Committee on Teaching and Learning

CTL's Functions and Responsibilities

1. Identifies and facilitates the incorporation of strategies that enhance student success in the classroom and through campus learning support services (Library and LRC).
2. Works closely with instructional faculty and Student Services to integrate student success initiatives campus-wide.
3. Serves as liaison between faculty and Library staff on policies affecting utilization of the library, its resources and other faculty matters.
4. Serves as liaison between faculty and LSS staff on policies affecting utilization of the LSS, its resources and other faculty matters.
5. Provides oversight and general direction on tutorial allocations, and policies for operation of the LSS (Library/LRC).

Scaffolding Workshops in Fall 2006

In the Student Success Initiative discussions last year, faculty members agreed that having many different levels in a class is a challenge when teaching. Scaffolding lessons is a good way to design instruction to tap students' background knowledge and reach students in their "instructional zone", the area in which they can absorb information and learn.

Two workshops are offered through the FRC this semester to introduce a variety of methods for scaffolding within lesson plans.

Scaffolding: Helping Students Reach Higher Levels of Academic Success
Date: Sept. 14, 2006 at 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Presenter: Paul McGarry Location: FRC
Description:
Whether students are native English speakers or learning English as a second language, they need to develop the academic skills to reach higher levels of understanding and academic success. Scaffolding techniques are simple, applicable teaching strategies to assist students through modeling, assessing prior knowledge, applying study skills, developing metacognition, and synthesizing information. This 2-hour professional development workshop involves instructors in hands-on training, applicable to any subject area.

The next workshop will be Thursday, October 26th, at 3:00 - 4:30 pm in the FRC; the presenters are Pam Guenther and Pat Chavez-Nunez. Both will demonstrate methods of scaffolding for student success by sequencing lesson plans. Instructional design with discovery learning, small groups, assignments, use of PPT, and hands on activities will be demonstrated. Time will be given for discussion of applying pedagogical principles within lesson plans relevant to a variety of disciplines.

CTL Minutes /CTL Weblinks/FRC/ CLRC/Library/Student Services /SBCC

Submit an article to the CTL's webpage:
If you'd like to contribute an article, please let CTL know by email. Thank you.

