Beyond Snowbird

On a hot sunny day in the Utah mountains we decided that a newsletter would be one way for us to chronicle our progress, learn more about each other, and explore new ways for collaborating across our institutions. Each edition would showcase one institution, provide updates from others, and consider ways to connect ideas. 

Barbara Cambridge noted that the COPPER title suggests many images: metal for strength of purpose, color as a shining example, and multiple uses from aesthetic to practical.  May our work together reflect these images as it unfolds in the months ahead.

Welcome to New Members

This fall Fitchburg State College (Fitchburg, MA) and the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) have joined our Community of Practice to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.  We are delighted to welcome these two new members into our community and look forward to working with you during the next three years.

Holyoke Community College Showcase

The Diversity Initiative at Holyoke Community College

During AY 2003, the College chose the motto Celebrate Community and Honor Diversity to describe one of its major initiatives for the year.  At the opening convocation in both semesters, the keynote speakers were experts in the field of social justice, and the campus community responded to their call for action in a positive and powerful manner that has had far-reaching effects.

From January through August of 2003, faculty and staff attended a grant-funded series of intensive workshops entitled Creating an Inclusive Educational Environment.  Initiated by the College’s Director of Affirmative Action and led by a consultant from Mount Holyoke College, the workshops were designed to help faculty, staff, and administrators address the needs of the College’s richly diverse student population.  After discussing matters of theory and analyzing their own courses or work areas, faculty and staff made significant improvements in course content, materials, assignments, pedagogy, and procedures that would foster an appreciation for diverse perspectives and increase the chances of success for all students.  As one workshop participant said, “Magic happened here!”  Within one year, over a quarter of the full-time faculty and professional staff had been actively engaged in acquiring the knowledge and skills to create inclusion.  Further workshops, follow-up meetings, assessment, and proposals for publication and presentation are continuing this important work into AY 2004.

Latino students, who constitute more than 12% of the student population at HCC, are the largest and most consistently increasing ethnic group on campus.  Through a $100,000 Kellogg Planning Grant, HCC along with a coalition of leaders from the Holyoke Public Schools, Westfield State College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the local community have created ¡Avanza! The Holyoke Taskforce for Excellence in Latino Education.  This stakeholders’ coalition is designing a comprehensive community-owned action plan to improve the academic performance of local Latino students from elementary school through college graduation.

Another goal of the College’s diversity initiative was to increase its support for the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender population on campus.  Again, the response of faculty, staff, and students was impressive.  The Affirmative Action Committee provided Safe Zone trainings for over eighty faculty, staff, and students.  The Queer/Straight Alliance sponsored events throughout the year, and the Lambda Club made ongoing referrals for students who requested resources on and off campus.  The Theater Department’s production of The Laramie Project, Moisés Kaufman’s play about the murder in 1998 of Matthew Shepard, brought together the combined talents of faculty, staff, and students.  Other campus activities related to the play included a “talk back” after each performance, a faculty book discussion, the reading and analysis of the play in many classrooms, and two panel discussions about GLBTQ issues and hate crimes.  The Vice President for Academic Affairs, who was a member of the cast, described the production as “a seminal event in the history of the College.”

Learning Communities at Holyoke Community College

Learning Communities offer an alternative to traditional college classes by connecting the subject matter of two courses in a coherent manner through a common theme or purpose.  The goals of Learning Communities are to build academic and social cohorts of learners and to demonstrate the inter-relationship between disciplines.  In Learning Communities, faculty teach (and learn) together, while students learn cooperatively and often collaborate on assignments.

Learning Communities at HCC have been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, and the National Collegiate Honors Council.  Approximately four hundred students are currently enrolled in fifteen learning communities from the developmental to the honors level.

The Honors Program at Holyoke Community College

Holyoke Community College's Honors Program is the oldest among all the community colleges in the state.  In 2001, the Program's excellence was acknowledged when it was accepted for membership in the Commonwealth Honors Program, a consortium of fifteen Honors Programs across the state, administered by our neighbors at the University of Massachusetts Commonwealth College.

There are several ways to be part of the Honors Program: 

·        Students may enroll in one of the interdisciplinary courses the program offers through the first-year Honors Learning Communities or the sophomore level Honors Colloquium. 

·        Students may complete an Honors Project, independent work undertaken in conjunction with an existing HCC course.

·        Students may fulfill the Honors Option, a degree program, which includes the three Honors courses and four semesters of foreign language study. 

