Carrie Ann’s Reading Log (Week of March 28th)
Though I did read both chapters assigned, I want to focus this reading log on the Steadman text, due to issues I have seen with students that have crossed my path during my educational career. When teaching a class you wonder if all the information that you impart reaches and is understood by all the students in front of you. The group that this chapter brings to light are “The Leslies” and the idea of the learning issues that your students face from their perspective. You wonder when a student has an issue with the understanding of a particular topic, where there was an educational disconnect. Was it the way that I presented the information?… Could it be that I covered too much in class that day?… Or could it be that the student is not effectively reviewing the material on his or her own? All these questions plus a few others come to light and we need to formulate the hypothesis to solve the question at hand. One quotation that we must remember when dealing with “The Leslies” or any other student who crosses our path was presented on page 40, “Existing knowledge structures provide a framework for understanding new information.” The ways that our students learn, combine, and retain information are ingrained specifically to them and we must find ways to help students in our classes, not push them away. (We don’t want to lose students; we need to find new ways to make connections).
One way that we could this is in the Learning Strategies that were presented in this chapter. There were five different strategies that were mentioned in the discussion of “The Leslies”: 1) Rehearsal (highlighting the text/flashcards), 2) Elaboration (Making meaningful connections), 3) Organization (taking large amounts of new information and making connections with previous knowledge), 4) Comprehension monitoring (activities to check attention, avoid mind wandering, and self testing), and 5) Resource management (making a homework schedule, taking advantage of office hours and study groups/sessions). Over the years I personally in my own learning, have used all of these in learning material/concepts for myself. But, my students that I teach I can see do not. Out of a class of 90 or so students, maybe 30-40 will show up for a review session, in a semester I might have 5 ask to meet with me to go over material (and some will wait until the last minute and until they really realize they are in trouble to talk), and though I do in-class activities to keep everyone engaged, only a few will actually talk during class discussions. I am always available to help my students, but few take advantage of that… it is a struggle that I am still battling against. We as educators need to find out why this is, keep enforcing the learning strategies, and keep doing everything we can do to reach “The Leslies” out there.
Teddy’s Reading Log 03.28.2010
Teddy’s CTCH604 Reading Log 03.28.2010
For class session 03.30.2010
McKinney’s chapter 8 discusses and explains examples of SoTL work from the perspectives of researchers in both disciplinary and institutional contexts. Various conceptualizations and definitions of SoTL exist among scholars. As I read the chapter, I began to ask certain questions. What similarities and differences will I find in cross discipline research? What similarities and differences will I find in research of interdisciplinary sectors? Such inquiry encouraged me to investigate the challenges presented by McKinney in the chapter. The need for more SoTL on learning, graduate and SoTL work, beyond the classroom levels, students as co-authors, increasing replication of SoTL work within disciplines, across institutions, across disciplines and abroad. I believe that by meeting these goals we can come to a deeper understanding about SoTL work and how it can help us to unify the movement, identify problems and acquire real answers.
In the disciplinary context, SoTL includes reflection and the sharing of results across disciplines. The input of individuals from several disciplines working together on a SoTL project constitutes a work classified as “cross disciplines”. According to Yakura and Bennett (2003), cross disciplinary SoTL focuses on studies about similarities and differences among and between disciplines. Interdisciplinary SoTL involves studies of teaching and learning in interdisciplinary constructs. Benefits suggested by Wiemer includes learning by those in one discipline from the SoTL work of those in another discipline, strengthening of replication and reliability of findings across disciplines that advances our profession, providing a literature that is very helpful to those who work to promote social change related to a teaching-learning agenda and reading a diverse and powerful literature to improve our individual teaching practice. Associations and disciplinary organizations can support SoTL work by identifying SoTL researchers in the field using websites and publications. Also, they can sponsor academies and institutes as well as compile bibliographies of SoTL work by discipline or field. From Management Sciences, Sociology, English to the Liberal Arts, it is clear that certain commonalities will exist throughout the research experience.
From the institution context, incentives for scholarly research such as promotion and tenure should prove to be an effective means of getting faculty to publish. Excellent instruction must be encourage by administrators that set the bar high to ensure success through SoTL best practices. There is no single correct model of support for SoTL. McKinney cites examples in the chapter of strategies to reward, support and promote SoTL work. They include: joining the CASTL Program, self-study, campus conversations on SoTL, promoting SoTL with new faculty, enhanced student involvement, collaboration, starting a SoTL community of scholars, SoTL resources group, SoTL Summer Institute, connect SoTL to institutional mission and many others. Models of support range from well supported programs to poorly supported programs and those in between. With state funding being slimmed, many colleges and universities are experiencing the worst. Student enrollment is high at community colleges and tuition rates too. It is important that academic leaders make certain that the quality of classes remain high and retention of teachers known for their scholarly work support the SoTL movement. As campus models of support experience changes we must keep in mind the most important of matters. The delivery of a quality education to our undergraduate and graduate students!
Teddy’s Reading Log #2 for 03.21.2010
Teddy’s Reading Log #2 for 03.21.2010
For class session 03.23.2010
Scholarship truly matters! This second article describes the current efforts to deny faculty at community colleges the fruits of academic citizenship. Their right to fulfill responsibilities of scholarship in their institutions, disciplines and in higher education should quickly warrant an immediate round-table discussion with college presidents, community leaders and state officials to remove such unfair barriers. According to Prager (2003), the sector claim to a unique teaching mission has been used to exempt or exclude community college faculty from the scholarly obligations and responsibilities understood elsewhere in higher education. By discouraging externally validated scholarship, community colleges deny their faculty an appropriate voice. In turn, this denies all external agency access to that voice. Community college teachers educate nearly 40% of all college students and almost half of all first time freshmen. It would be wise to provide significant scaffolding for these two-year institutions and critically think about how they can be enhanced and used to energize the workforce. Excluding them could prove to be detrimental for future applications. More than likely, we may need their assistance to resolve both local and global matters of catastrophic proportions.
