The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship is prepared to undertake two major projects after receiving a $3 million grant from the Charles Engelhard Foundation earlier this semester.
Director of the CNDLS Randall Bass explained that the funds, which were received at the end of August, have allowed the university to establish a new Institute for the Study of Engaged Learning, as well as continue to redesign courses and fund its popular Engelhard Project.
The ISEL, which will meet annually at Georgetown, includes faculty, staff and alumni from 53 universities, colleges and educational organizations around the country. The institute seeks to address ways in which educators can advance the study of engaged learning, which is an approach to education that emphasizes more personal student interaction with the subject matter than would be present in a traditional approach.
“The ISEL will be a forum for studying the evidence of such learning across typical academic boundaries and thinking long term about how to enhance opportunities for truly transformative learning,” Bass said.
The first ISEL meeting is currently scheduled for June.
The CNDLS also plans to introduce design seminars this spring in which students, faculty and alumni will work together to imagine new course experiences, especially in emerging fields like bioethics, Bass explained.
“We already have the infrastructure support and ethos that enable us to create a space for inventing new forms of curriculum. Now we have some flexibility with resources,” Bass said.
In addition to its new programs, the CNDLS will allocate funds toward Georgetown’s Engelhard Project, which explores ways to engage students by integrating heath and community issues into the regular academic curriculum. The project has enabled over 140 Engelhard classes to be taught in 26 departments since the project’s inception in 2005.
“The connection between academic topics and personal health issues has been a powerful one for the students involved,” said Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs.
James Sandefur, professor of mathematics at Georgetown, teaches an Engelhard course that incorporates health and social issues into the mathematics curriculum.
“My experience has been that we approach these topics from a different angle than students have seen before, and as a result, we get the students’ attention,” he said about his Engelhard class.
In addition to increasing his students’ interest in mathematics, Sandefur said that the non-judgmental approach to health issues promoted in the class had a noticeable difference impact on students.
“[The class] brings about subtle but positive changes in students’ behavior. As one student said, `The unit on alcohol did not change my drinking habits, but I now keep count of how many drinks I have had.'”
Students who have been through the program have been similarly enthusiastic.
Sarah Jones (COL ’09), who took multiple Engelhard courses, speaks highly of the project.
“The Engelhard Project is an incredible initiative that genuinely seeks to wholly engage students,” she said. “I was not learning just for the sake of a grade or a degree but for my personal growth and development.”
