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Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the Trainer i

Learning to Learn CampFacilitator’s Guide:

Training the Trainer

Companion Website available at:www.learningtolearncamp.com

published by

Pacifi c CrestHampton, NH

2015

ii Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the Trainer

Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the Trainer

Contributing Editor: Carol Nancarrow

Layout & Design: Denna Hintze

Copyright © 2015

Pacifi c Crest P.O. Box 370 Hampton, NH 03843-0370 Phone: 603-601-2246

www.pcrest.com

All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

March 2015

Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the Trainer iii

Table of Contents

Section #1 Learning to Learn Camp: The Basics ........................................................ 1

Section #2 Camp Set-up: Planning and Logistics...................................................... 9

Checklists for Camp Preparation ............................................................. 9

6 – 18 Months Before Camp ................................................................... 11

3 – 6 Months Before Camp ..................................................................... 14

1 – 3 Months Before Camp ..................................................................... 22

1 Week Before Camp .............................................................................. 26

Sample Syllabus ........................................................................................ 28

Sample Agenda ....................................................................................... 35

Course Design for the Learning to Learn Camp .................................. 36

Section #3 Facilitating Learning during the Camp ................................................. 45

Schedule ................................................................................................... 45

Daily Processes ......................................................................................... 48

Camp Roles .............................................................................................. 52

Instructions for Games and Contests ..................................................... 54

Section #4 Facilitating Active Learning .................................................................... 59

I. Motivation for POGIL ......................................................................... 60

II. Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning ..................................... 61

A. Learning Teams Are Highly Effective .......................................... 61

B. Guided-Inquiry Activities Develop Understanding ................... 62

C. Critical and Analytical Thinking Are the Key to Success ......... 63

D. Problem Solving Requires Expert Strategies .............................. 64

Conclusions from Novice-Expert Comparisons ..................... 67

Implications for Instruction ....................................................... 70

Developing Essential Transfer Skills .......................................... 72

Problem-Solving Instruction in Action ..................................... 73

E. Reporting Builds Skills and Solidifi es Concepts .......................... 74

F. Metacognition is Important ........................................................ 74

G. Individual Responsibility is a Motivating Force .......................... 75

H. Grade Points May be Necessary ................................................ 76

iv Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the Trainer

Section #4 Facilitating Active Learning (con’t) III. Strategies for Successful Learning Teams ........................................ 78

A. Structure the Teams ..................................................................... 78B. Motivate Process .......................................................................... 78C. Motivate Learning Teams and Collaborative Skills ................... 79D. Promote Positive Interdependence ........................................... 80E. Require Individual Accountability .............................................. 81F. Provide Closure............................................................................. 81G. Use Metacognition ....................................................................... 81

IV. A New Paradigm for the Teacher .................................................... 82A. Instructors Play Four Simultaneous Roles .................................... 82B. Planning and Preparing Lessons ................................................. 83C. TA Training ..................................................................................... 84

V. Can this Approach be Successful? .................................................. 85 VI. References.................. ........................................................................ 88

Section #5 Facilitating: The Professional Development of the Coaches .............. 93 Section #6 Customizing a Learning to Learn Camp ................................................ 97

Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the Trainer 1

SECTION 1SECTION 1Learning to Learn Camp: The Basics

What is a Learning-to-Learn Camp?Pacifi c Crest’s Learning to Learn Camp is a fi ve-day intensive crash course that changes lives in a positive and dramatic manner by

• Challenging and inspiring students to grow and develop skills essential for success in college and beyond

• Motivating faculty and staff to mentor student growth and improve the teaching/learning processes they use with students

The camp integrates two key processes, “learning how to learn” and “mentoring.” The learning community environment of the camp helps students to build relationships, gain a sense of “belonging” and improve their ability to perform in the classroom – all factors critical to student retention.

Through a rigorous and diverse set of camp activities, students develop cognitive, social, affective, and academic skills. Mentors work with students to facilitate the process of developing learner ownership, self-esteem, and empowerment. As a result of experiencing both successes and failures during the course of the week, students gain confi dence in their ability to perform in areas such as writing, time management, problem identifi cation, listening, adapting to change, personal refl ection, coping, teamwork, and articulating ideas (to name a few). And while all that is happening, faculty members grow their own skills in facilitating learning, working cooperatively, assessing performance, mentoring, and understanding how students learn best.

Who benefi ts from Learning to Learn Camps?The short answer is everyone benefi ts—students, faculty, staff, administrators, programs, and whole institutions.

StudentsParticipants can include entering college students already enrolled at an institution and high school students with the potential to go on to college. Groups of students as diverse as honors program students and students on academic probation have had transformative experiences in Learning to Learn Camps across the country. In the case of entering college students, a Learning to Learn Camp increases retention and the likelihood for success. With high school students, the camp serves not only as a positive and signifi cant learning experience for students and faculty, but also a marketing tool for the host school.

College faculty and staffBoth faculty and staff are encouraged to serve as mentors and coaches. New insights will be gained about teaching, learning, and mentoring while facilitating the growth of learners.

2 Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the Trainer

Programs and InstitutionsWhen students learn better and faculty teach better and staff interact with students and faculty better, programs and institutions run better, have better retention, and produce more successful graduates, who take more skills into the workplace and community. And isn’t that what the whole country is demanding of education today?

Learning to Learn Camp Goals• Create a quality learning community in which bonds are built among and between students,

mentors/coaches (faculty and staff), and facilitators

• Provide a model for a quality freshman foundations course to address issues related to retention, student readiness, and academic performance

• Provide a model for learner empowerment and growth that can be replicated in many contexts within the institution

• Grow the performance skills of students, faculty, and staff

For students:• Develop and improve learning skills from the cognitive, social, and affective domains.

Special emphasis is placed on thinking, problem-solving, communicating, using the computer, mathematics, writing, assessment, and teamwork skills

• Formulate a life vision, including achievable educational and career goals and a plan for achieving these goals

• Develop a sense of learner ownership

• Develop a sense of identity and a positive attitude toward self-growth

• Increase self-confi dence and improve academic abilities

For coaches (faculty and staff):• Develop respect, rapport, and networking among and between faculty and staff

• Engage in and practice learning strategies that support and promote personal growth in students

• Improve facilitation skills in active, student-centered learning environments

• Improve and develop mentoring skills, including peer coaching


Learning to Learn Camp Content and ActivitiesStudent work products from Learning to Learn Camp include:

Life Vision PortfolioThe life vision analysis involves self-refl ection and assessment, planning, and goal setting. Typical criteria for assessing the life vision analysis include level of openness, completeness (all sections and a minimum of 25 pages), thoughtfulness, objectivity, and visual presentation. Components or sections include:

• Who am I?• Career search and goals• Self-analysis• Time analysis• Passion exploration• Educational plan

• Values analysis and clarifi cation

• Self-growth paper• Overcoming life’s

diffi culties• Exploring role models

Components from the Student Success ToolboxThe Student Success Toolbox is a powerful journal-writing tool designed to assist educators with assessing the development of students as learners, team members, critical thinkers, and members of a larger learning community. Students are required to complete various forms from the toolbox including error logs, reading logs, refl ector’s reports, recorder’s reports, performance assessments, self-assessments, and a glossary.

Students are required to complete various forms from the Toolbox including reading logs, refl ector’s reports, recorder’s reports, and self-assessments.

Math and Graphing Skills ModulesThe Math and Graphing Skills curriculum is a computer-based resource with 40 self-paced modules that provide an easy means for students to review, assess, and improve their basic math skills and abilities. Progress is made throughout the week as students work in various formats (by themselves, in pairs, and with an instructor) to increase their skill with basic math content. At the end of the week, students demonstrate their progress by taking a timed performance test.


Foundations of Learning CurriculumFoundations of Learning is an ideal curriculum for preparing students to succeed in college and beyond. Based on the premise that all students have the ability to improve how they learn, the curriculum addresses developing skills from the cognitive, social, and affective domain. Methodologies, profi les of quality performers, and web resources are used to help students make the transition to college and develop into lifelong learners.

Readings include:

• Making the Transition to College • The Role of a College Student • Creating a Life Vision Portfolio

• Improving Your Learning Skills• Study Skills• Problem Solving Skills• Assessment and Evaluation Skills

Activities include:Campus related:

• Building a Learning Community• Exploring Your Campus• Introduction to the Library• General Education Requirements• The Student Handbook

Technology related:• Introduction to the World Wide Web• Assessing the Quality of Internet

Information• Using E-mail

Student related:• Educational Goals and Objectives• Time Management• Coping Skills• Becoming a Self-Grower• Personality Styles

Methodologies:• Learning Process• Reading• Writing• Problem Solving• Communication• Personal Development


Learning to Learn: Becoming a Self-Grower CurriculumThe 15 experiences (plus 2 online) of Learning to Learn: Becoming a Self-Grower contain some of the same content as Foundations of Learning but provide additional resources in the form of new readings, discovery exercises, Exploration and Critical Thinking Questions for each experience, and integrated Life Vision Portfolio forms. Each experience consists of 3 parts: On My Own (pre-class reading, refl ection, and individual activity preparation), In My Class (in class learning activity, usually in learning teams), and My Learning and Growth (post-class review, practice, refl ection, and My Life Vision). Camp facilitators may elect to use either resource, as is demonstrated by the Activity Table in the Course Design document for the Learning to Learn Camp.

Experiences include:

1 Performing Like a Star2 Becoming a Master Learner3 Your Past Doesn’t Defi ne Your Future4 Self-Assessment: The Engine of Self-Growth5 Time, Planning, and Productivity6 Methodologies: Unlocking Process Knowledge7 Visioning Your Future8 Performing in Teams and within a Community9 Performing when Being Evaluated10 Reading for Learning11 Metacognition: Thinking about My Thinking12 Using Failure as a Stepping Stone for Success13 Choosing and Using Mentors Effectively14 My Turn to Shine15 Shifting from Extrinsic to Intrinsic Motivation

General Camp ActivitiesCamp activities include the following:

• Games• Writing Contest • Talent Show• Speech Contest• Art Contest

• Problem Solving Contest• Math Contest • Student Council • Learning Community Meetings• Final Evening Banquet

On the fi nal evening of the camp, a banquet is held to honor the camp participants. Students are encouraged to invite their family to attend the banquet. Certifi cates will be awarded along with prizes to acknowledge learners who perform to a certain standard of excellence. In addition, special awards in different contests will be handed out.

Supplemental Experiences (available online)

Wellness: Taking Care of Your Whole SelfFinancial Planning and Strategy

Course Resources are available at:www.pcrest.com/L2L

Instructor Resources (including Facilitation Plans and Reading Quizzes) are available at:

www.pcrest3.com/L2L


MaterialsEach student will receive the following set (kit) of books:

• Foundations of Learning (or Learning to Learn: Becoming a Self-Grower)• Student Success Toolbox• Math and Graphing Skills • Life Vision Portfolio• Optional: Content book or other materials for a camp using the local content option. (See

Section 6 of this guide.) These materials may be purchased from Pacifi c Crest by the event sponsor or individually by each student. See www.pcrest.com for current pricing information.

Faculty DevelopmentFaculty development is an integral part of Learning to Learn Camps. In camp, faculty who have been introduced to the philosophy and practices of the camp through the Student Success Institute will put into practice their skills in facilitating learning, mentoring, and assessment in a collaborative and supportive environment. In this way, Learning to Learn Camps are a transformative experience for faculty as well as for students.

That students see the faculty working on improving their skills has a synergistic effect on the camp atmosphere. Students and faculty develop relationships beyond those possible in a traditional class setting, and changes in understanding of one another can be signifi cant. Life-long learning becomes a reality when students see their faculty members are working just as hard as they are to improve their skills.

Many past Learning to Learn Camp faculty highly value their own growth from the camp experience. Here’s how some of them describe their experience with a Learning to Learn Camp:

“I plan to revamp my math courses following this model.”

“I’ve changed how I teach, how I assess and evaluate...

the camp completely changed me as a teacher.”

“The changes are subtle, but important. I turn more control over to the students.”

“It stimulated me to use student self-assessments as a tool to foster critical thinking analysis skills.”

“Self-assessment—what an economical tool. It costs fi ve minutes of your time and can give a lifetime of returns.”

“The camp is a living laboratory of the power of mentoring.”

Section 5 of this guide provides more information about Faculty Development at Learning to Learn Camp.


Specialized Content CampPacifi c Crest now has considerable experience in blending a concentration on academic content with the traditional learning skills development curriculum. In a specialized content camp, students experience a blend of content-based curriculum delivered in a process learning atmosphere and learning skills development.

This camp requires that the host institution leadership team, with consultation from Pacifi c Crest, develop content-based activities for a major part of the camp curriculum. With careful integration of core activities from Foundations of Learning, blended activities that integrate selected content with Foundation of Learning content, and content-specifi c experiences, students get the learning skills foundation of a Learning to Learn Camp while learning focus-area content.

Section 6 of this Guide explains and illustrates how this type of camp is planned and conducted.

Learning to Learn Camp StructureAn institution’s fi rst Learning to Learn Camp requires a lead facilitator from Pacifi c Crest and a small group of key personnel from the host institution who will be trained to lead future camps. For an institution’s second Learning to Learn Camp, the host facilitation team will lead the camp while being mentored by a Pacifi c Crest coach. The goal is for these leaders to be able to conduct a camp independent of a Pacifi c Crest mentor in the third year.

In addition, there will be a group of coaches who are each responsible for 12-24 students, comprising a “learning community” (within the structure of the entire camp community). Each coach has 3-5 assistant coaches who are responsible for one or two teams of three or four students. These coaches should have been trained by attending a Student Success Institute. They will be engaged in intensive faculty development as well as working with the students. They should be prepared to be engaged in camp all day for the entire week.

COACH

ASSISTANTCOACH

ASSISTANTCOACH

ASSISTANTCOACH

Roles of camp staff are covered in more detail in Section 2 of this Guide. Pacifi c Crest will customize your camp to fi t your local needs, staff availability, and number of students.


Learning to Learn Camp Logistics at a GlanceLength: 5 days

Time of year: Coordinate with Pacifi c Crest’s schedule. Past camps have typically been scheduled during the summer months. A popular period is the time just prior to the start of school. Any time of transition is fertile ground for camp.

Daily time frame: Non-residentialResidential

8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.7:00 A.M. – 10:00 P.M.

Meals: Non-residential • daily morning and afternoon refreshments• daily lunch• one banquet meal

Residential

• daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner• morning and afternoon refreshments• one banquet meal

Room requirements: Large meeting room to accommodate all participants

Breakout rooms for each learning community

Classrooms for facilitation of camp activities

A computer lab that can be accessed daily

Faculty work room with computers/printer

Equipment: Projection system

Overhead projector

Access to printer on site

Copy machine

Support persons: Clerical help—can be student worker

Photographer/videographer, part-time

Tech support—on call for quick response

Last day of camp: Team to evaluate each work product

Contest judges

Emcee for banquet


SECTION 2SECTION 2Camp Set-up: Planning and Logistics

Items in the following checklists are described in more detail in this section. This checklist makes a handy way to check progress and avoid letting details get lost. Add your own items as you go.

Things to do during the week are covered in Section 3. Helpful information about facilitating active learning is available in Section 4. Faculty development is covered in Section 5.

And if you are going to adapt the camp by adding content of your choosing, that comes in Section 6, so be sure to review this entire resource early in your process.

6-18 Months Before1. Identify two or three key leaders.

2. Identify your target audience.

3. Choose your camp design option.

4. Prepare initial budget.

5. Schedule camp and Student Success Institute with Pacifi c Crest.

6. Arrange funding: college funding, grant request submissions, student fees, etc.

7. Coordinate with the curriculum approval process for your institution (especially if the course will be offered for credit).

8. Coordinate with student orientation programs.

9. Coordinate with the housing offi ce if you are offering a residential camp.

10. Schedule key personnel to participate in a camp at another institution for training.

11. Carefully read the notes you made after your last camp, if you had one.

12. Design a camp logo, if you wish.

3-6 Months Before1. Hold a Student Success Institute.

2. Recruit and enroll students.

3. Recruit Camp faculty.

4. Design your curriculum.

5. Schedule facilities.

6. Arrange housing for residential camps.

7. Order meals and snacks.

8. Arrange parking for students and staff.

9. Set up closing banquet facility.

10. Order books and supplies.

11. Arrange prizes and certifi cates.

12. Coordinate with facilitator monthly.

13. Plan follow-up.


1-3 Months Before1. Coordinate with Pacifi c Crest facilitator closely until camp.

2. Produce and print local materials.

3. Finalize all logistics arrangements when you know how many participants you will have.

4. Communicate with students and faculty with the details they need. Complete recruiting.

5. Meet face to face with staff at least once after the Student Success Institute.

6. Recruit persons to evaluate work products and judge contests on last day of the camp.

7. Arrange meals and snacks.

8. Arrange for a camp photographer/videographer.

9. Assign individuals to produce materials for each game and contest.

10. Decide on awards and obtain prizes and certifi cates.

1 Week Before1. Re-check entire checklist.

2. Confi rm all reservations for spaces and equipment, food, and housing.

3. Set up rooms.

4. Install math software.

5. Assign students to learning communities and teams.

6. Assign specifi c duties to faculty/staff.

7. Prepare name tags for all participants, ideally re-usable ones.

8. Check all printing orders and textbook orders.

9. Move in all materials and arrange for distribution.

10. Arrange greeting of students on the fi rst morning.

11. Confi rm all participants, faculty and students.

12. Finalize details with Pacifi c Crest facilitator(s) and any visitors.

Detailed information on procedures for the week of camp and the week after are found in the next section (Section 3) of this guide.


6-18 Months Before Camp1. Identify two or three key leaders

To make a Learning to Learn Camp happen, it is essential to have a few people who are willing to work hard to make that happen. They can be faculty, administration, or staff, but they have to give camp a priority position in their work lives for months. A core belief in the philosophy of process education is crucial.These people need to attend a Student Success Institute as early in the process as possible, and it is very helpful for them to spend at least a few days at a Learning to Learn Camp at another institution.

2. Identify your target audienceThe most important consideration for a target audience is that students selected will be motivated to fully participate in the camp, but the camp itself will build motivation for students who give it a chance by showing up and participating. Camps have had success with students with various learn-ing disabilities and physical limitations, with students who were having academic trouble, and with students who had always been high academic performers. The most common audience is incoming freshman students, but younger audiences and populations with some college experience already have also had great camp experiences, so there is no “right” audience; however many future deci-sions depend upon the selection(s) you make about students.

Diversity in the student population can be as asset to a camp, but camps with fairly homogeneous populations, such as honors students or nursing students with academic histories of failure, also work well.

Sinclair Community College targeted at-risk populations and had students who were blind, in wheelchairs, learning disabled, and non-traditional older students, all at the same time, and the diversity turned out to be an asset, helping students learn to function well in their learning communities.

Of course, if there is an intention to build in a specifi c content focus, such as math skills or even something as specifi c as Smart Grid (see Section 6), that consideration may be the key focus when selecting the target population.

The camp program is intense and will demand a high level of performance from students, likely more challenge than they have ever experienced. Therefore, students who have some tangible reward to work for may do better. This can be accomplished by making camp a requirement, offering it for credit, etc. Scholarships or other academic benefi ts could also be used as tangible rewards. Students who will be continuing in a learning community situation have special motivation to learn to work together effectively.

Some camps have had an issue with no-shows. Think about a reward for attending and some way to ensure that students who sign up are serious in their intentions. It may be that having students pay some non-refundable money in advance will help. If there are more applicants than you can take, be sure to keep a waiting list so you can fi ll spots that open up in the last days before or even on the fi rst day of camp.

There is nothing wrong with making camp attendance the mandatory fi rst week of an academic program, provided the number of students is manageable.

Unless you have a lot of workers and a large budget, it is probably better to start with a modest number of students. Camps can work with as few as 20 students, but 40-60 could be a good target


for a fi rst camp. If you have enough trained coaches, it is easy to ramp up to higher numbers by adding additional teams and learning communities.

3. Choose your camp option.

A consultation with Pacifi c Crest can help you make this choice.

A. Traditional Learning to Learn Camp. This is the most popular camp and the one described previously.

B. Student development camp option. This option focuses on the student aspects without the faculty development emphasis. Pacifi c Crest, for appropriate fee increases, operates the camp with minimal local staffi ng for logistical arrangements. A team from Pacifi c Crest provides the curriculum and facilitates and mentors the students.

C. Student and faculty development option. In this camp, a two-person team from Pacifi c Crest works together, one to lead the student development portion and one to lead the faculty development portion. This provides maximum attention to each of the groups.

D. Specialized content option. (See Section 6). In this camp, the institution chooses an academic emphasis area for the camp and a blended curriculum is created. This option requires more local planning, but means that students learn specialized content as well as learning to learn.

4. Prepare initial budgetRealistically, a Learning to Learn Camp can’t happen without quite a bit of money from somewhere. You will need to cover:

A. Student Success Institute –facilitator, materials, meals. Often this can be done through an existing faculty development budget.

B. Learning to Learn Camp—facilitator(s), textbooks, recruiting costs, printing, prizes, meals and snacks, housing, parking, etc.

Getting this funding may require some creativity. Consider applying for grants, both internal and external. Tap any available funds for faculty development. Consider charging students a fee, especially if the camp is for credit or meets some program requirement. Students may be more committed if they have some money involved, and therefore the number of no-shows may be decreased. (By requiring students with academic problems to attend or leave the nursing program, Hinds Community College had not only 100% of registrants show up, but others who were not registered trying to get into camp.)Tap into campus organizations for donations of food, prizes, etc. The athletic department might have t-shirts, and the bookstore might be willing to give you pens, mugs, etc. Departments that the students might enter might have items they can contribute or be willing to sponsor a snack in return for putting out some recruiting materials for a program. Textbook gift certifi cates are always a big hit. The best “prize,” though, is a scholarship, and some schools have been able to get some good scholarships for Learning to Learn Camp top graduates through various campus organizations. You won’t know until you ask. Maybe you can even get an administrator to give the faculty some appreciation gift or to sponsor a meal or snack. More about prizes and awards appears in the “one to three months” portion of this section.Use the Pacifi c Crest website www.pcrest.com to fi nd out current costs for facilitation and materials. The calendar will show you which dates are available. Demand for the precious few summer weeks is high, so schedule as soon as you have secured the blessing of your institution.


Pacifi c Crest recommends that camp faculty be volunteers. Many camps have been well staffed without paying the faculty. In some cases, trying to get funding that includes even modest payment for faculty participation has kept camps from happening. Being involved with transforming students’ learning skills and attitudes and improving their own skills, etc. are powerful motivators for faculty. It is certainly helpful if the institution recognizes Learning to Learn Camp participation in its employee/faculty assessment system in some way. This is most likely to happen if you can get key decision-makers involved, by having them participate in the Student Success Institute or by inviting them to have a role in the camp or to visit the camp.

5. Schedule Student Success Institute and Camp with Pacifi c Crest.Summer weeks fi ll up fast, so schedule as soon as you are confi dent of support. You can get more exact fi gures for Pacifi c Crest fees at this time, although the www.pcrest.com site will have basic information on this. Add in expenses for travel and housing for your facilitator/s.

6. Coordinate with curriculum approval process for your institution (especially if the course will be offered for credit.)Some institutions allow camps to be worth general education credit. Others allow it as an option for freshman orientation. Some programs may choose to require a camp also. Remember that you can use some locally generated content if you need to do so. Coordinate that with your facilitator. Also decide whether students will be charged for camp and, if so, how much.

7. Coordinate with student orientation programs.If your students will still need to attend orientation, perhaps with a day for counseling and registration, etc., that could be scheduled for the day after the camp. If parents participate on that day, they could attend an awards banquet on Friday and then be available for orientation on Saturday. See what you can work out, especially if students are going to have to travel to come to your camp. Some of the usual campus orientation content can be replaced by camp curriculum.

8. Coordinate with housing the offi ce if you are offering a residential camp.You will need to fi gure out if you can use dormitories, how students can be assigned, if you need to get your own residence hall advisor, etc. Of course, this also fi gures in your budget. If your camp is residential, coordinate housing before you sign up for a date. You may be able to include the Pacifi c Crest facilitator(s) and visitors from other institutions in this housing arrangement.

9. Schedule key personnel to participate in a camp at another institution for training (recommended).It is very helpful for your key personnel to participate in a camp at another institution. This can be done even a year in advance for summer camps. Pacifi c Crest can help make arrangements for your personnel to visit a place that is convenient and helpful. Plan to learn by doing.

10. Design a camp logoCertainly you can have a camp without its own logo, but it’s fun to have something distinctive to use on your materials and signage. Some schools also make camp tee shirts with the logo. You can use the art contest to get students to do designs that can be used for the next camp if you wish. They could even vote for the winner. (See section on Games and Contests).


3-6 Months Before Camp1. Hold Student Success Institute.

