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Session 3422

Leading Learning in the New Millennium

Barbara Licklider, Carol Fulton, and Kandace Martin

Iowa State University

The world we live in today is much different from the world that existed several decades ago. Advances in communication and transportation link nations together. Finance and trade are conducted in a global marketplace. Due to developments in education and technology, other nations have progressed dramatically. These developments have alarmed government and business leaders who have expressed concern that America is being outpaced economically.

Then, too, advances in technology have changed society dramatically. One place this is most evident is in the workplace. Because jobs have become more high-tech, they now require more education. As a result, the public has charged those of us who work in higher education to prepare students to live in this technological environment.

We in higher education have seen other developments as well. During the past several decades the student population has increased dramatically. The faces of the student population have also changed as women, students of color, and non-traditional students joined the ranks of those attending college. Each group, with their particular needs, has posed new challenges.

Currently, all sectors of higher education are being asked to educate all students to a very high level. Society depends on us to produce quality graduates who, as employees, can meet the needs of business, in so doing, ensuring that our nation remains a viable contender in the international competition of the 21st century. In addition, our graduates are expected to have the skills necessary to solve the host of social ills that plague society. Coming up with solutions to hate, violence, family instability, crime, drug abuse will require that our students are well prepared.

How are we to produce the quality graduates now needed by society? Can we? These are questions those of us in all sectors of education, including engineering education, are asking, and not without reason.

Over the past two decades numerous reports have focused specifically on the quality of higher education. These reports, all highly critical in nature have expressed sharp concerns about higher education’s ability 1 to meet the needs of society as well as respond to the needs of students. Such perceived inadequacies have led to recommendations that the entire educational system be overhauled in order to "put learning first." According to advocates of what has been called "the learning revolution" the benefits to be gained by this overhaul are tremendous. By placing learning first, organizations have the potential to increase graduation rates, change faculty roles and responsibilities, better satisfy employers, eliminate unproductive layers of bureaucracy, get rid of outdated curricula, remove ineffective services, and create expanded and improved student learning opportunities.2

Included in this call to put learning first has been the recommendation to adopt a new system of instructional delivery. This recommendation, too, is not without merit. As it turns out, (based on current advances in research on learning) our traditional delivery system which emphasizes lecturing, competitive grading, and individual effort is ineffective when it comes to promoting learning and to supporting skill and attitudinal development. On the other hand, new learning-centered instructional approaches which incorporate

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Martin, K. K., & Fulton, C., & Licklider, B. L. (2000, June), Leading Learning Into The New Millennium Paper presented at 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. 10.18260/1-2--8533