October 12, 2011
Sun Grant Proposal for i2a Implementation in the BSPH Program
1. Introduction:
At the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences (SPHIS), there exists a unique opportunity to provide incoming undergraduate students with the intellectual tools and skills they will need as graduate students, public health professionals, or members of society from the very outset of a new undergraduate degree program, the Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH). This degree program is qualitatively different from the Master of Public Health or the Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences programs. Interdisciplinary core courses have been conceived that will involve faculty experts from the five departments of the SPHIS. None of these courses will be stripped-down versions of those already in existence. With the creation of this new, unique degree program, we have the opportunity and responsibility to include the i2a initiatives of critical thinking and community engagement as primary objectives of every course. The overarching goal of this proposal is to improve critical thinking and community engagement among the undergraduate students in the BSPH program, not only during the year of the grant, but in the many years to come.
Few faculty members of the SPHIS have had formal training in education or pedagogy. While the members of the faculty are certainly experts in their individual subject areas, they could benefit from assistance with implementing the i2a objectives of critical thinking and community engagement. Providing this assistance during the initial program development will ensure that the members of the faculty have the support they need to give their very first undergraduate students, as well as students in future years, the critical thinking tools they will need as they continue in their educational career or in the workforce. There will be no bad habits to overcome; the courses in the BSPH program will incorporate critical thinking and community engagement from the very first time they are taught. The SPHIS currently teaches one undergraduate course, PHPH-101 Introduction to Public Health, which has explicitly incorporated critical thinking (CT) concepts in both lesson plans and assessment.
To this end, each department in SPHIS has been asked to nominate 2-3 faculty members who will participate in curriculum and syllabi development for the BSPH program. Interdisciplinary teams of faculty will be responsible for creating syllabi that incorporate both CT and community engagement, including ongoing assessment of CT skills, and for developing a new curriculum for the BSPH program that is i2a-rich. The components of this proposal are to provide: (1) an initial workshop with experts from the Delphi center and the i2a institute on formal education in the Paul-Elder critical thinking framework, and a corresponding follow-up workshop; (2) individual consultation with experts from the Delphi center and/or i2a institute for the working groups assigned to develop syllabi and individual lesson plans for the core BSPH courses; (3) a small library of resources for participating faculty to improve pedagogy (specifically, to incorporate CT and appropriate assessment techniques into each course); and (4) work release for the faculty members in the working groups developing the BSPH core course syllabi. In addition, we will invite pedagogical and critical thinking expert Gerald Nosich to present a half-day workshop about critical thinking to the faculty members of the SPHIS.
2. Submission Information:
Name of School: School of Public Health and Information Sciences
Names of Project Leaders: Kira Taylor, Pete Walton
Academic Departments Involved in the Project: Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Epidemiology and Population Health, Health Management and Systems Sciences, Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
Primary Curricular Focus: Core courses for BSPH program, to begin delivery fall 2012
Dean’s Endorsement: My signature below indicates my approval and support of this i2a project.
Signature: ______
Date: ______
3. Proposal Information:
Goals and Project Activities:
The goal of this project is to incorporate critical thinking and community engagement into the BSPH program core courses, and to provide corresponding expertise and faculty development.
The project will consist of the following activities and associated schedule:
1. Hold an initial workshop with one expert each from the Delphi center and the i2a institute to introduce the participating faculty to formal concepts and methodology of critical thinking and community engagement. As part of the workshop, faculty will begin brainstorming and planning on how CT and community engagement can be implemented in individual course syllabi and into the BSPH curriculum as a whole (to be conducted before February 1, 2012). A follow-up workshop will then be held after faculty members have drafted the initial course syllabi (to be conducted before April 1, 2012).
2. Concurrently, allocate faculty members into interdisciplinary groups (e.g., one faculty member from Epidemiology and one from Environmental Health) that will develop syllabi for each of the core BSPH courses:
Public Health 401: Policies, People, and the Environment;
Public Health 403: Community, Diversity, Equity, and Cultural Competence;
Public Health 405: Global Health;
Public Health 407: The Practice of Public Health;
Public Health 400: Data Management and Analysis Lab;
Public Health 401: Public Health Seminar.
Each group will meet with an expert from the Delphi center and/or the i2a institute twice: once during the early stages of syllabus development and once during the final stages.
3. In late spring 2012, Gerald Nosich will be coming to U of L to give a presentation and workshop. We will request that he stay an extra half-day and provide our faculty members with an intimate workshop about using CT in teaching public health.
4. In fall 2012, as courses are being taught for the first time, faculty members who are teaching the courses will meet with experts from the Delphi center and/or the i2a institute to develop and refine lesson plans that incorporate CT, active learning and community engagement.
5. Participating faculty members will be requested to share their ideas and lesson plans with other SPHIS faculty members during a workshop in fall 2012 and report how the lesson plans worked in the classroom. Faculty members are expected to assess whether CT skills were successfully instigated and improved in the undergraduate students, using the criteria laid out by the Paul-Elder framework and report these findings to the other SPHIS faculty members.