Unless you are going to have only your key personnel at camp, you will need to train your staff by holding a Student Success Institute on campus. To make camp work, the staff must share a philosophy of challenging performance and mentoring. The SSI is your framework for building that core. No one expects the faculty members to be perfect for the camp to succeed. In fact, making mistakes often leads to the best learning at a camp; however you do need a common starting place and philosophy.

Think about the SSI as the fi rst step in a faculty development process and the Learning to Learn Camp as the second step. The attendees of your SSI will make up the core of your camp faculty.

2. Recruit and enroll students.

It won’t do any good to build it if they don’t come, so be sure to make a strong plan for recruiting the students you want. Keep track of registrations as they come in. Your plan will have to be based on your choices for your target audience, but here are some things to consider.

After you have had one camp, past students make excellent recruiters. Just fi nd a way to put your “grads” together with your prospects and let them talk. You can also do this with a video if you make one during camp.

Here are some ideas:

• Pacifi c Crest brochure• locally produced brochure• college website advertising• e-mail for identifi ed potential students• counseling programs and pre-college

orientation programs• faculty/counselor/admissions offi ce referrals• radio or television spots

• approaching parents of students• employing the help of students from the

previous year’s camp, where applicable• targeting students through placement test

scores• requiring camp for entry into a program• making camp an alternative for a freshman

orientation credit program

Most programs will need three or four communications with camp participants. Samples are included on the LLC Resources site, but you will need to make them your own.

A. First contact; a letter/fl yer/brochure/email to students, with basic information about your camp, including dates, costs, requirements for admission, the purpose of the camp, etc. It should be clear before students apply that they are going to be expected to spend the camp week focusing only on camp (and not trying to do part-time jobs, take other classes, etc.) Emphasize the benefi ts of becoming a better learner.

B. Application form. It is helpful for setting up for the camp to have good demographic information about students, including age, gender, ethnic group, and special needs. It’s not helpful to fi nd out at the beginning of the fi rst day that you have two wheelchairs, a deaf student who needs a sign language interpreter, etc. Check for food allergies. This information is very helpful for pre-assign-ing students to teams and learning communities and thus minimizing opening morning confusion.


3. Recruit camp facultyThis really has two stages. First, recruit people for your Student Success Institute. In addition to faculty members, look at people who are key to programs that will involve your target audience.Consider staff members, especially those who have student contact, for participation in your Student Success Institute also. Counselors, student support persons, tutoring center personnel, and even curriculum designers from distance learning programs have had great experiences at Learning to Learn Camps. There is great potential value in faculty and administration and staff working together closely and getting to understand one another better during a camp experience. A counselor can be a key person for follow-up after the camp.First, fi nd full-time participants who will be coaches or assistant coaches as well as full participants in the faculty development aspects of the camp. have a teacher-to-student ratio as low as one to three, giving you maximum faculty development, but you can get by with fewer if necessary without sacrifi cing too much of the student experience.. Besides the lead team of about three persons, ideally you want to have a coach and two or three assistant coaches for each learning community of 12-24 students.When recruiting volunteer faculty, it is HIGHLY important to keep in mind how much of a commitment working on a camp is. Full-time participation in the camp is highly demanding, and camp faculty who take on that responsibility should clear their calendars of other responsibilities for the week. However, full-time participation is by far the best way to give the students the best experience and to get the most growth for the faculty member. There will be plenty to do all day long, as every camp has to adjust on the fl y to the needs of the specifi c participants. Faculty often fi nd that the camp is the hardest work week they have ever had—and the most rewarding. Once you get faculty for the fi rst year, it will be easy to get them for the second year.One of the documents on the Pacifi c Crest LLC Resources site is a page of faculty comments about the value of their experiences at Learning to Learn Camps. These can be used to make your recruiting emails, fl yers, etc., more persuasive and personal.If you have faculty who cannot make a full-time commitment, then make sure to be clear about what their level of participation will be. It is not fair to students to have them be without the support of a coach when they need one, and it is not fair to other faculty to have them have to fi ll in for those who are not available. Also, the limited number of slots you have for camp faculty makes these spots valuable. They should go to people who will make the most of the experience. Dropping by for an hour here and there is not going to produce the faculty growth that camps can provide. Camp faculty should not be expected to teach classes, attend meetings, etc. during the camp, including evening events. The faculty day is longer than the student day and faculty may have work to do in the evenings also. There are jobs that can be done well by part-time volunteers, such as games, scoring of work products, facilitating learning in an area in which they are especially knowledgeable, etc., provided everyone is clear before camp begins about what their level of participation will be. It is highly desirable to have everyone together for the morning and late afternoon faculty meetings to make sure that key information gets to everyone. Remember that you will be making changes every day in response to specifi c needs, student feedback, etc. You will also need a facilitator or facilitation team for each activity in your schedule. These will likely be the same people who have the coaching and assistant coaching positions, perhaps plus others. Some activities should be facilitated by the Pacifi c Crest staff for purposes of modeling and to get the students into the swing of how camp works. This is especially helpful on the fi rst morning


of the camp. However, for maximum professional growth, all faculty members need to facilitate at least once, and twice is better, so they can utilize the feedback from the fi rst facilitation. Camps with very large student populations can run parallel sessions in separate rooms and thereby increase the opportunities for facilitators.If you are doing an adapted-content-based camp (see Section 6), then you will need at least one content expert. While facilitators can effectively do activities without being content experts (learning the content along with the students has its benefi ts), the credibility of the content learning is enhanced if there is a content expert on the team. This person can facilitate the most content- heavy activities and be a consultant for the work products as well. This person should, of course, also greatly be involved in the planning and faculty development aspects of the camp. You will also need persons to prepare for and run the games during days 1-4 and the contests on day 5.These make good jobs for part-time participants, although they can be done by full-time faculty also. These persons can recruit their own helpers and judges for contests. They will also need to know how to report scores quickly to the record keeper for entry into the camp database. Consider asking administrators that you want to impress with what your students have accomplished in just four days. Having them judge or at least observe the speech contest is a powerful way to show your administration the power that camp has. There are helpful documents with specifi cs about these jobs at the end of this section.Finally, you need teams of people on the last day of camp to score the work products. They will need brief training in the criteria for the scoring and a person with the authority to settle any issues that arise. These scores also must be reported quickly so that the awards can be presented at the closing session. For content-based camps, you will need a content expert to be involved here. Faculty members will want to be available to their students during the contests and to hear the speeches, etc., so it is better if you can keep them free for that purpose. Also, after developing relationships with the students all week, it is harder to be an objective rater of the work products.

4. Design curriculumThis step is already mostly done for you by Pacifi c Crest, which provides both a curriculum design and a syllabus that are based on years of experience with Learning to Learn Camps. These documents are included at the end of this section.Local adjustments to the curriculum can be made by consulting with your facilitator, but try to get a solid syllabus in place as soon as possible, as that document will determine a lot of other things you need to know, such as workspaces and staffi ng needs.The basic Learning to Learn Camp curriculum will be provided as part of your facilitation fee. You don’t have to prepare activities for camps that are based on the Pacifi c Crest curriculum, as your students will have Pacifi c Crest textbooks, which include plenty of well-tested activities and supporting materials. However, you may need to adjust the format of the curriculum if you are going to submit it for local approval as a credit course. Allow time to get that done as soon as possible.If you do want to add some local content, be sure to consult with your facilitator about adjusting the curriculum to do so. This is certainly possible, but it will be a lot less stressful for everyone if the curriculum adjustments are kept to a minimum, keeping in mind that there will almost certainly be some adjustments during the camp, based on real-time assessments of needs of the students, student council and faculty feedback, etc.If you have chosen to have a content-based camp, the last section of this handbook will provide a lot of guidance about how to adapt your content to work in conjunction with the camp content,


achieving the learning skills that are central to a Learning to Learn Camp at the same time. There you will also fi nd an example of a content-based syllabus and revised work products and point systems. You should plan on beginning to work with your facilitator as a consultant on designing your content-based syllabus and activities several months before your camp will be held. If this is a repeat of an earlier camp, don’t forget to use the assessment of the last camp to make appropriate revisions in curriculum and activities.

5. Schedule facilities

You’ll need the facilities to be available at least an hour before the camp starts and at least two hours after camp ends for the day, if the students are commuting. It is very helpful if the key main leaders have keys.

A. Classrooms

You will need a classroom, with furniture suitable for making groups of about four, large enough to accommodate all students, with enough space for moving around during activities. There should also be room for faculty to observe the activities. This room should have at least one projection system and a white board, black board, or space for posting newsprint sheets. This room should be exclusively for camp use for this week. If you have a large camp with instruction taking place in parallel, of course you will need two such rooms. Activity facilitators can work effectively with larger groups of students than you might expect. If you have the space in one room, 60 students can work with one facilitator.

B. One meeting room for each learning community.

A classroom will be fi ne. Again, it will be helpful for furniture to be grouped. The room should have some place to post materials and notes and to store projects, etc. It is also preferable that these rooms be used only for camp, so you don’t have to move things around and clean up every day. A blackboard/whiteboard is necessary and a computer projection system is nice.

C. Computer lab space(s) to accommodate all of the students at once.

You’ll need to have access to load math software before the camp and remove it after, as well as printer capacity for students. This room may also be used for writing activities and contests. It is helpful for students to be able to have work time in some computer space before and after camp hours. This work could be done in a dorm-based lab for residential students, who will be doing quite a lot of writing in the evenings.

Computer tech services should be on site or on call for quick service.

D. A place for eating meals and snacks.

This space might also be helpful for contests and for students to spread out to work on activities at times. Some outdoor space for breaks is nice. If your campus allows smoking areas, think about where smokers can go on break times.

E. A workroom for faculty, with a computer and laser printer, space for storing materials, and space for small conferences. This needs to be separate from the student workspaces for privacy. A coffee pot and water bottles in there is nice.


F. Places for special last day of camp activities.

Four rooms for evaluating work products, likely including Life Vision Portfolios, Personal Growth Papers, Foundations of Learning, art and writing contest entries. These need to be quiet and separate from the contests but nearby to save time and effort for your leadership team. Classrooms are fi ne.

Suitable spaces for Friday contests, including display space for art around the time of the banquet/awards ceremony, a speech contest room with space for judges and visitors and a suitable microphone, a stage for the talent show, with sound system and a piano if possible. (You may need to do some last minute work here depending on what talents the students want to demonstrate.)

You will also need a banquet facility with space for students to invite guests and a stage area with a sound system for awards presentations. It’s fi ne to limit the number of guests each student can bring. If you plan to have a camp slide show or video, then a projection system will be required (make sure to have students sign photo releases before using their images.)

6. Arrange housing.

If you are conducting a residential camp, coordinate with the housing offi ce to arrange how you will handle roommate assignments, move-in instructions, move-out instructions, payment, lists of what to bring and what will be provided (linens?)

7. Order meals and snacks.

Keeping people well fed is important for good morale at camp. Remember that you will need to feed the faculty and probably a few guests as well as the facilitator and all the students. Commuter camps should offer breakfast and lunch, with mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. Of course, residential camps have to add dinner, and participants will appreciate a snack in the evening also. They may well be up late working.

Try to keep your group together at meals if possible. Letting people disperse too much often means loss of valuable time after eating. Instead, the meals can be times for informal bonding of learning communities and faculty and students. Sending students off campus to get their own lunch is a mistake. It just takes too long, and some may not return.

Remember to include the people who will come in to help with evaluating work products and judging contests for lunch on the last day.

8. Arrange parking for students and faculty.

Will you need to mail out parking passes? Let everyone know what lot to use? Get daily parking passes to pass out during camp? If students will need to pay for parking, let them know that in advance also. If applicable to your location, consider bus/train/subway passes also.

9. Set up banquet.

Reserve an appropriate location and food for the ending banquet. You may need a sound system and stage for the awards ceremony. Remember, you will need space guests invited by students, though you can certainly limit the number of guests per student. Include the faculty and perhaps some special guests, such as your college president, deans, etc.


10. Arrange materials.

A. Order books from Pacifi c Crest at least a month in advance, but when you have a good handle on your student count. Remember faculty members will also need copies of Foundations of Learning and the Student Success Toolbox, unless they have those from the Student Success Institute. Coaches will appreciate having a Life Vision Portfolio also.

B. Arrange for loading of math software from Pacifi c Crest.

C. Buy, beg, or borrow materials for the Art Contest.

See full discussion of contests and games at the end of this section.

D. Obtain supplies

• Binders, loose-leaf paper, and dividers• Large pads of newsprint (the ones with sticky top edges, a la Post-it notes, are really handy)• Whiteboard pens in several colors—or chalk—and erasers for the main classroom area and

all learning community meeting rooms and the computer lab• Bottled water• Scratch paper for the math lab• Printer paper• Notebook paper and/or legal pads for faculty and students• Pens and pencils • One fl ash drive for each member of the leadership team, each coach, and each facilitator of

an activity• Computer system access for each person. Don’t forget that visitors may need passwords.

A place for everyone to save work on the server is really helpful and will reduce printing demands. If you want students to work on their writing on the college computers, they will need printing access somewhere. In the dorm is nice for residential camps.

• For each learning community: three-hole punch, stapler, paper clips, dictionary

E. Download and print forms from the LLC Resources Site.

11. Arrange prizes and certifi cates for awards banquet.

A. Graduation certifi cate for each student. If you want to be able to give each student a certifi cate showing his/her level of completion—Star Performer, etc. as shown on the syllabus, the easiest way is to prepare a certifi cate for each level for each student. Then at the last minute, you can pull an appropriate completed and signed certifi cate for each person. It is nice to have some sort of additional recognition for the Stars (in addition to the letter of recommendation). An example is a star lapel pin. If all those extra certifi cates seem too wasteful, you can recognize each student at the ceremony in groups by level of completion and then mail certifi cates, but it is really nice for everyone to have something to take home and to show guests. If you wait until the last couple of days to do certifi cates, you can use your information to make some guesses and make fewer certifi cates. You will know some of the students who are too far behind to reach Star, for example. If you do that, have a few blanks handy in case you guess wrong. Winning a couple of contests can make a lot of difference.


B. Prizes for top 5 graduates. You can adjust this number according to the size of your camp enrollment. Scholarships are the best for this, but if you can’t get that, consider book store gift certifi cates. For specialized camps, there could easily be appropriate items, like calculators for engineering students. These should be the biggest prizes, and graduated by placement. Try to have something really important for at least the top three. If you do have signifi cant prizes, tell the students early, as these are good motivators.

C. Prizes for top learning community (everyone in the community gets something) and top team.

These could be small tokens, like a college tee shirt, fl ash drive, or mug. Try to have something different for the top team as the winners of top team may well also be in the top learning community.

D. Prizes for each contest. Award for as many places as you like, but probably at least 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

For Writing, Speech, and Math these will be individuals. Problem-solving will be a winning team, so you need probably 4 prizes. For Art and Talent, if you allow groups, then you’ll need to have a lot of token prizes ready. Often learning communities get together on a talent presentation, and these are likely to be winners, so the prize may need to be inexpensive. Maybe you could get vouchers for a college sports event for free? Drink coupons for food services?

Of course, you make your own rules, so you could limit the size of group entries, but it is a wonderful team experience to come up with a skit or original song parody, and the audience will enjoy these too. See sample contest fl yers.

12. Coordinate with key team members and your Pacifi c Crest facilitator monthly.

Keep your facilitator up to date on your progress and ask any questions you have. Usually e-mail is fi ne for this. If you have assigned portions of this checklist to individuals, make sure the team is updated regularly on your progress. Hold those who have planning duties accountable for getting them done in a timely manner, so you don’t have a panicked last-minute scramble. Learning to Learn Camps are stressful enough without that.

A. Acceptance letter, with instructions and requirements. This should specifi cally address logistics, such as parking, housing, etc. It should include convenient means for students to ask questions, refer friends, and drop out.

B. Reminder letter. If your acceptance is sent a while in advance, it will be very helpful to send a reminder letter and/or email a couple of weeks before the camp begins. Here, remind students of basic information and encourage them to make arrangements for time off work, child care, etc. If you do send a reminder, it can be more detailed and include more logistical information than the acceptance letter. You could also include items like parking passes, bus passes, and room assignments.

C. Billing might be needed as a separate communication from the bursar, depending on local business decisions.

D. Specifi c housing arrangements for students who are going to be moving into campus housing for the week.


Any or all of these could be online instead of in print, but be sure to confi rm receipt if you pick that option.

All of the materials students see should make clear that an LLC is a serious program with signifi cant benefi ts for their lives as students. They should be upbeat and energetic in tone, but not give the impression that the camp is going to be recreation, an assumption sometimes made based on the name.

13. Plan follow-up.

What are you going to do to follow the progress of students after the camp? If you want to do a research study of their success, you may need to begin early to get the institutional support you need. Will you need a control group? What parameters would you like to track? If you have done data to show that camp improved academic performance, it will be easier to get funding for your next camp. Do you want to follow up with the faculty development? How?

Some schools have selected such specialized groups, such as honors students, that it is easy to monitor how these students perform, but if you draw from a wider spectrum of students, it can be diffi cult to see the difference you have made without careful monitoring.

You may also want to continue to meet with the students periodically. The students are likely to want to see one another again. Something as simple as a pizza party every month will let you keep the relationships you have built active. Be sure to include the faculty.

If you are going to have another camp, be sure to use the energy at the end of camp to start plans in motion for next year. Do a thorough assessment of the camp and record what you want to keep and what you want to change. Revise your activities while they are fresh in your minds, and then carefully store them away for the next camp. Make multiple copies or store them electronically in a way that can be accessed by several persons, so there is no risk of losing things if there are personnel changes. No one will have the energy to do this the day camp ends, but do it soon!

Your camp leadership should do a thorough de-brief with your Pacifi c Crest facilitator as soon as possible after the camp. This may need to be a conference call. Make good notes and keep them safe so you can fi nd them to refer to when you start planning your next camp.


1-3 Months Before Camp

1. Communicate with Pacifi c Crest facilitator weekly until camp.

Most of this can be done by e-mail. The better your communication, the stronger your planning will be, and the smoother your camp will run. No one likes to have to scramble at the last minute to cover an oversight.

2. Produce and print local materials.

Samples of some of these are available on the LLC Resources site. Depending on the type of camp you are conducting, some of these will have to be locally produced.

Plan to have most printing done in time to assemble packets for students and faculty at your general faculty meeting the week before camp. Loose-leaf binders with dividers work well, as then it is easy to add/replace items. If you have a camp logo, the cover and/or fi rst page is a good place to use it.

A. Recruiting and registration materials.

Don’t forget the follow-up communication one to two weeks before camp with instructions your students will need. These are detailed in the previous timeline section. You may need recruiting materials for faculty as well as students.

B. Student binder materials.

• Daily point sheets (fi rst four days)

• Student schedules, with times, places, activity titles

• Photo release form (to be signed to allow use of pictures in show at banquet and in future brochures, a recruiting video, etc.)

• Syllabus—a Pacifi c Crest syllabus is included in this guide. Make local adaptations as needed, coordinated with your facilitator.

• Activities that are locally written

• Contest fl yers

C. For faculty binders, in addition to the above:

• Faculty schedules—with their duties assigned, including activity facilitation.

• Learning community and team assignments for coaches and assistant coaches (who may want to send a welcoming e-mail message to their students).

• Faculty contact information

• Faculty development forms (see Section 5 and LLC Resources Site)

D. Signage

Whatever you will need to help people to fi nd where they need to be and to warn off those who might wander by (and eat your snacks, for example).


3. Finalize all logistics arrangements when you know how many participants you will have.

Be sure to include camp faculty, and last day evaluators/judges and banquet guests in meal counts.

4. Communicate with students and faculty with the details they need.

Have some process for students to drop out and for those on the wait list to be added, up to the fi rst day of camp.

Remind everyone of the time and place you will meet on the fi rst morning. Tell them how to dress for camp (casual and comfortable) and what they need to bring (pen and paper? Laptop? Money for fees? College ID?).

Now is a good time to invite key administrators to visit the camp to see what is happening. Give them jobs if you can or invite them to share in a lunch break and talk to the students. If you can get just an hour, try to get them to the speech contest.

5. Meet face to face with staff at least once after the Student Success Institute.

A meeting a week before camp starts can be really helpful. It gives you a chance to get everyone oriented before the hectic fi rst day. At this time, the facilitators should be assigned to their activities. Also extra duties, such as running a game or contest, should be handed out. Have materials ready to pass out. Assign coaches and assistant coaches and give them time to meet. Make sure everyone knows the job they are being given. Assign special jobs, such as running games and contests and supervising the evaluation of work products. Also, get a commitment to the faculty development aspects of the camp. Emphasize the assessment climate you will build and the great importance of their roles as mentors to all of the camp students.

Camp staff name badges or even tee shirts with your camp logo are nice touches if you have the resources.

6. Recruit people to evaluate work products and judge contests on the last day of camp.

You will need a lot of help on Friday to get the products evaluated and the contests judged. This is a good way to involve people who you want to see the camp, but who cannot work all week. Most will be needed all morning. Make sure they have water and snacks. It is courteous to invite them all to lunch. Get those who are assigned to run a contest or supervise a product evaluation to recruit the staff they need.

If you have a busy administrator that you want to impress with your camp, try to get that person involved. An ideal task for them is judging the speech contest, but even getting that person to spend an hour listening to the speeches will help you get your program some appreciation.

You will need the following last day help:

A. Evaluators for Life Vision Portfolios, Student Success Toolboxes, and Foundations of Learning activities (and a workplace for each of these groups).

One person per 10 student products is a good ratio. If you exceed that by much, you may have a delay in getting scores and therefore being able to set up awards. They will need brief training about the product and the evaluation criteria and one evaluation sheet for each product. That means someone has to be prepared to do the training and give them criteria and evaluation forms. Camps usually use one evaluator to score for each product. If you want to use two, then


you’ll need more people, of course, as well as a process for resolving disagreements. Remember that the students will accumulate thousands of points, so a small discrepancy is unlikely to be signifi cant. A short introductory session at the beginning of the day is helpful.

Try to avoid using faculty who have been at camp all week to evaluate work products, as it is hard for them to be objective once they know the students well. Besides, they want to be able to encourage their students as they compete in the contests and to hear the speeches and talent. They deserve to see the results of their hard work.

You will need one scoring sheet for each work product, giving the criteria you choose and the point values for each criterion, and a point total. Leave room for notes. Students will want to see these sheets when they pick up their materials.

B. Contest leaders

These can be persons who are also coaches and assistant coaches. You will need one for each contest to pass out materials and oversee the contest and get materials to the judges or results to the person doing your database.

C. Contest judges for Writing Contest, Art Contest, Speech Contest, and Talent Contest.

Teams of three work well. Make sure they know the criteria the students were given. Evaluation sheets are helpful, especially if you have a lot of students. Make sure they have a list of names for the speeches and talent contest. Ideally, provide sheets with names in order of performance. Each group also needs a form to report results. Have someone who knows the students’ names sit with the judges.

D. Emcee for the Speech and Talent Shows and especially for the awards banquet. Choose thoughtfully.

E. A runner to collect results and get them to the person doing the points tally and the contest leaders. If your camp is small and in a compact location, the contest leaders and product evaluation leaders can do this instead. It is essential to get scores and content results to the camp facilitator (or to whoever is keeping the camp database) as soon as possible so scores can be entered and winners decided in time to prepare prizes and certifi cates and announce results at the banquet.

7. Arrange meals and snacks.

Make a fi nal check, now that you have your numbers of people more settled. You’ll still need to adjust the banquet numbers as you fi nd out what guests the students have coming.

8. Arrange for a camp photographer/videographer.

A slide show or movie at the awards ceremony will be a big hit. Also, the show can be a recruiting tool for your next camp. That’s why you need the release forms. If someone does not want to sign the release, you’ll have to make sure that person is not shown. Find someone with the tech skills to produce a show from the media you have. Activities, like games, make good pictures. Try to get everyone in the show at least once.

Full information on games and contests is provided at the end of this section of the Guide.


A. Games are held during the fi rst four days of camp. They are valuable parts of the day because they are fun and relieve stress, but are also a valuable use of precious time. Teams compete against one another, which fosters team bonding and builds teamwork skills. The games also reinforce vocabulary and concepts from the curriculum. Also, they are a friendly space for coaches and staff to interact with students. Games are an all-hands-on-deck time. You will need one faculty/staff person for each team, in addition to a game leader and a score keeper (using a white/blackboard). It can be fun to move to another space for this activity even if students are sitting on the fl oor.

B. Contests are held on the last day of camp. These competitions reinforce the skills that students have worked on during the fi rst four days. Some are individual and some are group activities. Also, this keeps the tired students energized for one last day while their work products are being evaluated.

8. Decide on awards.

Awards are described in detail in the previous section. Now is the time to make fi nal selections. Do gift wrapping if needed. Try to get the awards all taken care of before camp starts. You will have plenty to do during camp. Figure out who is going to get the awards to the banquet location and choose the appropriate award to hand to the awards presenter, usually the local leader of the camp. If you want, the contest organizers can award their contest prizes. It is nice to recognize the judges also, especially if they are in attendance at the banquet. Did you invite them?


