A Newsletter for Faculty & Staff in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

March 2008

“Engaged Learning” has become the new motto at Cleveland State University.  As you drive around campus, you see the “Engaged Learning” banners posted regularly on Chester Ave.  The motto is also posted on the doors of all campus buildings, and we even have a new “Engaged Learning” website.  Moreover, if you watched the recent presidential candidate debate, you noticed that “Engaged Learning” was emblazoned prominently on our identifying stage banner.  Clearly this is the highlighted message that the university wants to make about itself; this is the market niche we want to occupy.  But what exactly does “Engaged Learning” say about Cleveland State?  And, more specifically, how does CLASS fit into this new model?

It seems to me that one way of thinking of this is that Engaged Learning is a rejection of the old town/gown dichotomy.  Engaged Learning, then, means that learning at CSU does not take place in an isolated ivory tower, but, rather, it takes place in a dynamic zone of interaction between the classroom and our regional/metropolitan/urban surroundings.  In this sense, it refers specifically to community engagement, and this is an area central to our efforts to apply for a Community Engagement rating from the Carnegie Foundation. 

A broader and more theoretical way of looking at Engaged Learning is described by Stephen Bowen, who has written an informative article on engaged learning that appears on the website of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-wi05/pr-wi0ffeature1.cfm ).  Bowen argues that engaged students are directly involved in their own education in four key ways. The first is engagement with the learning process, which is similar to what is often referred to as active learning.  The second is engagement with the object of study. This is similar to what is often called experiential learning.   “Here students are asked to directly examine, characterize, analyze, and evaluate the object of study so that they may build knowledge in response to it.”  Third is engagement with the contexts of the subject study, and this is similar to what is also known as multidisciplinary learning.  Finally, there is engagement with the human condition.  This is similar to what is also known as service learning.  Bowen summarizes his argument in the following way: “Engaged learners are those who complement and interpret what they learn from others with direct knowledge based on personal experience, who develop appropriately complex understandings situated in relevant contexts, and who recognize learning’s moral implications and consequences.”  Stated another way, engaged learning is transformative learning.  This means that students are not simply passive receivers of information, but that they experience some kind of personal growth in understanding, values, and commitment as a result of their educational experiences.

Any way you define it, Engaged Learning is central to what we’ve been doing in CLASS for a long time, and I would like to highlight various examples of CLASS Engaged Learning in these newsletters.  Let us begin by noting the strong tradition of internships in the college.  We have 15 different internship courses in the catalog, and they cut across all three of the college’s major divisions.  The courses are offered by the following departments (or programs): Art, Music, and Drama, English and History, Communication, Sociology, Political Science, and Social Work.

By far the largest number of interns are found in the School of Social Work, and community service lies at the heart of the Social Work mission.  Social Work trains students to take an active part in addressing some of the most pressing human needs of our community and region.  Social Workers intervene both on the micro-level, i.e., the level of the individual and the family and on the macro-level, i.e., the level of larger communities and organizations.  They work in such areas as mental health, juvenile and adult criminal justice, domestic violence, transitional housing, foster care, adoption, children services, mental retardation, chemical dependency, nursing homes, hospice care, homeless populations, and community/neighborhood centers.

To prepare students to address the community’s social problems, the BSW requires that its students participate in active field work with health and human services agencies over two semesters.  Each student spends a total of 480 hours with his or her agency.  The MSW students are required to participate in field work for a total of four semesters over two years.  Over those two years, each MSW student contributes 900 hours of community service.  During the past academic year, the School of Social Work placed a total of 248 students in Northeast Ohio. The School placed each student in one of  approximately 250 to 275 different cooperating social service agencies.  These agencies are found as far west as Sandusky and as far east as Ashtabula and as far south as Akron.  This is truly a regional effort!  Working with School Director Maggie Jackson, Field Work Coordinator Claudia Carson manages this complex operation.

A different example of the School of Social Work’s engagement is the Third Annual Spring Fling, which will take place on Saturday, March 15th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the University Center Atrium.  Student volunteers from the MSW Student Association will provide activities (such as face painting, arts and crafts, and an Easter egg hunt) for approximately 100 foster children from the Glenville and Collinwood areas of Cleveland. The children will be watched while their parents participate in foster parent training.  Paul Theodore, second year MSW student, is in charge of this special event.

There are many, many more CLASS Engaged Learning stories to tell, and I will try to do so in future newsletters.  Associate Dean Teresa LaGrange has queried departments to discover other examples of Engaged Learning in the college.  As more examples come to mind, please let us know.

Turning to faculty accomplishments and honors, I recently learned that Bob Wheeler has been selected as this year’s winner of the Ohio Academy of History’s Teaching Award.  This is obviously a wonderful recognition of Dr. Wheeler’s many years of dedicated teaching at CSU.  He will receive his award at a ceremony at Wright State University on April 12th.

For those of you who may not have seen my recent letter, I would like to announce that on July 1st  Bill Morgan will be replacing Leon Hurwitz in the position of CLASS Associate Dean for the Faculty.  Dr. Morgan comes to us with an impressive array of qualifications and experiences that have prepared him exceptionally well to serve in the position.  I look forward to working with him in serving the faculty of this college.

Finally, don’t forget the second CLASS Faculty meeting has been rescheduled. It will take place on Monday, April 21, at 3 p.m. in MU G-15. Please note this change on your calendars.

Comments on this newsletter may be sent to g.sadlek@csuohio.edu.

Greg Sadlek