Towards a Quality Course

by Lynn Barendsen

At our annual Project Zero Summer Institute, we taught a new course called Quality: Does it Matter? For the past five years, with generous funding from Faber Castell, a company that shares our own GoodWork values, we have been studying the topic of quality—how people define and understand quality, how they make decisions and judgments about quality, and how perceptions of quality change over time, due to life changes as well as societal changes, including the influx of new technologies. We have wondered how quality relates to GoodWork (certainly we hope that individuals strive to do excellent, high quality work) and how aiming for quality in work and other realms helps individuals to lead and live a “quality life.”  This study of quality is one of many related topics of research:  in addition to good work, our team has been investigating good play, good citizenship, and the elements necessary to a good life.

After completing an in-depth study of individuals in the United States, we also surveyed 5000 other individuals around the world, including Brazil, China, Germany, India, and Indonesia. We are about to launch the survey in Turkey. We decided to teach a “minicourse” at this summer’s Institute because we believe that many of our findings are relevant to teaching and learning in the 21st century.

The goals of the course were for participants to explore their own definitions of “quality” and to unpack what this term really means to them personally and professionally. Interestingly, throughout the course, we validated many of the findings from individuals all around the world—quality is most important in terms of time, and decisions about how to use time wisely (rather than to waste it, or just let it pass) is paramount. Spending time with family and friends—being around those who you care about—is much more important than spending time on the computer or running errands. With this in mind, we asked participants about how we can ensure that students experience “quality” learning and teaching in school, and asked them as well to think further about how they define “quality” learning and teaching.

As part of our course, participants worked with a book we have written (currently unpublished) called Quality Through the Ages. The book is a compilation of 45 examples of quality over time—spanning some of the earliest inventions (e.g. clay and painting) to modern day monuments, professions, and other examples and spheres of quality (e.g. Shakespeare, tracking of time, the Internet). All of the participants read a short essay discussing the Olympics. We chose this essay because we thought that it brought up interesting issues for teachers and because it was timely. Please click here to read this example (link).

Indeed, the essay about the Olympics raised many important issues for teachers, even more than we had anticipated (no doubt the fact that the 2012 Olympics had just begun in London had a priming effect!). As we moved from table to table, we heard many important points including:

– How is quality really judged? How do we judge the level of quality work in the classroom? Do students feel that we judge work in objective ways, or is  the process necessarily more subjective?

– How far can we (or should we) push students to produce high quality work? Just as some athletes are pushed too far, should we be expecting perfection from our students?

– Some Olympian athletes are motivated to win and compete for intrinsic reasons (e.g. personal satisfaction) rather than some “professional” athletes who like to compete and win for money. How does this apply to students? How can we encourage kids to work hard for intrinsic reasons (rather than extrinsic purposes, e.g. winning awards, getting high scores and GPAs)?

-How do we know when our standards of quality are unrealistic?  Is quality dependent upon the values we bring to the table?

-Time (a constant theme in our research) can determine who wins (e.g. who is the fastest runner) or who is the most prepared (who has put in the most time in training).  In the classroom, knowing how to judge time is a crucial skill students need to learn.  When is a paper “done”?  When is it time to move on to the next assignment?

In addition to the discussion of this vignette, a few other interesting “findings” emerged from the course. Specifically, participants seemed guarded about discussing traits or markers of a “quality student.” This came up at the end of the course, when we asked participants to roam the room and write thoughts about a variety of categories, including “quality student,” “quality teaching,” and “relationship of quality and balance.” Some teachers were offended by having to describe or define a quality student, yet they did not have the same reaction to being asked to describe quality teaching. Were teachers being defensive about their students? Their craft? Or, if we had asked about a “quality teacher,” would we have had the same reaction? Furthermore, the relationship of quality and balance proved a very useful concept for teachers. Balance related to many aspects of the course—how to strive for quality work and at the same time keep balance in our personal lives, how to balance the double-edged sword of technology use (it helps people be more efficient, but is also labeled as a waste of time), and how to encourage deep passion and “flow” in work, but not lose sight of the ultimate goal.

In sum, we were pleased that the topics and our research findings resonated with participants. Quality is very much at the center of GoodWork, and indeed, many of the sentiments shared throughout the course could have been articulated at the Toolkit minicourse that we’ve offered for several years.  As a result of this course, we have begun to think about ways to adapt Quality Through the Ages into a Quality Toolkit or to infuse it into our current GoodWork Toolkit…so stay tuned!

