A Question Drives Design

When we last left off, our college team of instructors (reading, writing, and math), along with the program's resource specialist, had created a program outcome matrix that identified the rest-of-life outcomes and skills, concepts and issues of their individual courses. As they each contributed to the program matrix, the overlap of skills, concepts and issues across their courses became evident and a great starting place for creating a cross-discipline question for student inquiry.


In our second meeting, after noting the areas of overlap, I led the team in brainstorming the characteristics of personally meaningful learning as well as the characteristics of a cross-discipline assignment that would align with the shared program outcomes. After generating two lists of guiding criteria, the team generated four possible driving questions for the cross-curricular project. Because project based learning involves searching (doing research), solving (the problem or answering the driving question), creating (a product that illustrates the solution) and sharing (the product publicly), each of the following questions had embedded the product to be shared publicly within the question. The four questions were:

1) How can we design and develop a multi-media presentation to prepare new students to be successful in this program?

2) How can we design and develop a multi-media presentation to demonstrate and explain the disconnect between what economic data show and how people behave?

3) How can we design and develop a multi-media presentation to illustrate the values and perspectives we hold and want to keep as we continue through college?

4) How can we design and develop a multi-media presentation to illustrate the ways in which students in this cohort are alike and different, and similar or dissimilar to our city at large? How we can work with our differences to become a real community?

Because the team had decided that essential characteristics of personally meaningful learning included student voice and choice, they decided to gather together in one colleague's class to present the four questions to the students, letting them make the final choice. Each instructor selected a question to represent, and is planning to share with students ways in which that question relates to the rest-of-life program outcomes. They will also answer student questions. At the close of the four short presentations with Q & A, the students will select the driving question, by silent ballot, for the cohort to study.

Next time: What happened when the instructors presented and the students chose, along with the beginning process of designing a cross-curricular assignment at the college level.