Kapi`olani Panel Presentation at AAC&U Annual Conference

HONOLULU - Kapi'olani Community College has been selected to present at the American Association of Colleges and Universities annual conference on a panel discussion entitled, "Perilous Times: Preparing Students Across Sectors for Civic, Ethical, Moral Learning," January 25-27, 2017 in San Francisco. The panel is based on grantee work from the Teagle Foundation's "A Larger Vision for Liberal Education: Education for Civic and Moral Responsibility" initiative, designed to foster systematic approaches for equipping students to address questions of value, meaning, and personal and social responsibility. Panelists include:

Bob Franco, Social Science Faculty and Director of the Office for Institutional Effectiveness at Kapi'olani CC; Liz DiGiorgio, Assistant Professor of Art and Design, Queensborough Community College of CUNY; Jay Brandenberger, Associate Director, Research and Assessment, Center for Social Concerns & Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Nortre Dame; Suzanne Shanahan, Co-Director, Kenan Institute for Ethics & Associate Research Professor, Sociology, Duke University; and Annie Bezbatchenko, Program Consultant, Teagle Foundation.

Preparing today's students to solve present and future challenges is fundmental to a liberal education. Colleges and universities have developed various approaches to enhancing civic, ethical and moral responsibility in a pluralistic society, though not often grounded in research. The panel will share cross-sector, evidence-based practices to promote civic and moral learning across general education in community colleges and special progams at two research universities.

Bob Franco and Liz Di-Giorgio will share results and tools from the "Student Learning for Civic Capacity" project involving sixty faculty at six community colleges -- Mesa (AZ), Kapi'olani (HI), Delgado (LA), Kingsborough (NY), Queensborough (NY), and Raritan Valley (NJ). These colleges came together to reflect on the larger aims of liberal education and teach to the big question: How do we build our commitment to civic and moral responsibility for diverse, equitable, healthy and sustainable communities? In service-learning courses such as Anthropology, Botany, English, Art, Teacher Educaton, Environmental Science and Film Production, and in innovative learning communities focused on communicating climate disruption, more than 3,000 students have responded to end-of-term, capstone reflection prompts at each participating campus. Results of the rubric assessments of these reflections will be shared as well as pre-and post-surveys and complete research protocols.

Suzanne Shanahan and Jay Brandenberger will share the findings and implications from their research to explore the impact of different curricular approaches on the development of capacities of perspective-taking empathy, and moral identity that are thought to foster civic and social responsibility in students. At Duke, in a 3-year study based at the Kenan Institute for Ethics involving over 1,100 undergraduates, a team of Duke scholars examined how participation in a set of curricular and co-curricular programs both reflect and influence ethical and moral responsibility. Initial results will be shared and programmatic lessons learned discussed. At Nortre Dame, two representative interdisciplinary minors were examined to determine what curricular elements may foster ethical awareness, moral identity, and a sustained sense of purpose among students. They will share the instruments developed, an extensive survey, and results from over 750 participants.