CTL Teaching Tips Archives Searchable Database CTL Minutes Websites on Teaching and Learning Highlights from Articles 2005-2006 Issue Scaffolding and Student Success 2004-2005 Issue Ray Launier's Bloom's Taxonomy & SLO Model Critical Thinking Dispositions Spring 2003 Issue Ideas for a New Semester, Lunde and Drummond Engaging Students Fall 2002 Issue Service Learning, Susan Broderick & Robert Ehrmann Lou Spaventa Presents Palmer's The Courage to Teach Jody Millward Earns National Award for Teaching Excellence Spring 2002 Issue Guidelines for Seeking Academic Assistance, Dr. Jody Millward Faculty Teaching and Learning Seminar, Dr. Jack Ullom Student Hub and Syllabus Maker, Mark Ferrer and Jerry Pike CTL's Weekly Teaching Tip Project Graphic Organizers, Pat Chavez-Nunez Fall 2001 Issue Student Motivation, Joe White Student Health Survey on Risk Factors, Susan Broderick SBCC's Transfer Rates, Dr. Andreea Serban Email messages are welcome! Send in your ideas, suggestions, articles, questions and responses for possible posting on this page.	Santa Barbara City College Committee on Teaching and Learning "Creating a dialogue on learning and teaching..." CTL Members 2006-2007 (Front row, L-R) Anita Cruse (Eng./voted Chair for 2007-08), Evan McCabe (Health T/H. Srvcs.), Pam Guenther (Math), Kelly Lake (AS Liaison), Nina Mahaffey (CLRC); (L-R back row) Pat Chavez-Nunez (ESL, FL/Ed.), Scott Brewer (Ed. Sup.), Nina Warner (Fine Arts), Curt Solberg (Soc. Sci.), Jodi Simpson (Sci.), Kenley Neufeld (Library), Marilynn Spaventa (Ad. Liaison), Mark Ferrer (Ed. Sup./Prof. Dev. Coord.), Gerry Lewin (Chair). Not pictured: Jerry Pike (Ed. Sup., CLRC Writing Center).
		CTL's Functions and Responsibilities 1. Identifies and facilitates the incorporation of strategies that enhance student success in the classroom and through campus learning support services (Library and LRC). 2. Works closely with instructional faculty and Student Services to integrate student success initiatives campus-wide. 3. Serves as liaison between faculty and Library staff on policies affecting utilization of the library, its resources and other faculty matters. 4. Serves as liaison between faculty and LSS staff on policies affecting utilization of the LSS, its resources and other faculty matters. 5. Provides oversight and general direction on tutorial allocations, and policies for operation of the LSS (Library/LRC). Scaffolding Workshops in Fall 2006 In the Student Success Initiative discussions last year, faculty members agreed that having many different levels in a class is a challenge when teaching. Scaffolding lessons is a good way to design instruction to tap students' background knowledge and reach students in their "instructional zone", the area in which they can absorb information and learn. Two workshops are offered through the FRC this semester to introduce a variety of methods for scaffolding within lesson plans. Scaffolding: Helping Students Reach Higher Levels of Academic Success Date: Sept. 14, 2006 at 2:00 - 4:00 pm Presenter: Paul McGarry Location: FRC Description: Whether students are native English speakers or learning English as a second language, they need to develop the academic skills to reach higher levels of understanding and academic success. Scaffolding techniques are simple, applicable teaching strategies to assist students through modeling, assessing prior knowledge, applying study skills, developing metacognition, and synthesizing information. This 2-hour professional development workshop involves instructors in hands-on training, applicable to any subject area. The next workshop will be Thursday, October 26th, at 3:00 - 4:30 pm in the FRC; the presenters are Pam Guenther and Pat Chavez-Nunez. Both will demonstrate methods of scaffolding for student success by sequencing lesson plans. Instructional design with discovery learning, small groups, assignments, use of PPT, and hands on activities will be demonstrated. Time will be given for discussion of applying pedagogical principles within lesson plans relevant to a variety of disciplines. CTL Minutes /CTL Weblinks/FRC/ CLRC/Library/Student Services /SBCC Submit an article to the CTL's webpage: If you'd like to contribute an article, please let CTL know by email. Thank you.	Resources that Instructors May Give to Students Writing Across the Curriculum Guide, by David Starkey, English Dept. This online guide is available for instructors to share with students. The shortened version most relevant for students follows: Recommendations to Students, Three Golden Rules and Good Advice about Writing Seek Help A list of resources for students that lists Student Services and other kinds of support originally compiled by Kathy O'Connor and the Athletics Dept. Summary of First Year Partnership for Student Success Program Reports The Academic Senate charged CTL with monitoring the Partnership for Student Success Programs this year. CTL heard reports on the following 1st Year PSS Programs during Fall 2006: 9-25-06 Gateway, Sheila Wiley, Co-Director and Curtis Solberg 9-25-06 Faculty Professional Development Grants, Dixie Budke 10-09-06 Long Range Capital Construction Priorities, Kenley Neufeld, Resource 10-09-06 Two Day Orientation, Wendy Peters, guest; Nina Warner, Scott Brewer & Jodi Simpson 10-23-06 Athletic Zone, Kathy O’Connor; Nina Warner 11-13-06 SLOs, Mark Ferrer; MESA, Marilynn Spaventa for Nick Arnold 11-27-06 3 Nursing Proposals, Ann M. Kopeikin, Jane Metiu, Evan McCabe; Expansion of the Writing Center & the Directed Learning Activity, Jerry Pike, Alice Scharper CTL members’ comments follow the points from the presentation. Expansion of Gateway to Success Program, Sheila Wiley, Co-Director and Curtis Solberg - Gateway’s strength is the fact that it was created by faculty for the faculty. - There are 118 IAs across campus for 118 courses this year. Goal is to add 20 sections for Spring 2007 and 20 sections in the fall. Spread the word that faculty in any dept can join Gateway. CTL supports continued funding to expand Gateway or tutoring in some form across campus (see points under “Athletic Zone”). - Jerry Pike has added more sections of Tutorial 199 for Gateway tutors. - Gateway will have a Student Center, portable (33 on East side), in the Spring 2007 that will become a center for community building, tutoring, meetings, and other Gateway-related activities. Gateway uses the Library and the LRC for activities and meetings on the West side. - Learning Communities: We need to bring support, a sense of community and a feeling of shared experience to at risk students. This has been a challenge and strategies are forthcoming for Spring 2007. Scott Brewer will be a liaison to