The Honors Program enrolls approximately eighty students annually, and involves approximately eight faculty teaching Honors classes and forty faculty mentoring students who are taking a Colloquium and/or completing Honors Projects.

Cluster Updates

Fitchburg State College

The faculty at Fitchburg State College has, for some time, engaged in discussions of issues related to teaching and learning.  For example, groups have been established to examine issues related to grading and teaching.  In addition, faculty meet to share their research activities and provide support to one another as they consider their research questions.  This year we will examine ways in which membership in COPPER can provide us with a more structured opportunity to discuss these issues and expand the discussion to other areas in which faculty are interested. A concerted effort will be made to increase the number of faculty who participate in such discussions.  In spring of 2004, our Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching will be re-established and will serve as a central location with support and materials to assist faculty in the important dialogue on the scholarship of teaching and learning.  

Holyoke Community College

With the support of the Academic Vice President, the HCC Foundation, the deans, and a grant, we have launched an official Scholarship of Teaching and Learning initiative this semester.  Professor Jack Mino announced two new SoTL groups at the opening convocation in late August, and more than fifty faculty members (over 40% of the entire full-time faculty) attended an introductory workshop that same morning.  We issued the formal Call for Proposals in September, and if the number of requests for an application form is any indication, we may need to create a third group to accommodate all of the qualified applicants.

Good Talk About Good Teaching:  An Introduction to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is a collaborative, experiential workshop in which faculty read, discuss, and investigate matters of theory, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment related to teaching and learning.  Faculty who attend the workshop, which meets every other Thursday afternoon for two and one-half hours during Spring 2004, receive a $500 stipend.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Scholars Seminar provides faculty an opportunity to work together for two semesters to research, design, implement, and review projects that will significantly improve teaching and learning and, in the third semester, to assess and present or publish the findings of those projects.  During Spring 2004, members of the seminar meet every other Thursday afternoon for two and one-half hours for discussion about research and individual projects.  During Fall 2004, faculty implement the projects they have designed in their selected classrooms and continue to meet in seminar periodically for peer review and support.  During Spring 2005, faculty assess their projects and work on presenting or publishing the results.  Participants receive one course release and, if they present or publish, a $500 stipend.

Iowa Western Community College

Update from Iowa Western Community College the SoTL cluster member from the heartland.

We are in our second semester of pushing forth the Learning Initiatives Center which is to house a number of resources for faculty as well as students.  Some of the resources will include:

·        Moving forward on Service Learning

·        Developing education training modules with the use of LENS

·        Providing resources and assistance for SoTL

A campus SoTL group has been formed that consists of approximately seven members from a number of academic disciplines.  We met three times and are discussing the types of research that the group is interested in pursuing.  We are also sending a faculty member to attend the cluster conference in San Diego.

We are moving forward on the monograph project.  We are in the process of conducting a quantitative study on the culture at Iowa Western Community College as it relates to faculty attitudes and perceptions surrounding the ideas of the roles of community college professors in studying the art of their craft in teaching and learning.

Middlesex Community College

The Fall 2003 semester was a busy one for us.  The college is preparing for an accreditation visit next year so the number of meetings for everyone at the college has increased. Due to problems in schedules we had meetings of our Community of Practice on two days with members attending one or the other.  This did allow for more flexibility, but group members decided that they preferred one large meeting.  We may need some creative time management approaches to make this work next semester.

We focused on the Greater Expectations report in several sessions and discussed ways that our work at the college can address some of the concerns.  We reviewed the projects of several Carnegie members; three papers are nearing completion and will be posted on the website in early January:

Does the Inclusion of “Soft Skill” Training in a Technical Workforce Development Program Effect Student Motivation?

Robert J. Bowles, Professor of Computer and Electronic Technology

Electronic Communication in a Basic Writing Classroom:

What Do Students Gain?

Tom Laughlin, Professor of English

Course Portfolio for Principles of Correction (CJ 1115)

Lynda J. Pintrich, Professor of Criminal Justice

Carnegie members presented their work in a variety of settings: the Mid-Atlantic Teachers of Psychology Conference, the New England Faculty Development Consortium Conference, and The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges.  Phyllis Gleason created a timeline summarizing key issues in SoTL for the New England Conference.  We will post this document on the COPPER Webcenter resources since it may be useful for others as they discuss the historical context of the work.

