define and explain themselves, both internally and externally. Indeed, innovative colleges are driven by strongly held beliefs that the alternative educational practices they have adopted are superior to those at traditional institutions. They passionately believe in what they are doing and how they are doing it.

Believing in an educational practice can create the conditions that make the practice effective. Indeed, the strong beliefs characteristic of innovative colleges encourage people to act in ways that reinforce the beliefs themselves. For example, believing in the power of experiential learning leads Antioch students to look for connections between what they learn through study and what they learn through work. Actively looking for connections makes it likely that students will discover some. Believing that colleges can effectively teach students to develop an ethic of responsibility, students at Olivet College are more attentive to opportunities to demonstrate this character trait, thereby cultivating its development. At New College, students believe that conducting research in collaboration with faculty is the ultimate learning experience. This belief encourages them to seek out opportunities to interact with faculty so as to impress them with their capacities for serious research.

2. Cultivate the whole, not just the parts. What and how undergraduates learn is a product of the full range of their experiences in college. The more those experiences reinforce one another the more powerful the learning. Antioch, Olivet, and New College have learned this lesson well. Virtually all of the structures, processes, and programs at these schools are consistent with and supportive of one another. In each case, the whole has become more than the sum of its parts. No matter where one looks or listens on these campuses, from the structure of the curriculum, to the nature of discussions in class, to the focus of co-curricular activities, one finds students receiving a consistent and coherent set of messages about what is valued. At Antioch, the messages are about the importance of promoting social justice and the value of learning from experience. At Olivet, the messages underscore the importance of exercising an ethic of responsibility. At New College, the messages focus on the value of scholarship a nd research.