Education, Innovation, and Discovery: The Distinctive Promise of the American Research University

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Interdisciplinary (99)This project is a two-day conference on "Education, Innovation, and Discovery: The Distinctive Promise of the American Research University." The conference is scheduled to take place in Washington, DC on November 13 and 14, 2008. It is the fourth major forum sponsored by the Reinvention Center, a consortium of research universities established in 2000 and inspired by the Boyer Commission report, "Reinventing Undergraduate Education" (1998). The conference coincides with the tenth anniversary of the publication of the Boyer report, which challenged research universities to reinvent their undergraduate education so that it emphasizes inquiry, investigation, and discovery and takes full advantage of their unique research cultures, values, and resources. This conference is an opportunity for leaders in research universities to take stock collectively of the reforms and advances in undergraduate education that have emerged in the past decade, highlight approaches and practices that have produced consequential results, and build on these experiences to further the process of reinvention. The overarching goal is to continue the process of determining how the research university environment of discovery and creativity shapes and adds distinctive value to undergraduate education and to use the knowledge gained to improve curricular and pedagogical practices. Specific objectives are: - To investigate diverse approaches to General Education in order to guide individual campuses as they craft their foundational curriculum - To bring the diversity and internationality of the research university community to the forefront so that they are recognized and appreciated as genuine educational assets - To advance knowledge and understanding of assessment and accountability and engage faculty so that they may make a meaningful contribution to current discussions and also incorporate assessment into their teaching and student learning - To demonstrate ways in which technology can be used to enrich teaching and increase students' engagement, retention and intellectual and cognitive growth - To promote strategies for educating undergraduates to be productive citizens in an increasingly global and scientific environment - To demonstrate ways in which a research-inflected education will strengthen students' development of fundamental skills in quantitative reasoning, scientific literacy, and writing and also foster the development of higher order cognitive skills These objectives are key in constructing an undergraduate education that connects the research university's core missions to generate and transmit knowledge with the national need for a robust workforce that can compete in a global economy.