Valuing in Decision-Making Ability: Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Across the Curriculum and Campus Culture at Alverno College

For the past 40 years, Alverno College faculty, staff, and students have collaborated in the creation of an integrated learning and assessment model that requires students to demonstrate, and faculty to assess, eight core abilities: Communication, Analysis, Problem Solving, Valuing in Decision-Making, Social Interaction, Developing a Global Perspective, Effective Citizenship, and Aesthetic Engagement. This article features a description of Alverno’s Valuing in Decision-Making Ability Department, which oversees curricular and co-curricular activities related to the teaching, learning, and assessment of the ability. Another primary focus is to describe and illustrate the valuing ability, how it is defined as a process, how it relies on interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation for curricular innovation, and how it emphasizes the development of faculty and students as purposeful professionals and community members.