CARNEGIE CHRONICLE:
Honoring Student Voices, Offering Students Choices: Empowering Students as Architects of Their Own Learning
Elizabeth F. Barkley, Foothill College

It would be nice to be able to say that my decision to empower students was motivated by concern for their welfare. It was, in fact, prompted by my desire to survive. When I returned to the classroom in 1993 after almost a decade away as an administrator, I faced a handful of students markedly different from those I had taught in the past. Rather than the relatively homogenous group of mostly white, middle-class, American-born students that had populated my classrooms in the 1970s and early 80s, the students sitting in front of me were quite diverse, representing a wide range of race, ethnicity, age, and socio-economic class. The students who did look like their earlier counterparts seemed mostly not to want to be there. Despite my enthusiastic efforts to engage them in a stimulating discussion of the structural nuances of a Beethoven symphony, they stared at me with looks that ranged from complete apathy to outright hostility. Beethoven? Excuse me. Their musical heroes were Tupac and Nine Inch Nails.

As an administrator, I had been aware of the demographic changes, but I was unprepared for the pedagogical challenges those changes had created. Furthermore, my administrative background made me keenly aware of the need for "productive" levels of minimum enrollment, and the small number of students in my classes did not bode well for my professional future. Too young to retire, my search for solutions led to a major transformation of course content, class delivery, learning activities, and evaluation. Reflecting now on the choices I made, I recognize that all my major decisions resulted in shifting responsibility to the students.

In summary fashion, here are the four main empowerment strategies that helped me survive—and my students thrive—in the changed college classroom that brought us together.

Strategy 1: Changing to Multicultural Content

In terms of content, my course was based on Western European "classical" music. Although this curriculum remains the higher education standard, it does not adequately address the interests, needs, or cultures of contemporary students who have come of age in an increasingly diverse, multicultural society. Using ethnicity as a central organizing principle, I transformed the course into Music of Multicultural America, which traces the development of genres such as the blues, jazz, folk, country, Tejano, Cajun, and salsa from their roots in the ethnic traditions of a specific immigrant group to their development into a uniquely American music. By changing from a European-based classical music survey course to an American-based multicultural music course, I was hoping to minimize the barriers to engagement that arose simply from lack of interest in course content. Treating these music styles seriously and exploring the historical and social context in which they developed also empowered students. Immigrant students found it fascinating to see how their home country's traditions had seeded and shaped new musical styles. Native students, especially students of color, were pleased to see their histories and contributions to the American musical mosaic validated. Soon after the content change, a young Latino student approached me and said, "This class is one of the few classes that tells the truth." An African-American student commented, "I had no idea my people had such an influence on American music."

Strategy 2: Personalizing Course Delivery

There are many reasons why students don't want to be in class. Some students are in college primarily because of parental or peer pressure. Others are just plain tired, worn out from squeezing school in between a host of external demands. Several simply have yet to find a more attractive alternative to occupy their days. Whatever the reasons for their reluctance, students who don't want to be there undermine the morale of the entire class, so my next strategy was to drop the attendance requirement. I gave students the choice of attending class or learning the material from lecture notes that I put on reserve in the library; eventually I offered instruction online.

Making attendance optional enabled me to encourage students to attend Face-to-Face (F2F) class only if they wanted to be there (and to ask bored students with "tude" to leave). It also allowed students who needed more opportunities to review the material (perhaps due to learning or language difficulties) or who could not be there due to unforeseen work or family obligations to still succeed. Over the years, I developed "Blended Delivery," a model in which students choose how they want to involve themselves in the class, selecting a point on a continuum that ranges from completely traditional, on-campus participation to completely online. Students are encouraged to select the point on the continuum that best meets their individual needs on a flexible and ongoing basis throughout the term. (The manner in which their work is assessed is described in Strategy 4.)

Strategy 3: Offering a Flexible Menu of Learning Activities

Revisiting how students could learn course content, I avoided structuring learning activities in the sequential, passive, and pyramidal approach of the traditional higher-ed curriculum and instead gave students the power to determine their own learning paths. To accomplish this, I reorganized the course into a series of topical modules. Within each module, I began allowing students to choose from a variety of learning activities. For example, in the Native American module, a student might attend a Pow Wow, visit a museum, compile an annotated CD of additional listening examples, or watch films such as Dances with Wolves or Smoke Signals instead of (or in addition to) attending lectures or reading from the textbook.

Students are encouraged to select which modules they wish to do, as well as determine the number of activities within each module they wish to complete. Some students do a few activities in all modules, hence obtaining a survey-level overview; other students choose fewer modules but do more activities, hence learning a few topics in more depth. Students also have some freedom to determine the order and time in which they complete the modules. This format allows students to select activities based on their preferences, abilities, schedules, and learning style.