1 Week Before Camp

1. Re-check entire checklist.

If you missed something, you can scramble and get it done now, before camp starts.

2. Confi rm all reservations for spaces and equipment, food, and housing.

So what if you seem like a worrywart? It’s no fun to arrive the fi rst morning and fi nd that breakfast is going to be an hour late or the rooms are locked or the books are still across campus in someone’s offi ce.

3. Set up rooms.

If you have access, it is very helpful to arrange the furniture in your spaces into small groups so you don’t have to do this on the fi rst morning. If that’s not possible, arrange for someone with a key and a helper to arrive early to do this before the morning meeting. Make sure that the projection system is working and you know how to get into it by password and to connect a laptop to it. If you plan to use a microphone, check that too. Put the phone number for tech support in your pocket—or your head. Know where the restrooms are.

4. Install and test math software.

5. Pacifi c Crest will supply the software you need, but it takes some time to install it on multiple computers, the exact amount, depending on your IT set-up.

Allow time for a test run, perhaps during your staff meeting. That will be helpful for letting everyone see how the math works. Be sure to test the printers too. Paper supplies? Scratch paper? A few extra helpers during the math session can help things go more smoothly as well. It’s not necessary to have math teachers. Assign students, coaches, and assistant coaches to their learning communities and teams.

Use the demographic information you have and any personal knowledge of the students to balance the learning communities and teams as evenly as possible. Make teams as diverse as you can, using information about age, gender, race, majors, etc. If you see there is a group of students who are acquainted, such as high school friends, separate them as much as you can. If you have special needs students, put them on different teams and distribute them among the learning communities as equally as possible. If you know that some students are close friends, don’t put them on the same team. Coaches may have to change teams later, especially if there are no-shows, but it is very helpful to have things as far along as possible to avoid fi rst morning confusion.

6. Prepare name tags for all participants, ideally re-usable ones.

Keep in mind that the presence of these nametags does not mean that faculty can get by without learning names. By the end of the fi rst day, coaches and assistant coaches should at least know the names of all the students in their learning community. By the end of day 2, they should know the names of everyone, unless the camp is really large. Still, encourage students to wear their nametags for at least a couple of days, and have the faculty model that behavior.


7. Check all printing orders and textbook orders.

Make sure you have a plan to get the materials to the students and faculty. One good way is to give the faculty their materials at your meeting the week before camp and to give the students their materials at a sign-in desk as they arrive. Have someone set to work at that desk! Pick someone friendly and outgoing, preferably not a lead person or coach, so these people can be greeting the students.

8. Move in all materials and arrange for distribution.

Make sure you have enough printing paper. Get a good three-hole punch. Have a dictionary for each learning community. Have the following supplies in addition to what you need for games and contests.

• Large pads of newsprint. The ones with post-it sticky top edge are really handy.

• Whiteboard pens in several colors – or chalk—for main classroom area and all learning community meeting rooms.

• Bottled water

• Scratch paper for math lab

• Printer paper

• Notebook paper and/or legal pads for faculty and students

• Pens and pencils

• One fl ash drive for each member of leadership team, each coach, and each facilitator of an activity

• Computer system access for each person. Don’t forget visitors may need passwords. A place for everyone to save work on the mainframe is really helpful and will reduce printing demands. If you want students to work on their writing on the college computers, they will need printing access somewhere. In the dorm is nice for residential camps.

9. Arrange greeting of students on the fi rst morning.

No student should come in the fi rst morning and sit down without a smiling greeting and a handshake. Try to avoid having students hiding out in the back row alone. Giving a shy person a little job can really help them get started.

10. Confi rm all participants, faculty and students.

It’s not fun to have to scramble if an activity facilitator does not show up. Students who signed up months before could have forgotten the date.

11. Finalize details with Pacifi c Crest facilitator(s) and any visitors.

You and your facilitator from Pacifi c Crest will work out when you need to meet, if you need to go to the airport, etc.


LEARNING-TO-LEARN CAMPSample Syllabus

Term: Aug, 2013Course Number:Credits: 1 creditInstructor: Dr. Daniel K. Apple Offi ce Location: virtualE-mail Address: [email protected] Number: (630) 853-7535Fax Number: (630) 737-0881Contact Hours: Leave a voice mail message; I will contact you within 48 hours.

Course Vision

This course is about you becoming the person you want to be, developing the skills you will need for college and in life, and developing the mindset and abilities for self-growth.

Course Description

Welcome to Learning to Learn Camp! This experience is designed to help you say “YES!” to your own success! This experience will show you how to achieve greater success in college and in life. You may never again have an opportunity like this to improve the quality of your life. Please make the most of it!

Learning Outcomes: In this camp, you will learn how to...

1. TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE. You’ll learn how to make wiser choices, thus gaining greater control over the results you achieve in college and for the rest of your life.

2. INCREASE SELF-MOTIVATION. You’ll learn how to create the inner motivation necessary to keep going when you run into life’s inevitable challenges.

3. IMPROVE SELF-MANAGEMENT. You’ll learn proven strategies for creating positive outcomes in your life, outcomes that will move you effectively and effi ciently toward the accomplishment of your goals and dreams.

4. DEVELOP MUTUALLY SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS. You’ll learn how to develop meaningful relationships with people who will support you in achieving your goals and dreams while you assist them to achieve theirs.

5. CREATE POWERFUL NEW BEHAVIORS AND BELIEFS. You’ll learn how to identify and change self-defeating habits and limiting beliefs that are keeping you from fulfi lling your unlimited potential.

6. MAXIMIZE YOUR LEARNING. You’ll learn powerful strategies that will enable you to achieve better grades in college, to become an effective life-long learner, and to develop your unlimited potential.

7. DEVELOP GREATER EMOTIONAL MATURITY. You’ll learn effective techniques for effectively managing your emotional life and increasing your sense of inner peace, joy and happiness.


8. RAISE YOUR SELF-ESTEEM. You’ll learn how to develop greater self-acceptance, self-confi dence, self-respect, self-love, and unconditional self-worth.

9. WRITE MORE EFFECTIVELY. You’ll learn how to improve your writing skills through the extensive practice offered by your guided journal entries.

10. IMPROVE CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS. You’ll learn how to enhance the thinking skills that are essential for analyzing and solving problems in your academic, professional, and personal lives.

Required Supplies:

Text books: Foundations of Learning (or Learning to Learn: Becoming a Self-Grower), Student Success Toolbox, Life Vision Portfolio, Math and Graphing Skills

Grading System

Levels of Performance

Star Performer 6,000 points*

Professional Performer 5,000 points (“A” Grade)

Successful Performer 4,000 points (“B” Grade)

Completion of Institute 3,000 points (“C” Grade)

* Each Star Performer will received a letter of recommendation from the Camp Director

Opportunities/ Work Products Potential PointsIn Class Activities Over 30 activities @ 35 points each

1,050

daily math 4 @ 100 400 daily game competitions 4 @ 100 points each 400 Service points 4 @ 50 points each 200**Life Vision Portfolio 1,000**Foundations of Learning activities 1,000**Student Success Toolbox 750**Self-growth paper 500Math & Graphing Friday 40 modules @ 25 points each 1,000Participating in fi ve contests 5 @ 100 points each 500Winning Contests 5 @ 500 points each, for fi rst place 2,500Total 9,700

Special Recognitions in the Awards Ceremony

Top three learning communities

Top three teams

Top fi ve individual performers

Contest winners


Opportunities for Earning Points

Participation during days 1 to 4

You will be given a score sheet to record your participation points during all activities during the fi rst four days. Every in-class activity provides 50 points with some bonus points at times. The Math and Graphing Skills session will provide around 50 to 100 points per day based upon how many modules are completed. There will be over 30 in-class activities. Keep your scorecard up to date. Each day there will be a game activity, which offers extra points for placing fi rst, second, or third as a team. Service points are awarded at the discretion of camp faculty for helpful actions.

Life Vision Portfolio (25 pages – 1,000) Due Friday at 9 AM

Portfolios should be between 20 and 30 typed pages. (200 points, 20% awarded for typing.) Portfolios should be structured according to the instructions in the Life Vision Portfolio notebook. Most of your writing will need to be done outside of daily work time, so plan to work on your Portfolio every evening. It will not be possible to do your best by writing your entire portfolio the night before it is due.

Performance Criteria for LVP:

1. Level of openness

2. Realists/honesty

3. Completeness

4. Thoughtfulness

5. Objectivity

6. Level of passion/caring/commitment

7. Overall presentation

Foundations of Learning activities book (25 activities – 1000 points) Due Friday at 9 AM

You will have opportunities during the day to complete many of the activities from your FOL book. You may also need to complete activities that you did not fi nish in class and to do some activities independently on your own time.

1. Building a Learning Community 2. Analyzing a Course Syllabus 3. Creating Your Life Vision Portfolio 4. Exploring the Campus 5. Using Reading Logs 6. Practicing the Reading Methodology 7. Analyzing a Literary Text 8. Analyzing the Learning Process Methodology 9. Applying the Learning Process Methodology 10. Analyzing the Problem Solving Methodology


11. Applying the Problem Solving Methodology 12. Student Handbook 13. Developing an Educational Plan 14. Becoming a Self-Grower 15. Personal Development Methodology .16. Information Processing Methodology 17. Using a Software Help System 18. Time Management 19. Academic Honesty 20. Applying the Writing Methodology 21. Assessing and Revising 22. Team Design Competition 23. Exploring Team Roles 24. Logo Design Competition 25. Exploring the Assessment Methodology 26. Building a Criteria List 27. Student Success Toolbox 28. Self Growth Paper 29. Metacognition

Student Success Toolbox (25 entries – 750 points) Due Friday at 9 AM

This product is completed by completing pages in the Student Success Toolbox. Many of these can be completed during camp sessions, so you will want to keep your book with you and maximize your chances to get work done in it during the day. You will still need to do some pages on your own time.

A complete Toolbox should include the following components:

• at least 5 Reading Logs (up to 5 more for extra credit)

• 1 Refl ector’s Report• 1 Recorder’s Report• 2 Analyze and Correct the Errors• 3 Learning Journals• at least 5 Self-Assessments (one each

morning and one each evening)

• Glossary – 40 words• Log of Entries• 1 Team Assessment• 1 Performance Assessment• 1 Learner Contract• 3 other forms of your own choosing

Performance Criteria

1. Completeness of required components (above).

2. Completeness of each individual component.


3. Legibility (handwritten is expected)

4. Thoughtfulness

Reading Assignments in Foundations of Learning. Use these as reading for the reading logs in your Student Success Toolbox.

Reading Pages DueImproving Performance 1 – 23 Tuesday MorningLife Vision 33 – 49 Tuesday MorningReading Process 61 – 78 Tuesday MorningLearning Process 97 – 110 Tuesday MorningAddressing Personal Obstacles 175 – 192 Tuesday MorningTime Management 231 – 244 Wednesday MorningCommunication and Teamwork 311 – 334 Wednesday MorningProblem Solving 121 – 135 Wednesday MorningContext of Performance 149 – 162 Thursday MorningAddressing Personal Obstacles 175 – 193 Thursday MorningInformation Processing 207 – 222 Thursday MorningWriting 275 – 292 Tuesday MorningAssessment 251 – 366 Tuesday Morning

Self-Growth Paper Due Friday at 9 AM

Identify 5 key areas of personal growth: use the Transformation of Education, Profi le of the Quality Learner, personal growth goals or Classifi cation of Learning Skills (all of which you will encounter and use within this course) to help you identify the areas of your greatest growth. Focus this self-growth paper on growth rather than learning (the Learning Journal illustrates learning). Your Student Success Toolbox should be used as a resource to help you identify and track your growth. The fi rst page of your self-growth paper should set the context: where your personal and team goals provided opportunities for growth. Use a page for each area of growth: identify with evidence that growth has occurred and the means you used during the course to produce that growth. The last page should be used to step back and share what you have learned about producing or encouraging self-growth.

This paper is described in Foundations of Learning.

Performance Criteria

1. Following instructions

2. Thoughtfulness

3. Insightfulness

4. Using evidence to show growth

5. Presentation


Contests

Each student is required to participate in 4 out of 5 (100 points for participating and 500 points for 1st place, 400 points for 2nd place, 300 points for 3rd place, 200 points for 4th place, and 100 points for 5th place).

These contests will all be held or judged on Friday, but you will need to prepare for some of them in advance. Be sure to watch for sign-up sheets with more detailed instructions.

• Art Contest (individual)• Writing Contest (individual)• Speech Contest (individual)• Talent Show (individual or teams)• Problem Solving (teams – everyone must enter)

Math and Graphing Skills

On Friday you will have 60 minutes to complete as many of the 40 modules as possible by yourself. Submit a print-out of your results when time is called to earn 25 points for each module. You may begin at Module 1 and repeat modules you did during the fi rst four days. No help will be given.

Student Responsibilities

1. Commit to being successful in college and in life. This means you’re absolutely sure that you want a high quality life, and you’re not only willing to grow, you want to grow.

2. Be willing to do whatever is necessary. For this Institute, this means attending every class, completing all the assignments to the best of your ability, participating actively in every class, spending quality time at night...and never, never, never, never giving up!

3. Be coachable. This means that you’re willing to take assessment feedback from your teachers and mentors. You’re willing to experiment with new behaviors and beliefs.

4. Be a responsible team and community member. Be a positive contributor to your community of learners (increasing the learning of the group).

5. Be accountable and responsible. Accept accountability for the timely completion of all course work products (this includes coming to class fully prepared, with all on- or off-line readings, homework, and assignments completed by the day or time identifi ed in the Course Schedule).

6. Be an engaged learner. Emotionally engage in the challenge of personal growth and put forth the effort to continuously improve.

7. Meet deadlines. Work products must be completed with the level of quality and at the time identifi ed.

Faculty/Facilitator Responsibilities

1. Provide guidance and mentoring to each participant with respect to improving selected learning skills.

2. Model use of all tools and techniques at the same or higher level of quality expected of students.


3. Provide in-depth consulting during breaks, evenings, and online.

4. Provide assistance in locating additional resources that align with personal and team goals.

5. Upon request, demonstrate classroom techniques in real time (advance notice should be given when possible).

Methodology (Course Culture and Processes)

The course models a student-centered, active learning environment. This requires the learner to take ownership of his or her own learning and requires the facilitator to create opportunities for learners to demonstrate that ownership. As such, the facilitator will be continually providing challenges to improve learner performance. Key processes are not just “covered” but extensively used and modeled throughout the course. These processes include various forms of assessment (self-assessment, peer assessment, structured refl ections, instructor assessment, mid-term assessment, etc.), facilitation, and problem solving.

Language development is critical and participants will be expected to be familiar with the operational defi nitions given in the course glossary. Pre-class readings and activities correlate with learning activities scheduled for each class meeting. Participants should be prepared to use these resources effectively during in-class exercises. There will be numerous time-pressured learning situations. There will also be cooperative learning activities that require participants to perform in front of team members and course colleagues. Special times will be set aside for teams of students to role-play, articulate understanding to one another, and collaborate to solve problems.

Communication and documentation, both on- and off-line, are critical, as these form the basis for course work products.

Academic Honesty and Integrity

The principles of intellectual honesty and integrity are central to the Learning to Learn Camp. All participants in this course are expected to demonstrate the highest degree of integrity in their work and interactions with others


Sample Agenda

DAY

1Student BreakfastCoaches’ MeetingBuilding Learning Communities Orientation: ExpectationsBecoming a Self-GrowerMath SkillsLunchPictionaryAnalyzing a Course Syllabus

Using a Reading LogLearning to Learn ChemistryStudent Council (Faculty SII Assessment) DinnerCreating a Life Vision PortfolioAnalyzing the Learning Process MethodologyExploring Team RolesLife Vision Portfolio Development Self-Assessment of Day 1

DAY

2

Student BreakfastCoaches’ MeetingLearning Community Time Learning Assessment JournalPracticing the Reading MethodologyMath SkillsExploring the CampusLunchCharadesTime Management

Applying the LPMAnalyzing the Problem Solving MethodologyDinnerLearning Community TimeStudent Council (Faculty SII Assessment)ExerciseHelp SystemLearning to Learn MathematicsSelf-Assessment & Writing

DAY

3

Student BreakfastCoaches’ MeetingLearning Community Time Exploring the Assessment MethodologyPersonal Development MethodologyMath SkillsSelf-Assessment of ProgressLunchPictionaryDeveloping an Educational Plan

Team Logo Design Academic HonestyDinnerLearning Community TimeStudent Council (Faculty SII Assessment)ExerciseAssessing and Revising Learning to Learn BiologyPreparation Time

DAY

4

Student BreakfastCoaches’ MeetingLearning Community Time Team Design CompetitionApplying the Problem Solving Methodology Information Processing MethodologyMath SkillsLunchCharades Student Handbook

Applying the Writing MethodologyBuilding a Criteria ListLearning Community Time Student Council (Faculty SII Assessment)ExerciseDinnerSelf-Growth PaperAnalyzing a Literary TextFree Writing

DAY

5 Student BreakfastCoaches’ MeetingLearning Community TimeMath SkillsWriting ContestProblem Solving Contest

LunchSpeech ContestTalent ShowOpen Mike & BuffetAwards Ceremony


Course Design: Learning to Learn Camp(Based upon Foundations of Learning, Student Success Toolbox, Life Vision Portfolio, Math and Graphing Skills)

Numbering of sections correlates with the steps of the Course Design Methodology.

1: LONG-TERM BEHAVIORS

Learning to Learn Camp graduates in the future:

• Own their own learning process, are self-motivated, and have taken responsibility for their own success no matter how diffi cult the learning challenge becomes

• Are engaged in every course they take by being prepared, thinking critically, sharing ideas with others, and generalizing their knowledge for future use in learning and problem solving

• Keep a journal/notebook for capturing ideas, thoughts, and meaning during reading, lectures, activities, refl ections, and projects so that revisiting this journal elevates learning and growth

• Use reading time as a precious and valued resource by clarifying its purpose, objectives, and expectations, building schemas or outlines for the reading, and doing quick reads to identify key vocabulary and inquiry questions so a second reading produces meaningful learning

• Have embraced failure as a frequent and productive road to success and have learned to challenge themselves to work outside their comfort zone

• Have strong emotional skills that allow them to learn effectively in any environment by focusing, persisting, taking risks, and adapting

• Are self-directed life-long learners and who develop learning plans for every course so they can exceed their own and others’ expectations

• Continue to update their life vision so that each day produces meaningful learning experiences that align with their personal and professional journeys

• Are effective and effi cient time managers who plan, prioritize, and structure tasks

• Use self-assessment as the means for improving learning performance on the way to become a self-grower

• Effectively use all of their institution’s resources and ask for help in order to better meet their own needs and accomplish their own goals.

• Are team catalysts who contribute to others in a team and within a community

• Take care of their social and physical needs through recreation, relaxation, exercise, healthy diets, and wisely balancing competing demands.

• Value their role within society, appreciate the contributions they can make, and live with a sense of duty to and connectiveness with the larger society

2: COURSE INTENTIONS BROAD LEARNING GOALS

• Change faculty and student attitudes about the dynamics of teaching and learning practices so that learners take on more ownership and responsibility of their own success

• Improve faculty facilitation, assessment, and mentoring processes and skills• Increase fi rst year retention by helping students believe in themselves and the possibility of their success• Provide evidence that unsuccessful students can become academic stars• Provide the means for students to prepare for their desired programs • Help students turn their lives around especially from major failures• Double one’s learning performance• Practice self-effi cacy and demonstrate belief in becoming a star• Increase performance in a set of critical learning skills • Develop learner ownership and responsibility for one’s own success• Become a self grower and value self-assessment as the engine for self-growth


• Learn a set of methodologies for reading, writing, personal development, problem solving and learning• Increase performance in each role of team learning performance • Learn to take risks, accept failure, and self-challenge outside comfortable zone• Build meta-cognitive skills • Create a life vision

3: LEARNING OUTCOMES

Competencies 1. Can produce a strong reading log documenting independent reading2. Can produce an action plan during a self-assessment that is feasible and self-

motivating so they will act on it3. Can learn a new methodology by analyzing its steps, trying it out, and through self-

assessment, improve performance during its next trial4. Can function within a cooperative learning team5. Can capture, in writing, at least 10 key ideas from a 50 minute lecture 6. Can produce term-long, monthly, weekly, and daily schedules that prioritize, budget,

and identify the key tasks leading to an effective use of time7. Can produce an effective 5 minute presentation on something personally meaningful

Movement 1. Increase in learning performance2. Improvement in the desire for and skill in self-assessing 3. Increase self-motivation and self-effi cacy4. Increase ownership and ability to solve one’s own life problems5. Improvement in teamwork6. Increase in the productive use of writing for self-exploration, expression, and

learning

Accomplishment Creation of a Life Vision Portfolio that documents history and future direction, including a self-analysis and a plan for achieving a set of challenging life goals that can be used in job searches, for recruiting mentors, getting scholarships, and building network connections for future opportunities

Experience As a member of a learning community and learning team, students will read more than 350 pages consisting of articles, books, activities, and class sessions based on past, current, and future life issues. Each participant will be required to perform background reading, recording, journaling, and internet searches to construct understanding of the information, prepare for class reading quizzes, reporting, and classroom activities. They will then be required to consistently think critically in order to compare and contrast different perspectives, accept and provide peer feedback and fi nally contextualize this new knowledge into their own lives in meaningful ways. Students will continue to take on more and more of the traditional roles of faculty – reading, explaining what is in the books, working through problems, and assessing the work of other students.


Experience (con’t)

The 30 learning activities will get more challenging pushing students outside their comfort zone preparing them for producing 150 pages of writing in the form of 70 pages of critical thinking, 40 pages of refl ective writing and self-assessment, 15 pages of short, purposeful writing, and 25 pages of a life vision portfolio. The experience is fi nalized with the participation in six challenging contests: math, writing, art, problem solving, speech, and a talent show.

Integrated Performance

When given a new learning challenge, they will adopt a positive and constructive mindset, explore the resources and conditions for the challenge, process and bring meaning through effective reading and recording, so they can then think critically in teams or alone to produce knowledge itself as well as ways of applying the knowledge in their life pursuits. They will then be able to meet external requirements for demonstrating the use of this knowledge by performing well in any task that requires the use of this knowledge.

4: KNOWLEDGE TABLE

Competencies Processes Tools

Learner ownershipTheory of PerformanceIdentitySyllabusValuesLife visionEmpowermentSelf-growthTransitioningGeneral educationRole of a college studentCulture of higher educationDiversity

LearningCommunicatingTeamworkInformation processingSelf-assessingPersonal developmentReadingWritingRecordingTime managementRefl ectingProblem solving

Student handbookTextbooksPerformance measures/rubricsCourse management systemStudent Success Toolbox PlannersSearch engines

Context Way of Being

Peer assessmentCooperative learning teamsCompetitionsPublic performanceBeing outside of comfort zonePersonal factors

Self-directedResponsibleSelf-effi cacySelf-growerPrepared


5: THEMES

Learning to learn Self-assessment/Self-growth

Meta-cognition/Methodologies Self-effi cacy Community/

Team Learning

6: METHODOLOGIES

AssessmentCommunication

Information Processing

LearningPersonal development

Problem Solving

ReadingRefl ectingTeaming

TeamworkTime management

Writing

7: LEARNING SKILLS

Cognitive Social Affective

Listening InquiryRecordingClarifying expectationsThinking skeptically

Attending/focusingCollaboratingGoal settingCooperating

Managing anxiety Being proactive Being positivePrioritizingPersistingRisk-taking

Being open Seeking assessmentBeing self-disciplinedAccepting helpBeing self-effi caciousRecognizing personal potential

17: PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

Strong identity: Appreciates oneself for his/her past, family, community, and culture; and has set out a clear vision of where he/she is headed, walking the walk of his/her beliefs and values.

Confi dent: Tackles signifi cant challenges because he/she is willing to accept failure as a common and productive process leading to success.

Committed to success: When given a new challenge, sets clear goals and creates an effective plan to achieve these goals within the time set.

Fully engaged: Realizes that effort is only the beginning and thus engages his/her mind and emotions with the community of learners in every learning challenge to produce meaningful learning and growth.

Self-directed learner: Has found a clear direction by creating his/her own learning outcomes, produces a personal plan for meeting these outcomes, and only stops when these outcomes meet his/her expectations.

Connected: Busy and involved in many other activities in his/her educational experience to expand personal networks; collaborates on meeting shared needs, enriches learning through effective study groups, and becomes a valued member of the community.

Communicator: Articulates meaning in a message that meets published guidelines for the medium by carefully listening to the audience, realizing which aspects of disciplinary language should be used and which should be translated into common or familiar terms so that people comprehend and connect with the message.