6. Writing and submission of a final report (February 1 to February 28, 2013).
Connection to Ideas to Action:
The purpose of this proposal is to facilitate the explicit inclusion of two i2a components (CT and community engagement) into the newly developed core curriculum, syllabi, and individual lesson plans for the BSPH program. The participation of experts from the Delphi and i2a institute will ensure that i2a initiatives are being met during the development of this new degree program, which is expected to be a popular choice among undergraduates interested in health sciences. Participating faculty members will receive formal education from experts in the theory and practice of pedagogical techniques that incorporate CT.
Course and Student Impact:
The courses that will be immediately affected by this proposal are the core courses of the BSPH program:
Public Health 401: Policies, People, and the Environment
Public Health 403: Community, Diversity, Equity, and Cultural Competence
Public Health 405: Global Health
Public Health 407: The Practice of Public Health
Public Health 400: Data Management and Analysis Lab
Public Health 401: Public Health Seminar.
We anticipate that the i2a and community participation skills learned will be incorporated by faculty into other courses. As the BSPH program has not yet been initiated, it is uncertain what the exact enrollment will be during the first year or how it will grow in the years to come. However, based on experience with similar programs at other institutions we expect it to be a large program with >300 students enrolled by the year 2013.
Sustainability:
The Bachelor’s Program in Public Health is a new degree program at the University of Louisville. This SUN grant will ensure that the newly forming curriculum for this program and all individual syllabi for the core courses incorporate CT and community engagement at an expert level. In addition, 2-3 faculty members from each of the five SPHIS department will receive the benefit of attending workshops and receiving individual assistance from experts in the Delphi center and the i2a institute. The syllabi will be maintained for years to come (with some small changes expected as the courses evolve), even with changes of instructors. Participating faculty members will also receive formal education in CT and will learn how to design individual lesson plans that incorporate active learning and CT. The faculty members who participate in this program will be requested to present some of their ideas and lesson plans to other SPHIS faculty members, increasing the impact of this program. By providing extensive support to SPHIS at the outset of the BSPH program, these implementations will be sustained and the participating SPHIS faculty will serve as exemplars and resources for the remaining faculty members.
A long-term goal of this department, which will be directly impacted by activities proposed, is to improve CT skills among the undergraduate students, not just during the year of this grant but also in years to come. Therefore we will implement CT assessment as a primary component of every course in every semester, to determine whether CT skills improve, and to establish benchmarks and trends. This long-term vision will also help sustain the program.
Faculty Participation:
Two to three faculty members from each of the five SPHIS departments will develop the core curriculum and the syllabi for the core courses in the BSPH program. These members will be selected by department chairs before January 1, 2012. These faculty members will work in interdisciplinary teams with experts from the Delphi Center or the i2a Institute to develop the syllabi, including CT according to the Paul-Elder framework and community engagement where appropriate and relevant. The faculty will participate in an initial workshop, led by expert faculty from the Delphi Center and the i2a Institute, and then will participate in small interdisciplinary groups with a Delphi and/or i2a consultant for individual assistance with syllabi development including i2a initiatives. Core faculty members will share their experiences and ideas with all SPHIS faculty members after the implementation of CT into the BSPH courses in fall 2012. We will also use the curriculum developed to engage in research and scholarship in teaching and learning, as faculty members present and potentially publish their methods and outcomes.
Budget:
A budget of $12,250 is requested for this project: $1000 for a speaker’s fee for Gerald Nosich to do a half-day workshop when he comes to UofL in May; $1000 for food ($250 each for the kick-off workshop, follow-up workshop, Gerald Nosich workshop in May, and a workshop for all SPHIS members in the fall for participating faculty members to share their experiences with implementation of i2a); work release for core faculty members (to be named before January 1, 2012); and up to $150 for pedagogical reference materials for all participating individuals. Proposed materials include:
Angelo and Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques ($36.00);
Nosich, Learning to Think Things Through ($11.99);
Paul and Elder, Analytic Thinking ($5.99);
Brookfield, Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher ($26.55);
Walvoord, Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments, and General Education ($22.50).
This budget is planned for 15 participants, of which 5-8 will be identified as core faculty. Work release is requested for core faculty because the development of new syllabi for a new program requires a substantial time investment.
Assessment:
Assessments of the workshops will include evaluations forms given out immediately after the workshop completion. Assessment of the program as a whole will be on the basis of successful syllabi development including i2a implementation of two components: CT and community engagement. We will request an expert from the Delphi Center or the i2a Institute who was not involved in the workshops or small group meetings to evaluate the syllabi for i2a implementation. We will also evaluate the program itself by assessing whether we successfully instigated and improved CT in the undergraduate students, using the criteria laid out by the Paul-Elder CT framework.
Final Report:
A final report will be submitted by the deadline of March 1, 2013.
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