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COPPER News Fall 2004 Volume 2, 11/29/04 |
Telling the Stories
Our newsletter last fall focused on moving beyond Snowbird. How could we take the strong group connections formed at the Summer Academy and adapt them to our own local settings? How could we generate enough interest to sustain our cluster connections? Our COPPER cluster members have collaborated in myriad ways: including conference calls, a retreat, presentations, weblog discussions, the Carnegie Colloquium, a Summer Institute, and the Vermont Summer Academy as well as in countless other emails, meetings, and phone conversations. We have moved from work based at institutions to work that connects to the domains of learning communities, service-learning, assessment of student learning outcomes, and diversity.
In one of our meetings this fall Bill Snyder discussed how it is easier for groups to move forward once they have reached a certain momentum. As we reflect on the past year it is clear that we have “reached a certain momentum” and are moving toward deepening practices on our local campuses and in our cluster group. The cluster work involves connections on a national level with the eleven other cluster groups, on the cluster level with our eight institutions, and on the local level with our own communities of practice on campus. Three stories will help to illustrate the many different ways in which communities of practice create value for institutions at the local, cluster, and national level.
Local Story: Bob Bowles of Middlesex Community College
On Curtis Bennett’s SoTL Top Ten List (available at http://www.uwlax.edu/sotl/) his number nine item states that “your research should speak to you first, your peers second, and the greater academic community third.” In a similar way, SoTL projects should have value in the local community first. The work of Bob Bowles is a good example of how one SoTL project can produce important ripple effects in other parts of the college.
Bob Bowles, a professor of Computer and Engineering Technologies, joined the Carnegie Community of Practice in the 2001-2002 academic year. He explored ideas about developing leadership in classrooms but then settled on a topic central to his daily classroom practice, the issue of incorporating soft skills training. He completed his project entitled, “Does the Inclusion of “Soft Skill” Training in a Technical Workforce Development Program Effect Student Motivation?” in 2003 and it is now posted on the MCC website: http://www.middlesex.mass.edu/carnegie/MCCCG/Explorations2004.htm
As a result of his research Bob partnered with Career Counselor Diane Hewitt and other staff members to present a workshop on soft skills/life skills for MCC faculty, staff, and industry representatives in Spring 2004. Bob and Diane’s workshop raised a number of issues that will be addressed in an upcoming professional day. In the summer of 2004 Bob and his department began to revise the Computer Software and Networking Technology Program to have as its major theme the incorporation of soft skills into the program. Other programs such as Computer Applications have done the same.
From his work Bob has connected with the Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections grant and provided examples of how soft skills can be incorporated into courses. He has also connected with the skill standards from the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies. Bob presented his project at the Massachusetts Community College Conference in April 2004 and at the MCC Summer Institute in June 2004. Several members of our COPPER cluster group have remarked on the value of Bob’s work since there are few examples linking SoTL concepts in more technical areas.
Bob’s example demonstrates the immediate value of SoTL work to student learning and it shows how one project can produce a number of added benefits. Bob’s project helped to expand work in his department, to provide new ideas for the larger MCC community, and to enhance the reputation of the college with local industry partners.
Cluster Story: Eric Metchik of Salem State College
A central question for our COPPER cluster has been how to create the connections across institutions that will allow for exchange and for pooling educational resources to support the scholarship of teaching and learning. Dr. Eric Metchik, a professor of Criminal Justice at Salem State College, agreed to share his reflections about his COPPER experiences during the past year.
Eric’s Reflections
I applied to the COPPER program with the hope and expectation that it would be possible to form on our campus a small group of faculty with shared research interests in different aspects of the scholarship of teaching. We would be able to meet on a regular basis and share feedback in both formal and less formal ways concerning our projects. This expectation has been more than fulfilled since last summer. Our working group is small but dynamic and there is a real feeling of camaraderie that has developed among us. The extent to which participation in this program would also foster contacts with colleagues outside SSC was a very pleasant additional "bonus."
