Hawaii Strategy InstituteApril 16-17, 2010Terri M. Manning, ED.D.

Typically high volume, high risk courses. Courses with the most sections and most enrollment. Courses where students often withdraw or do not

pass. They serve as the gatekeeper between

developmental or pre-college courses and courses in the “majors.”

Courses are fundamental to the college due to the size of the enrollment - 35-40% of all enrollment.

The courses are fundamental to other courses at the college (often pre-requisites.)

Improvements in these courses would be beneficial to the college overall.

Required English courses (typically 2) College level math (pick from several,

depends on major) Social sciences (psychology, sociology and

required history) One science (typically biology) Intro to computers Humanities (music, art, theater appreciation) Sometimes speech/communicationsFor all intents and purposes, these are

the gen ed courses

Students are there to learn the content. They should be “college-ready.” Most faculty teaching these courses

come from departments with no majors but are instead “service” units for the college.

Not a lot of energy is given to: Retention strategies First year experiences Developing “good student skills”

It’s their first semester. They complete their admissions form. Attend orientation (if required), go

through placement testing (if required) and see a counselor/advisor (if required)…. and then they register. What do they want to take? Their general education requirements Maybe one major course if allowed Many are advised into developmental (but

they never want to take these).

What is their expectation of these courses?

Let’s look at them one at a time.

We make them take a set of general education courses. Why? Why don’t we let them go straight to the major courses and graduate sooner? What do we expect them to accomplish? What skills should they exit these courses with?

Answer these question.1. What knowledge, attitudes and behaviors do we expect students to develop as a result of taking these classes?2. What should they be able to do when they enter the next course (especially if the course is a prerequisite for it?)

3. What skills, attitudes, values, etc. do students lack that keep them from doing well in this course?

First and foremost, about all academic areas…. The institution maintains an

ongoing, collegial, self-reflective dialogue about the continuous improvement of student learning and institutional processes.

So that is what we are going to do today.

1. The institution requires of all academic and vocational degree programs a component of general education based on a carefully considered philosophy that is clearly stated in its catalog.

2. The institution, relying on the expertise of its faculty, determines the appropriateness of each course for inclusion in the general education curriculum by examining the stated learning outcomes for the course.

3. General education has comprehensive learning outcomes for the students who complete it, including the following: a) An understanding of the basic content and

methodology of the major areas of knowledge: areas include the humanities and fine arts, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.

b) A capability to be a productive individual and life long learner: skills include oral and written communication, information competency, computer literacy, scientific and quantitative reasoning, critical analysis/logical thinking, and the ability to acquire knowledge through a variety of means.

c) A recognition of what it means to be an ethical human being and effective citizen: qualities include 1) an appreciation of ethical principles; 2) civility and interpersonal skills;3) respect for cultural diversity; 4) historical and aesthetic sensitivity; 5) and the willingness to assume civic,

political, and social responsibilities locally, nationally, and globally.

1. An understanding of the basic content and methodology of the subject

2. Oral and written communication3. Information competency4. Computer literacy5. Scientific and quantitative reasoning6. Critical analysis/logical thinking7. The ability to acquire knowledge through a variety of means.8. An appreciation of ethical principles and civility 9. Interpersonal skills10. Respect for cultural diversity, 11. Historical and aesthetic sensitivity 12. A willingness to assume civic, political, and social

responsibilities locally, nationally, and globally. What’s Missing on the Walls?

How do we take their current skills, attitudes and behaviors and move them toward the threshold of where we want them to be?

How can you connect “college skills or good student skills” to the content of your course?

Are there differences between activities or content geared toward retention and those geared toward improving academic skills?

1. Support activitiesa) Offer supplemental instruction, service learning

opportunities, tutoring, and study groups. b) Create a series of success workshops (offered

through the tutoring center, library or student success center) and require students attend a set number of them as part of their grade

c) Create learning communities or linked classes. d) Implement an Early Alert System to ensure that

struggling students get help.

2. Curriculum and pedagogya) Make instruction in gatekeeper courses

more related to real life experiences.  b) Use techniques such as active/collaborative

learning, mini learning communities in the class, and computer-assisted labs.

c) Establish learning competencies and share them with students.

d) Allow retesting in courses with sequential content so students can master it.

d) Institute “class conferencing” in classes – instructors meet with students individually on a regular basis.

e) Used grading rubrics for all assignments and give students a copy beforehand.

3. Faculty developmenta) Offer professional development for faculty who

teach gatekeeper courses. b) Let the faculty with great success teach these

workshops.1) Focus on retention techniques, improving academic skills

and student engagement

4. Next Stepsa) Work with faculty across disciplines to increase

the basic skills.1) How do the paralegal faculty teach students to

become better writers?2) How do the culinary faculty improve computational

skills?3) How do the Nursing faculty improve critical thinking

skills in students?

Why do they think this is your job and not theirs?

Most students never completed the gatekeeper courses, but in many cases that’s because these students never enrolled in them, having started and finished their educations in remediation.

The rates of reaching college-level work were particularly low for those requiring multiple remedial courses to reach college work.

Only 25% of remedial math student ever reached college level math.

Most students never ended up enrolling in the gatekeeper courses, but among those who did, the passage rate was 75 percent.

Students who needed remedial courses and completed them and then enrolled in the gatekeeper courses did as well in them as did students who didn’t need remediation.

Students who needed multiple remedial courses stood very little chance of ever reaching the gatekeeper courses. For instance, less than 20 percent of those enrolled in the lowest level of developmental mathematics (pre-algebra) ever enrolled in the gatekeeper math courses.

Only between 50 and 60 percent of students who were urged to take remedial courses enrolled in the courses that were suggested to them.

In some cases, those who didn’t take developmental did as well as those who followed them (in later courses).

The study cautions that this doesn’t mean that remedial education is ineffective, but could suggest that different students have different types of educational needs, and may succeed on different paths.

Community College Research Center at Columbia, 2004

1. Are students mastering the content – meeting the learning outcomes? (by this, I mean “how many students meet each learning outcome?

2. If yes, then we must address support services, the institutional culture and environment, the delivery method.

3. If no, then we need to rethink our pedagogy – how we are teaching these courses. Maybe we should break down the curriculum differently.

1. How do we address their deficiencies?2. How do we make better students out of

them and teach them our content?3. How can we address content in other

ways than the faculty lecturing or teaching it?

4. Today, all content is on the internet. How can we use that to our advantage (they don’t have to get it from you)?

Have more power to influence students than any other group of faculty on the campus (but they don’t often recognize it.)

Are some of the most dedicated and conscientious faculty on the campus.

Typically know what is going on everywhere. The focus of the “visiting team” during an

accrediting visit (did you know that). But they all live quite nicely in separate ivory

towers (never see themselves as one faculty with one purpose.)

Could your come together? Create a course of action? Develop the “hidden agenda” for students

completing the gen ed core… we won’t let them out without these skills…1, 2, 3, etc.

Create assignments and activities to reinforce “college-level student” behaviors.

Perhaps give them points for what you want them to accomplish.

Determine what students need to get from the various gen ed courses.

By the time they have completed the gen ed courses, you have inoculated them 7-8 times.

How might that impact student behaviors?

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8,