MLFC graduate teacher prep courses get a ‘PI refresher’

As a member of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (MLFC) Office of Digital Learning (OoDL) team, I have had the privilege of collaborating with faculty and subject matter experts to integrate Principled Innovation (PI) into course design and development. This work focuses on nurturing creativity, catalyzing ideas, and forming solutions guided by principles that promote positive change for humanity.

In our roles as instructional designers, the PI framework inspires us to envision new concepts and solutions that enhance learning experiences for students and faculty. By leveraging PI assets such as collaborative discussions and reflective activities, we design engaging learning experiences that support critical thinking, curiosity, and inclusivity.

One highlight of this work has been supporting the revisions and refreshed learning design ideas for graduate teacher preparation program courses. This effort emphasizes a student-choice and job-embedded model to ensure effective and engaging learning opportunities customized to both the academic and professional needs of our students.

MLFC stakeholders are committed to making learning experiences accessible for students managing significant responsibilities outside their ASU programs. This model enables students to integrate their ASU education into their schools and communities. Many of our students are full-time educators, and this approach effectively aligns with and supports their professional contexts.

In a student-choice course, learners engage in major assignments created to demonstrate proficiency and competency toward student learning outcomes. Students complete and submit their assignment artifacts based on their ongoing work in educational placements or other relevant professional environments. The academic courses provide a suggested course schedule, but students have the flexibility to determine the order of learning outcomes they address, allowing them to align their coursework with their job-embedded priorities. This model embodies PI intellectual assets, such as developing habits of intellectual systems thinking and encouraging critical and compassionate reflection.

Collaborating with PI leaders across units has provided our instructional design team with opportunities to deepen our understanding and continue integrating PI principles into coursework to support and advance student and faculty success at ASU.