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Innovations Academy: Creating a Culture of Teaching Excellence and Innovation. Peg Balachowski Anne Brackett Elliot Stern. Genesis of IA: Why a “new” model of professional development for faculty?.
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Innovations Academy:Creating a Culture of Teaching Excellence and Innovation Peg Balachowski Anne Brackett Elliot Stern
Genesis of IA: Why a “new” model of professional development for faculty? (1) We send instructors away to hear big ideas, but these rarely result in big changes in the classroom.
Genesis of IA (2) Faculty rarely have the time to creatively implement the strategies they bring back from conferences.
Genesis of IA (3) We wanted to create a critical mass of forward-thinking instructors to change our culture.
Genesis of IA (4) We have innovators and experts but no pathway for broader dissemination.
“We infuse innovative learning and state-of-the-art pedagogy—such as an emphasis on critical thinking and collaborative learning—into all course offerings.” EvCC Strategic Plan 2012
Q1: • What is the culture of professional development on your campus?
Q2: • What do faculty on your campus say they need or want to be successful in the classroom?
Innovations Academy • One week (four days) in summer • One coordinator • Four facilitators (internal experts) • Sixteen participants • Taught almost exclusively by active learning • Faculty paid $1000 – not free money!
Day 1: Got Group? • How to create collaborative learning exercises that work • How to facilitate collaboration • Faculty spent afternoon creating collaborative exercises from their own course content
Day 2: Turn it Around • Flipped Classes • Wiggins (backward) Course Design • Faculty learned how to teach elements of their own course content and accomplish course objectives by Flipping and using Wiggins
Day 3: Technology • Video capture hardware (Smart Podiums) • Tegrity (screen and audio capture program) software • Jing software • Faculty spent most of the day in hands-on activity, creating their own Tegrity or Jing
Day 4: Engagement & Assessment • Energizing students and faculty with Student Engagement and Collaborative Learning Techniques (SETs and COLTs) • Formative Assessment Techniques (FATs) • Followed by an extended discussion of factors that will encourage more innovation
Q3: • These are the big ideas that we chose – what would you choose?
Follow-up Faculty participants were required to… • Have follow-up with home-group colleagues • Visit each other’s classes or share experience of changing their teaching methods • Assess effectiveness of changes • Write reflection paper
Assessment “We practice evidence-based decision making throughout the college.” EvCC Strategic Plan 2012
Q4: • What are the incentives that would encourage faculty to attend?
Will they use more collaborative learning in their classrooms?
Will they employ backward planning or flipped class techniques?
Will they employ new engagement techniques and FATs and SETs?
Q5: • What are the obstacles?
How many employed new tools in Fall classes? (n=16) • Flipped class (or activity) 10 • Tegrity/Jing videos 11 • iClickers 3 • SETs 8 • COLTs 10 • FATs 2
IA was hands on. • “Bravo for letting us figure things out ourselves instead of demonstrating techniques while we watched.”
IA inspired faculty to grow and improve. • “I have used iClickers and Tegrity in the past, and experimented with flipped classes in XXX class on main campus, but this was the first time that I felt I did it well, with the kind of forethought and deliberate planning that makes a good lesson great.”
IA participants made bridges. • “One of the best parts of IA was getting to work…with instructors from other departments and getting to know them personally… I felt a true sense of connectedness and community.”
Viva the IA! • “The IA was a unique experience because I was not learning in isolation away from the campus. Having the time to learn from the same colleagues who teach the same students on the same campus is a worthwhile investment…as a result of the IA, I feel more connected to the campus culture than I ever have…Viva the IA!”
Did we change the culture? • Division meetings • Amplification effect • Classroom visitations • They have found their voice on campus
Q6: • What model would work best for your campus?
Q7: • How are you going to make this a real experience on your campus?
Questions for us? • Peg Balachowski • mbalachowski@everettcc.edu • Anne Brackett • abrackett@everettcc.edu • Elliot Stern • estern@everettcc.edu