TCCTA Blog

Board Approves Rules on HB 2504

On Thursday, Oct. 29, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board unanimously approved rules to implement HB 2504, a new law that requires all higher education institutions to post detailed course information on their Web sites. As testimony before the board indicated, much of the information, in particular course syllabi and curriculum vitae of faculty, is already published or posted, in compliance with guidelines of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

However, for faculty and supervisors the most controversial requirement of the new statute is the following language:

Institutions of higher education included in this section shall conduct end-of-course student evaluations of faculty and develop a plan to make evaluations available on the institution's website.

HB 2504 was enacted in the waning hours of the 2009 Regular Session. For background on this important issue, please read this previous post. The text of the bill is available here. 

Testimony by Coordinating Board staffer MacGregor Stephenson confirmed that schools are not required under the law to post student evaluations by any stipulated time, but each college and university must develop a plan to do so. The deadline for the plan is August 2010 (the board's rules extended the deadline from January because of an inconsistency in the statutory language). Importantly, this means that institutions will determine the format and scope of their evaluation instruments.

It is vital that faculty members on each campus participate in this process to help insure that the evaluations represent a valid assessment of faculty, do not jeopardize academic rigor, and do not violate the privacy of students and teachers. If you have information to share on this subject regarding current efforts at your school to formulate an evaluation plan, please send it to [email protected], so it can be reported to colleagues around the state as appropriate. 

Are College Students Getting Worse?

Experienced faculty members often grimly answer this question in the affirmative, judging by the chat around the campfire at professional gatherings such as the recent TCCTA Fall Conference for Faculty Leaders. It seems to many teachers that standards were once higher, students were more deferential, and young people had a more modest sense of entitlement "back in the day." 

Not so fast, say a couple of commentators in Inside Higher Ed. Here's the link to the entire article. 

Gary W. Lewandowski Jr.and David B. Strohmetz are educators at Monmouth University. They point to plenty of evidence (albeit anecdotal) that professors were worried over the quality of their students a long time ago, pointing out, for instance, that "a faculty report once concluded that 25 percent of students admitted to Harvard in 1897 did not have the writing skills necessary to succeed in college." 

Historians might add that, during colonial days, drunkenness, laziness, and slovenly behavior were deemed by college administrators to be approaching epidemic proportions—at highly selective schools no less. Going even further back (to put it mildly), some scholars have argued that Plato's Republic was written out of deep concern over the dismal academic preparation and character of Athenian youth. The book presents some rather drastic views on education, after all, so there must have been a problem to begin with.

Has there ever been a generation of "seasoned" teachers who heartily approved of their contemporary cohort of young students? It's an interesting question, though any putative answer won't solve the problem of today's high attrition or low scores in algebra. 

The authors of the Inside Higher Ed. piece also point out that most college professors were probably good students when they went to school, so perhaps they tend to judge today's students by an unfair yardstick. And wouldn't we have checked our cell phones for messages constantly—and irritatingly—if we possessed them back then? But technology is a whole other conversation.  

Here's a passage:

"If students are not ideal scholars, there must be a good reason for how this came to be. A common explanation for students’ shortcomings involves generational differences. But it seems too easy to merely conclude that the students of today, "generation me," are qualitatively different than students of the past. We must remember that when we compare students past and present, we may be using an unfair comparison group. We run the risk of using our own past experience as the default comparison group. This presents two problems. First, our recollection of our own college experience may suffer from retrospective biases where we recall things more favorably than they were. Did we really do all of our reading? Did we really avoid procrastinating? Did we truly devote ourselves to our coursework? Were we really attentive in class 100 percent of the time? Certainly, we are prone to some degree of rosy retrospection."

Disruptive Students: Tips from Teachers

A few disruptive students can poison the learning environment of a whole class. Some faculty members have stated unabashedly that they prefer teaching online, just to avoid the face-to-face rudeness, chattering, ringing cell phones, and disrespect that increasingly creep into the traditional classroom. (As we all know, rudeness is entirely possible online too—and some say it's more extreme.) 

