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This month's columns include:

• The Self-Growth Institute: A Special Invitation
• Series: The Learning Process Methodology
• Step 9: Models
• Self-Growth Community: Learn to Live the Life You Desire
• From Tools to Truth: Living My Horizon Self Through the Self-Growth Project (a participant reflection)
• Something to Think About: "For the things we have to learn..."
• Making a Case for Methodologies
• Introducing the Process Education GPT Library
• FREE Webinar Series: The Latest on Trump and Higher Ed (from The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Feeling Stuck and Irrelevant?



Step Into Your Intentional Growth — Fully, Freely, Forever

The Self-Growth Institute | August 4–8, 2025

University of Indianapolis | RB Annis Hall, Room 116

8:30 AM – 10:00 PM Daily (Lunches and snacks provided)

Dinner Break: 5:00–7:00 PM

(Evening sessions optional for UIndy faculty and staff; required for all other participants)

This Time, It’s Your Growth — Not Someone Else’s

You’ve followed others’ growth plans before. You’ve tried programs, workshops, advice columns. But when the structure disappears, so does the change.

At the Self-Growth Institute, we guide you to build what lasts:

A self-directed, intentional growth practice you can lead, sustain, and deepen — week by week.

Why “Intentional Growth”?

Because true transformation doesn’t happen by accident — or by default. It happens when you choose to:

• Reflect with Insight
• Act with Intention
• Build with Ingenuity
• Sustain with Inner Strength
• Grow with Others, not under them

This is how we move beyond motivation and into self-authored momentum.

Your Horizon Self: The Destination You Define

At the Self-Growth Institute, we replace the abstract “Ideal Self” with something more real and reachable: Your Horizon Self — the next best version of you, just beyond today’s edge.

You’ll learn to:

• Visualize this next version clearly
• Align your week with your vision
• Script your time to reduce noise and amplify meaning
• Use weekly reflection to create real forward motion
• Track your progress with your own Quality of Life (QoL) Index

A Weekly Framework That Works

You’ll leave with a full Self-Growth Framework that helps you:

• Turn your week into a workshop for becoming
• Use setbacks as setup for breakthroughs
• Prioritize what gives life meaning
• Move from “I should grow” to “I know how to grow”

This is not a performance. This is a practice — and a philosophy.

What Participants Are Saying...

“I left knowing how to design my own growth — not just follow a plan.”

— Auston Van Slyke, GE Renewable Energy

“For the first time, I stopped chasing the ideal and started building the real.”

— Ingrid Ulbrich, Academic Success Leader

“It changed how I see time, purpose, and the person I’m becoming.”

— Matthew Watts, Mathematics Faculty

Cost & Commitment

• Tuition: $1,500
• Discounted Rate: $500 (for Phase III Self-Growth Project participants)
• University of Indianapolis Faculty/Staff: Fully funded by the university

✔ Includes lunches, snacks, full Institute agenda, and a digital copy of The Professional’s Guide to Self-Growth

Location & Daily Rhythm

• Dates: August 4–8, 2025
• Location: University of Indianapolis, RB Annis Hall, Room 116
• Time: 8:30 AM – 10:00 PM daily (Evening sessions optional for UIndy faculty/staff; required for others)
• Meal Plan:
• Lunch & Snacks: Provided daily
• Dinner (5:00–7:00 PM): On your own — enjoy exploring local restaurants nearby

Ready to Lead Your Own Growth?

Join a small, powerful group of intentional learners and life designers.

Spots are limited to ensure deep coaching, dialogue, and support.

Your Horizon Self is in view.

Take the next step — and make this the week that changes every week after.

These days, the self-guided or independent learner generally has an abundance of potential models readily furnished by any search engine…most often in the form of videos on YouTube. From learning how to factor quadratic equations to bleeding the brakes on a 1979 Suzuki motorcycle (don’t ask me how I know this one), the process that experts use are available, one example after another. And if you don’t click away in time, you may also learn how to save an ailing orchid, bake a cake your grandmother would envy, and speed fold a T-shirt.

So all the individual learner needs to do is seek out someone demonstrating what they themselves are trying to learn to do. Easy peasy.

The challenge, then, is for the instructor and activity designer who needs to do the work of creating or furnishing examples that meet the performance criteria or demonstrate a critical idea and then facilitating learners in exploring and understanding (and applying) the principles the examples demonstrate.