I found the Carnegie Summer Institute held at Middlesex Community College last June to itself exemplify the type of collegial mentoring experience that the "Community of Practice" and, in a broader sense, the scholarship of learning movements seek to promote. From lunch the first day of the conference, during which I was able to sit with other criminal justice faculty in attendance, to each conference session itself, the focus was consistently on meeting colleagues with similar interests, backgrounds and experiences. I was able to explore the potential for distance learning in my discipline by learning firsthand of the experiences from presenters in this area, and one of them responded to my later e-mail by sending me numerous files concerning her course projects and rubrics. Another presenter responded to my e-mail inquiry about his work in the service learning realm by sending invaluable links to these types of projects nationwide. He had used these resources with his own colleagues to develop their program in this area.
Perhaps most importantly, my continuing contact with Prof. Donna Duffy, including her careful review of my COPPER proposal, has led me to rethink the scope of my original research proposal. This is turn helped me to conceptualize an extension to the work which I think will ultimately lay the ground for a more rigorous test of my initial hypotheses.
The continuing series of e-mails the Salem COPPER group has received concerning websites and blogs as an outgrowth from the initial conference has also served to strengthen our connections to the other conference participants. I very much look forward to seeing them again and feel that our paths would not have crossed were it not for participation in this program.
National Story: COPPER blog as connector
Don Margulis began the COPPER blog early in 2004 as an informal coffee shop setting where COPPER members and other folks at various colleges could drop in and share ideas. Don structured the site and organized the majority of the postings for the first six months. Since late summer, individuals from many other institutions have been posting information or sending material for Don to post. In addition, during conference calls or at other meetings when a good idea or resource is mentioned, faculty now suggest that it be posted on the blog so that a wide range of individuals can have access to it.
The blog has been an effective way to help link ideas to other clusters. In a recent series of posts, Don raised the question of student voice, connected the group to the CASTL cluster on student voice, and included concrete examples of activities sent by North Seattle Community College members of the Student Voice cluster. The blog is also evolving as a way to bring ideas from work on campus to a larger audience. Tom Laughlin’s intriguing Tree Question Project (http://middlesexwac.blogspot.com/ ) initiated this fall will be posted on the blog for others to view and participate. The opportunity for greater connections at many different levels is an important advantage of participation in the CASTL cluster work.
In October Don was invited to describe his work on facilitating communication in clusters on a panel entitled Organizing a Campus to Support the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at the Inaugural Meeting of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning held at Indiana University. Barbara Cambridge of AAHE coordinated the session and Don presented with Cheryl Albers (Organizing to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning cluster), Anita Salem (Mentoring Newer Scholars of Teaching and Learning cluster), and Jennifer Meta Robinson (Research University Consortium for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning cluster).
Cluster Updates
Fitchburg State College
At Fitchburg State College, The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is embedded in many conversations and initiatives. On of these initiatives, “Using Conversational Spaces to Enhance Learning,” funded through a campus Ruth Butler Grant, has created a faculty learning community in relational teaching and learning. In this learning community, faculty and administration meet regularly to discuss common readings with invited national scholars from outside the College in order to construct new theoretical models. Our collaborative work will culminate in a campus-wide symposium and joint publication. Thus far, the collaborative scholarship of two of the LC’s members has resulted in an article published in The Journal of Student-Centered Learning. In March, FSC’s Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching, Learning, and Writing will also co-present a related project with A CASTL colleague from Western Washington University, Dr. Carmen Werder, at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in San Francisco.
This academic year the College will launch its First Year Student Learning Community Project. Drawing from the experiences of participants at the October Atlantic Center for Learning Communities Curriculum Planning Retreat in Holyoke, MA, seven faculty meet regularly to plan the Spring 2005 pilot. Its focus on global perspectives is particularly timely considering current political and military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Students will have multiple opportunities to integrate curriculum and life as they explore issues inside and outside of the classroom. Faculty participants are currently exploring the integrative implications of such “current events” LC work with students.
