Dear friend,
Formative education is a holistic educational approach that is so prevalent at Boston College that many faculty members describe it simply as 鈥済ood teaching.鈥� Sometimes used interchangeably with its broader analogue, 鈥渨hole person education,鈥� formative education draws from the Jesuit interpretation of cura personalis, or 鈥渃are of the whole person,鈥� which understands that students and teachers are complex and multidimensional beings.
As one faculty member notes, 鈥淚n order to educate the entire person, you have to understand the person and you need to care for that person. And you need to provide a space for that whole person to show up.鈥� It is clear that this ethic of care is something that 香蕉秀 educators are familiar with and practice in their classrooms.
However, in spring 2020, the pandemic-induced shift to remote instruction raised concerns about the possibility of maintaining robust formative education in online learning environments. Is formative education still feasible in remote, online contexts? Can successful student formation still occur in times of global crisis? Our analysis of interviews and course artifacts gathered from 38 香蕉秀 faculty members allows us to answer affirmatively.
We asked the deans of all eight Boston College schools to identify faculty who not only overcame the challenges of the exclusively online environment during their remote courses but who also did particularly impressive work that emphasized formation at 香蕉秀.
A brief synopsis of some of the case studies is here.
We recently completed a practice guide that summarizes key insights, offers a set of pedagogical strategies and provides reflective questions that can guide their future implementation, and describes best teaching practices used by faculty to achieve each formative goal.
I look forward to sharing this guide with you in the new year.
Sincerely,
Stanton E. F. Wortham
Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean