Ignatian Pedagogy
Online Faculty Development Course
A Jesuit Republic of Learning
Canisius University was founded by the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits, a Roman Catholic religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the sixteenth century. The Jesuits have thought a lot about teaching, learning, and their relationship to human affairs generally.
Our coursework is not Roman Catholic indoctrination but we do well to incorporate the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) into our courses. It's a blend of humanistic focus on the bigger picture, and practical means to promote peace, justice, freedom and prosperity in our world.
What follows is a brief description of the IPP. As usual, Canisius offers more in-depth help for teaching on this topic. See our Mission-in-Curriculum Resource
The IPP emphasizes the relationship between learning, reflection, and action. Like online teaching, this can be a challenge for professors in fields where lecture and exams are the classroom norms.
Similar to instructional design the IPP does not insist on a linear process. Performing at any stage probably means also doing a bit at other stages, too.
Examples
In an introductory asynchronous discussion topic, ask students to provide a brief biography, or discuss themselves or life experiences in a characteristic way.
Assign a beginning pre-test, or survey, to gauge how much students may or may not have learned toward your course goals already.
Spend a little time watching or listening to media in popular or youth culture: TV programs, music, or even video games.
Explain to students what seems obvious to you: the value of the course subject or discipline.
Examples
Assignment that asks students to relate what they read in an article about U.S. high schools to their own, prior experience as secondary school students.
An event where students hear from a senior fraud investigator about her work in the U.S. Treasury Department, and can ask her questions about her experiences.
Assignment that ask students to interview a manager within package delivery and logistics companies, concerning day-to-day operations as well as new developments in that industry.
A lab experiment where students can set up a polyurethane foam production system, and see firsthand how foam products are created.
Have students attend a roundtable discussion where former prisoners explain the social, cultural, and economic circumstances encountered by those reentering society from prisons.
Examples
In asynchronous discussion, ask students to develop a list of understandable reasons commuter students choose to drive their own cars to campus (versus bikes, walking, car pools or mass transit?)
Assign a short essay comparing U.S. and another Nation-States' national policies toward electric power generation and sale.
In asynchronous discussion, have students debate the appropriate learning goals for physical education at each stage in elementary and middle schools.
Have students report to one another how the establishment healthcare profession approaches various forms of homeopathic care.
Examples
An assignment where each student creates an explainer video that briefly describes an economic concept, such as transaction costs, or debenture bonds.
An assignment where students create a business plan for operating a subscription bicycle club service in a city.
Have students prepare lesson plans specifically for elementary schools in poorer neighborhoods, that help students with no access to digital technology at home learn basic computer skills.
Have students prepare legislation for a state government, that could aid companies and specifically human resources professionals in successfully hiring former prisoners.
Examples
Provide short, multiple-choice reading quizzes as low-stakes exercises for each textbook chapter reading.
provide feedback in a series of short essay assignments, by picking two - and only two -things you want your students to improve after each essay, in writing their next essay.
Ask students to briefly describe, in step-by-step bullet-points within a discussion topic, how they will revise their research paper draft, or prepare for the next exam.
At heart, the Ignatian Pedadogical Paradigm promotes action instead of mere clinical observation or learning only for its own sake. But it also rejects shallow or ill-informed generalizations that fail to address social, political or economic problems, or that promote prejudice and injustice.
Our Ignatian identity means Canisius University is not just a collection of specialized training programs, but is instead a place and project serving a more human, just, and prosperous world.