let us know the plan for enrolling more students in the Learning Communities. A change in plans for LC was made and is still in process of development within the Gateway team. - Evaluation is being done carefully so only classes with Gateway IAs and no other types of support) are being compared. They are using quantitative and qualitative data. 2% is a realistic increase to expect and would be significant. CTL recommends use of multiple measures. Case studies give an excellent sense of the variety of challenges and successes. Explore other measures. Are the percentages noted in the Evaluation document realistic? If not, funding should continue even with a lesser increase. - Jerry Pike is integrating the Directed Learning Activity: Professors teach tutors, who teach students, a specific lesson from their class. - Outreach efforts are continuously going on to get the word out about Gateway to faculty and students. More campus-wide emails might spread the word. - Time consuming to do the hiring, classification and training, but much is done in summer. - Conclusions from Curtis Solberg’s Summer History 100: 1. Improved levels of performance were linked to students who were Gateway empowered. 2. The three-way relationship strengthens instructor familiarity with these students; he can do more because of his IA. Curt calls his unique version “a university class with scaffolding”. 3. Gateway could serve as a port of entry for new high school entrants. H.S. students can be given a sense of empowerment which will reduce non-productive grades. 4. ESL students were very much supported by the Gateway Program. - CTL will hear about Gateway results Mar. 12, 2007, but currently recommends continuing support of the Gateway program, and expanding it in the future, and connect it with other student success programs when relevant and possible. Faculty Professional Development Grants, Dixie Budke - Oct. 27 was the due date for grant applications, and FPDC will be announcing those accepted before Thanksgiving. - CTL members have tried to encourage those who have expressed ideas about how to improve learning to apply for a grant in their divisions and generally. The SSI discussions around prioritizing the Obstacles and Solutions to Student Success generated many possible avenues that could become potential grants. - CTL will collaborate with FPDC by attending meetings when reports are given. - PSS grants through the FPDC are a positive step forward to fill in areas where PSS proposals were not approved, and where creative individuals can express their insight through a pedagogically valuable project. Long Range Capital Construction Priorities -CTL unanimously supports moving the Library and LRC up in the priorities for SBCC’s Long Range Capital Construction Priorities. This is an absolute necessity given the emphasis given to Student Success as these are crucial as they prepare students to receive instruction, provide supplemental instruction, offer tutoring and research assistance, offer computers to students, give a quiet place to study for many. (This item is included due to its influence upon PSS initiatives.) Two Day Orientation, Wendy Peters, guest; Nina Warner, Scott Brewer & Jodi Simpson Wendy Peters gave an outstanding overview of the Two-Day Orientation. Since the report, Matriculation has put forth a proposal to hire an Orientation Coordinator, making the CTL 2nd year proposal unnecessary as it would come under the job duties of the Coordinator, if approved. - CTL supports the Orientation Coordinator position. Athletic Zone, Kathy O'Connor - Athletic Zone has hired two coaches to run focused study halls for athletes. It is helping them academically. - They need more tutors in math and English, and in other subject areas. - Funding is desired to get more help. Most especially, they want to hire a Coordinator to oversee all the Student Success Support programs they have in PE. They want funding to hire a Coordinator who can counsel and advise students about the intricacies of their athletic requirements. - A space or facility is a challenge. They are currently able to use the Cyber Center in the evening from 7-9 pm, but no support services are open then. So they want to bring the support to the Study Hall. - They want DSPS to test the students here in the summer. The problem is that many don’t want to get help even if they have documentation, and also that DSPS is on a skeleton crew to keep the office open 12 months a year, so LD Specialists are unable to test in the summer as they are needed to work as counselors in the summer. DSPS needs another specialist trained by the Chancellor’s Office, not just an adjunct with a degree. - CTL recommends that the Athletic Zone work with Gateway to obtain an IA to assist students and with the Tutorial Center to arrange for tutors in the study hall. This report gives support to the recommendation to consider a long range plan for tutoring support for all courses and students in the future. SLOs, Mark Ferrer Mark Ferrer reported that the focus of SLO development currently is on Institutional SLOs. SBCC has done an outstanding job at the dept and division level. WASC follows an excellence model, not an accountability model such as No Child Left Behind does in the K-12 system. There are six SLOs that most colleges are coming up with, including Communication, Personal and Social Responsibility, Computational Reasoning/Quantitative Literacy, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, and Information and Visual Literacy. Positive aspects are the concern with civic and ethical responsibility, as well as the recognition of the importance of assessing learning styles. CTL’s questions: - How much will the Institutional SLOs be incorporated into each course? How to group students to cover these bases is unclear if each SLO is not covered in each class. - How do we make Institutional assessment processes embrace the PSS concern for basic skills being supported in all classes across the board – so that student perceptions begin to shift? - Several members commented on the need to avoid a top down mandate. MESA, Marilynn Spaventa, reporting for Nick Arnold MESA stands for Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, and it serves students going into these fields and who are either economically, educationally disadvantaged or who are from an underrepresented background. MESA has a three tiered program including pre-college, CCs, and four year institutions. It is also supported by and partners with industry, i.e., Hewlett-Packard. Companies provide funding and scholarships to MESA students. - They offer academic excellence workshops, an orientation course, assistance in the transfer process, career advising, links with student and professional organizations, a student study center, professional development, and an Industry Advisory Board. - SBCC is given $85,000 a year; the first year it can be used in any way and then there are percentages each year that can be used for salary. SBCC must match the funds, and it can be “in kind” labor. 