Self-assessor: Values growth and self-assesses on a regular basis in key areas, producing action plans that result in future growth that is documented and leveraged.


18: PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Risk-Taking Engaged Learner Teamwork Critical

Thinking Professionalism Problem Solving

Self-Assessment

19: ASSESSMENT SYSTEM 20: EVALUATION SYSTEM

Peer assessment 10× in class

Reading logs 5+

Self-assessments 5+

Learning journal 5+

Critical thinking questions (sets) 20+

Assessments of assessments 10+ per student

Student Council assessments 4

Faculty assessment sessions 4

Peer coaching 2 per student

Self-growth paper (4 pages) 500 pts

Student Success Toolbox (25 entries) 750 pts

Life vision portfolio (25 pages) 1000 pts

Learning journal (20–25 activity results) 1000 pts

Participation in contests 500 pts

Participation in class activities (30) 1200 pts

Math & Graphing Skills (40 modules) 1500 pts

Winning contests up to 2500 pts

Service and bonus points up to 400 pts

20: LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE

3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000

Completion Completion with Merit

Completion with Exceptional Merit

Superstar Super Superstar(apprx. 2% of participants)


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rn: B

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acilit

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ay us

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wle

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ntity,

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tentia

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te an

orga

nizati

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struc

ture f

or cr

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g and

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a life

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n por

tfolio

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Pas

t Doe

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uture

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plying

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riting

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odolo

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pecta

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ntifyi

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tions

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mpos

e an a

rgum

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ssay

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orma

tion P

roce

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thodo

logy

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orma

tion p

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dolog

ies

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inking

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eptic

ally

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perie

nce a

dded

value

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ing fo

r infor

matio

n by

using

the m

ethod

ology

and f

orm

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lf-Ass

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ent o

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self

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esso

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-effi

cacy

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ation

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proa

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ssme

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refl e

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prog

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e and

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at ne

eds t

o be d

one t

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er as

sess

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sess

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ssme

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see t

he po

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peer

an

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lays o

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or pr

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adem

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ame

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read

ing pr

oces

s as a

lea

rning

proc

ess b

y com

parin

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trasti

ng th

e two

YES

4

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e Pro

blem

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ng M

ethod

ology

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ase p

roble

m so

lving

effec

tiven

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dolog

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SECTION 3SECTION 3Facilitating Learning during the Camp

This section begins with a sample daily schedule for a Learning to Learn Camp and a checklist for day-to-day operation of the camp. Next, there is a brief list of suggestions for follow-up in the week after camp. For reference, at the end of the section you will fi nd defi nitions of the roles of camp staff and the lead facilitator. When the checklist does not specify who does something, the facilitation team needs to assign that duty—or do it themselves.

For a camp to reach its greatest potential, all the faculty should continually be assessing the performance of the students they are responsible for and their own performance, as well as the performance of other faculty members when appropriate. It is important to maintain an atmosphere of challenging everyone to grow performance at all times. That means that failure will sometimes occur and should be seen as an opportunity for growth. Faculty members easily fall into enabling behavior with students, doing for them what they need to do for themselves (see Section 4). Keep in mind the principles of the Learning to Learn Camp and active learning at all times.

Schedule

Date-Time Activity Instructor LocationReading

Assgt

Monday

7:30 - 8:00 Students’ Breakfast and Coaches Meeting

8:00 - 9:00 Building Learning Communities (act 1.1) Coaches/Ass’t Coaches Chapter 1

9:00 - 10:00 Orientation - Expectations

10:00 - 11:00 Becoming a Self-Grower (act 7.1) Chapter 7

11:00 - 12:00 Math Skills

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch

12:30 - 1:00 Pictionary

1:00 - 2:00 Analyzing a Course Syllabus - Camp (act 1.2) Chapter 2

2:00 - 3:00 Using a Reading Log (act 3.1) Chapter 3

3:00 - 4:00 Learning to Learn Mathematics

4:00 - 5:00 Creating a Life Vision Portfolio (act 2.1)

5:00 - 5:30 Student Council - Faculty Assessment

5:00 - 6:00 Recreation Activity

6:00 - 6:30 Dinner

6:45 - 7:45 Analyzing Learning Process Methodology (act 4.1) Chapter 4

7:45 - 8:45 Exploring Team Roles (act 12.1) Chapter 12

8:45 - 10:00 Life Vision Portfolio Development

10:00 - 11:00 Self-assessment of Day One - Optional



Assgt

Tuesday


8:00 - 8:30 Learning Community Time Coaches/Ass’t Coaches

8:30 - 9:30 Student Success Toolbox

9:30 - 10:30 Practicing the Reading Methodology (Act 3.2) Chapter 3


11:30 - 12:30 Exploring the Campus

12:30 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 1:30 Charades

1:30 - 2:30 Time Management (act 9.1) Chapter 9

2:30 - 3:30 Applying the LPM (act 4.2)

3:30 - 4:30 Analyzing Problem Solving Methodology (act 5.1) Chapter 5

4:30 - 5:00 Learning Community Time

5:00 - 5:30 Student Council - Faculty Assessment Coaches/Ass’t Coaches

5:00 - 6:15 Exercise

6:15 - 7:00 Dinner

7:00 - 8:00 Help System (act 8.2)

8:00 - 10:00 Self-assessment and Writing - OPTIONAL

Wednesday



8:30 - 9:30 Exploring the Assessment Methodology (act 13.1) Chapter 13

9:30 - 10:30 Personal Development Methodology (act 7.2)


11:30 - 12:30 Self-assessment of Progress Coaches/Ass’t Coaches

12:30 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 1:30 Pictionary

1:30 - 2:30 Developing an Educational Plan (act 6.3) Chapter 6

2:30 - 3:30 Team Logo Design (act 12.2) Chapter 12

3:30 - 4:30 Academic Honesty (act 10.1) Chapter 10




6:00 - 7:00 Dinner

7:00 - 8:00 Assessing and Revising (act 11.2)

8:00 - 10:00 Preparation Time - optional



Assgt

Thursday



8:30 - 9:30 Team Design Competition (act 12.2)

9:30 - 10:30 Applying the Problem Solving Methodology (act 5.2)

10:30 - 11:30 Information Processing Methodology (act 8.1) Chapter 8


12:30 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 1:30 Charades

1:30 - 2:30 Student Handbook (act 6.2)

2:30 - 3:30 Applying the Writing Methodology (act 11.1) Chapter 11

3:30 - 4:30 Building a Criteria List (act 13.2)




6:15 - 7:00 Dinner

7:00 - 8:00 Self-growth Paper (act 14.1) Chapter 14

8:00 - 9:00 Analyzing a Literary Text (act 3.3)

9:00 - 10:00 Free Writing - optional

Friday



10:00 - 11:00 Writing Contest

11:00 - 12:00 Problem Solving Contest

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch

12:30 - 2:00 Speech Contest

2:15 - 3:15 Talent show

3:30 - 4:15 Open Mike - Buffet

4:15 - 5:30 Awards Ceremony

Evening beforeTeam coordinates with lead facilitator, perhaps including airport pick-up.

Team prepares any last minute materials.

Team prepares fi rst day notes for coaches’ meeting, after speaking with lead facilitator.


1st Day of CampTwo people with keys arrive an hour before students are due to come check rooms, deliver breakfast and distribute materials.

Half an hour before students arrive, a staff meeting is held and fi rst day notes are distributed. Greeters are put in place to greet students and distribute materials.

Starting time: Coaches and assistance coaches meet with learning communities.

• Distribute nametags• Introduce coaches• Distribute all materials• Have students put their names on everything• Assign/form teams• Report absentees to facilitation team by 15 minutes after start time• Make sure everyone understands the schedule and the points sheet• Have teams create names and pick colors, if they have not already been assigned• Do icebreaker game or Building Learning Communities activity, depending on your

schedule• Establish expectations of success, faculty availability, and confi dence in your students,

but don’t accept disrespectful behavior, such as coming in late or unprepared• Check pre-camp work, if assigned, for completion• Sign for points on points checklist• Select two student council representatives• Have students sign waivers for use of pictures and videos of camp and quotes from work

products

Throughout the day:

Coaches and assistant coaches

• Observe and assess how their students function

• Facilitate learning sessions as assigned

• Participate fully in faculty development activities (see Section 5)

• Follow-up as needed with products from learning sessions

• Continually assess the functioning of the camp, making notes

• Support the lead facilitator

• Participate in faculty development activities

• Assess their own performance and set personal growth goals


Facilitation team

• Phone no-shows and urge them to come, e-mailing or texting if you get no answer

• Keep one step ahead of need for supplies, food, etc

• Monitor the amount of time you have compared to where you are in your schedule, making adjustments if necessary

• Deal with students’ behavioral issues as they arise, involving coaches and/or assistant coaches when possible

• Make sure the points system is being implemented

• Award service points when merited

• Support the lead facilitator

• Participate in faculty development activities

• Assess your own performance and set personal growth goals

• Continually assess the affective status of the camp participants

• Adapt to surprises as they happen, such as late food delivery, need to allow an activity to run overtime, or intervention with a struggling individual or team

End of Day

Coaches and assistant coaches meet with learning communities:

• Collect daily point totals and report to lead facilitator

• Clarify expectations about homework

• Give student council members time to get feedback to report to the council

• Assess each student’s affect; how are the students coping?

• Help with game session

• Help with math session, if needed

• Find ways to build learning community and team rapport, including competition with others, wearing your colors, eating together, etc.

• Privately intervene at opportune times with teams or individuals who need help with their performance

After closing learning community meetings: Lead facilitator and facilitation team meet with Student Council for assessment of the day.

All faculty/staff meet to get report from Student Council, assess the day, and plan for the next day. Identify students who are struggling and plan appropriate intervention.

Evening activities as per schedule. Each learning community should have at least one coach available for help with homework during the evening.


2nd Day of CampRepeat duties from day one, including morning and afternoon staff meetings. Coaches report no-shows to facilitation team by 10 minutes after set arrival time. Facilitation team follows up on no-shows. Coordinate with coaches.

Check progress on homework and emphasize time management to get the large amount of work done on time.

Follow-up on intervention plans for students who are struggling.

Contest coordinators pass out fl yers with contest rules and sign-up sheets.

Banquet coordinator passes out information about inviting visitors to the banquet/awards ceremony. Need to have numbers by Thursday morning.

Identify any students who are not being challenged and plan a way to challenge them. Consult with lead facilitator on this.

3rd Day of CampOn the third day, stress and anxiety are likely to peak. Students may need extra support to them over the hump. Everyone needs to be especially sensitive to affective issues and tensions in teams and learning communities today.

Repeat all duties of previous day.

Contest directors make art supplies available.

Talent show director checks on equipment. Encourage group skits about camp.

Coaches and assistant coaches:

Make sure all students have a plan to get their work completed. Strongly intervene with students who are falling behind.

Encourage students to sign up for contests. Encourage them to plan group performances for the talent show. Working on a humorous skit or song parody may provide a needed boost of energy today.

Facilitation team:

Prepare certifi cates for awards, coping with the fact that you won’t know how each student does. Another way is to have some sort of sticker that you can add to designate the level of achievement. Either way, you’ll want something that looks impressive.

Check prizes for contests to make sure they fi t with the entries. Example: What will you do for prizes if a group wins the talent competition? Do you need to wrap up your prizes?

Verify workers for Friday who will evaluate work products and judge competitions. Confi rm attendance with any persons you have invited to observe or participate during Friday’s performances.


4th Day of CampDuties repeat from previous days.

Today will be a mixture of exhaustion and panic, so students will need extra support coping with the stress. Encourage use of strategies to get work done effi ciently. Make sure everyone knows that work products will NOT be accepted late. Help them set wise priorities for use of their time.

Your banquet coordinator will need to know how many guests each student is bringing. Adjust food order as needed.

Last morning to sign up for contests. Contest directors prepare materials today, if not already done.

At end of the day, coaches collect all daily points sheets, check the totals for each day and report them to the lead facilitator.

Videographer/photographer prepares show for banquet, if you have signed waivers. Check with facilitation team about projection equipment in the banquet location. Do a dry run.

5th Day of CampPerformances and Awards

Early Morning: Learning Communities meet with coaches and assistant coaches to fi nish work products. Have assistant coaches sign off on each work product received. Deliver work products to the appropriate locations for evaluation by the time due.

Contest/performance leaders: Run your competition following the rules you presented earlier and respecting the schedule for the day. Be sure to report results in secret to lead facilitator. Include names of participants and winners. Results are announced at the awards banquet. For math, report modules completed by every student.

Work product evaluation coordinators: (in charge of evaluating Life Vision Portfolio, Foundations of Learning, personal growth paper, and Student Success Toolbox) Make sure that your evaluators have all the materials they need, including student products, criteria for evaluation, and score sheets. Train evaluators to work through products quickly. Check back often to make sure the team is on track to fi nish their work in a timely manner. Provide water and snacks. When your team is fi nished, carefully report all scores to the lead facilitator. Secure all of the work products in a safe location.


After CampAs soon as reasonably possible after camp, facilitation team should:

De-brief with lead facilitator. Make sure all bills are paid.

Involve all participants (including students if possible) in follow-up assessment of the camp. Revise any activities you created before or during camp and save them for re-use.

Store supplies, fi les, and sample materials for use for a future camp. Report to funding agencies as needed.

Arrange for the removal of math software.

Follow up with students and/or faculty according to the plan made before camp.

Return work products to students. (With permission, you may want to make copies of some of them.)

Report grades/participation to appropriate department/registrar.

Share slide show/DVD as appropriate. Students and faculty would appreciate getting a copy or access on a protected website.

Camp Roles

The following descriptions of camp roles are helpful, but not exhaustive. In practice, people will need to pitch in as needed to get the job done. In some cases, a facilitation team chooses to divide responsibilities according to strengths/inclinations of individuals.

In addition to the duties in this section, to get maximum faculty development, it is very helpful to have a facilitator of faculty development who can concentrate on just that. Pacifi c Crest can provide such a person to work in conjunction with a lead facilitator. Once you have a trained facilitation team at your institution, you can consider taking on the event facilitation with your own trained team and have a Pacifi c Crest facilitator who focuses on faculty development. It is not necessary to do everything the fi rst time you conduct a camp.

Facilitation team

The Pacifi c Crest facilitator will work with the co-facilitators to help train them to facilitate future camps in a “train the trainers” manner.

• Is responsible for the overall fl ow of the camp

• Determines the schedule and sequencing of activities

• Facilitates activities from the course content of the camp

• Supports coaches with their mentoring of students

• Provides assessment feedback to the coaches and assistant coaches

• Oversees the peer coaching system; coaches the peer coaches

• Is responsible for the scoring and award system


Coach

• Is responsible for the overall performance and experience of his or her learning community, which means coaching, mentoring, cheerleading, and handholding as needed; must be ready to challenge students to perform at their best

• Models the behaviors of a self-grower

• Manages and supports the assistant coaches with their teams of students

• Provides assessment feedback to grow the performance of the assistant coaches and students within his or her learning community

• Peer coaches a colleague’s facilitation of an activity at least once during the camp

• Facilitates an activity from the course content of the camp

• Is responsible for a review project or organizing one of the general camp activities

Assistant coach

• Is responsible for the overall performance and experience of his or her learning team(s)

• Motivates, counsels, and provides quality feedback to help grow the performance of his or her learning team and learning community

• Supports the other assistant coaches in the learning community

• Peer coaches a colleague’s facilitation of an activity at least once during the camp

• Facilitates an activity from course content

• Is responsible for a review project or organizing one of the general camp activities


Instructions for Games and ContestsGames refers to Pictionary and charades activities during the fi rst four days of camp. Contests take place on the fi nal day of camp. For the point systems for both, see the sample syllabus from the previous section (Section 2).

PictionarySupplies

• Drawing paper and markers—if you use colored markers, each team should have the same colors for fairness.

• Index cards with the words to be drawn, with one card per team for each word. Prepare for 12 rounds per day, times 2 days. Use terms that have been key repeated ideas in the content of the activity sessions. For example, you might use “Becoming a self-grower” or “Life Vision Portfolio.”

• A blackboard or chalkboard for scorekeeping, with the name of each team and space for points to be added during the game.

Personnel

• Game leader • Score keeper

• One faculty member per team, with coaches working with a team not in their own learning community

Procedure

1. Each learning team functions as a team for the game and wins or loses as a team. The team members take turns in the drawing and guessing roles.

2. Teams need to put all their books and other materials under the tables, out of sight and pointing range.

3. When a round begins, the designated drawer from each team gets a card from the game leader, reads the word or phrase, and takes the card to his table, placing it face down. When the team leader says “GO,” the drawer uses markers on paper to draw either the word or phrase or something that sounds like or gets people to guess the word or phrase. He may not use any letters or numbers. He may not speak at all. If the team guesses one word in a phrase, he may write that word. The drawer cannot speak. He can gesture, for example, to encourage a guesser who is close to correct to keep trying on that line of thinking.

4. When a team guesses the correct word, the faculty member with that group immediately raises his/her hand and makes eye contact with the game leader. The leader is responsible for determining which team is fi rst, second, and third (fourth and fi fth if you wish.) It won’t be perfect, but accept the call of the umpire and move on to the next round.

5. The recorder keeps score of fi rst, second, and third places. An easy way is to use three lines for fi rst place, 2 for second place, and 1 for third place. If you have a lot of teams, you can expand to include fourth and fi fth place if you wish.

6. When the designated time is elapsed, the game ends and the teams with the most points are the winners. Everyone gets participation points. It is easier if the faculty members record the points for the team they monitored.


7. At the discretion of the game leader, it may be helpful to pause the game after a couple of rounds and give teams a chance to discuss how they might improve their performance. Games are repeated in the schedule, and it is not unusual for teams to work on their strategy and to do a lot better the second time they play.

CharadesSupplies

Cards with clues, similar to those used for Pictionary. Select things that lend themselves to actions, such as “reading methodology.”

Play proceeds similar to Pictionary except that players have to act out the term without speaking. The game leader may wish to give some basic instructions on the conventions of charades, such as beginning by indicating the number of words and order of words and indicating “sounds like” by cupping an ear with one hand. If the students are not having success, you might even want to have a demonstration round. Get your most uninhibited faculty member to perform.

It’s fun to get the faculty to act out one of the puzzles for the teams.

The scoring is done the same way as in Pictionary.

Writing ContestThe writing contest is an individual competition in which student produce a written entry within a limited time—usually about 45 to 50 minutes.

Preparations:

1. Prepare a fl yer advertising the Writing Contest. Emphasize the Contest will focus on criteria such as creativity and expression, not grammar and spelling, and the judges will know they are reading fi rst drafts, not edited writing. Emphasize that everyone will get participation points and the winners will get a signifi cant boost in their point totals for the camp. So, everyone’s a winner.

2. You’ll also need a sign-up sheet for each learning community. (The coaches will do their best to get everyone to enter every contest.)

3. Decide on a location. Some schools use computer labs and have students type their entries, but you may choose to have them be handwritten. Either works. Just fi nd a quiet place with room for everyone to work.

4. When the contest begins, distribute paper if necessary and a writing prompt that encourages creativity and relates to the Learning to Learn Camp experience.

5. Some ideas for topics are

a. Write a 30 second radio commercial for a Learning to Learn Camp for next year, with two different speakers.

b. Describe a camp charades game from the point of view of a fl y on the wall.

c. Pick a famous historical or fi ctional character and describe how his or her life illustrates something you have learned this week about success.

d. Write 3 tweets about camp, each no more than 140 characters. In one describe a high point, in one describe a frustrating tie, and in one share an emotion you had during the camp. You pick your audience. Remember if the judge can’t decipher your abbreviations, NPFY (no points for you).


6. If you did a content specifi c camp, pick a topic that allows students to show what they have learned, but fi nd a way to make it more fun than a typical essay test question.

7. Be sure to establish 3 or 4 criteria for the writing and put the criteria on the writing prompt sheet.

8. Include a writing prompt sheet with the entries for the judge(s) to review and ask them to rank the top 3 (4, 5) entries. Everyone else gets participation points. Judges can really do this fairly quickly, as they will be able to eliminate some papers with just a cursory look.

Art Contest1. You’ll need a fl yer that will set forth the rules and encourage everyone to enter and a sign-up

sheet for each learning community. Try to fi nd some format in which creativity can make up for lack of artistic ability and training. Limit media to what you want to deal with—say works on paper no larger than a poster board. You may even decide to limit the entrants to using specifi c materials you supply, especially if students are in a residential camp and can use the materials in the dorm in the evenings.

2. Decide if you want to allow group projects and whether students may enter as part of a group AND also individually. (Maybe limit an individual to one award, so no one can win for a group and also individually.)

3. Set up a theme and a time and place to turn in entries. Have forms to put the name of the artist on the back of work, out of sight during judging, and in sight during display, such as using a post-it note or taping on an index card.

4. Viewing the entries on display is enjoyable for camp guests. You could even sneak out and put ribbons on the winners while people are at the banquet.

5. Make sure your fl yer clearly lists the judging criteria and that your judge(s) receive a copy of the fl yer. Example criteria: expression of the theme of the contest, creativity, neatness. Do you need to outlaw things that would be in poor taste in your rules? It should also specify the points for placing and participation (same for all the contests except math).

6. Example themes:

• Design a logo for next year’s Learning to Learn Camp• Illustrate the inside of the brain of a Learning to Learn Camp student• Draw a cartoon of the school’s mascot as a Learning to Learn Camp student

Speech Contest1. Again, use a fl yer to list rules and criteria and a sign-up sheet for each learning community. Most

camps do not announce a topic before the contest, so everyone speaks extemporaneously.

2. Do set a time limit, say, 2 minutes, and have someone time each speech, warning the speaker when the time limit is near, and cutting off speakers at or very close to the time limit.

3. On the fl yer, establish criteria for judging, such as sincerity, clarity, connecting with audience, etc.

4. The contest can draw a crowd and often has lots of emotion—tears and laughter. Try to get as many of the faculty as possible in the audience too.

5. Everyone collects in one place and hears all the speeches.


6. You’ll need 2 or 3 judges sitting in front. Give them a ratings sheet for each speaker. Have someone who knows the students’ names sit with the judges if you can –or have the speakers give the judges a rating sheet with their name on it as they come up to speak.

7. Announce the topic and give students about 5 minutes to prepare. Limit to no notes or one index card of notes, as you choose.

8. Draw names randomly for order of speaking.

9. Sample topics:

• What Learning to Learn Camp means to me • What I will remember about camp• How camp will help me in the future• The three most important insights about myself I fi gured out this week• What I would like to tell students who are considering signing up for camp next year

10. Let the confi dent students encourage the shy ones. (At one camp, a student with a strong fear of public speaking was able to make her speech when her teammates stood silently next to her. Why not? She was very proud of overcoming her fear and her speech was touching.) A small point bonus for teams that have every member participate might be just the encouragement some students need.

Problem Solving Contest1. As for other contests, prepare a fl yer and sign-up sheet. This is the only contest in which teams

participate together and win as a team. Everyone should be participating. 2. Arrange to use a large space where teams can speak together without being overheard too much.

Teams will have a group of problems (puzzles) to solve together within the allotted time, so they will need to be able to talk without being overheard too much.

3. Winning is based on solving the most problems in the allotted time. You may want to give each problem a different point value, according to their complexity.

4. If you wish, you can have answer sheets to make the scoring go quickly. 5. Since winning is based on scoring correct solutions, there may well be ties, so awarding duplicate

points is fi ne. (Keep that in mind when you get prizes too.)6. For problems/puzzles you can search the internet for things like brain teasers. Also look to the

LLC site for suggestions. Try to have more puzzles than you think they can solve in the allotted time.

7. Teams can use their own strategies. Some will work on each problem together and some will assign different problems to individuals or pairs. Some will go for a few high point value puzzles and some for more easy puzzles. That’s all fi ne.

8. At this point, some teams may have more people than others. That’s just the way it is. 9. Content-based camps, especially those with a math/engineering emphasis, may want to use

challenging math or engineering problems instead of brain teasers. 10. Use this contest to break up the string of individual contests and re-energize tired students.


Section 4Section 4Facilitating Active Learning

The content in this section is from the POGIL Instructor’s Guide, your best source of information for facilitating student learning in the kind of active learning environment that is the hallmark of Learning to Learn Camps.

