Meander 2005: Upper Minnesota Valley Art Crawl

This project summary reports on sales, attendance, and operational issues as reported by the participating artists in the 2005 Meander Art Crawl. The purpose of this survey was to estimate the economic impact of Meander on participating artists; gauge attendance at Meander by day and site; and gather suggestions and comments for use in making improvements in the 2006 Meander Art Crawl.Prepared in partnership with the Upper MN Valley Regional Development Commission by the Community Assistantship Program (CAP), administered by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota

Entering Law Students’ Conceptions of an Ethical Professional Identity and the Role of the Lawyer in Society

Kegan’s theory of lifespan identity development framed a pilot study of law students’ understanding of professionalism, part of a broader study of ethical professional identity. Four raters trained in Kegan’s stage criteria could reliably assess one of three developmental stages, based on coding essays on professionalism. Correlations of stage scores with moral judgment scores, service learning, and work experience supported the validity of the method. Ethical professional identity assessment can be integrated with courses or mentoring programs to provide students with developmental feedback. This method can also be used to assess law school outcomes with respect to ethical professional identity by comparing growth from matriculation to graduation

Empirical Evidence that Legal Education Can Foster Student Professionalism/Professional Formation to Become an Effective Lawyer

Legal education should move toward much more effective educational engagements to foster each student’s professional formation and thus improve each student’s ultimate effectiveness as a lawyer. Part I reviews and analyzes the empirical evidence that convincingly points toward the importance of a law student’s or practicing lawyer’s capacities and skills of professional formation for legal employers and clients. Part II reviews and analyzes the empirical evidence about the most effective curriculum, culture and pedagogies to foster each student’s professional formation. Part III explains the professional formation curriculum, culture and pedagogies of University of St. Thomas School of Law (the empirical evidence in Part II aided in the design of this curriculum, culture, and pedagogy). Part IV analyzes empirical data demonstrating that the UST law students experience growth in moral development and professional formation over their three years of law school in a manner different from that which might be anticipated from law school generally.The data from this study reasonably support the link between the overall UST Law educational program and an increase in both student moral reasoning and ethical professional identity. Our findings add to the research presented in Part II that education to foster professional formation must engage each student at the student’s current developmental stage. The UST Law curriculum, culture, and pedagogies reflect and incorporate the earlier research analyzed in Part II. Future studies will evaluate which specific elements of the curriculum, culture or pedagogies are most effective. The challenge at its core is to help each student internalize deep responsibilities both for others, especially the client, and for the student’s own development toward excellence at all the competencies that a practicing lawyer must have to fulfill his or her responsibilities for others

Measuring professional identity formation early in medical school

<p><b>Aim:</b> To assess the feasibility and utility of measuring baseline professional identity formation (PIF) in a theory-based professionalism curriculum for early medical students.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> All 132 entering students completed the professional identity essay (PIE) and the defining issues test (DIT2). Students received score reports with individualized narrative feedback and wrote a structured reflection after a large-group session in which the PIF construct was reviewed. Analysis of PIEs resulted in assignment of a full or transitional PIF stage (1–5). The DIT2 score reflects the proportion of the time students used universal ethical principles to justify a response to 6 moral dilemma cases. Students’ reflections were content analyzed.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> PIF scores were distributed across stage 2/3, stage 3, stage 3/4, and stage 4. No student scores were in stages 1, 2, 4/5, or 5. The mean DIT2 score was 53% (range 9.7?76.5%); the correlation between PIF stage and DIT score was ρ =  0.18 (<i>p</i> = 0.03). Students who took an analytic approach to the data and demonstrated both awareness that they are novices and anticipation of continued PIF tended to respond more positively to the feedback.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> These PIF scores distributed similarly to novice students in other professions. Developmental-theory based PIF and moral reasoning measures are related. Students reflected on these measures in meaningful ways suggesting utility of measuring PIF scores in medical education.</p