The GoodWork Bloomsburg Initative

by Joan Miller, Mary Katherine Waibel, Jennifer Johnson

When Dr. Howard Gardner visited Bloomsburg University in the Fall 2010, he spoke about the value of self-reflection on what it means to do Good Work as persons, workers, and citizens. Inspired by Dr. Gardner’s visit and informed by the GoodWork Toolkit, we sought to explore undergraduate students’ concepts of what it means to do Good Work in higher education and to strengthen the culture of Good Work on our campus. Through small group discussions, we hoped to 1) explore students’ concepts of what it means to do Good Work as college students, 2) enrich students’ definitions of Good Work as work that is of the highest quality (i.e., excellent), socially responsible (i.e., ethical), and meaningful (i.e., engagement), 3) engage students in an examination of their role models of Good Work, and 4) encourage students to reflect upon how they have exhibited Good Work during their first few months at Bloomsburg University.

As we developed the BU Good Work Initiative in consultation with the GoodWork Team at Project Zero, we sought possible outlets for piloting our small group discussions. Without hesitation, the Director of the University’s ACT 101/Educational Opportunities Program, Dr. Irvin Wright, invited us to pilot the BU Good Work Initiative with incoming first-year students enrolled in the program. ACT 101/EOP assists students who are at a financial, cultural, social and/or educational disadvantage in making a successful transition to Bloomsburg University. We expected thatdata from this group of historically under-represented students would provide a unique perspective and valuable information about incoming first-year undergraduates’ concepts of Good Work and inform future endeavors to promote Good Workamong all students at Bloomsburg University.

The BU Good Work Initiative included 140 students. All students completed a pre-program assessment in which they described what it means to do Good Work as college students and wrote about examples of Good Work at Bloomsburg University. Following the pre-program assessment, half of the students were randomly assigned to an experimental group. The experimental group was further split into small discussion groups (approximately 10 students per group).  Each small discussion group was led by two advanced students (Teaching Assistants from the Department of Psychology’s mass lecture General Psychology course) and a faculty/staff facilitator. Students assigned to the experimental group participated in a 6-week series of 50-minute discussions about the three Es of Good Work—Excellence, Ethics, and Engagement. During the first two weeks (Sessions 1 and 2), students discussed what it means to do excellent work as a college student, role models of excellence, and examples of how they have demonstrated academic excellence during their past three months at the University. During the next two weeks (Sessions 3 and 4), students discussed what it means to do ethical work as a college student, role models of ethical behavior, and examples of how they demonstrated ethical behavior during their past three months at the University. During the final two weeks (Sessions 5 and 6), students discussed what it means to do engaged work as a college student, role models of engagement, and examples of how they demonstrated engagement during their past three months at the University. The other half of the students (i.e., the control group) remained in their regularly scheduled University Seminar course and did not participate in small group discussions about Good Work. Upon completion of the 6-week series of small group discussions, the experimental and control groups reunited for a post-program assessment.

Analysis of the pre-program data revealed that few incoming first-year students described Good Work as work that is of the highest quality, socially responsible, or meaningful. Instead, students tended to describe Good Work as effortful (i.e., trying one’s hardest) and empathic (i.e., helping another person). Although post-program data showed that students assigned to the experimental group had not yet incorporated the concepts of Excellence or Engagement into their definitions of Good Work, data did reveal that students who participated in small group discussions about Good Work had begun to include the concept of Ethics in their understanding of what it means to do Good Work as an undergraduate student. Students who were assigned to the experimental group also noted the overall value of participating in the small group discussions. Comments included the following:

The value of participating in the Good Work Initiative is that we know how to be an ethical student and a student of excellence.

Participating in Good Work Initiative has made me realize that I needed to pick up my slack and do the right thing.

You learn a lot that you didn’t know already and it opens your eyes to role models in your life.

A forthcoming manuscript will detail the BU Good Work Initiative’s curriculum, research methodology, and findings. We have been pleased to find several published papers that validate our findings and we hope that our efforts will add to the growing body of literature on promoting Good Work on college campuses.

During the 2012-2013 academic year, the Bloomsburg University Good Work Team will continue to pursue its mission to strengthen the culture of Good Work on our campus by increasing individuals’ awareness of what it means to do Good Work, identifying role models of Good Work, encouraging self-reflection on Good Work, and supporting Good Work wherever it exists on our campus and in our broader community. Data from this initial study have informed not only the content but also the format of how we will introduce the concept of Good Work to incoming first-year students during the Fall 2012. Data from this study also have sparked a number of other lines of inquiry and best practices related to advancing Good Work in higher education.  More on that to come…

Bloomsburg University Good Work Initiative Experience

by Elizabeth Lucas

Four years ago my parents made the bittersweet decision to move from Costa Rica to Pennsylvania after 19 years. Here and there I asked myself if getting an education in the USA was truly better than one I could be getting back at home. Most of the time the answer was “no, not really.” It was not until my senior year that I finally realized how privileged I was as I would not have been given the same opportunities and experiences in Costa Rica as I had here in the USA. One of the main reasons for this was my involvement with GoodWork.

