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The draft is open for comments until December 4, 2020 at 11:59pm. Senate constituents may attend a Plenary meeting on Tues, Nov 24 at 12:30pm Eastern/US to share their views; please RSVP by Nov 23.

A summary of comments below, comments from the Plenary meeting, and comments submitted from small groups after the Plenary meeting is available.

All-Institute Learning Goals [draft]

Pratt students develop skills and knowledge focused on:

• Justice
• Resilience
• Creative Problem Solving
• Versatile Communication
• Disciplinary Fluency

1. Justice: Buoyed by a self-guided framework of values and shared responsibility for cultivating a diverse, equitable and just society, Pratt students make decisions with a knowledge of their impact upon individuals, communities, and the earth. They are compelled into action with a set of responsive tools that allow for both reflection and agency in positive and just societal transformation.

2. Resilience: The Pratt students’ educational experience instills a sense of strength and fortitude, empowering them to face present and future obstacles. Students learn the connectivity between themselves, their classmates, their families and their community. As Pratt students become proficient in their core disciplines, they also develop the ability to balance being centered and focused with the creative powers of adaptability, flexibility, and acceptance of constructive criticism. These life skills give them the courage to tackle social, professional, ethical and environmental challenges that they will encounter.

3. Creative and Critical Problem Solving: Creative and critical problem-solving is dialogic and co-creative, as students pose questions, identify problems and opportunities, consider multiple perspectives, and make informed decisions based on research and analysis. Students envision and implement meaningful solutions that are grounded in humanistic concerns related to society and the environment through innovative processes.

4. Versatile Communication: Pratt students are skilled speakers and writers who understand that communication is a multimodal process that transcends verbal language. They creatively employ visual tools to communicate ideas to diverse target audiences. In order to create possibilities for progressive change, they invent new modes of communication while critiquing signifying systems that further inequality, oppression, and discrimination.

5. Disciplinary Fluency: Pratt students are skilled in using the tools and techniques of their chosen discipline. They possess the ability to articulate and apply these skills purposefully within a cultural and historical context. They are able to maintain professional practice within their discipline, while possessing the ability to go beyond these boundaries.

Process of Development and Draft Goals for Feedback

Charge and composition of the task force: The All-Institute Learning Goals Task Force convened for the first time almost exactly one year ago, on November 25, 2019. Its charge was to draft a set of Institute-level learning goals that aligns with Pratt’s mission and strategic plan, and that articulates the skills and knowledge that a Pratt education cultivates in all students, regardless of their field or level of study.

Convened by Donna Heiland, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, its members include:

Foundation
James Lipovac, Adjunct Associate Professor

School of Information
Craig MacDonald, Associate Professor

School of Architecture
Eve Baron, Chairperson, Center for Planning and the Environment
Scott Ruff, Visiting Associate Professor, Undergraduate Architecture

School of Design
Camille Martin-Thomsen, Assistant Dean
Keena Suh, Associate Professor, Interior Design

School of Art
Heather Lewis, Professor, Art & Design Education
Donna Moran, Professor, Fine Arts

School of Continuing and Professional Studies:
Rosie DePasquale, Professor & Program Coordinator, Integrative Mind & Body Program

School of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Rachid Eladlouni, Assessment and Educational Technology Coordinator, Visiting Assistant Professor, Intensive English Program
Suzanne Verderber, Professor & Acting Chair, Humanities & Media Studies

Process to date: The group’s work began with extensive discussion of what Institute-level learning goals might look like, taking into account what the Middle States Commission on Higher Education has to say on this topic, and studying models proposed by AICAD, by other individual colleges of art and design, by other kinds of higher education institutions, and by Pratt’s own programs.

With that context in mind, and—as noted above—guided Pratt’s mission and strategic plan, the task force met regularly between November and March of last year. The full group drafted an early version of the goals listed below, and then broke into sub-groups, with 2–3 people working to draft each goal, and the full group offering feedback.

We had initially planned to meet with the Academic Senate, the Student Government Association, and other essential groups on campus last spring, to circulate these draft goals, get feedback on them, and revise them further. The pandemic altered our timeline, but the basic plan remains the same. We are therefore very pleased to share these draft goals with you now.

For the Senate Plenary on November 24, 2020: We offer these goals to you knowing that you will have much to say in response, and we are all very interested in your responses. In our minds, these goals really are drafts—we fully expect them to be modified as a result of this process! Also remember that these goals may not capture everything that we, as a community, feel they should—we may want to add one or two.

Next Steps: Once we have presented these goals to the various constituencies that need to weigh in on them, have revised them, and had them further vetted and approved, we will be able to assess our achievement of them in two major ways. We will:

• Evaluate the extent to which the Institute offers students opportunities to achieve these goals;
• Study the results of our ongoing assessment of student learning in the curriculum (at the program and course level), and in the co-curriculum, aligning work at the program / department / division level with these Institute-level goals, and so determining our success in achieving them.