Spring 2010 Faculty Inquiry Groups (FIG) – Final Report Summary

In Spring 2010, 7 groups participated in a pilot Faculty Inquiry Group project sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center and funded by the Basic Skills Initiative. Here are the original questions that they posed: Spring 2010 FIGs.

Here is a chart that summarizes each of their projects: Spring 2010 FIG Summaries.

Open House Survey Results – Spring 2010

In Spring 2010, we surveyed staff and faculty during our open house these questions:

  1. As a teacher or staff member at BCC, what one thing do you do for students that would inspire or be helpful to your colleagues?
  2. What is one thing in your work that you would like to change or improve to better student success at BCC?
  3. How might the campus–colleagues, Title 3, the Teaching and Learning Center, etc.–provide the resources, support, and/or community to help you share your expertise and inspiration or help you improve your practice?

A few highlights:

On what they do to support students:

  • I listen! Listen to their concerns and trials of life and refer them to others as need be.
  • Try to get to know student goals — figure out where they want to go/what they want to do and encourage that.
  • Keep pointing out relevance to their personal lives (how an assignment in excel can help future business majors).

On what they would like to improve:

  • Even though it happens to a degree, I would like to see more connections between students and the variety of real world organizational cultures in which they may work. It will help them to understand why they are here from a variety of employers’ perspectives.
  • Have more time to meet with students in group settings to address some of their same questions or concerns.
  • Connect students to resources beyond the scope of my classroom.
  • How to motivate students (other than making the connection between subject and real life).
  • More activities, creative group discussions in class. More ways to scaffold assignments.

On what the campus can help make these improvements happen:

  • Encourage and support cross-disciplinary collaboration.
  • Regular workshops on classroom dynamics, cultural diversity, tips for teachers.
  • Hold informal get-togethers to exchange ideas — structure events by topics: error correction, group-writing, classroom management, etc.
  • Perhaps students, especially at the basic skills levels, take a class on how to succeed in college. for example, taking notes, doing homework, reading the book.

To see a full listing of how people answered the same questions during the TLC’s open house in May 2010, click here: TLC Survey Spring 2010.

Faculty Inquiry Groups — Spring 2010

In Spring 2010, the Teaching and Learning Center is piloting Faculty Inquiry Groups to increase teacher collaboration around issues they are passionate about. Listed below are the seven small teams selected to participate in this project and their research question. After they complete their research, there will be links to their findings, resolutions, and a video interview that documents their project.

  • Counseling: What are the factors that hinder or support Latino BCC student in completing their academic goals? How can the counselors and classroom faculty address these factors? Team Lead: Luz O. Moreno. Members: Sandra Mendez and Felicia Tripp.
  • English (creative writing in composition classes): How do instructors show students the connections between creative and expository writing? Team Lead: Tom Moniz. Members: Robyn Brooks and Clif Ross.
  • English as a Second Language (ESL): What skills should ESL teachers prioritize to prepare ESL students for English 1A and other transfer-level courses? Team Lead: Ellen Rosenfield. Members: Patricia Seery, Cara Statucki, and Gabrielle Winer.
  • Science: What kinds of active learning teaching methods help students learn scientific concepts?  Team Lead: Linda McPherson. Members: Irania Alarcon, Elena Givental, Rita Haberlin, and Doug Schmidt.
  • Service-Learning (interdisciplinary): How does service-learning help students feel a sense of empowerment? What activist skills do student acquire that they will apply beyond the term? Team Lead: Matt Freeman. Members: Kate Koelle, Juana Alicia Montoya, and Stephanie Sanders-Badt.
  • Spanish: Why are so few students completing certificates or preparing for degrees in Spanish? Team Lead: Dr. Gabriela Pisano. Members: Dr. Fabian Banga, Allene Hamilton-Young, Willy Lizarraga, and Jose Martin.
  • Tutoring (English): How can we provide basic skills students better access to English tutoring appointments? Team Lead: Chris Lebo-Planas. Members: Caitlin Fischer, Jenny Lowood, and Esther Suarez-Burton.

For more information, please contact Scott Hoshida at shoshida@peralta.edu or 510-981-2897.

Faculty Experiential Learning Institute

Hello,

The Basic Skills Initiative committee would like to invite you to a unique professional development opportunity at Berkeley City College, The Faculty Experiential Learning Institute (FELI).

Dates:
Monday, June 7th – Friday, June 11th, 9 am – 5 pm. Food provided.

Location:
Berkeley City College, Teaching and Learning Center

Compensation: $350 (qualifying participants include select BCC faculty and staff)

Who:
BCC faculty and staff who work with basic skills students, especially in key “gateway” classes.

If you are interested, please apply by Friday, May 7th, 5 pm by clicking on this link:

http://forms.my-ace.org/bcc

Questions: Please contact Chris Lebo-Planas at aleboplanas@peralta.edu

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Why we feel this is important:
At BCC, the Basic Skills Initiative committee has taken the lead in identifying best practices for our educationally disadvantaged students – those assessing below college readiness in English and Math. We have found that students who come in at basic skills level need to learn or relearn the life skills necessary to access knowledge in the college culture. For the past two years, BCC has been using curriculum from the Academy of College Excellence (ACE, formerly the Digital Bridge Academy). Students who have experienced this curriculum have:
· shown multi-semester persistence;
· completed transfer-level classes sooner than their peers;
· become diligent, focused agents of their own change;
· taken charge of their own educational goals.

At BCC, PERSIST (Personal Initiative to Social Transformation) closely models the ACE curriculum, and the philosophy that positive social change can only happen with true access to higher education.

What Is It?
The FELI is a five-day workshop that condenses the two-week Foundations course that students in the Academy for College Excellence (ACE) experience at the beginning of each college bridge semester. Teachers, counselors and administrators experience an essential component of the program as an educationally disadvantaged student does.

In this transformative workshop we will identify and explore:
· Leadership and Learning Styles of self and others
· Positive Team Building
· Listening techniques toward effective communication
· Reflection toward self-management of behaviors
· Faculty-specific discussion about teaching and learning in the evolving classroom

For more on ACE’s proven effectiveness, go to this link:
http://academyforcollegeexcellence.org/why-ace

Who else believes in this curriculum for teachers and students?
The Columbia University Community College Research Center has recently found that students using the ACE informed cohort model perform significantly better than those that do not. To this end, the Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation has funded ACE for a total of $3.5 million to expand its model nationwide while exploring the potential for acceleration at the
basic skills level. For more information about ACE and its approach, click on the link below

http://academyforcollegeexcellence.org/

Our hope is that if we’re able to create a strong cohort of BCC faculty and staff who have attended this training, we can begin to build a strong foundation for improving the success of our students who enter college without the basic skills needed to succeed. For this summer’s workshop, we are targeting people who have either demonstrated a commitment to basic skills students and/or who teach in important “gateway” classes.

Sincerely,

Chris Lebo-Planas
PERSIST/English Dept.

Scott Hoshida
Teaching and Learning Center/English Dept.