The College is also well underway in shaping its Leadership Academy laptop initiative. Active SoTL support is being planned through faculty learning communities in the uses of technology to enhance learning. As the campus makes plans to go “wireless” and require laptop computers of all incoming first-year students, the need for SoTL- related initiatives will grow considerably. Plans now provide for the creation of cross-disciplinary faculty learning communities.
Additionally, the College is accepting proposals for up to six faculty SoTL awards. These competitive awards will draw faculty from various disciplines for which SoTL work may be relatively unusual. Projects will culminate in campus-wide review and in a monograph published by the FSC Press.
Holyoke Community College
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) initiative at Holyoke Community College has taken the form of two cross-disciplinary faculty learning communities: the SoTL Scholars Seminar and the Good Talk About Good Teaching workshop. Both groups offer faculty the opportunity to examine, in a collaborative and scholarly manner, “best practices” in education, to implement pedagogical improvements in the classroom, and to assess the impact of these changes on student learning.
Eleven members of the original Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Seminar are continuing to meet this semester to provide peer support for each other as they implement and assess a variety of classroom research projects that include
· redesigning courses in developmental math and English,
· defining the conditions that promote interdisciplinary learning,
· researching alternative teaching methods such as problem-based learning,
· using on-line technologies to supplement classroom instruction,
· creating inclusive learning environments.
Good Talk About Good Teaching Faculty Learning Community
Eleven faculty completed the Good Talk About Good Teaching faculty learning community last Spring, and this year, sixteen more faculty will be engaged in another Good Talk faculty learning community led by Mark Lange, a member of the original SoTL Seminar.
· In June, 2004, six of the SoTL and Good Talk participants—Monica Torregrosa, Mark Lange, Jack Mino, Paul Cavan, Gerry L’Heureux, and Marsha White—attended the Middlesex Summer Institute in June. Jack and Marsha were also presenters at the Institute.
· In July, Jack Mino attended the Carnegie Summer Academy in Vermont and also published an SoTL-based article in Equity and Excellence in Education.
· Lisa Wyatt, Judy Maggiore, and Sue Mackler did a presentation at the Massachusetts Community College Leadership Academy about the results of their SoTL research project on student motivation in a basic mathematics classroom.
· HCC and Pine Manor are co-coordinating a new COPPER domain focused on diversity and inclusion. HCC hosted the first meeting with Pine Manor, and we plan to meet at their campus later this semester to continue what promises to be a productive collaboration.
The success of the SoTL on our campus and the sheer number of participants—thirty-eight people (over 1/3 of our total full-time faculty) will be actively engaged in Spring semester—led HCC to submit the SoTL initiative as one of its three “best practices” of AY2004 to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.
Iowa Western Community College
At Iowa Western Community College we are moving forward on a number of SoTL initiatives. The first of which is a monograph of the academic culture of the college. Dr Gary Gard has spearheaded a project that involves surveying the academic scholarship perceptions and behavioral norms of faculty at the college. The results of the survey will become part of the monograph. Steve Glennon was awarded a Datatel Learning grant to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of Hybrid (blended) courses on student learning.
Twelve faculty members from across the college have formed a community of practice group. The group meets one evening a month at the house of Dr. Gary Gard to discuss and reflect on issues of teaching and learning.
The Learning Initiatives Center is in its second year and has become a place for different faculty communities to gather. The groups meet on a regular basis to share ideas from a range of topics that include teaching strategies, service learning, assessment, learning styles and cultural diversity to name a few.
Middlesex Community College
Our community of practice at MCC began in the 1998-1999 academic year and several of the original members continue to participate actively. In addition, this year we added three new faculty to the group. It is interesting to contrast recent reflections of two members, Phyllis Gleason from the 1998-1999 cohort and Margie Bleichman from the 2004-2005 group:
Five years of reading has produced a culture shift whenever I do anything new. Now, I think of pre-testing and post-testing. I used to try and change things and get them to work but without thinking of how they worked, but now I do it before I implement changes. I automatically think about formulating a pretest to measure whether or not the strategies work.
Phyllis Gleason
As a new member of the group, I feel like I have entered a very thoughtful and thought provoking space in which I can begin exploration – it gives me hope for connection and reflection.
Margie Bleichman
SoTL work is designed to create spaces for exploration with a goal of creating changes in the way we approach our work as teachers. The two quotes capture these ideas and illustrate how long standing communities of practice can bring value to individuals and to the larger academic community.
During the past year we have been engaged in supporting the work of the COPPER cluster through visits to other colleges, enhancement of the MCC Carnegie website, creation of the COPPER weblog, and hosting of the Summer Institute in June. We have also been supporting our own members as they complete projects and organize presentations.
This fall our college opened the Teaching, Learning, and Reflection Center on campus headed by Carnegie member Phyllis Gleason. A part of the mission of the center is to “extend the network of faculty and staff committed to the scholarship of teaching and learning by serving as a focal point for exploration, informal discussion, and collegial collaboration around new modes of teaching learning, and assessment.” Instead of trying to find space for our meetings each month, our Carnegie group now has the luxury of a comfortable space to gather. The Teaching, Learning, and Reflection Center will provide a number of different ways for faculty to examine strategies for improving student learning and will serve as a place for integrating various innovative approaches happening across the college.
Northern Essex Community College
In September 2003, I returned from our first Carnegie/COPPER meeting excited to be part of what I hoped would become a SoTL project at NECC. After meetings with the President, Academic Vice President and Deans, I got the go ahead to put out a call for proposals. We were able to provide course adjustments for participants and, with the support of the Academic Vice President we were able to sponsor the project through our Teaching and Learning Center.
Much to my delight, we were able to bring together eight faculty from a variety of disciplines that began coming together in the spring of 2004 to explore their interest in their particular projects and to meet the other SoTL participants. Many of the participants had worked closely with others through various teaching and learning projects, so for many it was old home week. During the course of the spring semester, some faculty changed the focus of their projects while others refined and fine tuned the focus of their work. In June, we all joined forces at Middlesex Community College at the Summer Institute. During these days, we were excited to meet other COPPER campus members and make the connections that would help us move our project forward. This September, we came together to lay out a plan for our meetings and a process for critiquing each others work. Individual faculty are working on their projects and selecting various methods of outreach to others. We are excited about being part of the COPPER Cluster and we look forward to a rewarding year. Details about our SoTL participants can be found on our web site at: www.necc.mass.edu/departments/ofsd (Click on the Special Projects link.)
The following are comments from two of our SoTL participants:
Rick Lizotte (Developmental Studies and Center for Instructional Technology):
For many years, I have done action research in the classroom to see what is successful and what is not in the ways I teach. I began to work in a research group sponsored by MATSOL (Massachusetts ESL Professionals) to do this work, but my time with them was limited due to the demands of our various jobs.
SoTL is an opportunity to get support, not just in the community of my own college, but in a national virtual community, for my research. Already there are people in our COPPER group who have agreed to get data for me in my study of the effects of learning styles on teaching and learning.
Not only do I have the opportunity to get more data and support from my fellow SoTL project members, I also have the opportunity to impact teaching and learning in more than just my classroom by sharing the results of my research with others. When I ask others to collect data for me, I also ask them what they would like to learn from this data. In this way, I believe I can collect further interesting research questions while giving back to those who have given something to me.
Sandra DeVellis (Social Sciences):
Before SoTL, I often felt like a closet research geek. I liked saving information that I was curious about. I had folders full of information such as: how long students reported they spent on assignments, comparisons of achievement on different forms of quizzes, written feedback from students on a variety of topics (from the pacing of the class to the usefulness of an assignment). I liked looking at it. I reorganized this information, thought about it, changed some of my classroom practices because of it but generally kept my interest in it hidden. When the opportunity to participate in SoTL crossed my desk, I was immediately interested.
