The University of New Brunswick's Renaissance College: Curricular evolution and assessment at the faculty level

Abstract

This chapter introduces a comprehensive model of curricular evolution and assessment at the faculty level as developed and implemented in a core program at Renaissance College, University of New Brunswick.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) at Renaissance College (University of New Brunswick): A Case Study of SoTL at the Faculty Level

“…(Zundel et al 2006, 6f. ) The focus of this project also demonstrates RC' s strong emphasis on outcomes and improved student learning, which was continued through many SoTL projects between 2007 and 2014 that addressed outcomebased design, learning, and assessment (Mengel, , 2010b(Mengel, , 2008Valk and Mengel 2007;Zundel and Mengel 2007). These and other projects (Couturier and Mengel, 2008;Kuruganti and Zundel, 2004) also repeatedly presented evidence for improved student learning in various learning outcomes; the improvements are captured and demonstrated by significantly higher student performance in the course-specific learning outcomes.…”

“…Similarly, particularly the two full‐time tenure‐track RC integrators have presented and published their SoTL projects at conferences specific to the fields of leadership and project management (for example, Mengel ; Mengel et al ; Valk and Mengel ). Furthermore, some of the core SoTL‐related interests of integrators are also reflected in peer‐reviewed publications on project management education, leadership development and education, outcome‐based education, and curricular evolution and assessment (Couturier and Mengel ; Mengel , 2008; Thomas and Mengel ; Zundel and Mengel ). A key component supporting the involvement of full‐time and tenure‐track faculty members in SoTL may also be the fact that presentations and publications in this field have been recognized by the respective tenure and promotion committees at UNB at a level comparable to the more “traditional” discipline‐ or field‐specific scholarly work of faculty; two full‐time faculty members at RC have received tenure and were promoted to professor also based on their engagement in SoTL.…”

“…As a first step, RC integrators published a model of curricular evolution and assessment demonstrating how SoTL “is an essential component in informing, guiding, and enabling the process of curricular evolution,” thus contributing to the discussion of “new directions in teaching and learning” on a national and an international level (Zundel and Mengel , 70). For example, the model of curricular evolution and assessment has informed quality assurance processes at Ontario universities and the development of international guidelines for leadership education programs (Ontario Universities n.d.; Ritch and Mengel ).…”

“…Renaissance College (RC) is the University of New Brunswick's (UNB) faculty for interdisciplinary leadership education. RC's mandate includes experimenting with innovative pedagogy and contributing to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), which at RC has been defined as “faculty research about their teaching” (Zundel and Mengel , 70), at the larger university and beyond. While some progress was made over the past 15 years, this mandate is far from being successfully completed.…”

Taking Social Entrepreneurship Education to the Next Level – A Teaching and Learning Project at Renaissance College (University of New Brunswick)

“…This reflection is set particularly in the context of RC's tradition of holding ourselves accountable for our teaching and learning approaches and practices (Zundel & Mengel, 2007;Mengel, 2016). Further, the recent developments of the field of social entrepreneurship education (SEE; Mengel, Tantawy, & McNally, 2015;Tantawy, McNally, Mengel, Welsh, & Piperopoulos, 2017), and a selfdirected learning and collaborative teaching approach (Mengel, 2015;Mengel, forthcoming) have informed this study.…”