Instructor’s Guide to Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning

by David HansonStony Brook University

I. Motivation for POGIL .............................................................................................. 60II. Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning .......................................................... 61

A. Learning Teams are Highly Effective ............................................................ 61 B. Guided-Inquiry Activities Develop Understanding ..................................... 62 C. Critical and Analytical Thinking are the Key to Success ........................... 63 D. Problem Solving Requires Expert Strategies ................................................ 64 Conclusions from Novice-Expert Comparisons .......................................... 67 Implications for Instruction ............................................................................ 70 Developing Essential Transfer Skills ............................................................... 72 Problem-Solving Instruction in Action .......................................................... 73 E. Reporting Builds Skills and Solidifi es Concepts ............................................ 74 F. Metacognition is Important .......................................................................... 74 G. Individual Responsibility is a Motivating Force ............................................ 75 H. Grade Points May be Necessary ................................................................. 76

III. Strategies for Successful Learning Teams ............................................................ 78 A. Structure the Teams ....................................................................................... 78 B. Motivate Process ............................................................................................ 78 C. Motivate Learning Teams and Collaborative Skills .................................... 79 D. Promote Positive Interdependence ............................................................ 80 E. Require Individual Accountability ................................................................ 81 F. Provide Closure .............................................................................................. 81 G. Use Metacognition ........................................................................................ 81

IV. A New Paradigm for the Teacher .......................................................................... 82 A. Instructors Play Four Simultaneous Roles ..................................................... 82 B. Planning and Preparing Lessons................................................................... 83 C. TA Training......... .............................................................................................. 84

V. Can This Approach be Successful ......................................................................... 85VI. References.................. .............................................................................................. 88


I. Motivation for POGILChanges in society, technology, and the world economy are occurring at increasingly faster rates. It is essential that we in higher education provide our students with opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills that they will need to survive and be successful in this increasingly dynamic environment. Our students need to be quick learners, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. They need to be computer literate and skillful in communication, teamwork, management, and assessment (including the ability to self assess). Knowledge of the fundamentals and concepts beyond a single discipline are necessary.10

Traditional teaching methods that maintain the conventional objectives of structuring and presenting information do not address these issues. Several studies11-20 have documented that many students are having diffi culty understanding and applying concepts, fi nding relevance, transferring skills within and across disciplines, and identifying and developing the skills they need for success in specifi c courses, college, and careers. Students are missing the experience of science as the exchange and evolution of ideas, and gender and ethnic issues are being ignored in the design of courses. Poor performers withdraw from learning, and even the best performers may disengage because they are not challenged. The results are low levels of learning and high levels of attrition. Both students and faculty are frustrated by the lack of achievement and community. These issues are compounded at institutions that have large numbers of diverse students in introductory courses.

To address this situation and to help students become better learners in our courses, it is essential to recognize that education has two components, content and process, and that the process component often is not given adequate attention. Science education needs to be concerned equally with both the structure of knowledge, which is the content component, and with the development of the skills for acquiring, applying, and generating knowledge, which is the process component. Process skills become increasingly important as our knowledge base expands, as society addresses interdisciplinary and more complicated problems, and as businesses seek technological developments on shorter and shorter time scales. Under these conditions, those with highly developed process skills are those who will be most successful.

There are many learning process skills, and these can be classifi ed into cognitive, social, and affective domains.21 The most important of these skills for science education lie in seven areas: information processing, critical and analytical thinking, problem solving, communication, teamwork, management, and assessment. Surveys of managers and leaders in industry generally show that employees are sought who are knowledgeable and have such skills, i.e. those who are self-motivated and who are quick learners, critical and creative thinkers, problem solvers, communicators, team players.22 The general conclusion of one such survey was “that industrial employers would like chemistry-trained employees whose education includes greater preparation in communication, team skills, relating applications to scientifi c principles, and problem solving, without sacrifi cing thorough preparation in basic science concepts and experimental skills.”23 Learning process skills, just like skills in laboratory work and athletics, can be developed, strengthened, and enhanced.24 These skills therefore need to be included explicitly in college-level courses, not only to help students be successful in these courses but also to prepare them for the workplace and for life in general.

Excerpts from the Instructor’s Guide to Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning


II. Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry LearningProcess-oriented guided-inquiry learning (POGIL) is both a philosophy and a strategy for teaching and learning. It is a philosophy because it encompasses specifi c ideas about the nature of the learning process and the expected outcomes. It is a strategy because it provides a specifi c methodology and structure that are consistent with the way people learn and that lead to the desired outcomes.

Five key ideas about learning have emerged from current research in the cognitive sciences.24 This research documents that people learn by:

• Constructing their own understanding based on their prior knowledge, experiences, skills, attitudes, and beliefs

• Following a learning cycle of exploration, concept formation, and application

• Connecting and visualizing concepts and multiple representations

• Discussing and interacting with others

• Refl ecting on progress and assessing performance

All of these ideas are incorporated into the design of POGIL in order to help students learn both discipline content and key process skills simultaneously. POGIL is built on this research base with the idea that most students learn best when they are:

• Actively engaged and thinking in the classroom and laboratory

• Drawing conclusions by analyzing data, models, or examples and by discussing ideas

• Working together in self-managed teams to understand concepts and to solve problems

• Refl ecting on what they have learned and on improving their performance

• Interacting with an instructor as a facilitator of learning

To support this research-based learning environment, POGIL uses learning teams, guided-inquiry activities to develop understanding, questions to promote critical and analytical thinking, problem solving, reporting, metacognition, and individual responsibility. These seven components, which are discussed in the following sections, are the tools for developing process skills and the mastery of discipline content. Within this structure, students work together in learning teams to acquire knowledge and develop understanding through guided inquiry by examining data, models, or examples and by responding to critical-thinking questions. They apply this new knowledge in exercises and problems, present their results to the class, refl ect on what they have learned, and assess how well they have done and how they could do better. To reinforce the acquired concepts and to promote individual responsibility for learning, students are required to complete additional exercises and problems outside of class, and to read relevant sections of a textbook or other resource material.

A. Learning Teams Are Highly EffectiveLearning environments can be competitive, individualized, or cooperative. In cooperative learning, “individuals, working together, construct shared understandings and knowledge.”25 Because the ratio of students to faculty is generally large, it seems clear that the effectiveness of a university can be enhanced if it becomes a community of learners with students collaborating and learning from each other, and in fact, the literature is replete with research on different learning environments, and the benefi ts of students working together have been well documented. We now know that students



teaching students results in effective learning and that a cooperative environment is more effective than a competitive environment.26-30 In addition, involvement in the classroom and student-student and student-instructor interactions have been identifi ed as having the largest positive effect of numerous environmental factors on the academic achievement, personal development, and satisfaction of college students.11, 30

Research has documented that relative to other situations, students working in teams learn more, understand more, and remember more; they feel better about themselves, about the class, and about their classmates. They also have more positive attitudes regarding the subject area, course, and instructors. Also, in a team environment students are more likely to acquire critical and analytical thinking skills, cognitive learning strategies, and other process skills, such as teamwork and communication skills, that are frequently considered important outcomes of undergraduate education, in addition to being essential in the workplace.25, 30, 31 Further, this approach addresses the feelings of isolation and competitiveness many students report experiencing in college, especially women and other minorities in science.14, 15, 32 Our experience is consistent with this research, and we have observed that the collegiality initiated in learning teams often extends beyond the workshops themselves with students exchanging telephone numbers and addresses, and organizing study groups on their own.

The success of the team learning environment should not be surprising. Individuals who work alone in competitive or individualized instructional modes do not have the opportunity for intellectual challenge found in a learning team. As a learning team becomes involved in a lesson, the different information, perceptions, opinions, reasoning processes, theories, and conclusions of the members lead to disagreement. When managed constructively with the appropriate interpersonal, social, and collaborative skills, such controversy promotes questioning, an active search for more information, and fi nally a restructuring of knowledge. Compared to the competitive and individualized modes, this process results in a greater mastery and retention of material and more frequent use of critical thinking and higher-level reasoning.25

B. Guided–Inquiry Activities Develop UnderstandingMany educators acknowledge that it is not possible to transmit knowledge intact from the head of the instructor to the head of the student. Also, much research exists to document that real understanding and learning requires active restructuring on the part of the learner. Restructuring involves integrating new knowledge with previous knowledge and beliefs, identifying and resolving contradictions, generalizing, making inferences, and posing and solving problems.25, 33, 34 Thus, knowledge is personal and is constructed in the mind of the learner. This construction depends on the misconceptions, biases, prejudices, beliefs, likes, and dislikes of the learner.35 This learning model, called constructivism, is one of the leading pedagogical paradigms for enhancing student learning.36

A POGIL learning activity engages students, promotes restructuring of information and knowledge, and helps students develop understanding by employing the learning cycle in guided inquiry activities. The learning cycle consists of three stages or phases: exploration, concept invention or formation, and application. These are described below.37 Cognitive research tells us that the learning cycle embodies the way we learn best. It also is the way we do research; it recapitulates the simple logic of the scientifi c method. This sequence of exploration through application is generally more effective than other permutations of these three items.38-41 Traditional lectures present the concepts, model how they are applied, and then provide further applications for students to work out on their own. Students are not guided in exploration or helped in developing their understanding. Problem-



based learning requires students to work on large-scale applications with the objective that they will explore and develop an understanding of the concepts and fundamentals as they develop the problem solution.

In the exploration phase of the learning cycle, students are given a model to examine or a set of tasks to follow that embody what is to be learned and lead to attaining the learning objectives. A series of questions guides them through an exploration of the model or an execution of the tasks to the development and deeper understanding of a concept. The model can apply to almost any type of information to be processed: a diagram, a graph, a table of data, one or more equations, a methodology, some prose, a computer simulation, a demonstration, or any combination of these things. While verbal descriptions or explanations (mini-lectures) can also be used for models, they are not particularly effective, because no permanent record exists that can be re-examined and analyzed by the students. Case studies, fi eld exercises, and laboratory experiments can also be used in the exploration phase. In this phase, students have the opportunity to propose, question, and test hypotheses in an attempt to explain or understand the exploration presented to them. The intent is to have the students encounter questions or complexities that they cannot resolve with their accustomed way of thinking.33, 39

Exploration of the model is guided by critical-thinking questions, also referred to as key questions. These questions build on each other in complexity and sophistication. Students develop answers by thinking about what they fi nd in the model, what they already know, and what they have learned by answering previous questions. In some cases, the questions also encourage students to seek additional information from the textbook or lecture notes.

The second phase may involve either concept invention or concept formation. For activities designed with a concept invention in the second phase, the concept is not explicitly presented in the exploration phase. Effective guidance leads the exploration to conclusions and predictions based on the current understanding. Additional information and a name for the concept then can be introduced. Although instructors may be the ones to introduce the name (so that standard language is used), it is the students who discover the patterns. This phase also is called term introduction because after the students discover the pattern, the instructor introduces a name for it. The exploration and concept invention stages together help students develop an understanding of the concept.

Other activities are designed with a second phase that involves concept formation. In these activities, some representation of the concept is explicitly presented at the beginning. Questions then help students explore this representation, develop an understanding of it, and identify its relevance and signifi cance.

Once the concept is identifi ed and understood, it is reinforced and extended in the application phase. Application involves using the new knowledge in exercises, problems, and even research situations. Exercises give the learner the opportunity to build confi dence in simple situations and familiar contexts. Problems require the learner to transfer the new knowledge to unfamiliar contexts, synthesize it with other knowledge, and use it in new and different ways to solve real-world problems. Research questions identify opportunities for the learner to extend learning by raising new issues, questions, or hypotheses.

C. Critical and Analytical Thinking Are the Keys to SuccessCritical or analytical thinking can be defi ned as “an investigation whose purpose is to explore a situation, phenomenon, question, or problem to arrive at a hypothesis or conclusion about it that integrates all available information and that can therefore be convincingly justifi ed.”42 In this



sense, the outcome of such thinking can be thought of as “both a tentative solution to the problem and a justifying argument.”43 Critical and analytical thinking involve identifying key issues and relationships, identifying and challenging assumptions, asking strategic questions, and developing answers to those questions. A teaching methodology that involves critical and analytical thinking encourages constant improvement and develops process skills.

Critical-thinking questions are used in POGIL activities to guide students’ exploration of the models. In broad terms, there are three types of questions that are used, each with a different purpose. Directed questions point the student to obvious discoveries about the model. They insure that the students are able to process the information presented in the model effectively. Convergent questions require students to synthesize relationships from their new discoveries (and previous knowledge), and lead to the development of new concepts or deeper conceptual understanding. Divergent questions are open-ended and do not have unique answers. They encourage the student to generalize and to consider the relevance or applicability of the concepts.

Critical-thinking questions also are used by the instructor to promote the development of higher-order thinking skills.6 Instructors facilitate critical thinking not by giving students answers to questions and solutions to problems, but by asking questions that promote rather than discourage thought, that encourage students to use knowledge they already have acquired, and that help them identify and seek necessary additional information.44, 45 Such critical-thinking questions can be divergent, requiring the student to consider all possibilities; convergent, focusing on one of the possibilities; or directed, pointing directly to the resolution of the problem or diffi culty. In most cases, it is far better for instructors to pose critical-thinking questions and to encourage students to discover answers on their own rather than to provide elegant responses. Better understanding is developed and retention is enhanced if answers to questions are constructed by the student rather than provided by the instructor.

By using such critical-thinking questions, both in the POGIL activities, and in lecture and discussion, instructors model for students how new and unknown situations can be analyzed and made tractable by identifying and asking key questions and then working to fi nd the answers.

D. Problem Solving Requires Expert StrategiesIn the POGIL classroom students acquire information, form concepts, and construct understanding by examining a model or executing a task. They respond to critical-thinking questions and integrate this new knowledge with information from other sources (e.g. previous activities, the textbook, and lectures). They then develop skills in applying this understanding by working exercises and solving problems. The exercises are straightforward applications of the concepts and understandings. After the concepts can be applied to exercises successfully, they can be integrated with other concepts, generalized, and transferred to new situations. These higher-level applications, requiring higher-order thinking skills, are provided by problems. One objective of POGIL is to enhance the ability of our students to solve problems.

Woods defi nes a problem situation as “one that has not been encountered before; we cannot recall from memory a procedure or a solution from past experience. We have to struggle to obtain a best answer.”46 In The Complete Problem Solver, Hayes suggests that “Whenever there is a gap between where you are now and where you want to be, and you don’t know how to fi nd a way to cross that gap, you have a problem.”47 George Bodner expressed this same idea, “If you know what to do when you read a question, it’s an exercise, not a problem.”48 Michael Scriven identifi ed three classes of problems. Problems of the fi rst kind are in-paradigm or structured problems; these



are encountered in classrooms and textbooks. Problems of the second kind are new-paradigm or unstructured problems; these are encountered in the real world and require a new approach, insight, paradigm, or theory to solve. Problems of the third kind are also unstructured and are encountered in the real world but are very complex, may not have a unique solution, and may not be solvable with the information available. Scriven proposes this third category because he sees such problems as presenting different cognitive and pedagogical challenges than the other two.49

In courses, problems for students can be produced from exercises simply by omitting information, requiring assumptions, or by including superfl uous but seemingly relevant information. Problems can also be produced by combining exercises to form questions that have more than one part, because the process for arriving at a solution becomes more complex. Students must identify and separate the parts, organize the information that is relevant to each part, and decide what needs to be done. The diffi culty of a problem depends on the clarity of the problem statement or situation, the complexity of the issues, the familiarity of the context, the presence of clues that identify the relevant concepts, the number and nature of the knowledge items involved, and the complexity and nature of the equations needed.

Students are challenged most by context-rich problems.50, 51 Context-rich problems are essentially short stories that present problems in disciplinary or real-world contexts. They are designed to force students to analyze the problem statement and employ concepts before turning to a mathematical equation. Such problems may not explicitly identify the unknowns and may require that information be estimated. The key variables, concepts, and essential information must be identifi ed before a solution can be attempted. Such problems serve to develop essential process skills, appeal to the interests of students, and relate concepts to current real-world issues, other subject areas, and employment opportunities.

Many students simply want answers and algorithmic solutions and do not realize that the answers and algorithms alone will not help them deal with new situations or solve problems on examinations and in the real world. Furthermore, many textbook “problems” are not really problems and do not encourage students to develop essential skills for problem solving. Too often, the questions posed in textbooks are exercises that can be solved by substituting numbers into a memorized formula, the so-called plug-and-chug method. Plug-and-chug exercises present an idealized situation with all the knowns and unknowns clearly identifi ed, use self-consistent units, and include no superfl uous information. Such questions allow the students to match the situation to textbook equations or to previously worked examples. These questions encourage memorization of formulas and algorithms, and use of pattern recognition rather than nurturing thinking skills and the application of concepts.

Students typically fi nd problems very challenging because they come to our courses with expectations that produce certain behaviors.52 We have observed several behaviors that limit student success in problem solving. It appears that many students have the following thoughts when given a problem. “If I am being asked this question, I must know the answer. If I am supposed to know the answer, then it shouldn’t take very long, and I shouldn’t have to think about it. I only need to fi nd the right equation, plug in the numbers, and calculate the result. Drawing a picture or diagram to represent the problem would be a waste of time, and it would look silly to develop a plan or outline a solution on paper. I should be able to do everything in my head.”

This approach has several fallacies and, as we know, is not very successful as a result. For example, evidence indicates that working memory can handle about fi ve or six pieces of information and operations, and students do not realize that paper or other means must be used to expand their working memory in order to address complex issues successfully.35 Also, students do not recognize



and appreciate that diagrams or other analysis on paper would help them visualize the problem, identify the issues that need to be addressed, and keep track of their progress. Simply asking a student to draw a diagram to represent what the problem is asking often leads the student to a solution.

Early thinking about facilitating problem solving focused on heuristics. Heuristics are simple rules or procedures that are presumed to help people fi nd solutions and answers. The most well-known set is provided by George Polya in his book, How to Solve It.53 Some of the many variations and elaborations that have been compiled and discussed since are listed as references.54-58 A set of heuristics expanded from a variety of sources is given in Table 1.

Discussions in textbooks that advise students on how to solve problems are often based on heuristics. For example, a textbook may suggest that students defi ne and visualize the problem, identify the information that is given and needed, identify a process to solve the problem, manipulate the equations, substitute and do the calculations, and validate the solution. Students generally do not fi nd these methodologies to be very helpful and are often reluctant to use them. Such methodologies are not very helpful because students do not know what to do at each step. If the methodology is brief (e.g. understand the problem, develop a plan, execute the plan, look back),53 it is too general to be helpful, if the methodology provides much detail (e.g., see Table 1), it is too complex to comprehend and implement, and it still is not clear what should be done at each step in specifi c situations.

If the use of heuristics is to be helpful to students, it needs to be taught explicitly. Even when this is done, the results are mixed. Reif, Larkin, and Brackett reported that “We further taught students a simple strategy for problem solving. Our results indicate that students can indeed be taught such general cognitive skills and that they can transfer these skills to areas outside of physics.”56 Although in another study, no signifi cant differences were detected in achievement between control students and treatment students who had been taught an explicit problem-solving approach.55 A meta-analysis concluded that “strategies based on Polya’s heuristics or variations thereof appear to facilitate students’ ability to solve routine problems even though there is some evidence that students may be doing so using algorithms.”59



Conclusions from Novice–Expert ComparisonsIt therefore appears that something more than such heuristics is needed in order to improve problem-solving skills. Reif suggested that an effective strategy must identify the cognitive mechanisms that a student uses in problem solving before instruction and those that are needed to produce good problem-solving performance. This understanding of cognitive mechanisms then is used in the instructional design.60 This insight led to comparisons of problem solving by novices and experts. This novice-expert research on problem solving produced the following conclusions.

1. The organization of knowledge in long-term memory is important

The content knowledge of discipline experts is organized around key concepts in ways that refl ect a deep understanding of the subject matter. The knowledge that novices have stored in long-term memory is not organized. It appears to be stored as isolated pieces. Experts conditionalize their knowledge (see below), organize it around concepts, and connect the pieces strongly together by recognizing features and patterns that are not noticed by novices. These knowledge structures, schemata or chunks as they are called, contain content knowledge (facts, principles, concepts, theories, relationships, and equations), characteristics that facilitate connecting a problem to the appropriate schema, and procedures and strategies for solving problems. The schemata not only make it possible to quickly identify and retrieve knowledge from long-term memory as it is needed, but they also aid in transferring the knowledge and using it in new contexts.61-64

Experts do not have to search through everything they know in order to solve problems; rather their schemata include specifi cations of the contexts in which they are useful.65, 66 In the language of cognitive science, such knowledge is conditionalized. “Knowledge must be conditionalized in order to be retrieved when it is needed.”24 Often experts facilitate this retrieval by asking critical-thinking questions to help them determine the relevant concepts and decide what needs to be done. Novices, on the other hand, experience diffi culty in identifying and retrieving the knowledge needed to solve a problem because their knowledge is not conditionalized; items are stored as independent.

2. Novices rely on and are limited by their working memory

Working memory is limited to fi ve to nine slots. Experts expand their working memory by using paper notes and diagrams and by chunking bits of information into larger pieces.35, 67 This chunking increases the amount of information that can be held in working memory since one chunk takes only one slot. Since novices are reluctant to use paper notes and diagrams and have not developed schemata, they run out of space in working memory; they are unable to keep track of all the relevant information and the connections between what they know and what they need to fi nd.

3. Experts have good strategies for analyzing problems and planning solutions

When given a problem in chemistry or physics, experts think about the concepts involved, why they are relevant, and how they can be applied. Novices tend to look at the surface features of the problem; they think in terms of information that they have memorized or equations that they have been given; and they rely on matching the new problem to what they have seen before. Novices are likely to start by plugging numbers into an equation, while experts are likely to begin by restating the problem in their own words, drawing diagrams to represent the problem, and developing a plan based on qualitative ideas.61, 63, 68-72



4. Metacognition is an important component in the problem-solving process

Experts continually refl ect on what they are doing and why they are doing it. They look for inconsistencies and other ways to validate their results, and they are fl exible in their approach to new situations. “The ability to monitor one’s approach to problem solving —to be metacognitive—is an important aspect of the expert’s competence.”24

5. The ability to transfer knowledge to new contexts is essential

The ability to transfer knowledge to new contexts is the key to being able to solve Scriven’s problems of the second and third kind (unstructured and very complex).49 Experts have this ability, and novices need to develop it. “Many approaches to instruction look equivalent when the only measure of learning is memory for information that was specifi cally presented [facts, algorithms, and previously solved exercises and problems, which therefore are no longer problems]. Instructional differences become more apparent when evaluated from the perspective of how well learning transfers to new problems and settings.”24

Successful problem solvers have a mastery of the discipline content (content knowledge), they have an effective problem-solving process (process or procedural knowledge), and they have this knowledge organized hierarchically in schemata that connect concepts and related facts to each other in ways that facilitate quick retrieval and use in solving problems. They are also able to recognize when different pieces of this knowledge are needed in diverse contexts and are able to quickly retrieve and use it (transfer skills). Intelligence, memory, and the use of specifi c strategies do not separate the expert from the novice in successful problem solving. Rather, “experts have acquired extensive knowledge that affects what they notice and how they organize, represent, and interpret information…. This, in turn, affects their abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems.”24

In other words, experts are successful problem solvers because they recognize patterns of information in the problem, patterns that make connections to conceptual schemata stored in long-term memory. It is the ability to make these connections that enable experts to successfully use heuristics like those in Table 1. The items in Table 1 describe the types of things experts do as they work to make connections between their conceptual schemata and the problem at hand in order to produce a solution to the problem.

From this perspective of novice-expert research, it appears that in order to improve student problem solving skills, we need to help them strengthen their content knowledge, instruct them in the use of an effective problem-solving methodology, and most importantly, assist them in developing knowledge schemata and transfer skills. Clearly, it is not adequate simply to give students problems to do and state in the course syllabus; “To be successful you need to use conceptual understanding to solve the assigned problems.”

“Common teaching practices usually pay far too little attention to issues of knowledge organization. Thus material usually is presented sequentially, chapter by chapter or lecture by lecture, so that students themselves must somehow try to integrate all this accumulating knowledge into a coherent organization facilitating fl exible knowledge use. The task of creating such an effective organization is a substantially diffi cult undertaking which most students are ill prepared to carry out without outside assistance. Furthermore, arguments or problem solutions, presented in books or classrooms, are usually exhibited in the form of linear sequences of steps. Such a presentation may be impeccable from a purely logical point of view. However, unlike a more hierarchical organization, it is not well designed to help students remember or apply such knowledge.”60



Table 1 Problem-Solving Methodology and Strategies

1. Defi ne the problem. a. Restate the problem, mention what is being sought.b. Draw a sketch or diagram of the situation.

2. Evaluate the information.

a. Identify what information is relevant and what is not.b. Identify additional information that is needed and where it can be obtained.c. Identify and evaluate assumptions or simplifi cations that have been made.

3. Identify the important issues.

a. Identify what is given (the knowns).b. Identify what needs to be found (the unknowns).c. Identify the constraints.d. Identify the concepts that are relevant.e. Identify the connections between the knowns and the unknowns.

4. Plan a solution. a. Identify a qualitative approach (utilize concepts, make analogies with known problems and solutions, brainstorm, hypothesize, take risks).

b. Show how the unknowns can be related to the knowns and the constraints, use the connections, perhaps work backward from the target (what is being sought) to what is known.

c. Make valid assumptions or simplifi cations if necessary.d. Divide into manageable pieces or sub-problems if possible.e. Set up a mathematical description of the problem.f. Utilize concepts in equation form.g. Develop as many independent equations as there are unknown variables.h. Utilize dimensional analysis.

