Transformational Learning

Knowing the fast-evolving nature of global communities and of the human work that sustains them, Concordia will offer a transformative education that shapes 21st-century learners ready to address complex challenges in their professional, public, and personal lives with agility, imagination, and moral insight. To realize this goal, Concordia will:

Enact an interdisciplinary and issue-based approach to teaching and learning that embraces integrative learning as a defining characteristic of a Concordia education.

• Reorganize academic programs and the daily calendar to focus time, resources, and creativity for integrative learning and innovation.
• Leverage the expertise of all faculty and staff so that students can integrate their academic and co-curricular experiences, reflecting on the value of these experiences and applying them to challenges in college and after.
• Design a new common curriculum focused on collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches to meeting contemporary challenges and addressing big problems.
• Develop an alternative within the common curriculum that serves as an experimental space for new teaching and learning experiences that challenge traditions and encourage risk.
• Link the discoveries of integrative learning to a practice of vocational discernment leading all students to clarify and embrace next steps in their personal and professional lives, during and beyond college.

Construct for all undergraduates a global Concordia education focused on engaging the compelling challenges that transcend cultural, ideological, and national borders.

• Affirm the intellectual power and perspective of increased domestic and international diversity in those who learn, teach, and work at Concordia.
• Shape the new common curriculum around challenging problems of regional significance and global scope.
• Build intercultural and interfaith competencies and relationships for learning, dialogue, and shared service.
• Seek accessible student opportunities for learning in diverse settings beyond the classroom, both in the United States and around the world.

Expand Concordia’s footprint in pre-college and post-baccalaureate education, under the leadership of the Continuing Studies Office (CSO) and across college departments and programs.

• Establish policies and overarching priorities for credit and non-credit programming offered through the CSO, including evaluation criteria and revenue growth and management.
• Engage Concordia graduates and others as learners continuing their education for career advancement and personal growth, and as professionals sharing their expertise and experience with students.