Denise, I feel your pain about what some of our Criminal Justice and Bio folks initially disdainfully referred to as the "touchy feely crap." My tack that works most -- not all -- of the time is to drive them back to DWF (Drop, Withdraw, Failure) numbers and complaints of "lazy, unmotivated" students. I always frame this for them in terms of my experience with my own courses, as I had my Fink-inspired "Should had a V8 moment". I too grumbled and huffed and puffed about those darn student slackers, but had never asked myself the hard question about what I CONSCIOUSLY and BY DESIGN built into my courses to motivate or engage my students at a personal level. nor had I looked hard at my DWF rates and wonder WHY they gave up on the class... Usually I have the advantage of working with our faculty when they are vulnerable and quasi-receptive as they are creating distance versions of their courses, which I think helps this discussion -usually- move faculty out of the defensive "touchy feely" trenches and consider the real merits of this approach. Finally, while this is indeed tricky water for quantifiable success and requires persistence --certainly a tactic that will motivate one student may not phase or touch another - I think that the *attempt* itself is important and transformative. I too would like to know other ways folks are navigating these waters?? -Mike PS - Our Department refers to our course design consults as proselytizing Finkism ;D Mike Welker History Adjunct Faculty & Interim Coordinator, Distance Learning North Central State College Mansfield, Ohio (419) 755-4706 - ofc. [log in to unmask] Room 163 Kehoe (Shelby) Campus Mail: AT-27 "Remember, I'm pulling for you... we're all in this together. Keep your stick on the ice." -Red Green On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 12:48 PM, Denise Domizi <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi folks, > I work at the Center for Teaching and Learning at UGA and we have gone > through the course design process with many faculty members now (in-house we > affectionally call it, "Finking your course") through workshops and even a > week-long Maymester Institute. In the fall I'll be teaching the process to a > group of graduate students through a semester-long course. > > The question we constantly hear from faculty is, how do we assess for > things on the left side of Fink's taxonomy? And what if they don't achieve > those goals? ("Do we flunk them if they don't develop caring goals?"). While > I am very comfortable with the taxonomy, many faculty we talk to are very > unsure of having goals that can not be (in their words) "measured." My > impression is that I'm not answering their concerns to their satisfaction > because I feel like I still see a hint of doubt in some of their eyes. I'm > wondering how others deal with this question. > > Thanks, > Denise > > > ~~~ > Denise Pinette Domizi, Ph.D. > Associate Coordinator of Faculty and TA Development > Center for Teaching and Learning, North Instructional Plaza > University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 - (706) 542-6572 > http://www.ctl.uga.edu/ >