100 students must participate. MESA wants to hire a fulltime Coordinator. At SBCC, the Foundation has provided funding in the past. Right now MESA is not an endowed program on our campus. - Nick started a club for low income students and to increase the presence of females in the field to reach gender equity. This included Chicano, Native Americans, but is not limited to an ethnic group. - Jodi Simpson spoke about the gender gap in her field, Engineering. Several people spoke about possible reasons, and all supported bringing more equity to the fields through MESA. - MESA can apply for a grant that is renewable, but it will need state funding in two years. Jerry wants to know if we should tie this funding to the PSS. - Marilynn expanded on the extra tutoring support given through MESA to the Math Tutoring Lab; their funding helps pay for the faculty who work in the lab. Progress is being made because an increasing number of students are attending the Saturday Math Lab. - CTL members applauded the idea of expanding MESA to include teaching aspirants in these fields. Also, the statistics are very encouraging to support the program. MESA’s obvious confluence with the Partnership for Student Success goals is excellent. - The topic of tutoring across campus was discussed. As more faculty hear about the success of students through MESA and the other PSS programs, it is likely tutoring and other help offered across several programs will be in demand. The question is how to plan ahead to have the resources in the future. Nina suggested getting professional volunteer tutors, such as tapping into retired teacher groups. The members decided to think about this problem and continue to revisit it. Nursing Proposals, Ann M. Kopeikin, Jane Metiu, Evan McCabe - ATI Testing instruments for LVN and Predictor exam and remediation for ADN Tests predict how well students will do in reading, English, and math; people need 30-40% to pass. A lower score means they need remediation, which can include classes being recommended, retesting, and use of tutors. 2/3 score lower than 15% in reading, English and math. They focus on teaching the adult learner; 1⁄2 are ESL students. Some have already gotten AA degrees and did not pass the reading part. Positive point is that students who received math tutoring still want it even if they are above the 50% level. - ADN students must pass the N-CLEX to become a nurse. The test they give has a 97% predictor rate of passing the N-CLEX. 50% didn’t pass on the first attempt; they went through a summer remediation class designed by Stephanie Durfor. She works with each student to develop an individualized study plan. Upon retesting, 90% passed. - Teacher attitudes are great; if someone doesn’t pass a topic that was taught, they look at how they taught it and reflect upon trying new methods of teaching. Exemplary reflective practitioners! - LRC modules could be updated to assist those with reading difficulties (J. Pike). - How we look at reading is more complex than what seems assumed by tests, but the reality is that nurses need to be able to comprehend directions and pinpoint practical details while reading on the job. Question: Could a preliminary course in the area of reading be offered that emphasized skills needed for nurses, i.e., following directions, inference, etc.? Is there a possibility of nursing instructors collaborating with English Skills instructors? Expansion of the Writing Lab and the Directed Learning Activity, Jerry Pike, Alice Scharper The PSS funding paid for two new Writing Center Teaching Lab Assistants, Lisa Danhi and Nicole Biergiel, who are perfectly fit for the job and have improved the everyday operations tremendously. In fact, they have co-authored a Tutor Training Handbook Addendum with Jerry Pike. It offers several excellent topics for training, including “Best Practices”. New tutor training classes have been added. OWL has been converted to a resource library. More tutors are available at peak hours. - CTL appreciates the excellent work on the Tutor Manual and training, and applauds the focus on working with the student not just working on the assignment. More tutors may be needed at the peak hours. Directed Learning Activity Jerry and Mark have written an explanation of DLAs, and have adapted the idea from Chaffey College. Alice Scharper noted that the use of DLAs folds into classroom instruction; it can be a tool of intervention, and can provide an opportunity to build basic skills. A plan is in the works to convene a group of English, ES and ESL teachers to design DLAs and pilot their use in the CLRC. They would like a coordinator to help with this. They will work with WAC (D. Starkey) to share this method across campus. - CTL members applauded the opportunity to provide scaffolding to build necessary background knowledge as a way to enhance lasting learning. - A question arose about the parameters of what tutors can teach versus the instructor. Ideas: Questioning is a mode that tutors are introduced to during training (which allows flexibility in their roles), and tutors can rely on teacher-designed worksheets with specific tasks so they have a structure. - This is an area to develop further and report back on in the future. Comments on a Prevailing Theme in Reports: One theme stood out in several of the presentations: the need for increased tutoring. CTL recommends the Academic Senate consider working on a long range plan for campus tutoring or supplemental instruction wherein faculty can be paid in a way that is not limited to flex credit, which is often used up quickly. Suggestions or Points to Consider: - Create a pool of funds from which tutors can be paid a flat rate, or give tutors a stipend. - Giving faculty their lab rate may be more motivating but would break the LRC’s bank, as that seems to be where the tutoring funds would come from (outside of the Gateway IA). - Comments have been made that paying faculty their lab rate for tutoring may create a sense of inequity with current tutors who are paid much less and who do an excellent job. - More depts and divisions will most likely desire similar academic support programs as the results of Gateway, Athletic Zone, and other initiatives providing tutoring are known, so there is a need to pay attention to a campus-wide solution.