5. Execute the plan. a. Use algebra to obtain an expression with the unknown on one side of an equation and the known variables on the other side.

b. Use computer technology if necessary.c. Substitute numerical values.d. Perform mathematical operations to obtain a numerical answer.e. Use dimensional analysis to obtain the units of the answer.f. Combine the solutions to the subproblems.

6. Validate the solution. a. Compare the solution with the statement of the problem.b. Compare the solution with experience, expectations, and real world behavior.c. Is the solution complete?d. Is the sign correct, expected, or reasonable?e. Is the magnitude reasonable?f. Are the units correct and reasonable?g. Can the assumptions be removed to produce a better result?0

7. Assess your understanding of the solution.

a. Summarize the procedure.b. Summarize the relevant concepts.c. Identify how the concepts were used in the procedure.d. Examine and compare with alternative procedures or solutions.e. Generalize the solution, the process, and alternatives for use in other contexts.



Implications for InstructionIn contrast to the traditional classroom, the POGIL structure is well-suited for growing the ability of students to solve problems. Learning teams have been shown to be benefi cial in helping students increase their ability to solve problems.50, 51 POGIL activities are organized around key concepts and their applications so the development of a hierarchical knowledge structure is supported; and the activities are designed to help students develop an understanding of the concepts, which is essential. Below are described additional strategies that address each of the above fi ve issues identifi ed as important in the novice-expert research.

1. Organizing knowledge in long-term memory

Discipline or content knowledge needs to be stored in long-term memory in structures or schemata that make its use in problem solving quick and easy. It needs to be organized in a hierarchy with a small number of basic concepts at the top and detailed applications at the bottom. Different knowledge items need to be associated with each other, and they need to be connected to some recognition switch that triggers their use. We need to help students build such structures in developing their problem solving skills because such a structure makes it easier to remember the material, recognize when it is needed, and retrieve it quickly.

Pattern recognition should be an important component of this instruction because it triggers access to knowledge that is relevant to a task.24 Students therefore should be asked to compare and contrast problems in different contexts; to identify patterns in representations of concepts, problems, and their solutions; and to classify problems in terms of the concepts, principles, and procedures needed to solve them. In addition, students need to understand why those concepts, principles, and procedures are relevant. There is some evidence that such problem categorization can be successful, even when the focus on conceptual understanding and the application of concepts is not emphasized.73 Unfortunately many texts combine, classify, and label end-of-the chapter problems by type, and provide worked examples for each type, so students need not conduct such an analysis.

To further nurture problem-solving skills, students can be asked to identify the relevant issues and concepts, explain why they are relevant, and plan solutions. Brainstorming sessions can be used to highlight new ideas and approaches. Such activities complement the focus on accuracy and numerical results that are part of science courses. “Instruction that focuses solely on accuracy does not necessarily help students develop fl uency.”24

Jumping too quickly from topic to topic does not provide adequate time for students to develop a deep understanding of the material, and “curricula that emphasize breadth of knowledge may prevent effective organization of knowledge because there is not enough time to learn anything in depth [and make connections among the different items].”24 POGIL activities that extend across multiple concepts and those with diverse applications of same concept can be used to address these issues. Also, a section called Making Connections can be included in each POGIL activity.

2. Overcoming the limitations of working memory

Helping students to chunk their knowledge and develop knowledge schemata, as just described, will help students to expand the information that can be used in working memory. Students also need to be encouraged and taught explicitly to make notes on paper, and to draw diagrams when analyzing problems, and planning and implementing solutions. Van Heuvelen lists three reasons why students do not draw diagrams:74 they have not been taught how to draw diagrams and



represent information, concepts, and principles with symbols; they do not understand the concepts and principles that they need to include in the diagram; and the understanding that they bring with them is in confl ict with what they are being taught, and this dissonance confuses them.

3. Analyzing problems and planning solutions

It is generally helpful to use an explicit problem-solving methodology (e.g. some appropriately selected subset of items in Table 1) but students must be instructed in how to use the methodology. The instruction needs to focus on the analysis of the problem and on planning a solution, not on the steps taken in a procedure that leads to the correct answer. It needs to help students integrate the conceptual, analytical, and procedural aspects of problem solving.

If a solution is presented or if the problem solving process is modeled by the instructor, then in order for students to benefi t, they need to analyze the process and identify for themselves what was done, how it was done, and why it was done. They need to compare and contrast the expert’s approach with their own. Again the focus needs to be on the process, not the steps in the solution, or the answer to the problem. Strategies used in solving problems should be documented by identifying the concepts, principles, and procedures that are needed and by specifying why they are needed.

4. Benefi ting from metacognition

The use of an expert strategy in problem solving can be promoted, and the quality of the problem-solving process itself can be improved through metacognition. Learning teams can assess the approaches used by other teams to identify their strengths, areas for improvement, and insights regarding problem-solving. This feedback is then shared to grow everyone’s understanding of problem solving and how it can be applied to very rich problems. The goal is that, when students attempt to solve a problem, they will think explicitly about what they are doing, and note what is (and is not) necessary and effective. This analysis can then be compared and contrasted with the approach used by the instructor (an expert strategy).

5. Transferring knowledge for use in new contexts

Team and class discussion can be used to help students identify situations in which their new knowledge is useful, and often the last critical-thinking question in a POGIL activity will ask students to identify the relevance or usefulness of what they have learned. Diverse problems illustrating how the concept is used in different situations can be assigned, and students working in teams can analyze these problems and explicitly identify when, where, why, and how to use their knowledge.

Many textbooks work against this objective. End-of-the chapter problems are often grouped and identifi ed by topic or concept, and students never have to think about which concepts need to be applied and why they need to be used. Students often have trouble on exams because the questions usually appear randomly and are not identifi ed by type. If this is the case, students have not developed the skills in inquiry and in identifying key issues to the level that they need in order to be successful on exams, in future courses, or in the real world.



Developing Essential Transfer SkillsResearch has shown that the following items affect the ability of students to transfer what they have learned to new situations.

1. Initial learning is essential

“Without an adequate level of initial learning, transfer cannot be expected.”24 In other words, you can’t transfer what you don’t know and don’t understand. The material needs to be mastered, and understanding developed. “Attempts to cover too many topics too quickly may hinder learning and subsequent transfer because students (a) learn only isolated sets of facts that are not organized and connected or (b) are introduced to organizing principles that they cannot grasp because they lack enough specifi c knowledge to make them meaningful.”24

Students need to be motivated to spend the time necessary for mastery-level learning. While extrinsic rewards (good grades and concomitant career advancement) and punishments (poor grades and poor prospects for career advancement) affect behavior, intrinsic rewards are generally more successful. Such intrinsic rewards include the success of meeting a challenge that is not too easy to be boring or too diffi cult to be frustrating, opportunities to share knowledge and results of work with others, recognition that what is being learned is relevant and useful, and opportunities to use new knowledge to help others.24

2. Multiple contexts are important

“A single context is less likely to support transfer than the use of multiple contexts. With multiple contexts and examples and problems that demonstrate wide application, students are more likely to abstract and generalize the relevant features of concepts and to develop a fl exible representation of knowledge that facilitates transfer.”24

To help students in this learning process, instructors can ask them to compare and contrast different contexts, to consider how a solution plan changes as parts of a problem change, or to create a solution that applies to a whole class of related problems, not just to a single problem. Instructors might also ask students to think about areas of relevance and applicability as they learn new concepts.

3. Opportunities for transfer need to be revisited over time

The ability to transfer knowledge generally increases with time after an initial learning experience. “It is important to view transfer as a dynamic process that requires learners to actively [and continually] choose and evaluate strategies, consider resources [and past experiences], and receive feedback.”24 Students need the opportunity to use their knowledge repeatedly in a variety of contexts over an extended time interval.

When students are learning a new concept that is connected to previously learned concepts, instructors should ask them to identify what they need to do in order to transfer from the previous learning experience to the current one. In fact, identifying what can be transferred from a previous leaning experience to the current one should be part of a POGIL activity, as appropriate. Transfer can be promoted using a simple critical-thinking question such as, “Can you think of something that we did last week that might be useful here?”



4. Metacognition increases transfer

Frequent feedback from the instructor is critical, and “students need to monitor their own learning and actively evaluate their strategies and their current levels of understanding.” Group discussions of objectives, strategies for achieving them in different contexts, and refl ection on how those strategies can be improved have been shown to improve transfer.24

Problem-Solving Instruction in ActionSeveral successful research-based instructional strategies for improving problem-solving skills have evolved from this novice-expert research. These strategies emphasize the importance of restating the problem in terms that the problem solver can understand, planning a solution qualitatively before turning to formulas and mathematics, and using metacognition along the way. Below are some examples:

Van Heuvelen74 developed active learning problem sheets for physics instruction75 based on the following approach. A problem usually is posed in words. Students are asked to, and are shown how to, construct several different representations of the problem. Students restate the problem in their own words, identifying the information they have been given and what they need to fi nd. They construct qualitative representations as appropriate; examples might include a sketch of the physical situation, a diagram to represent the problem, or a sketch of a graph showing how variables are related. From these qualitative representations, they identify mathematical equations that represent the features of the problem. Finally they solve the problem quantitatively.

Reif60, 76 suggested a fi ve stage approach that has been formalized as the Minnesota Physics Problem-Solving Strategy.77 In Stage 1, students are asked to develop an understanding of the problem by describing it in their own words and in terms of diagrams or other symbolic representations. They identify what known, what is to be found, and what additional information is needed. In Stage 2, they use this qualitative understanding to produce a description in terms of the concepts, principles, diagrams, symbols, and equations of physics. After the problem has been described, a solution is planned or constructed in Stage 3. This planning usually breaks the problem into sub-problems, outlines the procedures, and produces the equations that need to be solved. This stage is the most diffi cult one, but three approaches are helpful: means-ends analysis, working backwards, and successive refi nements. In means-ends analysis, successive sub-goals are identifi ed that take one closer and closer to the end result. Working backwards is similar to means-ends analysis except one starts from what one wants to fi nd and tries to connect it to information that is given. In making successive refi nements, one constructs and solves a similar but simpler problem and then introduces the additional complexities that are part of the real problem. In Stage 4, the plan is implemented and calculations performed, and in Stage 5 the result is validated.

One approach with reported success in computer science seems to have promise for application in other disciplines because it strongly emphasizes the connection between concepts and their use in solving problems. When students were trained in a fi ve step self-explanation and self-regulation methodology (metacognition), they made fewer errors and were deemed to be more successful in solving problems.78 After encountering material in text or lecture (and guided inquiry could be included too), these students were asked to (1) identify the important concepts in the material, (2) elaborate on and identify the connections between these concepts, (3) examine an example problem and identify the steps needed to solve the problem, (4) identify the reason for and meaning of each step, and (5) relate the concepts presented in the initial material to the steps in the example problem.



E. Reporting Builds Skills and Solidifi es ConceptsThere are a variety of student-centered techniques to provide closure to an activity or section of an activity. Involving the students in the process increases motivation and performance and provides them with opportunities to develop communication and thinking skills. Individual presenters or spokespersons from different teams can be called upon to share their teams’ responses to one or more of the questions, or spokespersons can be exchanged between teams. They then present and explain their answers to the teams they are visiting and resolve any disagreements before returning to their original teams.

An approach known as simultaneous reporting is particularly effi cient. In this case, the presenters from a few teams are asked to put on the board their teams’ answers to questions, solutions to exercises, or plans for solving a problem. When information is on the board, a time-out is called, and the class is asked for agreement or disagreement on each item in turn. To resolve disagreements, the person who put the information on the board can provide an explanation to the entire class, or teams can be asked to help each other. It is important for the students themselves to resolve the disagreements in order to develop process skills in thinking and communicating and to place the responsibility for learning, teaching, and assessment on them. This method of closure is called simultaneous reporting because several answers are reported to the class and validated simultaneously rather than serially.

A written report is submitted by each team at the end of the POGIL session. These reports can contain one or more of the following items as appropriate: the team’s answers to the critical-thinking questions that were addressed during that session, a summary of the important concepts that they developed from the activity, the team’s solutions to some or all of the problems that they worked. The report gives students the opportunity to assess their performance and refl ect on what they have learned. This assessment and refl ection process is described in the next section.

F. Metacognition is ImportantMetacognition means literally, thinking about thinking. It includes self-management, self-regulation, self-assessment, and refl ection on learning. Metacognition is used in POGIL to help students realize that they are in charge of their own learning and that they need to monitor it (self-management and self-regulation), that they need to think about their performance and how it can be improved (self-assessment), and that they need to refl ect on what they have learned and what they don’t yet understand (refl ection on learning).

Metacognition produces an environment for continual improvement. Students can be asked to assess their own work and that of each other; instructors also monitor the teams and provide feedback to individuals, teams, and the class when appropriate in order to improve skills and help students identify needed improvements. In order to encourage self-assessment, peer assessment, and support assessment by the instructor, an atmosphere must be established in which such assessments are safe, positive, and valued by all.

To establish a learning environment where assessment is valued and appreciated, a distinction must be made between assessment and evaluation. Assessment is the process of measuring a performance, work product, or skill; giving feedback to document strengths and growth; and providing directives for improving future performance. Evaluation is the process of making a judgment or determination concerning the quality of a performance, work product, or use of skills against a set of standards.79 Assessments are nonjudgmental and are designed and intended to be helpful in producing improvement. Evaluations, on the other hand, are judgmental, and are designed and intended to document the level of achievement that has been attained. Feedback provided during daily learning



experiences should be given in the form of assessments, while course examinations provide the evaluation. In athletics, coaches give players assessments throughout the week during practices and scrimmages; the big game on Saturday is an evaluation. In order to establish the value and use of assessment, the instructor must model self-assessment, must request assessments of his or her own performance from students, and must act on those assessments.

If one of the goals is for students to improve their process skills, they must be asked to examine their own performance as well as that of others and make comparisons. Individuals need to recognize what they know, what they need to know, how well they can do something, and what they need to do to improve. Student metacognition is important because it requires students to think critically about their involvement in the learning process. They need to be able to recognize when they understand a concept and can apply it to solve new problems and when they have diffi culties. They need to ask critical-thinking questions while they are working: Do I have all the information? Have I identifi ed and validated all the assumptions? Am I using an appropriate strategy? Is there a better alternative? Such assessment can be implemented very simply by asking students to identify strategies, strengths, and improvements at various stages of an activity. Self-assessment is one step in accepting responsibility for one’s own learning and is essential for lifelong learning and growth.

The written report that is submitted by each team at the end of the workshop session gives students the opportunity to refl ect on what they have learned, to articulate and generalize concepts and strategies, and to consider what they have done well and how they can improve. In the report, students can be asked to assess their performance in the workshop activities and to make two- or three-item lists of concepts learned, strategies identifi ed, methodologies practiced, process skills used, and questions remaining. It is important to use a variety of specifi c and substantive questions in motivating this self-assessment, e.g. where could unit analysis be used to solve a problem, was unit analysis used, where could a diagram have been drawn to help solve a problem, which tasks could be done in parallel by individuals and which should be done sequentially by the entire team so all understand the activity. Other examples are given in Appendix B. It also is essential that instructors insist on high quality substantive responses to these questions, provide feedback to the students on the quality of their responses, and show students that they recognize when their students’ self-assessment have produced improvements in their performance.

G. Individual Responsibility is a Motivating ForceApplying newly gained knowledge is essential for solidifying understanding, increasing retention, and documenting relevance, which is why the third phase of the learning cycle is concept application. In addition, students need to test their own comprehension and work to develop their own skills. For these reasons, it is essential that students be held individually responsible for the learning that takes place in the POGIL classroom.

There are a variety of ways to ensure individual responsibility. For example, examinations are usually given on an individual basis, but it is preferable to provide students with more frequent feedback on their own understanding by using assessment opportunities. One method for doing this is to give a brief (one or two question) quiz on the previous session’s material at the beginning of every POGIL session. Another possibility is to require students to hand in answers to some number of homework questions on a regular basis for grading, and with the advent of computerized homework-generating systems, the possibility exists of providing each student with a personalized assignment.



One example of the use of a personalized assignment is provided by the implementation at Stony Brook. Students leave the weekly POGIL session for General Chemistry with additional problems to solve in the form of a personalized assignment, which they access over the internet. These assignments are produced with the CAPA system80, 81 that enables an assignment that differs from all others to be printed for each student. While a student’s answer to a question is unique, the concepts and principles that must be understood are the same for all students. As a result, students are encouraged to work together to discuss and understand the concepts, but each student must do individual work to obtain correct answers.

Students report their answers during the week via the campus computer network, and a central computer tells them whether they are right or wrong and may offer on-line advice or hints. The CAPA system records the data entry and summarizes the successes and failures for the instructor. Multiple attempts to solve and report answers are allowed without penalty because this device is used as a teaching and learning tool (assessment) not an evaluation tool.

This approach to homework has several attractive features. Each student identifi es the assignment as his or her responsibility because it has his or her name on it. Diligent work is rewarded and students are motivated because they are assured of eventual success. It provides students with timely and accurate feedback exactly at the time at which they are interested in completing the assignment. Student-student and student-instructor interactions are enhanced because students seek help. Faculty are perceived as supportive helpers, and the computer appears to be the judge and authority fi gure. Time needed to grade and track homework assignments in large courses is greatly reduced. Within the context of POGIL, these assignments promote individual responsibility and accountability, self-management and self-regulation, and stimulate further cooperative learning beyond the classroom experience.

H. Grade Points May be NecessaryAlthough the POGIL lessons and out-of-class assignments are intended to be learning experiences, in some cases they must count in the course grade in order for students to take these activities seriously. Grade points are essentially the currency that students use to place value on course requirements. For some students, there is not adequate motivation to do an assignment simply because it will help them on a future exam. Because institutional cultures and student populations vary from place to place, you will need to ascertain the extent to which grade points are appropriate for various aspects of your POGIL implementation.

Grading policies are also used to elicit and reward desired behaviors from the students. A positive team-learning environment, in which students learn from each other, can be lost if the session grade focuses on the quantity of lesson material covered by the team. The emphasis needs rather to be placed on the quality of the process skills exhibited by the team members in working on the lesson and on whether all members of the team understand what has been done. If a team fails to make adequate progress on the lesson material, the low grade needs to be attributed not to the meager amount of material covered, but to the lack of specifi c process skills or other desired behaviors which produced that outcome. Two common reasons for poor performance by learning teams are inadequate advance preparation by one or more team members and the lack of participation of all members of the team.

By identifying the lack of specifi c skills or behaviors, the team clearly sees which skills and behaviors are necessary for success and which need to be improved. Otherwise, the team will decide that the most talented member should work the lesson as quickly as possible to accomplish



more and obtain a better grade. The focus for these workshops is not on covering material (i.e., content) but is rather on the process skills associated with learning, thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication, management, and assessment. The grading policy and procedure must refl ect and support this focus by rewarding performance in each process area as well as mastery of the lesson material.

The grading is based on objectives and criteria that have been clearly stated to the students at the beginning of the session. Usually, the general objective is to complete or make satisfactory progress on the lesson so that each member of the team understands the material. The criteria relate to the success in meeting this objective, to the quality of written and oral reports presented by the group, and to the quality of process skills exhibited by the group during the workshop. While some general criteria pertaining to these items can carry over from session to session, others should focus on specifi c issues as needed. These specifi c criteria should be stated very explicitly at the beginning of each session by writing them on the board or by providing a handout with the agenda for the session. Criteria might include, for example, quick resolution of disagreements within a team, insightful discussion within a team of how to solve a problem, sharing answers to two or more questions with the entire class, helping one other team when called upon, or 100% scores by all team members on the end-of-session quiz.

Assessment and evaluation by the instructor occur during the class session and relatively little additional time is needed for grading. Grading can be simplifi ed, made time-economical for the instructor, and be incorporated with self-assessment by using the following scheme. Each team assesses itself using the criteria provided by the instructor at the beginning of the session; each team awards itself a grade of 3, 4, or 5, and provides a rationale for that assessment. If the instructor agrees, that score is doubled. The instructor also provides an independent evaluation both of individuals and of the team for an additional 3, 4, or 5 points awarded to individuals. Consequently a realistic student score of 3 will become at a minimum, 9 (3+3+3); an unrealistic student score of 5 will be limited to 8 (5+0+3); and an excellent performance will receive 15 (5+5+5). This scheme thereby promotes realistic self-assessment by the students. It also encourages all students in a team to be engaged and participate since the instructor’s points may differ for different team members. The instructor’s points can include credit for homework, pre-session and post-session quizzes, and display of specifi c process skills and other desired behaviors. To avoid confl ict, the instructor should monitor the self-assessment process and intervene when necessary before the session ends to ensure that each team’s self-assessment is realistic.



III. Strategies for Successful Learning TeamsThe benefi ts of learning teams cannot be achieved by simply telling students to form teams and giving them an assignment; requiring them to work together, teaching each other in the process, to complete it and. Students who perceive that they can complete the assignment more effi ciently on their own, will do so, and others will fl ounder. Even if the assignment is suffi ciently diffi cult to require collaboration for success, students in an introductory course are unlikely to have the essential skills for the task. Following the recommendations of Johnson, Johnson, and Smith 25, we have identifi ed the seven elements discussed below as being essential for real collaboration and successful team learning. Guidelines also are discussed in the book by Millis and Cottell.82

A. Structure the TeamsThe composition of a team determines its dynamics and effectiveness. The instructor needs to control the structure of the teams as a means to ensure that all teams in a workshop are reasonably effective.

Teams of three or four students work well for guided-inquiry and problem-solving activities. In larger teams not all members stay engaged, and smaller teams lack the diversity of perspective and skills that produces a rich exchange of ideas.

Initially teams can be formed randomly. After getting to know the students, e.g. after the fi rst or second class meeting, instructors can reform the teams to include a high-achieving student, a low-achieving student, and two others to provide diversity in gender and ethnicity. Diversity within each team is reported to be desirable because the perspectives and talents of the members will differ.25

Students within a team usually bond together very quickly. To ensure that changes will be accepted readily by the students, dates should be scheduled at the beginning of the term at which the teams will be reconstituted, e.g. after each hour examination. If the teams are functioning well, there may be no need to reorganize as scheduled. On the other hand, if one or more teams are dysfunctional, the reorganization can eliminate the problems with no obvious stigma to anyone.

Some instructors have found that they can change the teams at any time without any apparent problems or diffi culties. Others work successfully with a combination of affi nity teams, in which students work with whomever they choose, and project teams, which are assigned by the instructor for specifi c projects; but control over the team structure is an important tool to use in addressing diffi culties that may arise.

B. Motivate ProcessThe importance of process skills in courses, in addition to content, needs to be introduced and motivated. Some instructors spend a few minutes at the outset of the course to explain the POGIL methodology and the reasons for it. Alternatively at the fi rst session, teams can be asked to identify skills needed for course work or for those desired by employers. For example, for the fi rst team activity, instructors might ask students to play the following role: “Your team is the employment committee of a start-up biotechnology company. You are planning to hire several new scientists in the coming months. Identify eight characteristics that you will be seeking in the applicants.” Instructors might then ask each team to report one of their characteristics and make a list on the board. “Knowledge or knowledgeable” will be only one of the characteristics. Other likely characteristics will be “team player,” “self-starter,” “problem-solver,” “creative thinker,” “verbal,” “intelligent,” and “assertive.” This situation can be used as an opportunity to point out that knowledge of discipline content is only



one of the important things to acquire at the university and in this course, and that equally important are skills essential for the workplace and for life-long learning. These skills lie in the areas of information processing, thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication, management, and assessment. The instructor should explain to students that the format of the POGIL class is designed to help exercise, strengthen, and develop these important and essential skills.

C. Motivate Learning Teams and Collaborative SkillsSince not all students may be familiar with the concept of learning teams and collaborative learning, these ideas may need to be introduced and motivated. Instructors need to point out that the university is a learning community, and that the two responsibilities of members in a learning community are to learn and to help others learn. Instructors may highlight the team structure found in the workplace and draw analogies with individualized sports such as tennis, track, and wrestling in which team members practice together to help each other learn and develop skills for competition as individuals.

An instructor might explain to the class that during these class sessions they will work together to acquire information and apply it in solving problems. One might point out that research has shown that students working in learning teams learn more, understand more, and remember more than those who work in individualized or competitive environments. In addition, these students acquire critical-thinking skills, problem-solving and learning strategies, and other process skills that are essential in the workplace, e.g. in the areas of teamwork, communicating, management, and assessment. Further-more, a strong correlation between participation and grade in the POGIL sessions and performance on examinations has been documented.29

The desirability of collaborative skills and promotive interactions needs to be introduced, motivated, taught, and reinforced. Initially students may not work well together because they lack the motivation and/or process skills for leading, collaborating, encouraging, helping, and supporting each other. They may have diffi culties identifying learning and problem-solving strategies and agreeing on methods and answers.