What a rush! I have been energized and excited by the process. Talking and working with colleagues who have questions about their teaching and are willing to try 'research' at some level to explore their questions has been a gift. I am trying new ideas in my classroom to add to my bag of tricks. I have continued to develop and pilot a survey on 'responsible' student behaviors and each insight leads to a dozen new questions. Isn't this what education is supposed to be all about?
Pine Manor College
A great deal of progress has been made in getting SoTL activities to take root at Pine Manor since the publication of the last COPPER newsletter. Like many of the other COPPER institutions we quickly learned that making progress toward the goals laid out a year ago in Snowbird, Utah would require us to build structures and change the culture of our institution. We needed to provide our colleagues with vehicles for learning about SoTL, as well as provide resources, guidance, and support for budding SoTL projects. Much of our first year of involvement with this project focused on these initiatives.
As we have reported elsewhere, progress came in the form of creating opportunities – the time and space necessary – for our faculty to talk about their teaching in a meaningful way. Bob Shea and Michele Ramirez, our COPPER representatives, had the chance to make several SoTL presentations to the entire faculty over the course of the year. We also established a teaching circle in which the members met bi-weekly and discussed Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach. Perhaps our most successful effort of the first year was the creation of a SoTL group interested in exploring issues related to teaching in a diverse environment. As the most diverse private, liberal arts college in the country (with about 60% women of color), PMC finds itself faced with some unique opportunities and challenges. Many of our faculty welcomed the opportunity to meet regularly to discuss a variety of related issues including the fact that our faculty and staff does not mirror the diversity of our students and the need for a distinctive curriculum that reflects the experiences of our students. One of the most exciting outcomes of this group’s work was the intention to collect faculty reflections on “hot moments in the classroom”. Such “hot moments” might include items like the realization of the incredible power and potential that a diverse classroom, reports of particular classroom challenges, reflections on new teaching strategies or resources to name just a few. The group felt that these reflections would certainly be a valuable for our faculty (especially those new to the community), but might also be useful to a wider audience.
Many of us were struck by the overwhelmingly positive response to creating these opportunities to talk about teaching. Like our colleagues at the other COPPER institutions, the PMC faculty often feels extremely overworked and overburdened. The numerous responsibilities that fall on a small faculty often leave little time for scholarly reflection on teaching. Having a structure to counter this has been invaluable for us.
We also recognized that just having opportunities to talk about teaching wasn’t enough, and that we needed to find ways of encouraging our dedicated and innovative faculty to more formally assess the teaching and learning taking place in their classrooms, to develop SoTL projects, and share their results with colleagues outside of the institution. As a small institution without a lot of resources to dedicate to faculty research, we needed to be creative in finding ways to support colleagues interested in such projects. Because of our affiliation with COPPER and the positive results of the first year of involvement, our president did provide our Center for Inclusive Leadership and Social Responsibility with the resources to support 3 Center Associate positions. Center Associates are members of the faculty of staff who submit a proposal outlining a new mission-related project. While 3 positions may not sound like a lot, it represents 10% of our full-time faculty. This level of support has greatly enhanced the interest in developing SoTL projects on campus. In addition to those currently being formally supported, we have seen other SoTL projects beginning to emerge.
In addition to our SoTL efforts on our campus, PMC continues to be actively involved with COPPER. Bob Shea attended both the meetings in San Diego and Vermont last year. Both Bob Shea (service-learning) and Michele Ramirez (diversity) have agreed to help foster the development of “domains” of interest within the cluster. We have served as the guest hosts for the COPPER weblog for a week, and continue to work with other representatives on assessing the work of the cluster. Several of our colleagues participated in the Middlesex Summer Institute where they both had the chance to talk with faculty from other institutions and to present some of their work. Nia Lane Chester (Dean of the College), Bill Stargard (Associate Professor of Art History), and Bill Boffi (Associate Dean of Student Life) presented on faculty/staff collaboration in our portfolio learning process. Michele Ramirez and Bob Shea gave a presentation on community-based research in undergraduate research courses. Most recently, a group of faculty from PMC met with representatives from Holyoke Community College to talk about common issues and strategies for teaching in a diverse environment. This meeting was extremely productive and plans are currently underway to bring more representatives from each institution together on our campus for a faculty discussion on this topic. Other COPPER institutions are likely to also be invited to participate.
