Using Pedagogy Workshops as a Catalyst for Curricular Change at 2-Year Colleges

1. #23 Using Pedagogy Workshops as a Catalyst for Curricular Change at 2-Year Colleges Karen Singer-Freeman, Joseph A. Skrivanek, & Ronnie Halperin, Purchase College Sponsored by NSF Grant # DUE0524965 • Abstract • In 2006 Purchase College initiated a series of pedagogy workshops for community college faculty who teach in STEM fields. The goal of these workshops is to provide a supportive framework in which faculty learn about innovative pedagogy and share ideas with colleagues. Over the past 4 years, 8 day-long workshops have been offered. In this poster we describe the workshops and summarize the ways in which they have served as a catalyst for curricular changes at 2-year colleges. • Details • Individual workshops have attracted 15 -25 participants from 6 local community colleges. • Faculty receive • Compensation for attendance • Release time from their institution in order to re-design courses • Workshops • 1) Strategies for Success – Spring 2006 • The First Lecture: Enthuse them or Lose them • Active Group Learning • Bioethics Debates • Using Technology in Lecture and Lab • Getting Unprepared Students Ready for A & P • Exploring the Human Genome Project Online • Theatrics, Chemistry and Music • 2) Your Favorite Bio or Chem Laboratory Spring 2006 • Each participant presented the best lab they had developed. Labs included: • Estimating Population Size of Pillbugs • Bacteriaology • Drosophila Park • Determination of Mass of Limiting Reagent • Lab Ecology • Chemical Reaction of Copper • Urinary Physiology • Osmosis • 3) Proven Approaches for Better Learning – Fall 2006 • Organize class around a relevant problem • Use teams to work on research tasks • Have students communicate research results • 4) Peer-Led Team Learning - Spring 2007 • Ways to implement group problem sessions • Current students as group leaders • Alumni as group leaders • Student-generated or instructor-generated materials • Ways to implement peer tutoring • Current student tutors • Alumni tutors • 5) Effective Grading: Tools for Learning & Assessment – Fall 2007 Guest Speaker – Ginny Anderson • Articulation of learning outcomes: Testing for learning vs. intelligence • Rubrics • Primary Trait Analysis Scales • Affective Checklists • Mini-Portfolios • Surveys of student work • Analysis of whole class data • The use of reflective writing, poster sessions, and PowerPoint • Feedback from Alumni • 6) What We Have Learned So Far – Spring 2008 • Four community college faculty gave talks about changes they had made in their teaching as a result of participation in earlier workshops. • Re-Design of General Bio Sequence • Using Student Assessment of Learning Gains • Pedagogical Improvements in Intro Bio • Peer-Led Team Learning Exercise in Chemical Kinetics • 7) GIS-Based Resources for the Classroom – Fall 2009 • Introduction to GIS and Google Earth • Examples of classroom uses • 8) Math Across the Community College Curriculum - Spring 2010 • Challenges and pedagogical issues of interdisciplinary work • Introduction to Quantitative Literacy: “What should students know when they leave college?” • Examples of ways to integrate math and science content • Group work to design 3 possible lessons • Formative Evaluation • The success of these workshops depended upon the use of formative evaluation. • Surveys completed for each workshop • Responses guided the development of future programs • We conducted two focus groups in the Spring of 2009. • Outcomes • Immediate Survey Responses • The majority of participants reported that they believed the information covered in every workshop would be useful in helping them to improve their teaching. • Participants provided suggestions for future workshops • Focus Group Retrospective Feedback • 60% of participants have reported that they had made changes in their introductory STEM classes. • Participants valued learning substantive information as well as more general pedagogical techniques • Participants valued the networking opportunities provided by the workshops feeling that the chance to meet with colleagues enlivened their thinking about their subject matter, their curricula, and their pedagogy. • Generally, faculty reported that the most helpful workshops provided information that could be applied broadly to many different types of introductory classes. • Future Plans • In the future faculty would like to have workshops on some of these topics • Attention Retention: Keeping students’ interest • Using Technology in the Classroom • Communicating with Students • A Faculty-Student Joint Workshop • Closer cooperation between science and math faculty • .