The importance of specifi c skills and actions may need to be explicitly discussed with the students in the areas of teamwork (leadership, cooperation, and confl ict management), communicating (discussing, listening, and explaining), and management (decision making and use of resources), e.g. bringing their text, coming on time, encouraging each other, and listening and thinking about each other’s perspectives. The team can identify and record particular skills that were used or needed to be used during a session. Bonus points can be awarded when members of a team use a particular skill. One can also pick a “skill-for-the-day” and ask students to identify for the instructor and for the class when they need and use that skill, e.g., when someone exhibits leadership, helps with time management, or fi nds something relevant that others overlooked.

Promotive interactions are positive, encouraging, and supportive interactions that occur between team members, and also between the instructor and the students. Promotive interactions found in cooperative learning and absent in competitive and individualized learning result in a number of important positive outcomes in the areas of learning, interpersonal relationships, and psychological health.25, 26 Students can be asked to identify promotive interactions that occur in each session. The instructor can model promotive interactions by complimenting students and teams, shaking hands with insightful students, and by giving a Marvelous and Magnifi cent Award (packages of M&M candies) to the entire class.



High-achieving students may feel held back by working in a group, but not if the assignments are suffi ciently challenging to require collaboration for success. The importance of developing process skills for life and for the workplace in teamwork, communication, management, and assessment can be stressed to such students. They need to realize that the POGIL session is designed to provide opportunities for them to exercise and strengthen such skills. They also should appreciate that by explaining concepts and methodologies to others and developing solutions with others they exercise and strengthen their skills in learning, thinking, and problem solving. In some cases, we tell students that we have found that the difference between a student who receives an A and one who receives an A– or B+ is that the former has a better understanding of the material and is able to explain concepts to others and help others develop problem solutions.

D. Promote Positive InterdependenceThe students in a learning team must depend on each other such that one cannot succeed unless all succeed. They need common specifi c objectives or tasks to accomplish, and they must depend upon each other to complete the task (goal interdependence). Further, they must share equally in the reward for success (reward interdependence).

In the context of the POGIL classroom, students are given an assignment to complete at each meeting. The team works together to complete the assignment. All members must participate fully and agree on strategies and answers since only one set of answers can be submitted from a team. The objective is for each member of the team to understand and be able to explain what has been done. Students are told that they have two responsibilities: to learn the assigned material and to ensure that all members of the team learn the material. At the end of the workshop period, each team submits one report of what they have done, and (in those implementations in which the quality of the report and the group performance is graded each time) each member of the team receives the same grade.

Tasks should be distributed among team members and complementary roles can be assigned to promote interdependence and involvement by everyone. These roles rotate weekly. We have found that the roles of manager, spokesperson, recorder, and strategy analyst work well, but roles can be invented to meet any needs that arise. Several examples are given in the literature. 7, 25, 83

The manager actively participates, keeps the team focused on the task, distributes work and responsibilities, resolves disputes, and ensures that all members participate and understand.

The spokesperson (or presenter) actively participates and presents reports and discussion to the class.

The recorder actively participates, keeps a record of the assignment and what the team has done, and prepares a report in consultation with the others.

The strategy analyst (or refl ector) actively participates, identifi es strategies and methods for problem solving, identifi es what the team is doing well and what needs improvement in consultation with the others, and prepares a report in consultation with the others.

To further promote positive interdependence, individual weekly quiz grades can be averaged to obtain a grade for the team, but it is generally not wise to combine exam grades of team members, although bonus points might be given based on team performance. For example, if all team members score above 80% on an exam, each receives 10 bonus points; if three of four team members score above 80%, those three receive 10 bonus points; and if two of four score above 80% those two receive 5 bonus points.



E. Require Individual AccountabilityAfter working together in a team, individuals should be better prepared to complete similar tasks by themselves. After all, it is individuals who take the examinations and seek jobs. Clearly all members of the team must participate, learn from the activity, and be held accountable for understanding the material and for developing their process skills, as mentioned previously in Section IIG.

Each student needs to be monitored and assessed frequently by the instructor, and the results reported back to the individual and the team. Group discussions of team dynamics and the participation of the members also can be helpful. Individual accountability can be promoted by keeping the teams small, by rotating the roles of the team members, by asking a disengaged student questions about their team’s progress, by having teams report to each other, by giving a very short (e.g. one question) quiz at the end of a session or at the beginning of the next one, and by giving homework, take-home quizzes, and traditional examinations.

F. Provide ClosureIn a POGIL classroom students acquire information and develop understanding by examining models, answering critical-thinking questions, working exercises, and solving problems. These tasks are accomplished by the students working together in small teams with an instructor, who facilitates the process. The students need to leave the classroom session with a feeling of success and accomplishment. Time needs to be allocated for closure and refl ection on what has been learned as described previously in Section IIE.

G. Use MetacognitionAs discussed in Section IIF, teams need to discuss group dynamics and process how well they are working together in achieving goals and maintaining effective working relationships. They need to refl ect on what they have learned, identify individual contributions, evaluate the quality of the results, determine which actions were helpful and which were not, and identify what to continue and what to change. The quality of self-assessment is greatest and has the most impact if each strategy analyst makes a verbal report to the class during a session rather than by submitting a written report only to the instructor at the end.

In many cases, grading policies need to consider and reward achievement in teamwork and other process skills as much as they do with content. The grade the team receives should refl ect mastery of content by all members and should refl ect the level of process skills exhibited, especially collaborative skills, i.e. helping each other. Because many students pay attention to how the objectives are refl ected in the grading policies, you need to reinforce your stated objectives, which refl ect the importance of teamwork and other process skills, in your grading policies. For example, at the beginning of each class identify two or three content objectives and two or three process objectives, then have the teams self-assess their performance and provide a self-assigned grade based upon those criteria.



IV. A New Paradigm for the TeacherIn a POGIL classroom, a teacher is not the expert provider of knowledge, but rather guides students in the process of learning, in developing skills, and in developing their own understanding. In this sense, the instructor acts as a coach and has four roles to play: leader, monitor/assessor, facilitator, and evaluator.

A. Instructors Play Four Simultaneous RolesAs leader, the instructor creates the learning environment by developing and explaining the lesson, by determining the objectives (both the content objectives and the process skills objectives), by defi ning the expected behaviors and criteria for success, and by establishing the organization (i.e. the goal/reward structure, the team structure, the class structure, the room structure, and the time structure).84

As monitor/assessor, the instructor circulates through the class to monitor and assess individual and team performance and to acquire information on student understanding, misconceptions, and diffi culties in collaboration. The instructor uses this information as a facilitator to improve perfor-mance.

As facilitator, the instructor intervenes and asks timely critical-thinking questions to help teams understand why they may be having diffi culty and what they need to do to improve and make progress. Facilitators should intervene with respect to students’ processes rather than content-related issues. The questions posed by the instructor help identify why the team is having diffi culty. The fi rst questions should be open-ended and general, then more directed and specifi c as needed. For example, an instructor might ask: Where are you stuck? What progress have you made? What do you fi nd confusing? What are you asked to fi nd in the problem? How is what you need to fi nd connected to the information that you are given? What did you learn previously that is relevant here? (At the directed level, actually point to the previous information.) Can you draw a diagram to represent what the problem is asking? (And after the diagram is drawn.) Now can you solve the problem?

Always try to interact with the teams in ways that encourage deeper thought. For example, if a student responds that methane has a higher boiling point than ammonia because it has more hydrogen bonds, one approach is for the facilitator to paraphrase the response and ask for additional insight: “You have said that the greater number of bonds to hydrogen within a molecule is correlated with a higher boiling point. What do you see as the role of bonds to hydrogen in determining the boiling point?”44

For diffi culties in math and logic, a facilitator might establish analogous situations that the team can reason through, then have the team identify connections with the original chemistry context. For example, students may have diffi culty identifying the number of different chlorine molecules that can form from chlorine-35 and chlorine-37 isotopes, but they instantaneously know that four outfi ts can be produced with a red and a blue tee-shirt and black and tan slacks.

At the end of the intervention, ask the team to refl ect on the process by asking, What was the source of the diffi culty? How did you resolve it? How can you avoid it in future similar situations? What generalizations can you make to help you in new situations?

By combining monitoring, assessing, and facilitating, the instructor ensures that all participants understand the assignment, that each team member is fulfi lling the assigned role, that positive verbal



exchanges are occurring, and that progress is being made. Such intervention provides feedback, motivation, and reinforcement; teaches academic and collaborative skills; and guides students in the learning process.85

As evaluator, the instructor provides closure to the lesson by asking team members to report answers, summarize the major points, and to explain the strategies, actions, and results of the team. Evaluations are given to individuals and teams regarding performance, achievement, and effectiveness, and general points are shared with the class.

B. Planning and Preparing LessonsAs of the publication of this instructors guide, POGIL materials for high school chemistry, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry have been developed and classroom-tested, and are available for widespread use. Information about these and newly developed materials is available from the POGIL website (www.pogil.org).

Many instructors are interested in developing their own materials, particularly for those subject areas for which activities are not available. Both the POGIL project and Pacifi c Crest (www.pcrest.com) regularly hold workshops introducing instructors to the methodology of activity design and development and to many useful techniques for classroom facilitation. Information about upcoming workshops is available from the POGIL and Pacifi c Crest websites.

One approach to designing activities is presented here. We call this design the Learning- Research Process because it not only represents not only how people learn but also how research is done. The seven steps in the Learning–Research Process are outlined in Table 2. The heart of the design, the three-stage learning cycle of exploration, concept invention or formation, and application is embedded in the middle. In addition to these three stages, this design explicitly takes into account that learners need to be motivated to spend the time necessary for learning complex subjects, that they need to build the new knowledge on what they already know, and that they need to refl ect on what they have done.24 Similar formulations are known as the 5E and 7E learning cycle and instructional models.86, 87 A detailed methodology for producing activities is given elsewhere.88

The sequence of steps need not always be the same as the sequence shown in Table 2. For example, in some lessons it may be desirable for the students fi rst to explore and develop understanding in order to discover what it is that they are learning, then to identify why they are learning it and what they knew about it in the fi rst place; then they expand on this experience later through readings and resource material.

There are a variety of ways to implement POGIL activities in the classroom. One approach involves using the POGIL activity as an introduction to the content. Following the POGIL session, the students are expected to read the relevant sections of the textbook, and work the exercises and problems.9

Alternatively at Stony Brook, two formats for implementing POGIL lessons have been used with nearly equal success. One focuses class time on problem solving. Students develop an understanding of the concepts by exploring the model, by responding to the critical thinking questions, and by working exercises as homework prior to the classroom session. They use the textbook as a resource in this task. Time in the classroom is used to bring closure to this homework assignment by using the technique of simultaneous reporting. The teams then work problems and extended problems together and discuss solutions and their connections to the concepts.



In the other format, students are told not to look at the assignment until they come to the POGIL session. During the session, the teams develop an understanding of the material together by answering the key questions and working the exercises. They work problems as homework, which is brought to closure through simultaneous reporting in the following meeting.

C. TA TrainingIn many cases POGIL workshops are conducted by graduate teaching assistants, who must be given appropriate information in order to perform well. It also is important to upgrade their title to that of Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) because they have a primary role in facilitating learning, teaching process skills, and conducting assessment.

At Stony Brook, all graduate students are given demographic and background information about Stony Brook’s undergraduate population and an introduction to such topics as learning theory, effective pedagogical approaches and strategies for teaching in different settings, gender and diversity issues, and responding to student problems.

Chemistry graduate students who will be implementing POGIL participate in three three-hour sessions the week before classes begin. These sessions motivate process-oriented guided-inquiry learning, present an overview and specifi c features pertaining to the application at Stony Brook, and describe the content of the fi rst lesson. They also participate in weekly two-hour meetings during the course of the semester. These meetings focus on three important areas: (1) philosophy and pedagogy, (2) subject material, and (3) administrative details, including grading policies and practices. Successes, improvements, diffi culties and remedies, and the lesson for the coming week are discussed.

The initial meetings address the structure needed for successful learning teams, the features of process-oriented education, the development of problem-solving skills, and the utilization of critical-thinking and guide-inquiry learning approaches to teaching. These ideas are then reinforced during the subsequent weekly meetings. A lecture format is not used in these training sessions. Instead, participants work in teams to consider issues using critical thinking, modeling, role playing, and metacognition. The training sessions are thereby modeled after the POGIL classroom environment.



V. Can This Approach be Successful?Determining whether or not the POGIL approach is successful depends on the goals that an instructor has for the students in his or her class and on how success is defi ned; these of course may differ for different instructors.

When the POGIL approach fi rst was instituted at Stony Brook in Fall 1994 by replacing traditional recitations with POGIL workshops, faculty and graduate teaching assistants involved in the project were apprehensive about the effectiveness of the pedagogy and the feasibility of the strategies for implementing it. This general chemistry course had two sections, each meeting three times a week for lecture (500 students) with recitation sessions (36 students) meeting once a week. As the fi rst semester progressed, however, it became evident that POGIL was becoming increasingly effective, and the POGIL environment was more enjoyable for both instructors and students compared to traditional recitation and lecture sessions. The instructors were more relaxed since the students replaced them as the active agents in the classroom, and the students were encouraged by their own accomplishments and by sharing experiences with their peers. In the fi nal evaluation the instructors said, “This is the way to teach!”, and many students responded, “More time for workshops and less time for lectures!” The end-of-the semester course assessment8 revealed that:

• Most students (85%) conscientiously attended the POGIL sessions and worked the computer-based homework assignments

• The majority of the students (about 90%) found the POGIL activities challenging, worthwhile, and helpful

• Signifi cant numbers of students reported that the workshop increased their interest in chemistry and increased their confi dence in studying and learning chemistry

• Instructors (graduate teaching assistants) received A and A+ ratings from the students, revealing positive student attitudes

• Examinations showed signifi cant shifts of students from lower scores to higher scores, uniformly for low through high achieving students. Averaged over all the examinations, 200 more students of 1000 total scored above the 50% level in Fall, 1994 than in Fall, 1993

• Exam grades were highly correlated with the workshop and personalized assignment grades. Thus, one can demonstrate to a student that regular and persistent attention to learning and problem solving gives a clear route to success on examinations

• Instructors reported an improvement in student process skills throughout the course of the semester

Another study7 compared the course grades for students in General Chemistry at Franklin and Marshall College before and after the implementation of the POGIL instructional methodology. The studied sections were taught by three instructors; the “before” approach was an interactive lecture and the “after” approach was POGIL. All of the sections were small, with roughly 24 students in each section. The data that appear in the table below are for a combination of fi rst semester and second semester grades:

Years n A B C D, F, W

Before 1990-4 485 19% 33% 26% 22%

After 1994-8 420 24% 40% 26% 10%



The previous table shows that with POGIL the number of students who receive a D or F or who withdraw from the course decreases. This pattern is a relatively common result of implementing the POGIL approach. For example, at a regional small liberal arts college, similar results were obtained by comparing the course grades for Organic Chemistry I for two groups of students taking the course during the same semester with different instructors using different approaches. Both classes were small, about 20 students, and they were randomly distributed between the two sections. One was taught by a very experienced instructor using an interactive lecture approach, and the other was taught by a different instructor using POGIL. Both classes were given the same mid-term and fi nal exams, and both were co-written and co-graded by the two instructors. The grade distributions for the courses are shown below:

A B C D, F, W

Lecture 20% 20% 27% 33%

POGIL 29% 35% 24% 12%

A similar “experiment” was also done for Organic Chemistry I at a large, public university with a signifi cant minority population. In this case, the only exam that was given in common was the fi nal exam. It was a multiple choice exam, written solely by the “lecture” instructor. Historically, at this institution, the withdrawal rate for this course had been about 38%. Students who withdrew did not take the fi nal exam. The distributions of performances on the fi nal exam are given below:

n A B C D F W

Lecture 109 12% 19% 16% 1% 5% 47%

POGIL 75 9% 32% 31% 15% 1% 12%

Another example involves the performance on the 1993 ACS General Chemistry exam, given as a fi nal exam for General Chemistry II at a small regional liberal arts college. This exam had been given every year for ten years, beginning in 1994, with the same instructor each year. Class sizes averaged about 40 students. Between 1994 and 2003, the average result was 55.5% correct with a high of 65.2% and a low of 47% (which happened to be in 2003). For the 2003-4 academic year, this instructor employed the POGIL approach (after attending a POGIL three-day workshop in June, 2003). The average for 2004 was 68.5%, higher than any previous class, and 13% higher than the average.

One other type of study has been reported in the literature.9 In this case, student performance in a fi rst semester general chemistry course at a large public university was investigated. The two groups of students had the same lecture instructor, and they took the same mid-term and fi nal exams. The difference between them was that in the “control” group, students were given the standard fi fty-minute lecture three times each week, whereas in the POGIL group, the instructor compressed the content from those three lectures into two, and for the third hour each week, the students met in small groups of about ten with a peer leader who served as the facilitator for a POGIL session. This experience is described as Peer-Led Guided Inquiry (PLGI) since it combines elements of both Peer-Led Team Learning and POGIL. The PLGI students outperformed the “control” group on every exam, including the fi nal. For the four exams given during the term, the gap in average performance grew as the semester proceeded, with the difference on the fourth exam being greater than 10%.



Table 2 The Learning–Research Process

Steps in the Learning-Research Process

7EEquivalent Component of the Activity

1. Identify a need to learn Engage An issue that excites and interests is presented.

An answer to the question Why? is given.

Learning objectives and success criteria are defi ned.

2. Connect to prior understandings

Elicit A question or issue is raised, and student explanations or predictions are sought.

Prerequisite material is identifi ed.

3. Explore Explore A model or task is provided, and resource material is identifi ed. Students explore the model or task in response to critical-thinking questions.

4. Concept invention, introduction, and formation

Explain Critical-thinking questions lead to the identifi cation of concepts, and understanding is developed.

5. Practice applying knowledge

Skill exercises involve straightforward application of the knowledge.

6. Apply knowledge in new contexts

Elaborate & Extend

Problems and extended problems require synthesis and transference of concepts.

7. Refl ect on the process Evaluate Problem solutions and answers to questions are validated and integrated with concepts. Learning and performance are assessed.

Several common and important outcomes are observed in all of these studies:

• Student attrition is lower for POGIL for than traditional courses

• Student mastery of content generally exceeds that for traditional instruction

• Students generally prefer the POGIL approach over traditional methods

• Students generally have more positive attitudes about the course and the instructors

• Student learning skills appear to improve over the semester



VI. References1. Hanson, D. M. Foundations of Chemistry: Applying POGIL Principles. Lisle, IL: Pacifi c Crest,

2006.

2. Moog, R. S. and J. J. Farrell. Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

3. Straumanis, A. R. Organic Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry. Boston: Houghton Miffl in, 2004.

4. Moog, R. S., J. N. Spencer, and J. J. Farrell. Physical Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry:Atoms, Molecules, and Spectroscopy. Boston: Houghton Miffl in, 2004.

5. Spencer, J. N., R. S. Moog, and J.J. Farrell. Physical Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry:Thermodynamics. Boston: Houghton Miffl in, 2004.

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Section 5Section 5Facilitating: The Professional Development of the Coaches

See the Student Success Workshop/Institute handbook

OverviewLearning to Learn Camps provide a unique opportunity for faculty development in a living laboratory atmosphere. The large number of activities in a concentrated time period creates opportunities for faculty to hone their skills in facilitation. The close contact with students provides opportunities for mentoring, and the creation of an assessment-rich atmosphere yields growth in mentoring skills. This is true for any camp, but especially true when there is intentional and structured faculty development.

In addition, since faculty of Learning to Learn Camps have attended Student Success Institutes, they have already been exposed to the theoretical foundation that undergirds the opportunities for personal growth in themselves as well as in the students, they are well positioned to take advantage of their situation. This guide includes materials from a Student Success Workshop for ease in reviewing that foundational knowledge.

The lead facilitator from Pacifi c Crest can create a lot of opportunities for growth through modeling of effective strategies, and mentoring of faculty as they do their work. Students also benefi t from the atmosphere of continuous growth and assessment as they soon realize and appreciate that the faculty are also working on improving their skills, and that their input is valued. The faculty in this professional growth program are still very much involved with the camp, often in the roles of team leader, coach, or assistant coach, so their insights can immediately be put into practice and refi ned with mentoring and assessment help.

However, a single lead facilitator can do only so much, even with a lot of skills. So, to get the maximum benefi t towards professional development, it is desirable to have a person whose single focus is the professional development of faculty. Pacifi c Crest is now offering a two-facilitator model in which the company provides a lead facilitator for the student portion of a camp and a second facilitator who concentrates on faculty development. In the train the trainer model, the host schools can then train someone from their local team to assume the role of faculty development facilitator. The more skilled in process learning skills this person is, the better.

Professional growth at camp focuses on these important aspects of faculty performance: personal growth, facilitation of learning, assessment, and mentoring. Trying to list all of the ways these work to improve faculty performance in an exhaustive list is truly impossible, as camp is set up to roll with the punches, so the exact opportunities that arise cannot be fully predicted. For example, the faculty at Sinclair Community College learned a great deal about working with abused women because they suddenly had a compelling need to know. Opportunities can arise from special needs situations, issues with the group process, etc. However, these four areas of professional development are sure to be available in every camp.

Personal GrowthFaculty prepare for a Learning to Learn Camp by selecting three learning skills in which they wish to improve. They then take on personal responsibility for seeking out ways to grow in those


areas; the professional development facilitator, (PDF), will also be aware of those areas and use that information in mentoring that person. By frequent assessment of his or her own performance and the performances of others, the faculty member will gradually gain a deeper understanding of how to grow the chosen skills. At the same time, understanding of guiding the growth process in others comes from interacting with students who are actively growing their own learning skills. That’s the synergistic effect of camp at work.

Through daily self-assessment and even assessment of one’s own self-assessment, faculty progress along the road to growing their own performance, to becoming self-growers.

Facilitation of LearningBy facilitating learner activities with maximum assessment opportunities, faculty will have a unique opportunity to improve their facilitation skills. In addition, they will be able to observe the expert facilitation of the Pacifi c Crest lead facilitator and the skills of their colleagues. However, the learning here is intentionally designed to be a lot more deliberate and thoughtful than just observation. It involves all of these and more:

A. Facilitation Plan

A facilitation plan is a preparation for facilitating a student activity. It includes planning how to set up the activity, manage time during the activity, anticipate likely needs for intervention, and what to look for in real-time assessment of the activity and follow-up assessment of the quality of the learning produced by the activity.

In a fully realized faculty development camp, participants will see expert modeling of a facilitation plan, followed by the actual facilitation of the activity and assessment of the plan and the activity. Then they will write their own facilitation plan, get mentor feedback on their plan and peer assessment of their plan, do the actual facilitation, self-assess the facilitation and the plan, receive mentor feedback, and receive peer feedback through peer coaching.

Finally, they will assess plans written by others, see them in action, and peer assess the results. With around 40 activities to a camp, there are lots of opportunities.

B. Facilitation of Learning

Camp faculty will have at least one and perhaps more opportunities to facilitate an activity with students. As part of the Facilitation Plan, they select areas in which they would like feedback. An assigned team will then closely observe the facilitation and offer assessment feedback in a Strengths, Areas of Improvement, and Insights format. The PDF will also be ready to mentor the performance and give additional assessment, as well as assess the assessments from the peer coaches. For example, the coaches might look at the quality of interventions with small groups, the quality of the set-up for the activity, or time management during the activity. The activity facilitator chooses the focus areas depending upon the skills he or she is working on growing.

In addition, everyone will have opportunities to peer coach others as they facilitate learning and to observe and analyze the skills of an expert facilitator of learning. These are likely to yield everything from little tips and tricks that will be immediately applicable in one’s daily life in the classroom to deep insights into what makes a classroom “tick.” The best learning during the camp may well come from the practice of analyzing what others are doing and why it works well or does not work so well and how it can be improved.


C. Peer Coaching System

Through the use of peer assessment, participants will come to value the peer coaching practices they learn during the camp. That can—and should—lead to a commitment to continue the use of peer coaching with one another throughout the rest of the school year. By the end of camp, participants will have the paper forms and the practices they need to peer coach independent of a PDF.

AssessmentA Learning to Learn Camp is the richest assessment environment that most faculty ever encounter. Here are some of the kinds of assessment that are practiced in a learning to learn camp:

• Self-assessment by learners

• Self-assessment by faculty

• Assessment from peers (students and faculty)

• Assessment from a mentor, from both the mentor and mentee perspectives

• Assessment of assessments done by others

• Assessment of assessments you perform

• Real-time assessment during activity facilitation

• Real-time assessment during interventions with students.

