College of Education poised for opportunity

Dean James L. Heap recently sat down with Joy Rodgers, public affairs coordinator in the College of Education, to discuss his vision for the college. This is part of an Outlook series giving deans an opportunity to share their thoughts with the Ohio University community.

What is your vision for the College?

We wish to create an equitable, effective, interactive learning community that -- through excellent teaching, scholarship and service -- makes a difference to education and human development.

What are the College of Education priorities?

In late 1999, the College completed a planning process that produced a five-year academic agenda in which two comprehensive priorities were established -- enhance teaching and learning and enhance research capacity and effort.

Supporting these two comprehensive priorities are four constituent priorities: work collaboratively with colleges, universities, agencies and schools; diversify instructional formats; maintain and enhance diversity of students, staff, faculty and curricular content; and support the College of Education as a learning community.

In taking up these priorities, we have focused on the constituent priority of supporting the College of Education as a learning community. Since the fall of 2001, we have had a series of collegewide meetings on various aspects of what it means to be a learning community, or what we are now calling a "learning college." We have concentrated on this priority because the focus on learning impacts each of the other College priorities. We are a college that is leading the way in moving from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. We are reconceptualizing scholarship and service as forms of learning, with consequences for how we work with others and assess our efforts.

What unique opportunities are available for the College?

The College of Education is perfectly placed to support the efforts of Provost Stephen J. Kopp to transform Ohio University into a premier learning institution. As a result of developments at the state level involving recommendations from the Governor's Commission on Teaching Success, as well as developments at the federal level involving reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act, we should find increased opportunities for school-university partnerships and clinical field experience in teacher preparation. Changes to licensure requirements for school counselors have already begun to impact enrollment in our school counselor program. The continuing expansion of community colleges in Ohio has heightened the need for able administrators. Our Executive Format Ph.D. program in Higher Education is uniquely positioned to benefit from this opportunity.

What challenges face the College in achieving its priorities?

We need to work with administrators and faculty in the University to explore the issues, opportunities and challenges involved in shifting the University's focus from teaching to learning. We also need to work at the state level to alter the policies that constrain our efforts to achieve this shift, e.g., seat time in classrooms as the basis for allocating resources in a digital world. Within the College and University, we need to develop ways of conceptualizing and supporting scholarship and service as learning activities, so that the focus on learning is not reduced to a focus on student learning. We need to lead the way in transforming our society into a learning society.