Activities

"The triangle of engaged learning, civic development, and well-being, at the core of the Bringing Theory to Practice project, challenges us to construct a model based on empirical data that captures not only the imagination but the phenomena we are witnessing in college students today."

The project has at its center three key components:

(1) Intensive and intentional faculty and staff development on pedagogies of engagement.

(2) Implementation of engaged pedagogies within First Year Program(FYP) and First Year Seminar(FYS) courses.

(3) Research to investigate the linkages between engaged learning, civic development and student’s mental well-being.

Timeline

Year One (2007-2008): Planning; faculty and staff development; initial implementation in select FYS courses; collection of baseline data

Year Two (2008-2009): Continued faculty and staff development; implementation in FYP and FYS courses; development and administration of teaching inventory; collection of data from freshman

Year Three (2009-2010): Same as Year Two with addition of longitudinal data collection from freshman who are now sophomores

Assessing Impact

Our initial insights on the relationship between engaged forms of pedagogy and student mental health and well-being are garnered more from the project’s qualitative research (faculty interviews and student focus groups) than our quantitative results, given that we have only collected the first wave of quantitative data.  Two preliminary insights emerge that are worthy of greater exploration:

The first is that the relationship between engaged pedagogy and student mental health and well-being may be more about the former’s ability to promote students’ flourishing during their college careers rather than preventing them from experiencing alcohol-related problems or depression.  Second, the more we talk to individuals engaged in this work, the more convinced we become that the relationship between engaged pedagogy and mental well-being over time does not follow a simply upward trajectory.  Rather, engaged pedagogy results in a complex process of growth wherein students “circle around and around” or “spiral” as they work to recognize, struggle with, and integrate the cognitive, psycho/social, emotional, and moral elements of their learning experience.