Jessie Klein and Kate Sweeney worked diligently to organize the Summer Institute scheduled for June 24-26, 2004.  We will have many activities for COPPER members and hope that we will be able to meet many new faculty from your campuses.  Please check our website for specific registration details. (http://www.middlesex.cc.ma.us/carnegie/)

Northern Essex Community College

In fall 2003, The Teaching and Learning Center sponsored a series of informational meetings and an application process for faculty interested in the SoTL project. With continuous faculty development support from President David Hartleb and Paul Bevilacqua, Vice President of Academic Affairs, the Teaching and Learning Center put out a call for proposals to full-time faculty. Eight faculty members were selected and will come together in the spring 2004 semester to begin the new project.

This group will share readings, discussions and begin to develop their individual research projects. They will continue to come together in the fall 2004 and spring 2005 (with a course adjustment for fall and spring) to explore and share their project plans with colleagues, begin their classroom research, implement their projects, publish the results of their findings, and continue to engage in discussions about teaching and learning. This project builds on the foundation of five years of the year-long Teaching in Community projects which now includes a new group for faculty teaching online. We are very excited about the breadth of each of these SoTL projects and a short summary of each is provided below.

Jacqueline Pena, Developmental Studies (ESL and Basic Writing)

Project Inquiry: How Does Service-Learning Affect or Improve Language Acquisition for ESL Students and Why? Jackie suggests that service-learning can connect the students to other communities besides the one in the classroom, opening up a vast variety of resources for both the students and the communities being served. Jackie thinks that service-learning may provide the missing link that our ESL students need since many of them are inclined not to use English outside the classroom.

Sandra DeVellis, Social Sciences

Project Inquiry: Student Feedback: How Does it Influence Student Learning and Teaching Practice? Sandra states that faculty and students give each other feedback in many ways. Sandra wishes to explore the ways in which this feedback influences student learning and our teaching practice.

Steve Mathis, English Department

Project Inquiry: Why Can’t These Students Write? Steve wonders why is it that some students (who have passed composition) don’t see the connection between the writing classes they have taken and writing assignments they encounter in other classes. “What exactly is it they have learned, and what are they doing with this knowledge in other classes?” Steve will attempt to find the answers to these questions by following students’ writing efforts as they continue on at the college.

Richard Lizotte, Developmental Studies/Instructional Support

Project Inquiry: How May the Diversity of Student Learning Styles that NECC Faculty Face Impact How We Need to Teach and Assess Our Students? Rick states that “Sensitivity to the diversity of learning styles is one of Chickering and Gamson’s Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, which were developed from a meta-analysis of several studies of what works in teaching and learning. Rick proposes to research and then use several measures of learning styles to answer a number of questions that he posed as part of his inquiry.

Barbara Stachniewicz, English Department

Project Inquiry: How is Community Created in Virtual Environments?  Barbara believes that both Learning Communities and Distance Learning are important to student success. Her extensive work in learning communities has shown her that students value the connections they form with other students and teachers. Barbara is intrigued with discovering ways to make that experience available to online students and research creating community in online courses.

George Medelinskas, Computer Information Sciences

Project Inquiry: Problem Solving: Top-down or Bottom-up? George states that there are two ways to approach any problem. They are equally useful in the world of programming yet most texts teach students to follow the top-down approach even though many of our students are bottom-up problem solvers. George poses his inquiry as follows: “I am interested in seeing if there are ways to identify students as top-down or bottom-up learners, structure experiential activities that lend themselves to one or the other approach, build community in the classroom by having collaborative teams made up of both kinds of problem solvers, and develop projects that require cooperative but diverse approaches to problems.”

Ginger Hurajt, English Department

Project Inquiry: Alternative Models in Teaching English Composition I. Ginger will examine other models of teaching composition, particularly a 2 plus 2 model that combines two hours of lecture with two hours of lab. Ginger will research the questions:  What are the differences in teaching strategies in the new model? How successfully do students learn with the new model? How can student learning be assessed and measured in the standard and “new” composition classes? Does teaching a lab class result in higher grades or in a better grasp of class objectives?

Jennifer Hawrylciw, Education

Project Inquiry: Jennifer is interested in a number of inquiries which she will be narrowing down as the project proceeds. Her current interests are student-centered instruction, cooperative learning, problem based learning and the creation of a community of learners.

Pine Manor College

Since returning from our cluster meetings last summer, Michele and I have had some success in furthering faculty and staff interest in SoTL.  At our annual faculty orientation in August, we were given an opportunity to make a presentation about the cluster and our role in it to the entire faculty.  We discussed SoTL, our plans for getting started this year, and facilitated a conversation about teaching which developed from our asking our colleagues to identify their most positive teaching experience.  We asked them to reflect on why the experience was positive and what question(s) about teaching might the experience have uncovered.  That is, what more would they like to know about the experience?  While all could identify positive experiences (often involving students becoming engaged and energized about a topic or project), many wondered about how they might replicate their experiences.  We noted that these were precisely the sorts of musings that might develop into interesting SoTL projects.  We explained that we would continue these sorts of conversations and would serve as facilitators and resources for those interested in pursuing this line of inquiry. 

