November 14, 2008
Adapted from Beverly DiSalvo and Shirley Kahlert (Merced College), “An Integrated Model: A Cluster of Pedagogies.” We gain understanding by asking students what they are thinking It is impossible to predict what a student might be thinking or how someone might be working to understand a concept. We have learned to watch for “moments of […]
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November 14, 2008
From Lydia Alvarez, Suzanne Crawford, and Lynn Serwin, “The Solution: The Power of the Pursuit” Most instructors want to make changes to their classses in order to see their students improve, but many do not know what to do to guarantee that they succeed. We too had this dilemma. We often wondered if the changes […]
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November 14, 2008
From David Reynolds (West Hills): “Helping Students Read Difficult Text” ASSESSMENT of READING – Before helping my students read difficult text, I first had to know what, how and when they read. There are many Reading Inventories available and I chose to give my students the WestEd Reading Apprenticeship Student Reading Survey. I needed to […]
Reading, Student Confidence, Surveys | Comments Off
November 14, 2008
A Carnegie Perspectives repost Lloyd Bond, Senior Scholar, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching The notion that all students who take the same course at a given college should take common examinations has been around for a long time. But programs that regularly employ common examinations are still rare, primarily because they require a […]
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November 14, 2008
From Lydia Alvarez, Cerritos College: “The Power of the Pursuit” The Before and After is a reflective tool I have designed based on a handout I have been creating for my students since the beginning of my teaching career. I have always created handouts called “Celebrating Revision” where I have copied short excerpts from student […]
Pre/post Testing, Reading, Uncategorized | Comments Off
November 14, 2008
From Pat Wagener, Can Problem Solving Become a Habit of Mind? Pat says: Students’ own perceptions of their math skills and abilities are often considered as anecdotal evidence, rather than factual information that has been quantified. In a meeting at the start of the Fall 2006 semester, this subject came up, and it occurred to […]
Pre/post Testing, Student Confidence, Uncategorized | Comments Off
November 14, 2008
A focus on students and their learning is central to the faculty inquiry process. Consider Katalina Wethington, who participated in a scholarship of teaching and learning seminar at Los Medanos College in fall 2006. Wethington was puzzled by a problem in a developmental English course one level below freshman English. In Wethington’s case, the problem […]
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November 14, 2008
SPECC campuses explored many models for bringing people together in faculty inquiry groups, which varied depending on the circumstances of the college, the history of faculty collaboration in developmental education, the creativity of the coordinators, and the purpose at hand. Some groups emphasized individual projects; others focused on a theme of common concern. Some involved […]
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November 14, 2008
Faculty Inquiry Groups (FIGs) treat professional development as a collaborative enterprise. One of the most persistent impediments to educational improvement is that teachers have-because institutions provide-so few purposeful, constructive occasions for sharing what they know and do with one another. Thus, one of the most important moves a campus can make is to create occasions […]
Faculty Inquiry Groups (FIGs), Uncategorized | Comments Off
November 14, 2008
Glendale Community College’s mathematics program, in 2000, instituted a common final examination for all sections of pre-collegiate algebra. The department produces tabularized information after each examination in order to show, among other things, the dropout rate and mean GPA for each class, as well as the performance of each class (properly coded to ensure anonymity) […]
Common Exam, Faculty Inquiry Groups (FIGs), Uncategorized | Comments Off