Spotlight is published periodically by the Office of Assessment and Continuous Improvement in the College of Education to highlight promising practices in assessment and continuous improvement. This edition of the Spotlight examines Intentionally Supporting Mental Health in Your College Classroom, the College of Education’s new Mission, Vision, and Values statements, and Learning to Learn as a Key Improvement Strategy. To be included in a future edition of the Spotlight, please contact jeremy-penn@uiowa.edu.
Mission Statement
The College of Education advances education and mental health in Iowa and beyond.
Vision Statement
The best educational and mental health outcomes for all.
Values
Practice integrity. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of honesty, transparency, and ethics. We use our resources efficiently and effectively.
Affirm academic freedom. We freely seek and share knowledge. We are responsible to our disciplines, students, profession, and institution.
Foster belonging. We welcome everyone with respect, care, and dignity. We value diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. We encourage rigorous and respectful dialogue.
Unlock the boundless potential in each person. We build collaborative relationships, meeting people where they are. We challenge and improve systems to empower people to become their best.
Improve continuously. We pursue excellence by learning and improving everything we do.
Contributors
Prepared by Jeremy Penn.
To share a promising practice in a future edition of the Spotlight you are using in your classroom, in your program, or in your department, please contact jeremy-penn@uiowa.edu.
Classroom Assessment
Intentionally Supporting Mental Health in Your College Classroom
In a recent survey of novice teachers in Iowa, when asked how they could have been better prepared to support mental health, a respondent answered: “I do not recall my program including anything on the subject so literally anything.”
As we consider efforts to improve mental health, it is easy to assume that mental health is best handled by a professional counselor or in a deep one-on-one conversation with a student when a crisis emerges. However, there is strong and growing evidence that classroom practices – including classroom assessment – can serve an important role in creating an environment supportive of positive mental health. The following resources can be a good starting point in reflecting on how your classroom practices create a positive mental health environment.
- The Stanford Teaching Commons (https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/news/promoting-mental-health-and-well-being-learning-environments) offers several strategies, including asking students how you can support their mental health, personal sharing, using daily check-ins or exit tickets to improve communication with students, offering accommodations for students who are negatively impacted by personal or social events, and prioritizing your own mental health and well-being.
- The Scanlan Center for School Mental Health’s Higher Education team offers events (https://scsmh.education.uiowa.edu/higher-education/professional-development/upcoming-events/) on mindfulness, working with students in distress, caring for self while caring for others, and suicide intervention skills (ASIST) training.
- Gallagher and Stocker (2017) created a Guide to Incorporating Social-Emotional Learning in the College Classroom (https://www.uwsuper.edu/wp-content/uploads/Gallagher-and-Stocker-SEL-Manual-FULL.pdf). While designed for a college statistics course, the activities described in the manual can easily be applied to a range of disciplines. The manual provides an overview of social-emotional learning and offers 15 weekly activities such as “Raisin Meditation” and “Meaningful Photos” that enhance social-emotional learning and teach practices that students can use throughout a semester to ease anxiety and support mindfulness.
College Data
Introduction to the College of Education’s new Mission, Vision, and Values Statements
The Mission, Vision, and Values facilitation team is pleased to share the final, approved version of the College of Education’s mission, vision, and values statement! The facilitation team began its work in the fall of 2022 with the goal of updating these statements to more memorable, concise, inspirational, and reflective of the College’s expanding work with mental health.
The facilitation team met with groups across the College in the fall of 2022 and spring of 2023. The team received additional feedback throughout 2023 on various versions of these statements both electronically and through in-person meetings.
The College’s new mission statement – The College of Education advances education and mental health in Iowa and beyond – uses just nine words to describe the College’s more than 150 years of service to the state and people around the world while incorporating the diverse programs and services it offers.
The College’s new vision statement – The best educational and mental health outcomes for all – expresses the College’s commitment to a achieving a future where everyone has strong, positive mental health and achieves their full potential through transformative educational experiences.
Finally, the College’s new values statement – Practice Integrity; Affirm Academic Freedom; Foster Belonging; Unlock Potential; Improve Continuously – reflects the core principles that guide the College’s behavior and decisions and helps others understand what is most important to the College. While what the College values has not changed, this new statement of values provides a fresh and memorable way to express our values to others.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the development of these new statements!
Watch the 10-minute video overview of the College’s new mission, vision, values, and strategic plan.
Promising Practice
Learning to Learn is The Key Strategy
“There is no way this winter is ever going to end.” –Bill Murray, “Groundhog Day” (1993)
As I write this Promising Practice, I am thinking about what Bill Murray said in the film “Groundhog Day” and how it felt like, just a few weeks ago, that winter was here to stay with over 20 inches of snow on the ground and the wind blowing like crazy. But today, February 2nd, the snow is almost all gone (which makes me sad as a skier) and it is 41 degrees. The high temperatures next week are predicted to be in the 50s!
For those who have not seen the film, “Groundhog Day” follows Bill Murray as weatherman Phil Connors who, through some magical cause that is never explained, is stuck reliving the same day repeatedly. He goes through several stages – first confusion, then silliness, then despair, but eventually he begins to grow and learn. Roger Ebert, in his review of the film writes:
Phil undergoes his transformation but never loses his edge. He becomes a better Phil, not a different Phil…We see that life is like that. Tomorrow will come, and whether or not it is always Feb. 2, all we can do about it is be the best person we know how to be. The good news is that we can learn to be better people.
As the College of Education, we are in the business of learning. Yet, we too often forget to pay attention to our own learning. Learning is essential for our success as an organization and is at the core of how we live out our value of improving continuously.
Organizational learning starts by focusing our attention on our goals. Without clarity on what we want to achieve, it is impossible to know if we are making progress. Tracking progress on the achievement of our goals offers the opportunity to change our processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness and to meet students’ needs more effectively. Finally, we must share what we are learning with each other so we can benefit from that learning and so we can improve our collaborations across the various units in the College. The College is working to incorporate elements of organizational learning into everything we do, including our new strategic plan (https://education.uiowa.edu/about/strategic-plan).
According to news reports, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, predicting an early spring. Unfortunately for warm-weather lovers, Phil has historically been correct only about 39% of the time. Perhaps he needs to engage in some learning and continuous improvement!