Community colleges have a long history as institutions of teaching. Therefore, their faculties are not thought of as producers of scholarly work or geared to focus on much of anything else. Community colleges are known for their strict concentration on student learning, giving students skills that will make them want to learn and they do that job well! Their instructors are extremely committed and take to heart the success or failure of their clients. They are often referred to as schools of second or lesser choice. As a result, community colleges are tagged with the stigma of being lowly-rated, stand-by schools for undergraduate students having little success in academic settings. Those of us who have taught in community colleges know that this is far from the truth. Instructors of community colleges are highly rated by their students as being of high quality. In fact, many instructors teach at both two-year and four year facilities. The only real difference is in tuition!
Scholarship is rarely included in community college mission statements. They have not institutionalized scholarship, instead, they have very cleverly positioned themselves as organizations where teachers are not expected to conduct research or pursue other scholarly venues. Such policies serve to disadvantage or deny faculty of existing remnants of tenure and promotion. It makes it very difficult for faculty to achieve the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship application and of course, the scholarship of teaching. The connection between teaching and scholarship is critical to expanding the inclusion of community college faculty as essential contributors to the scholarship of teaching and learning movement in higher education. I am thorough convinced that it is the responsibility of all to ensure that all college teachers are given the opportunity and responsibility to conduct research as teachers of younger scholars who aspire to educate, publish and make inquiry of current and future topics.
Jason’s Reading Log 3/23
This week’s reading was very interesting to me because of it’s focus on the community college system. I have always thought that the community college structure has a distinct advantage over the university system in it’s ability to produce SoTL research. The articles this week discussed this idea in detail.
The first article that I read was How community colleges understand the scholarship of teaching and learning. I think a very concise statement summing up the community college culture is: Community colleges have an advantage because of their “teaching focus” however community colleges are also disadvantaged by their lack of a “learning focus”. By this I mean that community colleges are able to avoid the “publish or parish” issue and focus on teaching as there professor’s primary duty. This does give them an edge over many university professors that are holden to the traditional research responsibilities. However, community college’s have done little in terms of understanding learning.
So while the community college’s “non publishing” advantage is real, that same lack of focus on research has lead to a culture of trail and error and seasoned teacher advice as the primary forms of understanding successful teaching. The community college system has also followed the common (and problematic) practice of using teacher evaluations as a substitute for more legitamite measures of learning outcomes. In short, the distance from a research requirement has both advantaged and a disadvantaged the community college system in it’s ability to engage in SoTL research.
Teddy’s Reading Log 03.21.2010
Teddy’s Reading Log 03.21.2010
For class session 03.23.2010
One of the articles for discussion this week, entitled “How Community Colleges Understand the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning”, describes the experiences of the faculty and administration of Middlesex Community College in Bedford and Lowell, Maine. The article gives some generally known reasons as to why students attend community colleges. Sperling (2003), states that they come to us for professional and economic growth, personal development, and intellectual stimulation. Many transform their lives and future opportunities through the skills and credentials they acquire. Students are flocking to community colleges because of their easy access and affordability. In times of economic downturns, it is the best deal around and route to gaining new skills or re-tooling people for the workforce. As noted by Sperling, community colleges are open admission institutions that offer students with little academic success an opportunity to bachelorette degrees. Community colleges are still struggling to shake off their old persona as institutions for the “undesirables” in post-secondary education.
Administrators and faculty at the Middlesex Community College began their inquiry about the scholarship of teaching and learning by asking important questions that were relative to the status quo. They first admitted that they were like most community colleges that focused on teaching and not scholarship. This led them to think about and question the transformation of their classrooms into laboratories to study student behaviors or gain insight about the research of others. Using their past knowledge and experiences, they realize that linking learning theory and teaching practicum would only transpire after deeper understanding of the AAHE’s 1998 definition of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. It asserted that the scholarship of teaching and learning is problem posing about an issue of teaching and learning, as well as , study of the problem through methods appropriate to disciplinary epistemologies, application of results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection, and peer review. However, much of how students learn from practitioners is often dependent on practices of trial and error. The use of best practices still prevails as the reigning methodology to teaching and learning. In other words, I teach as I was taught theory!
According to Sperling, few community college instructors are grounded in learning theory and most have never formally studied or even read much about cognition, learning styles, human development, moral development or taxonomies of intellectual growth. I found this statement shocking and embarrassing! It is difficult to believe that such individuals are selected to teach adults in American Community Colleges. It goes without saying, that teachers must understand learning styles in to order to structure activities that gives students opportunities to learn by doing, visualization, listening and reading. These contrasting pedagogical approaches are needed to sustain meaningful learning that is stimulating and motivating. Over and over again, community college instructors are informed about best practices through practice and observation, collegial sharing of what works or reflective practice that delivers effective instruction. Connecting the dots between learning theory and practice is essential to understanding how community colleges can move closer to understanding the scholarship of teaching and learning. In many ways, it is a direct rebuttal to the statement “Why We Do What We Do!”