PASSION AND PURPOSE PILOT

The genesis of the program

The Passion and Purpose program draws on a number of sources:

1.    The film “Tuning the Voice” explored student life, in classroom, and out in their communities:

• Follow up faculty inquiries expressed interest in knowing more about student life

• Title III supported 5 films that explored issues uncovered in Tuning the Voice

• One of these movies was “The Passion Project” 

• The response to movie and intellectual discussions it created raised possibility of a course that explores passion systematically and expands on issues the movie raises

2. Chabot has been building deep roots around Student Voice, Making Visible and broader student participation in campus life for almost a decade:  

• Both of these initiatives have served as models for colleges around the state and nation 

• Next step is to move this energy into creation of class/curriculum 

• Next step is to move this energy out into the community 

• Leverage student energy—create agency

3. Alarming statewide/nation-wide trends around student success—or lack thereof: 

• Drop out rates, student swirling rates, first-to-college challenges

• Concern that the state may propose plans that don’t truly serve students locally 

• Student fear—we see it in all our interviews 

• Student shame around being lost—it is taboo to even talk about  it

• We can strategically create opportunities for students to engage in civic and community life

4. The lessons of “First Kiss”

• Around 50% of teachers report that the discovery of their passion for their discipline was the result of luck, serendipity, chance

• These are individuals with many advantages/privileges, and yet they often report being lost/confused before their First Kiss, then saved after it

• It is not a great institutional principle to rely on chance

• How can the trends seen in First Kiss inform our curriculum and pedagogy?

Features/vision of the Passion and Purpose class

1. A wide range of texts (including multimedia) as core content of course:

• Texts that explore self, educational theory, community/democracy issues

• Texts that Invite students to think metaphorically and by analogy about passion

• Texts/concepts that are drawn from the many different disciplines on campus

2. Student Voice as core content of the course:

• Student Voice videos treated as texts worthy of analysis

• Student voice enables students to respond, critique, talk back to their peers

3. Teaching/exploring/using meta-cognition as a central feature of course:

• Make the experience of the course as transparent as possible…(ex: Pro/Con of student running a workshop) 

• Answers may not matter as much as posing good questions/prompts and having the students wrestle with them

• Meta-cognition is critique, is a tool, is a mode of empowerment                                             

4. Imagining a different kind of space to hold a class like this:

• Models: 823 Valencia---Tacoma CC learning  center—Montessori—art studios

• “De-center” classroom by envisioning a different kind of space

• Students in Passion and Purpose classes will help create look/feel of the space

• Create spaces for students to conduct on-going individual and group projects

5. Student learning assistants: 

• Help create course, create the space 

• Work closely with instructor to shape flow of semester

• Facilitate break outs

• Work with students individually, offer peer mentoring

6. Students create products to explore issues raised in class:

• These can be Art/Writing/Photography/Multimedia/etc.

• These can be collaborative/generative/on-going

• A central goal of this is to offer introduction to the discipline the student is immersed in to create the product