Faculty who discuss the issue calmly and analytically often point to various contemporary symptoms in related settings (such as in obnoxious behavior during movies, concerts, speeches, and other public events), and the likelihood that many first-generation students have not yet absorbed the norms traditionally associated with a college class. Today's students are often unfamiliar with the term "syllabus," for instance, and occasionally are indignant when examinations can't be retaken.

Diagnosis is easier than treatment, of course.

ProfHacker is a blog that delivers tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education. A recent series of posts involves the hypothetical presentation of a disruptive classroom scenario, with suggestions from readers on how they might handle a similar situation. Veteran instructors will recognize the scenarios immediately, and may find some useful tips on how to deal with various situations. The contributors are practitioners. Importantly, the blog makes it plain that its purpose is not to complain about students.

Here's the link. 

ProfHacker is especially strong on technology issues, and publishes Monday-Friday. 

TCCTA Seminar to Examine Brain Research

The Professional Development Seminar at the annual TCCTA convention will feature "Brain Research and the Community College," presented by Janet Zadina, a cognitive neuroscientist, reading specialist, and former high school and community college instructor. The presentation will be Friday, March 5, 2010, from 1:00-2:15pm, at the Westin Galleria Hotel in Houston. The event is sponsored by the TCCTA Professional Development Committee, chaired by David Lydic, Austin Community College.

Dr. Zadina received her doctorate in the College of Education at the University of New Orleans, conducting her award-winning dissertation research on the neuroanatomy of dyslexia through collaboration with Tulane University School of Medicine. She continued her postdoctoral education with a fellowship in cognitive neuroscience in the department of psychiatry and neurology at the Tulane University School of Medicine where she researched neuroanatomical risk factors for developmental language disorders through MRI brain scans.   

She is currently engaged in neuroscience research as an assistant professor in cognitive neuroscience in the department of psychiatry and neurology at Tulane, and in Psychology at the University of South Florida. Dr. Zadina is the author of Six Weeks to a Brain-Compatible Classroom, a workbook for educators, among other books.  She is the founder of the Web resource, Brain Research and Instruction, and has presented keynotes and workshops internationally on brain research and instruction. Here's the Web site. 

It's Official: Enrollment Surges 11 Percent

Some 65,000 new students were enrolled in Texas community colleges from fall of last year to this fall, representing an 11 percent increase in enrollment statewide. Officials of the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) called this increase a "positive development" in a letter last week to the state's leadership, marking Texas community colleges' response to the increased demand for higher education opportunities throughout the state.

Richard Rhodes, TACC chair and president of El Paso Community College, and Rey Garcia, TACC president, said in a letter to the governor, lieutenant governor, and House speaker that community colleges in Texas have grown by more than 40 percent since 2000. The two noted that is like "adding the equivalent of seven Texas Tech universities or four Universities of Texas at Austin to the state's higher education system capacity."

"We are doing our part," they wrote. The question is how much more can they do at current funding levels.

The above information was reported in Texas Government Insider, a weekly publication of Strategic Partnerships, Inc.

Bestselling Author Slated as Convention Keynoter

Clear your calendars now to attend the general session of the TCCTA annual convention, on Thursday, March 4, 2010, at the Westin Galleria Hotel in Houston. More convention and hotel information is available at this link.

The keynote speaker will be New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ori Brafman, a renowned organizational expert and author of the groundbreaking books The Starfish and the Spider, and Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. 

Born in Israel and raised in El Paso, Texas, Mr. Brafman has been a lifelong entrepreneur in business, government, and the nonprofit sector.  His projects include launching healthy fast food restaurants, leading political and advocacy campaigns, and co-founding Courtroom Connect, a wireless network company.    