The Bloomsburg GoodWork Initiative took off during the Fall 2011. Psychology Teaching Assistants (myself included) were asked to participate and run small discussion sessions with half of the ACT101 incoming freshmen (students who are at a financial, cultural, social or educational disadvantage). The sessions ran for 6 weeks. Two sessions were dedicated to each of the 3 E’s of GoodWork. We encouraged students to reflect and talk about what each E meant to them, who were their role models for that E, and how they as students have demonstrated that E. Students were very much engaged and participated even more enthusiastically than I would have imagined.

Teaching Assistants would meet after each session and discuss if we needed to modify anything and compare notes on how students did that day. We had some common threads between all groups. When the students were asked to define Excellence and Engagement they had a good grasp on the meaning, but when they were asked to give an example they would sometimes say something like: “going to all of your classes.” In regards to Ethics, students had a hard time defining it, giving examples and for the most part they had all partaken in unethical behaviors. Personally, what was most shocking was that some of the students were not able to come up with role models in their lives. As Teaching Assistants, we encouraged students to explore these ideas further and talked about how these ideas could be applied in their next four years as students.

I hope that there was as much value to these discussion sessions for each of the students that participated as there was for me. The questions that we asked them every week were also questions that I was asking myself. I think that as human beings we go through the motions of every day life without taking the time to reflect about what it is that we are doing or the purpose to it. Some of us might know what we want to do “when we grow up” and we want to be the best we can be at it. For others, we might still be trying to find that passion that will motivate us to wake up and go to work every morning. Some of us might already know the answer to those two, but we are trying to figure out a way to do it the right way because we are conscious of the demands society has.

It was because of that initial participation, that when Dr. Jennifer Johnson asked if any one of the Teaching Assistants would like to take GoodWork any further as an independent study, I jumped right in. At first, my focus was to look at what worked and what did not work during this first initiative and finding improvements for future GoodWork activities. I created surveys for everyone who participated in the sessions (Teaching Assistants, Facilitators and students) and from there, I focused on areas that needed improvement. I presented a poster at the Eastern Psychological Association conference in March 2012.

In the spring of 2012, I also began to work with Dr. Jennifer Johnson, Dr. Mary Katherine Duncan and Dr. Joan Miller. We met weekly to assess another set of data from students and kept thinking of ways to keep GoodWork moving forward at Bloomsburg University. We were granted permission to create the Freshman Orientation Summer Reading for the incoming students in the fall of 2012. One of the videos I proposed is going to be used for this assignment. The four of us along with Dan Haverstock (GoodWork independent study student for the upcoming year) were also invited to attend a meeting at Project Zero with Wendy Fischman, Lynn Barendsen, Margot Locker and Howard Gardner. It was of great pleasure to finally meet the people whose papers and research I had been reading about all year. It was also incredibly rewarding to share everything that we had worked on so hard during the last year. We were given great feedback and suggestions for the ideas we had for moving forward.

Previously I mentioned that if I had not gone to college in the USA I would have not gotten involved with GoodWork. I might have not been given some of the opportunities and learned as much about myself as I would have back at home. GoodWork allowed me to reflect on what it means to do GoodWork as a student and a young professional and how it affects our daily life. It got me thinking about what kind of professional I want to be and what values I want to take with me. My involvement in the discussion sessions taught me how to lead a group and improved my ability to present research and talk in public. I learned that even though I was only a student, my opinion was important, I could work hand in hand with professors I considered my mentors in order to create something bigger and make a difference.

I’ve successfully graduated from Bloomsburg and will be starting the next chapter of my life as a graduate student at Temple University in the fall. I will be taking everything that I have learned these last four years and especially this last one and applying it to my life as a student there and eventually my professional life. I am hoping that in some way I can still stay involved with GoodWork at Bloomsburg University and perhaps start GoodWork awareness at Temple.

GoodWork at the Doon School

by Anez Katre

In the months gone by, I addressed all of the Grade 10 boys in small groups of 25.The aim was to get them to talk about what they consider to be the characteristics of a good worker and through that, to bring about a discussion about responsibility and ethics. We then did a responsibility exercise from the Toolkit and it was interesting to note that a number of students felt their core responsibility was to their parents, second to self and thereafter to teachers, friends, etc.

In one group, we had a very participatory discussion on lying and cheating. Though the students tend to believe that the way of the world is such that they feel that they cannot get by being completely honest, these discussions gave them an opportunity to reflect on their beliefs. The sessions were carried out in their Life Skills classes. A visiting teacher was able to participate, and took some of the Toolkit narratives with her, to share with her own students.