One of the core assumptions of guided inquiry/active learning is that most students learn best when they are actively engaged in analyzing data, models, or examples. This means that when it comes to course and activity design, each key process in a course should have a corresponding model that the instructor/designer identifies or develops and which students work to analyze. This kind of analysis (“analyzing models effectively”) is demonstration of Level 2 Knowledge. Critical Thinking Questions—next month’s feature—are a common way to guide students through effective analysis of a model. See the sample model below with critical thinking questions from the Foundations of Chemistry activity “Coordination Compounds: Magnetism and Color”:



MODEL EXAMPLE 1

Key Questions that help learners analyze this model:

9. A solution of [CrF₆]^3– absorbs wavelengths in the range 610 − 690 nm. What is the color of the solution?

10. A solution of [Cr(H₂O)₆]³⁺ is violet. What color and wavelengths are absorbed by this complex ion?

11. A solution of [Cr(NH₃)₆]³⁺ absorbs wavelengths in the range of 435 to 480 nm. What color is this solution, and what color does it absorb?

Beyond concept models, such as the expanded color wheel, models can also include methodologies, case studies, profiles, etc. We find methodologies particularly useful in many cases, as they explicitly demonstrate the processes or procedures that are essential for a novice to learn and as practiced by experts. (See FGB 2.4.8 Methodology for Course Design.)

Here's a partial model of the Problem Solving Methodology from Learn to Learn for Success, Experience 7: Methodologies: Unlocking Process Knowledge:

MODEL EXAMPLE 2

But methodologies used as models can also help learners advance from Level 2 to Level 3 knowledge through applying knowledge in a familiar context by:

• Linking principles and practices
• Documenting use of steps in a method
• Links the steps together

(From FGB 2.2.2 Elevating Knowledge from Level 1 to Level 4)

Students are guided in moving from Level 2 to Level 3 knowledge in the Methodology for Multiplying Complex Numbers below (from Foundations of Algebra Workbook), where they have two examples of the process and a Your Turn problem to work on themselves, step-by-guided-step: 

MODEL EXAMPLE 3

(We understand that methodologies may not work in every course or context, but any time the goal is for students to learn a process, then a methodology should be considered. Not everyone is a fan of methodologies, but we make a strong case by countering the most common arguments against them elsewhere in this newsletter.)

A final presentation of innovative model use in an active learning context is a section we call “Oops! Avoiding Common Errors” or “Addressing Common Errors”. In the curricula where we use this section, we offer models of mistakes that students often make, each followed by an explanation of what the error is and how to avoid making it. See the example below from Quantitative Reasoning and Problem Solving:



MODEL EXAMPLE 4

The “Avoiding/Addressing Common Errors” section of an activity is always paired with a “Correct the Errors” or “Troubleshooting” section where students are tasked with identifying and describing the error contained in a model of student work. (These sections are paired because there's little point in offering a model or example if we don't also challenge students to contextualize or apply the knowledge they represent.) The "Troubleshooting" section as shown below is solid Level 3 knowledge with students working not only at the level of application, but also trying their hand at Level 4 knowledge (expertise) through debugging or, in this case, identifying an error in a real-world-type context!

MODEL EXAMPLE 5

(Phase I and Phase II participant reflection by Steve Beyerlein)

Join us to explore and increase your own growth.

STARTING POINT

Though I brought decades of experience in coaching and mentoring, I soon realized the primary aim of the Self-Growth Project was not about guiding others—but about courageously turning inward. Phases I and II encouraged me to examine the gap between my current self and my Ideal Self and intentionally move toward a better next self—my Horizon Self.

Leading up to the Self-Growth Project, I had spent several years drafting and redrafting retirement goals. These captured desired qualities across life roles, but I lacked clarity on how to meaningfully pursue them. I kept thinking: “If only I could be more stoic or more diligent.” But that approach wasn’t appealing—it was easy to delay action until tomorrow, next week, or next year.

MINDSET SHIFT

The Self-Growth Project helped me tackle the challenge of designing life just one week at a time. What made it transformational was realizing it wasn’t about piling on tasks or forcing change. It was about adopting naturalistic practices that helped me live more authentically and intentionally.

A key turning point came when I stopped treating tools as tasks—and began using them to truly listen to my life.

TRANSFORMATION IN DAILY PRACTICE

In my 35 years as a faculty member, journaling was irregular and project-driven. Through the Self-Growth Project, journaling became a source of serenity. Using prompts grounded in Naikan philosophy, I recorded not just what I did—but how my actions aligned with my values and intentions.

My inner critic gave way to a voice of gratitude and discernment. Community AI tools like the Insight Generator and Assessment Mentor brought clarity I didn’t know I was missing.

LIVING MY HORIZON SELF

My desire to be a growth coach for my grandchildren, a lay apostle in my community, and a mentoring partner to colleagues is no longer a distant ideal. It’s a consciousness I now inhabit—in reflection, family planning, coaching, and energizing fitness as well as wellness routines.

My weekly growth plans—once tactical checklists—now integrate spiritual, physical, and emotional intentions. These aren’t just calendar items to mark off. They’re invitations to practice becoming.

