Alverno Publications

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Self Assessment at Alverno College (2002) by the Alverno College Faculty; Georgine Loacker, editor

In this monograph, Alverno faculty articulate what they have learned from studying self assessment as a form of student assessment-as-learning for more than 30 years. Their focus is on how students experience self assessment and learn from it in order to improve their performance. From the perspective of various disciplines, individual faculty explain how self assessment works in their courses. 

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Based on the practice of Alverno College faculty and staff since 1973, this book explicates their theory of assessment for student learning. The book includes specific examples of assessment instruments. While published in the mid-nineties, this book has retained its relevance over time as a key resource for those desiring an understanding of the Alverno College curriculum. 

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Assessment at Alverno College: Student, Program, Institutional (2005) by Georgine Loacker and Glen Rogers

This monograph invites collegial cross-institution conversations about approaches to meeting diverse assessment and learning purposes at various levels of practice. The focus is on explaining, with examples of student, program and institutional assessment, how ongoing assessment of required student learning outcomes at Alverno College supports both individual student learning and faculty improvement of courses, academic programs, and the college curriculum as a whole. Additional strategies for fostering improvement while engaging wider audiences in evidence for student learning outcomes are addressed in program and institutional assessment examples. 

Teaching in an Ability-Based Curriculum 

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Feedback Is Teaching (2015) by the Alverno College Faculty

In the current climate, higher education is feeling the pressure to improve learning outcomes - whether conceptualized as grades, test scores, time to degree or performance in professional roles. This book explores the ways feedback serves as a powerful tool for improving the teaching and learning of those outcomes. It is set in the context of Alverno College, a women’s college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that has been a leader in ability-based education for more than 40 years. The accounts in this book are representative of the experiences of many Alverno faculty members who daily use feedback to guide their students and adjust their teaching.

Teaching Analytic Inquiry in the Disciplines Series

What characterizes the analytic inquiry we want our students to learn from our disciplines? How do we engage students in that kind of inquiry? How do we determine whether students have developed the analytic abilities at the heart of such inquiry? These questions are central to what the authors in this collection of essays have to say about what it means to teach analytic inquiry in their respective fields. 

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Beyond the Debate: The Nature of Teaching (Second Printing, 1994) by Tim Riordan

Written in conversation with colleagues at Alverno College and other colleges and universities, this paper represents reflections on the practice of scholarship when shaped by student learning as its ultimate purpose.

Focus on Specific Abilities

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Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn (2007) by Kathy Thompson, Pamela Leintz, Barbara Nevers, and Susan Witkowski

Capture the essence of the Integrative Learning Model and its application throughout the Alverno College curriculum. Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn provides concrete examples of how Alverno introduces its unique listening model; how to teach listening at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of the curriculum; and how to incorporate effective listening as a key component in classroom activities and assessment.

The following two books are the result of a project designed by Alverno College and funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), called the Network for Innovation in Critical Thinking. They represent the collaborative work of educators from a number of institutions, studying how critical thinking is defined, taught and assessed within specific disciplines.

Teaching Critical Thinking in the Arts and Humanities (1986) edited by Lucy Cromwell. Add To Cart $17.50

Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology (1986, reprinted 1995) edited by Jane Halonen Add To Cart $17.50

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Valuing in Decision-Making: Theory and Practice at Alverno College (1992) by the Alverno College Faculty 

This book expands and specifies the theoretical frameworks described in "Valuing at Alverno: The Valuing Process in Liberal Education." It articulates more explicitly the various analytic dimensions that students engage in as they work with the levels of the valuing ability in their curriculum. The book is the result of a project designed by Alverno College and funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), called the Network for Innovation in Critical Thinking. They represent the collaborative work of educators from a number of institutions, studying how critical thinking is defined, taught and assessed within specific disciplines.

Validating Abilities

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Establishing the Validity of Measures of College Student Outcomes (1988) by Marcia Mentkowski and Glen Rogers

This publication draws on Alverno’s experience in student and institutional assessment to articulate frameworks for establishing the validity of student learning outcome measures. It tracks how the dynamics of curriculum, teaching, learning, and assessment interact to shape practice-informed meanings for the concept of validity, accommodating both the educational use of performance-based assessments and wider demands for accountability.

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Validating College Outcomes with Institutionally Developed Instruments: Issues in Maximizing Contextual Validity (1988) by Glen Rogers

Contextual validity for an instrument requires the integration of the multiplicity of perspectives and purposes into its design and the fidelity of its elicited mode of performance with post-college settings. This document illustrates how the strategies and elements of the contextual validity of specific instruments can be shown by describing and analyzing the history of two instruments.

Student Learning Outcomes

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Ability-Based Learning Outcomes: Teaching and Assessment at Alverno College (Sixth Edition, 2005) by the Alverno College Faculty

This book describes each of the eight Alverno abilities - Communication, Analysis, Problem Solving, Valuing in Decision-Making, Social Interaction, Developing a Global Perspective, Effective Citizenship, Aesthetic Engagement. They are integrated into the Alverno curriculum both in general education and in the areas of specialization. Through examples of approaches to teaching and assessment from a variety of discipline and professional areas, faculty illustrate how student learning occurs and is demonstrated throughout the curriculum.

Ability-Based Learning Programs (1973-present)

This series describes the philosophy and practice of Alverno College's ability-based curriculum. The general publication introduces the principles of ability-based learning, while the discipline-specific publications (written by various academic departments) clarify the ways ability-based learning grounds advanced-level specialization in the undergraduate majors.

Other Publications 

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From Reform of General Education to Transformation: Creating a Culture of Learning (2009) by Tim Riordan and Stephen Sharkey

What is it that students cannot afford to miss in your field of study?  The discussions that ensued from this question led to a significant curriculum change that affected the nature of both general education and learning in the majors at Alverno College.  This book is an account of this initial reform and the culture of learning that emerged.

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Fostering Professional Development Through Experiential Learning (2002) by the Alverno College Experiential Learning Committee 

Performance and reflection are the principal components of experiential learning in all of its traditional forms - internships, service learning, clinical practice, student teaching, independent research. What we have done at Alverno is taken the powerful learning potential of performance and reflection and made it central to the entire college curriculum.

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ESL Strategies (2003) by Sheryl Slocum

This book gives professors and teachers practical tips to facilitate the learning of students for whom English is a second language.

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Disciplines as Frameworks for Student Learning (2005) edited by Tim Riordan and James Roth (Stylus Publishing, LLC)

In this book Alverno College faculty, as well as one former student, explore how they approach their respective disciplines as frameworks for student learning. They represent a wide range of disciplines—chemistry, economics, history, literature, mathematics and philosophy. The faculty analyze the kinds of thinking they consider central to their disciplines and thus important for students to learn, and they describe what they expect their students to be able to do as a result of study in their fields. In addition, they give examples of learning experiences and assessments they have designed based on the kinds of thinking and doing they require of their students. They also reflect on how their own stance in relation to their disciplines has changed as a result of approaching them as educators, and how they take collective responsibility for student learning.