Teddy’s Reading Log 03.21.2010

Posted by on March 22, 2010 
Filed under Reading logs

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!”

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