Making Higher Education Work for Life: The Coalition for Transformational Education

Many of the concerns of higher education appropriately focus on achieving higher retention and graduation rates. Based in part on the results of extensive Gallup surveys of the well-being of alumni 10, 20, and even 40 years after graduation, the Coalition for Transformational Education seeks instead to elevate the goals of higher education beyond graduation to include enhanced well-being long after the college years. Pedagogical and student life interventions that focus on enhancing a sense of belonging, identity, agency, and purpose have been shown to correlate well with improved long-term well-being.

The Coalition recently launched a new magazine, LearningWell, that provides profiles, perspectives, new ideas and research on the intersection of higher education and life-long well-being.  The CTE promotes evidence-based faculty driven interventions on each campus intended to touch every enrolled student, with a focus on well-being long after the college years. Current CTE membership involves nearly 20 diverse institutions with a goal of growing to 50 in the next few years. Participants in this session will learn more about the CTE, its funded projects, and how they can be implemented on other campuses. We hope that attendees will take away both a renewed spirit for the potential of higher education to improve lives long after graduation as well as concrete examples of success in enhancing student wellbeing.

Schedule:

10:15-10:45 – Keynote by Richard K. Miller, Rector Emeritus of Olin College

10:45-11:20 – Agora session (table talk)

11:20-11:50 – Talkshow with Richard K. Miller, Rector Emeritus of Olin College and Per Michael Johansen, Rector at Aalborg University

Questions of Belonging: How They Work and How We Can Create Schools in Which Every Student Belongs

When students come to university, one of the most important questions they ask is, “Will I belong here?” Featuring intervention field-experiments, I will explore “belonging uncertainty,” how it arises and perpetuates inequality in university and beyond; how brief but targeted exercises that help students address questions of belonging productively can, in the right circumstances, improve school and life trajectories as long as a decade later; how these interventions can be scaled to full institutions; in so doing, how they can inform the affordances that are necessary for their benefits; and the implications this has for creating university environments that support belonging for all students.

Schedule:

12:30-13:00 – Keynote by Gregory M. Walton, Professor of Psychology and Michael Forman Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, Stanford University

13:00-13:30 – Agora session (table talk)

13:30-14:00 – Talkshow with Gregory M. Walton, Professor of Psychology and Michael Forman Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, Stanford University and Xiangyun Du, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Aalborg UNESCO PBL Centre, Aalborg University

How Might I Thrive? Designing Curricula and Experiences for Learners’ Well-Being

How might students navigate their educational experiences with curiosity, agency, a sense of belonging, and more ease? And how might we design learning experiences that help students understand the value of the knowledge they are developing, and connect their learning to future aspirations? In Stanford University’s Life Design Lab, students apply design thinking practices and mindsets to the big (and small) questions that students confront in and after college: choosing academic and professional paths, nurturing healthy relationships and networks, finding alignment between their decisions and their values.

In constantly changing, uncertain, and competitive learning environments, students are better equipped to navigate – and sometimes push against – the myriad choices, external pressures, and competing narratives of success influencing their sense of self and their choices. In this conversation, we will explore ways to design learning experiences and curricula that support learners’ thriving.

Schedule:

14:30-15:00 – Keynote by Urmila Venkatesh, Lecturer and Fellow, Life Design Lab, Stanford University

15:00-15:30 – Agora talk (table talk)

15:30-16:00 – Talkshow with Urmila Venkatesh, Lecturer and Fellow, Life Design Lab, Stanford University and Euan Lindsay, Professor of Problem Based Learning and Digitalisation in Engineering Education at the Aalborg UNESCO PBL Centre, Aalborg University