In all, it has been a productive first year and our second year is off to a good start. We anticipate more SoTL activity on our campus, as well as a higher level of collaboration across the cluster.
Salem State College
Spring semester 2004 saw the launch of our educational phase of the COPPER program with two roundtables: one was on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning with the tutorial on the web center as a basis for discussion and the other was on ethical issues in classroom research, using Pat Hutchings “Competing Goods” as the focus. The point of the roundtables was to provide the campus community with more information about SoTL and to encourage people think about applying to participate in the SSC COPPER Scholars program. The request for proposals in April asked for classroom research projects that could be completed in one year. Those who were accepted would get one course release and a $500 stipend in return for which they were expected to pursue their research and meet with each other on a regular basis. In addition, the Academic Vice President authorized a stipend and course release for Elizabeth Coughlan to serve as SSC COPPER Coordinator to publicize and manage the program, and to act as the ongoing
link to the COPPER steering group.
The first SSC COPPER Scholars cohort includes three faculty members from diverse departments: Criminal Justice, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Chemisty and Physics. These three faculty members all attended the Middlesex Carnegie Institute and all commented on the very positive experience they had there. We met three times over the summer to discuss SoTL issues and to refine their research projects. The goal for the semester was to meet once a month, but we found ourselves meeting once a week in early October, spending one session on each of the three projects.
As well as working with these three faculty members, I am working on publicizing the program and recruiting applicants for the next cohort. We hope to expand the program by offering up to six slots next year. One issue under discussion is how to keep this year’s scholars connected once the next cohort begins. The enthusiasm displayed by this first group is the best advertisement Amie and I could possibly hope for in recruiting the next group and we hope to keep that energy moving so that the faculty as a whole become more aware of the power of SoTL and more involved in making teaching a community project.
SSC COPPER Scholar Jim Gubbins writes: My work on trying to discern the moral language and concepts of first year students is going along fine. I've been in fruitful discussions with our COPPER group at SSC, with other SSC faculty, and with faculty at other campuses. I've begun to see and treat all of my classes differently. Just as standardized tests usually include an experimental section by which the test designers try out new sorts of questions, I have small portions of almost every class session devoted to some aspect of teaching and learning. In these portions I'm trying out a new teaching technique or getting feedback from the students about what they learned or how they felt the class was going.
The scholarship of teaching and learning perspective that I've acquired has freed me up to try new techniques, bring students more into the process, and incorporate new technology.
My classes are now dotted with such phrases as "this may be a fiasco but we'll see what this data projector can do, I'd appreciate it if you could honestly discuss what worked and what didn't in class today, please answer these questions, it would help me a lot . . ."
Valencia Community College
Valencia Community College formed a community of practice for SoTL practitioners this summer. Members include several senior faculty members, as well as recent graduates of and current participants in Valencia’s Teaching and Learning Academy. Two members of the community are Valencia librarians, one of whom is assisting other community members in submitting their SoTL work for publication.
The group is currently engaged in peer review of completed projects. They are also identifying connections among their completed and active projects, forming partnerships for future projects, and contacting faculty at other institutions whose work relates to their own. Members of the community look forward to inquiries from faculty accessing the COPPER directory.
One member of Valencia’s SoTL community of practice has formed an additional community of practice for Prep Math students and instructors. She has assembled a vibrant team of full-time and adjunct instructors, who have claimed a large public study area for mentoring and tutoring students – their own, each other’s, and anyone else who wanders by with algebra on their minds. Teachers are helping students, students are helping students, and yes, teachers are even helping teachers. The community is doing a brisk trade in worksheets and pizzas!
COPPER Community at the Summer Institute: Join us again this year on June 8-10, 2005!