Following our initial meeting, we have had two other opportunities to hold meetings/workshops with the entire faculty.  We have a Thursday lunch series to which all faculty are invited.  The Dean of the College has agreed to dedicate at least one session per month to our discussions of SoTL issues.  To date, we have held one general meeting at which we solicited information about faculty interests and attempted to organize smaller SoTL groups, and one meeting at which we again engaged faculty in a discussion about teaching.  We asked our colleagues to identify their most memorable undergraduate learning experience.  We also asked them to reflect on why they believed that the experience was memorable to them.  Though we heard a variety of different experiences, one consistent theme was that a demonstration of passion for a subject on the part of a faculty member, regardless of the area, was something that had engaged us all.  Michele and I also asked our colleagues to consider whether or not we were providing the same significant learning experiences for our students.  We spent some time trying to identify barriers and facilitators to doing so. 

We have made the distinction between consumers and producers of SoTL.  It is our belief that all of our colleagues, at least with regard to their discipline, are actively involved in consuming SoTL work.  However, we believe that the cluster affords us an opportunity to further our SoTL efforts in a number of ways. In addition to these inclusive faculty discussions, Michele and I have also started three SoTL groups.  Two of these we have deemed consumer groups and one a producer group.  The first involves a small group of faculty (6-8) who are interested in a teaching circle.  They would like to explore a variety of SoTL topics.  This group is currently reading Courage To Teach and has had some great discussions about balancing course content and process. 

The second consumer group is much larger (~15) and seems to be taking shape around issues related to teaching in a diverse environment.  Pine Manor is, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, the most diverse liberal arts college in the country.  We are quite proud of this fact, but recognize that it has created some interesting questions and challenges for us.  This consumer group is attempting to identify and answer some of these questions.

Finally, we have also started a producers group.  We see this group as being more structured and have limited membership to those faculty members who have at least the germ of an idea for a SoTL project and who are committed to working to develop their projects.  Currently this group has about seven members.  The most developed of the projects to date involves several faculty members who are interested in the degree to which service-learning courses make a lasting contribution to civic engagement.

In conclusion, we believe that our SoTL efforts are off to a great start.  Within both the faculty and administration there seems to be a level of excitement about the SoTL work.  Michele and I have heard a number of our colleagues express some delight at our providing opportunities for them to discuss topics that are dear to them, but all to often give way to the other substantial demands on our time.  We look forward to watching and guiding the development of these and other SoTL projects at PMC.

Salem State College

Salem State College sought to build on and expand its beginning work in SoTL through participation in COPPER.  To this end, our focus during this first of three project years has been on the building of awareness, communication and community.  Through this “quiet phase” of our program we intend to disseminate information and stimulate conversations about SoTL and communities of practice. 

During the Fall 2003 semester, one or both of the COPPER Steering Committee members have introduced or provided information about the project to the President, Academic Vice President, Deans’ Council, Department Chairs, as well as the Council on Teaching and Learning.  Plans are underway for a faculty “kick-off” event to be held in Spring 2004 during which SoTL research grant opportunities will be introduced.  The June 2004 Middlesex Summer Carnegie Institute will be announced at this event as well.

The concept of “teachers who teach too much” prompted active discussion at a recent COPPER-sponsored luncheon for current and former CTL members. As such, while SoTL is the focus of the Carnegie activity, Salem State College will make full use of our affiliation with COPPER to foster development of other communities of practice on campus.

Valencia Community College

Valencia’s Teaching and Learning Academy:

Valencia Community College has created a comprehensive, peer-driven professional development program for its tenure-track faculty members, The Teaching and Learning Academy.  This three year program provides support for faculty members developing the seven essential competencies of a Valencia educator: creating learning-centered teaching and learning strategies, integrating course competencies with the core competencies of a Valencia graduate, infusing instruction with Valencia’s developmental advising model, creating appropriate assessment measures, developing inclusion strategies, engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning, and focusing on professional commitments.  Participants, in conjunction with their deans and faculty colleagues, develop an individualized learning plan that acts as their blueprint for professional development and research.  This new approach to faculty development is engaging, scholarly, and personalized.