OBSTACLES 

The journey hasn’t been without challenges—fear of failure, perfectionism, and reluctance to assert myself. But each week, I’ve found more courage to act with intuition, risk disapproval, and bring my full self into the moment. Reflection is no longer just retrospective—it’s more of a real-time performance practice.

BIGGEST BREAKTHROUGH 

One of my deepest shifts came in how I engaged with discomfort—especially around aging, faith, and my role as a spouse. What once felt like emotional exposure now feels like spiritual presence. Daily check-ins based on feelings and perceptions, not self-righteousness, has become a channel for staying emotionally engaged (even when it hurts) and offering presence (without the urge to fix prematurely).

INSIGHT TO CARRY FORWARD

If I had to offer one insight to others: the practices that changed me weren’t flashy. They were right-sized and often imperfect—but they were aligned. That alignment has spawned celebrated progress rather than regret. It has amplified my joy, deepened my relationships, and broadened my impact.

VISION FOR WHAT’S NEXT

As we launch Phase III, I’m not primarily aiming for more growth. I’m aiming for deeper presence. I want to become the kind of person whose legacy is lived day by day—not written after the fact.

I believe Phase III offers us a chance to build a community of practitioners—where trusted spaces invite us to share our experience, strength, and hope not just occasionally, but rhythmically and organically.



Something to Think About...

Making a Case for Methodologies

Argument 1

CON: Novices are often inclined to use methodologies as rulebooks that limit their growth and ownership of the learning processes. They tend to want to take shortcuts when they are challenged in new arenas that require complex performances that are difficult to learn. Methodologies can be used as shortcuts that reduce their engagement in the thinking and problem solving essential for internalizing the process.

PRO: Although learners often do use the prescribed steps in methodologies as a “cheat sheet,” that’s not a flaw inherent to methodologies. When a methodology is used to introduce novices to a complex process, it serves as a conceptual “bridge,” not just a checklist. In other words, following a methodology is not the point; internalizing it is.

Argument 2

CON: Educators sometimes assume, on the basis of their experience and observations, that methodologies work best in specific contexts. And experience with learners does tend to support the hypothesis that they often do not transfer knowledge from course to course or from courses to work settings.

PRO: Although it is common (and relatively easy) to create methodologies for specific tasks, a stronger approach is to create methodologies for generalizable processes such as learning and problem solving. There are at least 150 ways that the basic problem-solving methodology is used across disciplines.

Argument 3

CON: An expert will have process knowledge that is much deeper than a given methodology. Experts want to transfer this richness to the learner and may believe that they can produce a better version of the methodology. In addition, experts are usually concerned more about helping novices learn several methods for approaching a task than with firmly establishing steps for only one basic process.

PRO: Although a methodology is less rich than an expert’s approach, it is essential to have a reliable way to lead novices through initial learning so that they can proceed to learn the more subtle aspects of an approach. Again, a methodology is a bridge. The learning process will produce stronger knowledge and performance outcomes if novices are guided through the details that experts have long ago internalized.

Argument 4

CON: Some educators prefer to work on processes without the constraints of specifications, timing, and criteria. They argue that methodologies reduce creativity and innovation. These educators value the originality that results from the use of multiple perspectives.

PRO: Although methodologies can inhibit creativity and innovation, especially when they’re performed by rote, it is easy to underestimate the significance of establishing correct patterns. Consider jazz. One of the hallmarks of many types of jazz is that musicians often improvise during solos or riffs. But in order to improvise successfully, a musician must start with disciplined methods, procedures, and techniques to ensure proper attention to the main principle: being capable of producing music. The jazz musician, by the time they’re successfully playing paying gigs, has a great deal of basic process knowledge. The musician must know how to play their instrument, how and when to produce desired tones, and the essential rhythm and key of a given piece of music. A jazz musician can only improvise successfully thanks to all that knowledge. Additionally, a strong methodology often includes “creative” steps. Think back to your use of the Learning Process Methodology. The steps for Planning (8), Thinking Critically (10), Transfer/Application (11), Problem Solving (12), and Research (14) all required you to do some degree of brainstorming and put your imagination to work!



6 months of access to this library of custom GPTs trained on the extensive world of Process Education theory and scholarship is available to members of the Self-Growth Community!



Register for the Self-Growth Institute to put these amazing tools to work for you!

FREE Webinar Series: The Latest on Trump and Higher Ed

(from The Chronicle of Higher Education)

They're extending their free webinar series exploring the Trump administration’s impact on higher education: Join them for three more sessions this summer as Chronicle experts break down the latest developments from the Trump White House.

• July 23: 1 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. PT
• August 20: 1 p.m. ET | 10 a.m. PT

https://connect.chronicle.com/trump-webinar-series-2.html