{"id":214,"date":"2019-09-10T16:50:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T16:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/clusterlearningatplymouthstate\/chapter\/christin-wixson\/"},"modified":"2023-05-11T12:44:55","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T12:44:55","slug":"christin-wixson","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/cluster-learning-at-plymouth-state\/chapter\/christin-wixson\/","title":{"raw":"Values Horizon","rendered":"Values Horizon"},"content":{"raw":"

Summer 2019<\/h4>\nThe\u00a0Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community<\/a>\u00a0filled my summer with readings, discussions, meetings, and the Academic Technology Institute, and now the CPLC folks\u00a0want to know what my takeaways are<\/a>.\u00a0 That\u2019s not a simple question.\u00a0 This summer I was reminded that I have as much to learn as the students, and was engaged in the work of learning in a way I haven\u2019t been in a while.\u00a0 I found myself reading not only some of the books shared at the CPLC book fair, but finally getting to others that I\u2019d\u00a0long<\/a>\u00a0meant<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0read<\/a>.\u00a0 The confluence of all these books and conversations has set my brain on fire in a good way that hasn\u2019t happened in a while. \u00a0Here is a first attempt to describe what I\u2019m getting out of the CPLC.\n
I expanded my values horizon.<\/h5>\nBoth the values discussion we had in our first CPLC meeting and the books I read from the CPLC reading list invited me to think about my own role in identifying and embodying the values I want to see, not just in libraryland, but in higher education as a whole.\u00a0 I read the\u00a0New Education<\/a>\u00a0by Cathy Davidson and\u00a0Generous Thinking<\/a>\u00a0by Kathleen Fitzpatrick and got to discuss them with my colleagues.\u00a0 (Which, when we\u2019re all \u201cdoing more with less,\u201d did feel like a novel experience.)\u00a0 These books provided some big picture context for the work that I do.\u00a0 Before this experience I was primarily focused on my work as a librarian, focused on the specific values of that discipline, (info access for all, information literacy, intellectual freedom, privacy, lifelong learning.) \u00a0Sure I worked in higher education, but the larger issues around higher education weren\u2019t front and center in my mind.\u00a0 Now I understand the relationship between my work and the bigger picture and I\u2019ve expanded my values and goals to include:\n\nCooperation and openness over competition and exclusivity<\/em>\n\nIndividual student growth over the pursuit of institutional status<\/em>\n\nStrengthening the relationship between the university and the community<\/em>\n\nWorking in the open to make our scholarly work useful to the public<\/em>\u00a0(ok, that one\u2019s not new for me)\n
I finally found out what \u201cstudent centered\u201d means<\/h5>\nWhile I\u2019m not officially in the CPLC open track, I got to attend ATI again this year as a presenter.\u00a0 Listening to\u00a0the<\/a>keynote<\/a>\u00a0presentations<\/a>\u00a0might have been the first time that I understood what it would look like to actually be \u201cstudent centered,\u201d a phrase that has been overused nearly to the point of meaninglessness.\u00a0 The radically student-centered ideas like trusting students, making room for student contributions in the syllabus, and acknowledging all the parts of students\u2019 complex lives that were present in these keynotes also came up again and again in the reading I did this summer.\u00a0 \u00a0Even though the work I do is not as teaching heavy as that of most faculty, the ideas below (paraphrased from my notes taken during those presentations) have stuck with me and are things that I want to incorporate into my work.\n\nStart by trusting students<\/em>\n\nPurposefully leave gaps in the lesson plans, spaces for student contribution<\/em>\n\nThink about how to provoke confidence in students<\/em>\n\nAim for imaginative outcomes: \u201cfor us to have an epiphany\u201d or \u201cfor us to change our minds about something significant\u201d<\/em>\n\nExplain why the work matters, expose our own thinking about the work we do with students<\/em>\n\nEncourage metacognition through process letters, self-evaluation, and discussing articles about metacognition, learning, grading, and outcomes.<\/em>\n\nAcknowledge students\u2019 whole experiences, including non-academic issues (working full time while in school or basic needs not being met) that will hinder their growth.<\/em>\n
The Year Ahead<\/h5>\nI\u2019m sure I can\u2019t right now name all the ways that this values-oriented, student-centered, way of thinking will alter how I work, but I can guess at a few:\n