• Assessment of small group processes

• Assessment of facilitation plans

• Assessment of learning activities

• Assessment of the camp day by day

• Assessment of assessment of camp by Student Council

• Assessment of expert facilitator’s performance

• Assessment of work products in progress

• Assessment of the overall camp after it ends

All of this makes the difference between evaluation and assessment in language and in culture much clearer than any amount of wrestling with readings on the subject.

MentoringFaculty at a Learning to Learn Camp develop their mentoring skills in several important ways.

Mentoring individuals

The intense relationships between coaches and students that develop in learning communities provide many opportunities for mentoring student growth in learning skills and in personal management. One on one mentoring is a large part of the high performance expectation/high support atmosphere that is central to a Learning to Learn Camp. The coach as a mentor may


have to deal with emotional breakdowns, unacceptable behaviors, etc., but also will see much to commend in the students’ commitment to their own growth. Mentoring is about reinforcing strengths that students, especially students with low self-esteem issues, may not even realize they have. It is about working with that individual to bring out his or her best self.

Mentoring small groups

The coaching relationship with learning teams allows close observation of how the team functions. Often mentoring that involves growth in working together and using group roles effectively can make a group function much better. Often students cite learning to work well in small groups as one of the most valuable skills they take from a Learning to Learn Camp. Employers value that skill also. However, most faculty members have had little opportunity to hone the skill of analyzing small group interaction and intervening appropriately. In Learning to Learn Camps, the lead facilitators will model small group interventions in many situations, and faculty will have the opportunity to not only observe interventions and their results but to hear from the facilitators why they chose that particular intervention at that particular time. In addition, faculty members will get assessment of their own small group interventions, if they so choose, when they facilitate a learning activity and when they work within their own learning community. This assessment could come from students, peers, or a mentor.

Being mentored

By being a mentee of the lead facilitator, the PDF, and perhaps facilitation team leaders, faculty members experience the other side of the mentoring experience and gain skills in how to effectively seek and apply mentoring help. Since working with mentors is very important in most jobs, including faculty work, having a positive mentoring experience—and perhaps some negative mentoring experience—will open up avenues to continuing on the path of self-growth after the camp is over.


Section 6Section 6Customizing a Learning to Learn Camp

Pacifi c Crest has a long history of adapting Learning to Learn Camp for specifi c users with a wide range of target audiences and specialized content. For example, Learning to Learn Camps have been adapted to focus on calculus, engineering, and honors research. This section covers the principles that make such adaptation possible by showing how the processes and curriculum in Sections 1-4 can be adapted. Then the schedules for two different adapted Learning to Learn Camps are shared: Algebra curriculum and the Smart Grid curriculum (written for delivery to Job Corps students).

1. Adapting the basics of the Learning to Learn Camp (Section 1).

In order to put in the content from the chosen focus area, careful choices have to be made to preserve the essential core of the learning skills in Foundations of Learning while adding the additional content. The activities in the basic schedule for the camp (see Section 3 for sample) are carefully modifi ed, so that there are then three types of content. Compare the basic schedule to the two adapted schedules, which are later in this section, and you will see that there are now three types of activities.

A. Core modules from Foundations of Learning. These modules are so essential to the learning in the camp that they must be included in any version of the camp, either as they appear in Foundations of Learning or modifi ed into blended activities. (See B, following)

The Core modules are:1.1 Building Learning Communities1.2 Analyzing a Course Syllabus2.1 Creating Your Life Vision Portfolio2.2 Exploring Your Campus3.1 Using a Reading Log3.2 Practicing the Reading Methodology4.1 Analyzing the Learning Process Methodology4.2 Applying the Learning Process Methodology5.1 Analyzing the Problem Solving Methodology 5.2 Applying the Problem Solving Methodology7.1 Becoming a Self-Grower7.2 Personal Development Methodology9.1 Time Management11.1 Applying the Writing Methodology12.1 Exploring Team Roles13.1 Exploring the Assessment Methodology14.1 Self-Growth Paper

In the Algebra example schedule which follows, 6 are presented as purely Foundations of Learning Activities and the others are part of blended activities. In the Smart Grid example


schedule, 7 are purely Foundations of Learning Activities and the others are part of blended activities.

B. Blended modules that combine Foundations of Learning and specialized content. These modules take the skills portion of the Foundations of Learning content and combine it with information from the content focus.

In the Algebra curriculum, there are 14 blended activities, counting basic math skills review only once, though it is repeated daily. 11 of these are based on activities in Foundations of Learning and the other 3 are math and games which incorporate FOL content and mathematical content. These are highlighted in the schedule which follows.

In the Smart Grid curriculum, there are 15 blended activities, ten based on activities in Foundations of Learning and the other 4 are math and games with Smart Grid content.

Since these modules need to have some sort of content anyway, the blending is not diffi cult. For example, the FOL module “Using a Reading Log” requires a reading selection to use as the basis for a reading log. If one uses a key reading from the content focus, the student gets the information from the content focus and the learning skill from FOL at the same time. The module “Problem Solving Methodology” from FOL has to have some practice problem to apply the methodology, so the blend just uses a problem based on the content focus. Blended activities are highlighted in the schedule which follows.

C. Some activities have to be based on the content focus area. Even in these the Learning to Learn Camp principles are modeled in the delivery of the content and the use of process learning approaches to working with the modules, but the primary learning for these modules is from the content focus areas.

In the Algebra schedule, there are 20 content modules, all from Foundations of Algebra. In the Smart Grid schedule, there are 10 content modules, such as “Deregulation of Electricity.”

D. Other camp activities

Games and contest performances can be adapted to reinforce learning of content (games) and to demonstrate learning of content (performances). So, the content focus should be considered when planning these elements of the camp.

E. Camp materials

In additional to the materials for the basic camp, the students will need copies of the activities that are not in Foundations of Learning and whatever materials they need for the evaluation product added to the evaluation system.

2. Adaptations for planning a Learning to Learn Camp (Section 2) with a content focus.

A. Target audience selection is tightly linked with the content focus in a specialized camp. The curriculum has to carefully assess what the target audience knows already and what they most need to learn. Since there will be limited time available for content-specifi c activities, the curriculum has to be carefully edited to the most essential parts of the content, just as it is edited to the most essential parts of the full Foundations of Learning curriculum.

B. The facilitation team needs to have at least one expert in the content focus area and one expert in writing process learning activities. They will need to write the content focus activities and the blended activities, so the timeline should allow time for this. The Pacifi c


Crest facilitator will be a valuable consultant in this process. The team may need training before they can write the activities.

C. The curriculum approval process will be affected by the amount and kind of credit that the camp will carry. It may be necessary to allow time for the approval process after the curriculum is designed.

D. If the content focus requires specialized equipment, the facilities requirements may have to be adapted.

E. The camp staff should include at least one content expert who can facilitate the learning activities that are content-based. It would be better to have a content expert as a coach in each learning community if possible. There are, however, advantages of having a skilled facilitator who is not a content expert but instead is learning the content along with the students. Your Pacifi c Crest lead facilitator will have long experience in doing just that with success.

F. The design of the evaluation process for the camp will need to be adapted to allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in the content focus area. Usually this can be done by adding an additional product, such as a learning journal for the content focus. This additional product can vary depending on the content. It could take the form of a research project, presentation, etc. The personal growth paper could focus on growth related to the content focus area and the Friday performance prompts can also be adjusted to demonstrate learning of the content. These require no additional time and still demonstrate the skills of public speaking, writing, etc. that are shown in the basic camp. Essentially these are blended performances in the same manner as the blended modules in the curriculum.

G. Because of the time spent on the content product, the standards for evaluation of other products may be affected. The most obvious example is that the number of modules in the Foundations of Learning will likely be reduced.

3. Adaptations in Facilitating Learning (sections 3 and 4)

A. It may be helpful to have a team of activity facilitators or to have a content expert available for consultation during activities.

B. The games and performances on Friday will be adapted for the content focus.

C. The persons who work with evaluating the work products and judging the performances on the last day of camp should be chosen from stakeholders associated with the content focus, such as potential employers for the Smart Grid students or mathematics faculty for the Algebra camp. Not only will these persons be more equipped to evaluate the material, but also they will learn about the students and the Learning to Learn program, hopefully creating future support for the continuation of the program.

D. There may be additional follow-up opportunities with the stakeholders as participants in the assessment and revision of the camp curriculum and activities.

4. Facilitating the Professional Development Experience (Section 5)

This section can work the same way in a content-focus camp as in a basic Learning to Learn Camp. Some institutions using content-based camps choose not to include the extra complexity of a fully realized professional development experience, though any experience with a Learning to Learn Camp will yield some professional development for faculty who want that benefi t.


Here is the Learning to Learn Algebra Camp schedule for comparison with the basic Learning to Learn Camp schedule. Notice that there is a column that identifi es whether each activity is core, blended, or content.

Algebra Learning to Learn Camp ScheduleFOA = Foundations Algebra FOL = Foundations of Learning

Activity Reading Focus Type

DAY 1

Building Learning Communities (FOL 1.1) FOL Ch. 1 Core FOL

Becoming a Self-Grower (FOL 7.1) FOL Ch. 7 Core FOL

Math Skills Basic Mathematical Skills Review Blended

Pictionary - Communicating Mathematical Concepts Blended

Analyzing a Course Syllabus - Camp (FOL 1.2) FOL Ch. 1 Algebra Course Syllabus Blended

Number Systems FOA 1.1 Content

Simplifying Expressions FOA 1.5 Content

Using a Reading Log (FOL 3.1) FOL Ch. 3 Mathematics Text Blended

Working with Radicals FOA 1.2 Content

Interpreting Word Problems FOA 1.4 Content

Evaluating Formulas FOA 1.6 Content

Open Lab & Self-Assessment of Day One Using Engaged Learner and Professionalism Measures Book of Performance Measures Blended

DAY 2

Analyzing the Learning Process Methodology (FOL 4.1) FOL Ch. 4 Learning Mathematical Content Blended


Equivalent Equations FOA 2.1 Content

Time Management (FOL 9.1) FOL Ch. 9 Core FOL

Validation FOA 2.4 Content

Analyzing the Problem Solving Methodology (FOL 5.1) FOL Ch. 5 Blended

Practicing the Reading Methodology (FOL 3.2) FOL Ch. 3 Blended

Applying the Learning Process Methodology (FOL 4.2) FOL Ch. 4 Blended

Solving Basic Equations FOA 2.2 Content

Solving Systems of Linear Equations FOA 2.3 Content

Solving and Graphing Linear Inequality FOA 3.1 Content

Open Lab & Self-Assessment of Day Two Using Engaged Learner and Professionalism Measures Book of Performance Measures Blended



DAY 3

Exploring the Assessment Methodology (FOL 13.1) FOL Ch. 13 Blended

Creating a LIfe Vision Portfolio FOL Ch. 2 Core FOL


Personal Development Methodology (FOL 7.2) FOL Ch. 7 Core FOL

Pictionary - Communicating Mathematical Concepts Blended

Ordered Pairs, Intercepts, and Slopes FOA 3.3 Content

Compound Inequalities FOA 3.2 Content

Applying the Writing Methodology FOL Ch. 11 Blended

Graphing Equations in Two Variables FOA 3.4 Content

Applying the Problem Solving Methodology (FOL 5.2) FOL Ch. 5 Mathematical Problems Blended

Dividing Polynomials FOA 4.1 Content

Open Lab & Self-Assessment of Day Three Using Engaged Learner and Professionalism Measures Book of Performance Measures Blended

DAY 4

Team Design Competition / Team Roles (FOL 12.3) FOL Ch. 12 Blended

Factoring Polynomials FOA 4.2

Reading for Learning FOL Ch. 3 Mathematical Content Blended


Simplifying Rational Expressions FOA 4.4 Content

Basics of Functions FOA 5.1 Content

Self-Growth Paper (FOL 14.1) FOL Ch. 14 Core FOL

Family of Functions FOA 5.2 Content

Analyzing a Function FOA 5.3 Content

Inverse Relations and Functions FOA 5.4 Content

Open Lab & Self-Assessment of Day Four Using Engaged Learner and Professionalism Measures Book of Performance Measures Blended

DAY 5

Math Competition Blended

Writing Contest Blended

Problem Solving Blended

Speech Contest Blended


Here is the Smart Grid schedule for comparison with the basic Learning to Learn Camp schedule. Notice that there is a column that identifi es whether each activity is core, blended, or content.

Right after the schedule, you’ll fi nd additional Smart Grid information.

Smart Grid Learning to Learn Camp ScheduleSG = Foundations of Smart Grid FOL = Foundations of Learning


DAY 1

Building Learning Communities (FOL 1.1) FOL Ch. 1 Core FOL

Becoming a Self-Grower (FOL 7.1) FOL Ch. 7 Core FOL

Math Skills for Modeling in Smart Grid Blended

Pictionary - Communicating Smart Grid Concepts Blended

Analyzing a Course Syllabus - Camp (FOL 1.2) Smart Grid Syllabus Blended

Using a Reading Log (FOL 3.1) Reading on Smart Grid - History of the Electric Grid (SG 2) Blended

Learning to Learn Technology Designing the Future of SMART METER (SG 18) Blended

Creating a Life Vision Portfolio (FOL 2.1) Blended

Analyzing the Learning Process Methodology (FOL 4.1) FOL Ch. 4 Basics of Electricity (SG 4) Blended

Exploring Team Roles (FOL 12.1) FOL Ch. 12 Core FOL

Exploring Careers in Smart Grid Content

Open Lab - Self-assessment of Day One Using Engaged Learner and Professionalism Measures Book of Performance Measures Blended

DAY 2

Practicing the Reading Methodology (FOL 3.2) FOL Ch. 3 Overview of the SMART GRID (SG 1) Blended


Time Management (FOL 9.1) FOL Ch. 9 Core FOL

Charades - Communicating Smart Grid Decisions Blended

Applying the LPM (FOL 4.2) Energy Conversion - Electricity to Work (SG 5) Blended

Role of Public Policy (SG 22) Content

Analyzing the Problem Solving Methodology (FOL 5.1) FOL Ch. 5 Energy Management (SG 10) Blended

Assessment Practice Core FOL

Deregulation of Electricity (SG 3) Content

Learning to Learn Technical Mathematics Blended

Electricity - Private or Public Good (SG 12) Content

Self-assessment and Writing LVP Blended

DAY 3



Exploring the Assessment Methodology (FOL 13.1) FOL Ch. 13 Making the Right Decisions (SG 21) Blended

Personal Development Methodology (FOL 7.2) Core FOL


Pictionary - Communicating Smart Grid Concepts Blended

Developing an Educational Plan (FOL 6.3) FOL Ch. 6 Current and Future Opportunities (SG 20) Blended

Communication Systems Architecture (SG 16) Content

Technologies of Smart Grid (SG 14) Content

Conventional Business Models of Power Industry (SG 13) Content

DAY 4

Monitoring, Protection, and Control (SG 9) Content

Applying the Problem Solving Methodology (FOL 5.2) What If Modeling of SMART GRID (SG 19) Blended

Math Skills for Modeling in Smart Grid FOL Ch. 8 Blended

Charades - Communicating Smart Grid Decisions Blended

Transmission and Distribution (SG 8) Content

Smart Sensor Network (SG 17) Content

Who Controls What? (SG 11) FOL Ch. 11 Content

Self-growth Paper (FOL 14.1) Core FOL

DAY 5

Technology Math Competition Blended

Writing Contest - Persuasive Letter to Change Policy Blended

Problem Solving in Smart Grid Competition Blended

Speech Contest - Vision of the Future of Smart Grid Blended


Smart Grid Course Syllabus

Term: Aug, 2012 Offi ce Location: Virtual

Course Number: US 180 E-mail Address:

Credits: 3 credit Phone Number:

Instructor: Contact Hours:

Course Vision

Increases stakeholder awareness, interest in, and commitment to the effective use and support of the SMART GRID

Course Description

This course is the foundation of any program in Smart Grid. It provides the thinking, practices, and systems perspectives that makes the stakeholder a contributor and intelligent user/interfacer with the Smart Grid.

Learning Objectives (Broad Learning Goals)

1) To develop a systems perspective of SMART GRID and its technologies

2) To increase modeling of SMART GRID use from multiple perspectives

3) To increase economic understanding and decision making around current and future SMART GRID technologies

4) To understand the role of policy and politics in the advancement of SMART GRID over time nationally, regionally, and locally

5) To understand how to educate others in SMART GRID changes so their acceptance is productive

6) To envision how SMART GRID will drive innovations and future quality of life

7) To understand how “expert systems” advancements must provide privacy, security and collective welfare

8) To understand the basic sub-systems of the SMART GRID

9) To develop advocates, leaders, and innovators of SMART GRID

10) To contribute your perspective on increasing the public awareness and national dialog on SMART GRID’s merits.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• In the modeling process or problem solving process, quickly recognizes key tools, concepts, and ideas of the SMART GRID that will enhance the quality of models built or solutions produced

• Quickly identify the best approach and new innovations of SMART GRID technology for a given situation


• View the SMART GRID through its component sub-systems, their standards, their behaviors, their constraints or limitations, and effective context in order to educate and market consumer acceptance of signifi cant changes

• Consistently view long-term economic implications of current choices, especially in investments in infrastructure, integration, alternative sources and future technological solutions

• Take a systems perspective and “expert systems” technology (computers making effective decisions based upon data and evidence) in all aspects of SMART GRID interactions with society

• Advocate in multiple ways for policy alignment and ethical decision making in the future of SMART GRID at national, regional and local levels

• Consistently identify ways to increase the current cyber security (NERC-CIP) structure around this delicate infrastructure

Student Responsibilities

• Be a positive contributor to your community of learners (increasing the learning of the group).

• Accept accountability for the timely completion of all course work products (this includes coming to class fully prepared, with all on- or off-line readings, homework, and assignments completed by the day or time identifi ed in the Course Schedule).

• Participate fully in class activities, allowing others to do the same.

• Emotionally engage in the challenge of personal growth and put forth the effort to continuously improve.

• Meet deadlines. Work products must be completed with the level of quality and at the time identifi ed.

Faculty/Facilitator Responsibilities

• Provide guidance and mentoring to each participant with respect to improving selected learning skills.

• Model use of all tools and techniques at the same or higher level of quality expected of students.

• Provide in-depth consulting during breaks, evenings, and online.

• Provide assistance in locating additional resources that align with personal and team goals.

• Upon request, demonstrate classroom techniques in real time (advance notice should be given when possible).

Required Course Supplies:

Textbooks: Foundations of SMART GRID; Student Success Toolbox

Product 1: Visionary Statement (20% grade)

5 page inspirational view of where SMART GRID will be by 2030. You want to make sure that your vision takes into consideration all various stakeholders, holds together under a systems perspective, with effective use of systems integration and decision making with a long-term stewardship mindset.


The criteria of the paper will include:

Systems Thinking 40% Critical Thinking 20% Interdisciplinary Thinking 20% Stewardship 10% Decision Making 5% Systems Integration 5%

Product 2: Learning Journal

Build and produce a Learning Journal during the course (25% of your course grade).

Defi nition of Learning Journal: A portfolio or journal documenting your growth in appreciating, understanding, and applying new knowledge.Components - Your Learning Journal should include the following:

a. an organizing table of contents

b. progress towards your personal goals and associated learning outcomes

c. your personal educational philosophy updated (before fi nal submission)

d. 9 documented discoveries with the following questions answered for each:

What did I learn?

Why it is important?

What triggered the learning?

How I will apply my new knowledge now?

Why it is true?

How I can apply this learning later?

Note that one of the three Learning Journal entries for each batch should be completed as a team effort. Each team member is responsible for including that entry in his or her own Learning Journal.

Product 3: Student Success Toolbox

Build and produce an Assessment Journal during the course (25% of your course grade)

Defi nition of an Assessment Journal: A portfolio or journal documenting opportunities and results of the application of assessment techniques to products or performances

Components: Your Assessment Journal should include a minimum of 7 conducted over the course of the term.

Deadlines/Submission

Final submission of your Assessment Journal is due at the end of the fi nal class meeting. This will be a hard copy or electronic.


Product 4: Produce a Self-Growth Paper that documents your growth over the course of this class (40% of your course grade).

Identify 5 key areas of personal growth; use the Learning Outcomes of the course as a guide. Your Assessment Journal should be used as a resource to help you identify and track your growth. The fi rst page of your self-growth paper should set the context: where your personal and team goals provided opportunities for growth. Use a page for each area of growth: identify with evidence that growth has occurred and the means you used during the course to produce that growth. The last page should be used to step back and share what you have learned about producing or encouraging self-growth.

This 7 to 10 page paper is due within two weeks (14 days) of the fi nal class meeting

Methodology (Course Culture and Processes)

This course models a student-centered, active learning environment. This requires the learner to take ownership of his or her own learning and requires the facilitator to create opportunities for learners to demonstrate that ownership. As such, the facilitator will be continually providing challenges to improve learner performance. Key processes are not just “covered” but extensively used and modeled throughout the course. These processes include various forms of assessment (self-assessment, peer assessment, structured refl ections, instructor assessment, mid-term assessment, etc.) facilitation, and problem solving.

Language development is critical and participants will be expected to be familiar with the operational defi nitions given in the course glossary. Pre-class readings and activities correlate with learning activities scheduled for each class meeting. Participants should be prepared to use these resources effectively during in-class exercises. There will be numerous time-pressured learning situations. There will also be cooperative learning activities that require participants to perform in front of team members and course colleagues. Special times will be set aside for teams of students to role-play, articulate understanding to one another, and collaborate to solve problems.

Communication and documentation, both on- and off-line are critical, as these form the basis for course work products.

Academi c Honesty and Integrity

The principles of intellectual honesty and integrity are central to this course. All participants in this course are expected to demonstrate the highest degree of integrity in their work and interactions with others.


Curricula for Smart Grid Learning to Learn CampFoundations of Learning (plus Instructor Resources online)

• Text: http://www.pcrest3.com/FOLIR/online_nobleeds.pdf (User Name: SGLLC1 Password: SGLLC1coach)

• Note that all Facilitation Plans for Foundations of Learning Activities are available Online ONLY at: http://www.pcrest3.com/FOLIR/ (User Name: SGLLC1 Password: SGLLC1coach)

Life Vision Portfolio• Text available at: http://www.pcrest3.com/smartgrid/instructors/LVP.pdf

(User Name: SGLLC1 Password: SGLLC1coach)

Student Success Toolbox • Text plus Instructor Resources online: http://www.studentsuccesstoolbox.com/

(User Name: SGLLC1 Password: SGLLC1coach)

Math & Graphing Skills • Text at: http://www.pcrest3.com/smartgrid/instructors/LVP.pdf (plus Maple TA web site)

Foundations of Smart Grid • Text at: http://www.pcrest3.com/smartgrid/web_121312.pdf

• Course/Curriculum Support Website: http://www.pcrest3.com/smartgrid/index.html

• This Facilitator’s Guide is also available online from: http://www.pcrest3.com/smartgrid/instructors/instructors.html (User Name: SGLLC1 Password: SGLLC1coach)

Book of Measures• Text at: http://www.pcrest3.com/smartgrid/measures.pdf


What Students Say about the Learning to Learn Camp

All of the following statements are exact quotes from the Personal Growth Papersof students who completed Learning to Learn Camp at Sinclair Community College.

Learning to Learn Camp Facilitator’s Guide: Training the TrainerCopyright © 2013

Pacifi c Crest P.O. Box 370 Hampton, NH 03843-0370 Ph 603-601-2246 www.pcrest.com

I now approach learning in an entirely new way. I can apply dedication and new methods to my learning

in order to achieve much better results.

I am ready now to work much harder and more

effectively in learning and life situations.

In my new approach to learning, I have discovered

some key elements and processes to maximize

retention and comprehension.

I now know how I can improve and what it takes to

keep up in college.

The overall lesson is unless you are actively seeking

solutions to your problems, applying new knowledge to situations, and dedicating yourself to your work, you

will stagnate and fail.

The class on being a self-grower gave me a good

outlook on life. The main point I grasped was not to put

restrictions on yourself.

As a group you compromise and realize that maybe you are not completely right and maybe someone else could use a little

improvement too. Then you can combine your answers to

come up with a superior answer that is sure to give you a good understanding and put your

group on top.

I would do this all over again, just to have the chance to

expand my horizons and learn how to be a team player.

Learning how to learn not only taught me how to become a better student, but it also taught me how to become a better person.

This class has taught me what college is like and

what I should expect when classes begin in a couple of

weeks. I think I am ready for college.

I really don’t want to look at what the outcome might have

been if I hadn’t taken this course. I was an immature student, not taking my schoolwork seriously

and not living up to my potential. This week has really done

wonders for me. I realized I have so much potential academically.

The Learning to Learn Camp really blew my mind

and has given me a gift, that I can use for the rest of my life. They gave me the tools I need to help me succeed in

anything life has to offer.

All colleges should have this, since people would

probably be lost when they start college. It also helps

to know people better, that way you’ll feel more comfortable with other people. It’s especially interesting to be with

people older than yourself.

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