K. Ann McCartney

         The collaborative learning seminar has long been a central component in learning community and coordinated studies courses and has increasingly found its way into traditional, stand-alone classes. The seminar, when it works, actively engages students in learning.

         How can we promote this active engagement in learning? Faculty and students alike become frustrated when the seminar does not seem to work. Our own frustration when the seminars didn't work and our excitement when they did, led each of us to consider using assessment procedures to nourish the ongoing life of the seminar. When assessment procedures are used this way, the procedure becomes an integral component of the learning and thus vital to the quality of the seminar. Through ongoing assessment, students are encouraged to be reflective, to think about their own thinking, to become actively and responsibly engaged with how the seminar is working and what they are doing as part of it.

         We have experimented with several different assessment approaches and instruments in our seminars. This section of the handbook is organized around the questions that led us to develop our instruments: What do we mean by seminar? What is the goal of this type of seminar? What is our philosophy of assessment in this setting? How do we assess our seminars? (Examples of a few assessment instruments that we use are located in the appendices of this article and the next.)

What Do We Mean by Seminar?

         The vision of the seminar is crucial. The type of seminar we are talking about is not a class discussion with its usual instructor-student interaction. It is not a debate with students focusing on defending a particular point of view and critiquing the view of others. It is not a graduate school seminar where students present their papers for critical review. Nor is it a cooperative learning group or workshop which focuses on problem solving or creating a specific product.

         If a seminar is not these things, what is it? Perhaps three images will help to clarify our vision of the seminar.

         Imagine a vase sitting in the middle of the seminar circle. Each seminar participant can see only part of the vase. Each participant describes the vase from her particular perspective. When all become involved in sharing their perspectives and working together to create a complete picture of the vase (including the parts none of them can see such as the inside and the bottom), then they are transformed into active learners and creators of knowledge. (See how Margaret Scarborough uses this imagery in her article, "Circumscribing Seminar Space.")

         Imagine a jazz combo. Each instrument is individual and has an important part to play. There is no musical score, no predetermined composition to simply replicate, no conductor who controls what each instrument does, no set part for each player. Each must listen to and play off the others and respond while being intent upon his own expression of the improvisation. Each member goes his own way in concert with the group. The creation of the jazz combo is spontaneous, dynamic, and never the same. The jazz experience gives voice to each unique component while creating a unified composition.

         Imagine building a structure. To build a structure, you need a solid foundation, stable, strong enough to hold the structure. If you make any modifications in the plan for the structure, you must recheck and strengthen the foundation. Then you need the building materials-the nails, screws, wood, etc. Those materials must be delivered to the site. But it is not enough just to dump out the materials; you must somehow organize them, grouping them where they are needed and with what they are needed. As you do this, you can start to build the frame for your structure. To finish the structure and make it usable, you must fill in the frame with wall board, doors, windows, and all the details which make this building unique.

         The images of the vase, jazz combo, and the building of a structure begin to capture our vision of the seminar. We see the seminar as the creation of a learning space in which, in the words of Parker Palmer , "the community of truth is practiced," truth as "an eternal conversation about things that matter, conducted with passion and discipline" (12). The heart of our conception of the seminar is the development and creation of a learning community which provides a safe space for learners to bring their knowledge and experience to interact with other learners and with texts, to create meaning together.

         The seminar creates a space where respect for other learners is paramount in the midst of the exploration of ideas and concepts. While the seminar should be a safe place, it is not necessarily a comfortable place. The exploration of new ideas and concepts can threaten students' already established meanings. Students are encouraged to take risks in the seminar, to assert long-cherished ideas about the world and struggle to reshape old knowledge and/or create knowledge with others. Students engage with and reflect on the material and each other. In this way, risk and respect become polarities that together create the learning environment.

         The seminar is not just another learning strategy that is appropriate to those students whose learning style works best in a group, but in itself plays an essential role in learning. A good seminar is a powerful tool of learning for all students. It is the collaborative context that shapes meaningful learning. As Paulo Friere asserts,

This is echoed by Stephen Brookfield in his book on adult learning:

         The seminar experience is both an instance of learning and an instrument of learning. It is an end, not just a means. Participants find their voice, they commit to working with others, and the implications extend far beyond the seminar. In this process, the word seminar becomes a verb. It is something that we do together. The defining aspect of the seminar is that students learn actively; they are constructing their knowledge through listening to others, speaking their ideas and creating meanings. Students are encouraged to do the "important things that need to be done to information by an educated adult: choosing it and finding it, weighing it, criticizing it, analyzing it, comparing it, reflecting on it . . ."

What is the Goal of the Seminar?