Strategy 4: Giving Students Greater Control Over Their Grades

I've developed a variety of assessment strategies, connecting each assessment to the specific learning activity. For example, worksheets and quizzes assess acquisition of knowledge from reading. Students submit a portfolio containing in-class notes, discussion summaries, and personal reflections and insights to show what they learned from attending F2F classes. To demonstrate the quality and depth of their learning from activities such as watching a film or attending a cultural event, students write a critical essay. Although students cannot choose from different assessment methods for a single learning activity, they can choose learning activities that use assessment strategies they prefer.

Rather than a letter grade, each assessment generates a number of points. For example, a quiz earns up to 40 points; a film observation combined with a critical essay earns up to 100 points. Students earn their final grade by accumulating points, but the number of possible course points is significantly higher than the points required for a good grade (out of the 4000+ points available, a student need earn only 1750 for an A). This is a variation of what I later learned is called "contract grading." Contract grading individualizes the process and empowers students because students can be directly in control of whether or not they complete the work requirements for any given grade level. Also, if students get off to a poor start, they can compensate by working harder later in the term. Conversely, students who work hard at the beginning of the course can relax later or even finish early.

Since standard contract grading can reward quantity rather than quality, I link each activity to appropriate standards through a system known as Primary Trait Analysis (having become a Carnegie Scholar along the way, I was learning to find pedagogical literature).1 For example, on a film essay, students understand that they will be allocated points in a range of 0-25 for each of the following four traits: a) use of edited standard written English (ESWE); b) accuracy and appropriateness of relating observations to course themes; c) thoroughness and depth of discussion; and d) thoughtful­ness and creativity. If students do poorly in one trait area, they can compensate by working harder in other areas (thus an ESL student who loses points for correct grammar can still earn points for thoughtfulness). Or to get a better final grade, a student may need to do more activities. Clearly identifying how students earn points and providing more opportunities to earn points than are required for a good grade allows students to tailor their work to their own needs and goals and maximizes student choice and responsibility.

All of the changes I came up with aimed at making the possible seem not only possible but desirable to students. Grades aren't the only thing students care about, but how they responded to the change in how their efforts were graded, it seems to me, opens a larger window into why in combination these reforms worked:

"The accumulative points system is something I have never had in a class before. I love it because I really feel in charge of my grade. For example, my psychology class has 2 tests: a midterm and a final. Each is 50% of my grade. I worry that if I'm sick or tired, I won't be able to demonstrate my true knowledge of the subject. In this class that worry never crosses my mind. I feel confident my strengths will come through and my points will reflect that."

"In most of my classes you accumulate points, but in order to get an A you need almost all the points. My other classes have a very slim margin to mess up a grade. If you miss points on something early, it is so demotivating. In this class you stay motivated to learn and work hard because success is up to you."

"I love this system. It allows me to succeed."

I asked the 58 students who completed an evaluative survey of the course to prioritize the four different empowerment strategies. "Multicultural content" ranked first, "menu of activities" second, "blended delivery" third. Interestingly, students were about evenly divided between whether or not "Control of Grade" was the highest or lowest on their prioritized lists.

Closing Reflections

I developed and implemented these strategies over a 5-year period from 1994-1999, and I've revised and fine-tuned the strategies from 2000 to the present. These empowerment strategies have had a clear impact on enrollment. The original baseline course had 45 students enrolled annually (averaging 15 students per quarter for three quarters). The course is currently capped—depending upon budget considerations—at ±1200 per academic year.

I'm no longer anxious about entering a classroom filled with reluctant students, nor nervous about whether or not I'll have enough students to justify my job. In the wake of what I learned in constructing the multi-cultural music course, I've returned to teaching the original, separate European-based classical music course as well, and am applying all the strategies (except content change) and tracking the impact on student engagement and enrollment. At this writing, the enrollment has increased in the traditional European-based classical music course from the original baseline of 45 per academic year to between 130-150 depending upon the specific quarter. More importantly, though, is the level of learning and the satisfaction students and I derive from our interactions. Sharing responsibility with students takes the pressure off of me and removes me from the traditional authoritarian role that in many ways had placed me in an antagonistic relationship with students. Needless to say, it heartened me quite a bit when a student wrote of the course:

"I love the flexibility in this class. First, I get to explore the areas I am interested in, which makes learning enjoyable and the work not feel like work. Second, the flexibility allows me to do extra work when I have free time, so I don't have to do so much on weeks where I have tests/essays/projects in other classes. It is WONDERFUL! I wish more classes were like this."

Notes

1. See Walvoord and Anderson, pp. 67-73 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998)