In another activity, role plays were used to demonstrate the challenges faced by teachers.  Role play 1 addressed the issue of students who want to study but feel that their parents are not very encouraging.  (Students complain of additional responsibilities such as housework, caring for younger siblings, etc.)  Role play 2 addressed the issue of a good student whose grades suffer because she is upset by what is happening at home: her father is an alcoholic and has lost his job. He is often abusive and disruptive at home. Role play 3 addressed a situation in which parents think a student is going to school regularly, when he is actually is playing hooky with friends.

At the Doon School, we have adopted a few village and slum schools to help with academics and upkeep. I took the initiative of inviting 12 teachers from these schools to talk about the GoodWork Toolkit.  Most of the teachers are passionate about making a difference. All 12 are women who are passionate about their work and will be taking the principals of the GoodWork to their respective schools.

I was provided with an opportunity to address 45 heads of schools at a seminar on “Management Imperatives for Educational Institutes,” a wonderful opportunity to introduce the GoodWork Project to various schools. The GoodWork concept was explained and we had a healthy discussion on misalignment and the 3 E’s – Excellence, Ethics and Engagement. Some of the schools have shown an interest in taking this forward and I hope to be in touch with them as they move forward!

GoodWork at Work in India: Part IV

by Elizabeth Kim

How does good work translate in the area of sports? Joyti Joshi of Maharaja Sawai Mansingh Vidyalaya Japur School undertook this question by targeting students who regularly play sports in the school.  In a series of five sessions, Joyti used materials from the GoodWork Toolkit to help students rethink the meaning of good work.

In the first session, Joyti introduced the GWT Worksheet on “What is GoodWork” and had students brainstorm their understanding of the term. Students suggested definitions such as “work that brings rewards and achievements” and “work that is recognized by society.” Similarly designed to probe students’ notions of good work, the next session utilized a GWT worksheet with a set of statements that they had to decide if they involved questionable ethics. The third session delved more deeply into the intricate controversies of ethics: the students examined a case study from the Toolkit – To Print or Not to Print – and fervently discussed the meaning of GoodWork in this scenario. Through these activities, Joyti reported that the students’ “sphere of responsibility” broadened beyond friends, family, teams, and school, but further encompassed society at large.

In the fourth session, students reflected on their responsibilities and again closely discussed a case study— Silence is Not Always Golden – deepening their notions of what constitute excellence, ethics, and engagement. Students were prompted to engage in self-reflection and introspection in the final session, when they pondered their responsibilities with the aid of the Enjoyment and Excellence worksheet. What were their responsibilities both in school and on the field?

Students had initially struggled with the need to be perceived as the “cool dude” of the group, an identity that many young boys, especially those in athletic teams, aspire to embody. But with the continuing GoodWork sessions, the students realized that “good conduct” was more important than this social perception. They concluded that “individual personality must be a perfect blend of ethics and our conduct, i.e. conduct must be guided by our deep-rooted ethics.” In addition to performing well on the field, the boys recognized the importance of being ethical and responsible. Acknowledging the importance of the 3 E’s, both students and teachers now intend to align their professional and personal standards with clear values.

Indeed, teachers were active participants in this project. A teacher development workshop used the same GWT worksheets and case studies as had been used for students. An important outgrowth of this workshop was a significant change in before/after thoughts about good work in sports instruction. Summarized, the teacher’s change in perception about their roles as sports instructors is outlined as follows:

Before

• Good work means dedication, determination, with goal in mind

• Teachers should be responsible towards the work place i.e. school

• Teachers should develop a strong sports culture

• Teachers should help students understand the rules and regulation of sports

• Teachers should help students stay physically fit and healthy

After

• Teachers should go beyond the field and teach the importance of value and ethics

• Teachers should help students maintain mental and emotional equilibrium in all situations, especially when it concerns winning or losing a match

• Teachers should become not only instructors who teach “the rules of the sport” but also those who teach “the rules of game (i.e. life)”

• Teachers should broaden the sphere of responsibility for students as well as themselves (more input on this?)

While sports and good work may at first glance appear to be disjointed, unrelated issues, Joyti was able to evidence the connection between the two. Through GoodWork Toolkit activities and deep introspection, both student and teacher alike were encouraged to see the value of the 3 E’s in their behavior in sports. The sports community at the school realized that a harmonious blend of conduct and ethics will result in “excellent performance, happiness, and satisfaction.” In this way, good work is being carried out beyond the confines of the classroom and into the field.

Next in the series, we will examine how one school was able to engage a wide range of students and teachers from schools all across Mumbai in good work.

For access to the full power point presentation, please contact us!