         The overall goal of the seminar is to create a space and time for students' engagement-engagement on the idea level (the intellect, the intuitive, the emotions), the individual level (unique perceptions), and the social level (community). Intellectually, the seminar serves to help students explore a diversity of perspectives, to see the complexity and ambiguity of the content, to help them recognize the underlying assumptions of their habitual ideas and behaviors, to develop higher level critical thinking ability, and to encourage active listening. Emotionally, the seminar serves to increase students' affective connections to the content, to show students they are heard and that their voices matter and their experiences and thinking are valued. On the individual level, the seminar helps students to test, expand, revise, create their individual meanings in the context of the group. Socially, the seminar serves to build relationships with other learners in a way that creates a community of learners who bring knowledge to life with mutual exploration, both consensus and dissensus ("an agonistic framework of conflict and difference . . ." (609). In this community, knowledge emerges, is brought to life in the social interaction of the learners. The total engagement of the learners-intellectually, individually and socially-leads to the learning.

         The seminar has no expected formal product. The product is meaning, not an answer or a task accomplished. In fact, more questions may be raised than answered. If there is a product, it is inspired learners: learners who are developing a habit of inquiry that transforms the way they approach issues, knowledge, others. These are habits of mind and heart, a search for connectedness and relatedness.

What is Our Philosophy of Assessment in the Seminar?

         In our seminars, assessment is not a terminal episode; it is not primarily to grade the students. For us, assessment is formative: our assessment can be a monitoring tool to provide information that will empower students to become more effective seminaring participants. Seminar assessment helps students to consciously develop seminaring behaviors, to work more effectively in the seminar through conscious development of productive behaviors, and to develop behaviors that take them beyond the seminar.

         We believe seminaring is not something that comes naturally; it needs to be taught. Assessment of the seminar and participation in the seminar can help participants learn to seminar. Since students approach a seminar situation with different notions about learning, from different cultures and learning styles, with varying levels of interactive skills, we need a clear vision of the seminaring process and behaviors. In our view, assessment instruments offer a notion of what is possible, point toward how to achieve the possible, give feedback on progress, and enable users to talk about, intervene if necessary, and consciously improve their seminaring.

         Thus, the sample assessment tools at the end of this article and the next provide information to the students to encourage meta-communication about seminaring, to shape and hone to peaceful, productive ways of discourse; to participate fully in a community of learners.

How do We Assess Our Seminars?

         At the heart of effective seminaring is the development of a community of learners, and all the techniques in the world cannot create this heart. However, we have found that attention to the seminaring process can contribute to the desired effect of a community of learning. By helping students assess, talk about, and consciously improve the vitality of their seminaring process, we can encourage the development of strategies of learning throughout the course, throughout their academic experience, throughout life. Assessment can become a door into the seminar, a way of entry for the student into the seminaring process.

         We offer two tools for seminar participants to use in assessing the individual's and the group's progress in learning effective seminaring behaviors. These tools work best if they are introduced in the context of careful planning, preparatory work and initiation into the role of seminaring in your particular learning community or collaborative learning setting. (See Margaret Scarborough's article, "Circumscribing Seminar Space," for a description of such careful preparation.)

         The tool appended to this essay, "Seminar Process Assessment," allows group members to give a general assessment of the seminar/discussion and then assess specific group processes as a way of diagnosing what might be happening to lead to the general assessment. Using this strategy, group members develop a common vocabulary for talking about how the group is working.

         The seminar metric, developed by Margaret Scarborough and located in the appendix of her article, is based upon seven levels of interactive behavior that are likely to result in optimal learning. These levels move from the least interactive, which she calls "silent," up through other levels of interaction to "engaging," without which students are unable to reach the top interactive levels of "understanding" and "discriminating." Margaret's instrument describes these seven levels and includes a three-step process for assessing self and peers along the seven levels.

         We have found that these methods-and there are others-enable us to use assessment in the formative way that can help us and our students improve the process of seminaring.

Appendix 1

K. Ann McCartney

         A seminar or discussion can be examined by looking at common characteristics of an effective group. The scales on this assessment are based on such characteristics.

         The first section examines the members' general perception of the discussion session including satisfaction, personal involvement, personal learning, and climate. The second section is more analytical and diagnostic in nature and includes ten behavior categories that make the seminar successful or not.

         Some ways to use this instrument:

1.     Have the descriptors read aloud to highlight the differences between the opposite sides of the continuum. This can be a class participation activity with all sorts of "hamming" up of the readings. This alone can call attention to how people can behave in a group and I have seen significant behavior changes following such a reading.

2.     Have the students fill out their individual scales and then place their scores on a large group scale. The members can see graphically where they are in relationship to others in the group. There can then be a discussion of the differences and the patterns.

3.     Collect the individual sheets and calculate the mean and standard deviation which you then provide to the group to discuss. It is interesting to do the assessment again later in the group life to see and discuss any changes.

Seminar Process Assessment

Seminar Process Analysis/Diagnosis

The following scales represent some of the specific behaviors that can help make a seminar work well. By looking at your perception of how the group did on each scale and then comparing your perception with other members, you may gain understanding about what your seminar is doing that makes the seminar successful or not. Place an X along the continuum to indicate your perception of that scale.

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