In 2001, Mr. Brafman co-founded a network of more than 1000 CEOs working for peace and economic development projects. The network was supported by the likes of venture capitalist John Doerr and the Ford Foundation and has catalyzed projects in the Middle East, Africa, North America, Europe, and Asia.   Most recently, Ori has facilitated a course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  

His first  book, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (Penguin Portfolio) was released in October 2006, and is currently in its 12th printing. It looked at the power of the new organizational forms and business models that characterize such “starfish” as Wikipedia, craigslist, and the original Napster – and al Qaeda and the Apache nation. Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, said, “As a result of reading The Starfish and the Spider, I proposed ten action points for my organization.” Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay, described it as “compelling and important.” And Jack Covert of 800CEO-READ summed it up: “I love this book.”    

Continuing his discovery of unlikely connections, Ori teamed up with his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, to tackle decision-making, hiring, marketing, employee motivation and group dynamics. This exploration led to his second book, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior (Currency/Doubleday, June 2008) .

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller draws on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, to reveal dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).  

“A breathtaking book that will challenge your every thought… SWAY hovers above the intersection of Blink and Freakonomics,” according to Tom Rath, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket?  

Alan M. Webber, Founding Editor of Fast Company magazine, said, "If you think you know how you think, you'd better think again! Take this insightful, delightful trip to the sweet spot where economics, psychology, and sociology converge and you'll discover how our all-too- human minds actually work.” And Kirkus Reviews found it “a worthy companion to Malcolm Gladwell at his best.”

Mr. Brafman has appeared in the New York Times, ABC News, BBC, National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CSPAN, AP Video, and National-Cable-Radio among others.  He has presented before audiences at Microsoft, Amazon, Televisa, Stanford Business School, Harvard Business School, and many others. He writes for the New York Times international edition and Fortune magazine.  

He holds a BA in peace and conflict studies from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Edupunks Go Viral!

Maybe you are already one and don't even know it, or perhaps there is an Inner Punk lurking within. 

Edupunk is an "approach to teaching and learning practices that result from a do-it-yourself (DIY) attitude," according to Wikipedia. The New York Times defines it as "an approach to teaching that avoids mainstream tools like PowerPoint and Blackboard, and instead aims to bring the rebellious attitude and D.I.Y. ethos of ’70s bands like The Clash to the classroom." 

Okay, it's not often that rebelliousness, hipness, and anarchic behavior (not to mention Clashiness) are associated with community colleges. But there is plenty of earnest chatter among faculty members at two-year schools about the need to escape the cookie-cutter mentality of many corporate products—tools that are often very expensive and less effective than "open source" content and free software applications. It's probably a conversation that should continue. (And you don't have to know who or what a "Clash" is or was.)

By all accounts, Jim Groom has been ordained as the "poster boy" for edupunk. (His picture alone says a great deal, which is available here, along with more information.) He reportedly first coined the term on his blog, and is an instructional technology specialist at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. Stephen Downes, an online education theorist and an editor for the International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, noted that "the concept of Edupunk has totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire."

You may want to watch a Youtube debate between Mr. Groom and his "friend and colleague" Gardner Campbell, director of the Academy for Teaching and Learning at Baylor University. According to the site, "They don't agree on the metaphor and go head-to-head on the concept of Edupunk."

Here's the link.

Academics Under Fire

Stanley Fish is a popular blogger on higher education issues for the New York Times. He is invariably provocative and his posts attract comments from all over the country. And he's certainly got the credentials to hold forth on a host of subjects in the halls of academe. Currently he is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and a professor of law at Florida International University, in Miami, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and Duke University. He is the author of 11 books, and a noted authority on Milton. 

Dr. Fish is accustomed to controversy, but even he was taken aback by the comments on a book review he posted recently on the withering of academic freedom in the courts and in the public policy arena. The full blog is available here, which includes a link to his book review. Both are definitely worth a look, particularly if you are concerned about academic freedom, tenure, and the impression the general public may have about professors and the work they do. 

There is no claim that the comments are a scientific survey of the general population, but it's still striking to read them, along with Dr. Fish's reaction. It's probably safe to say that readers of the Times are not, generally speaking, the most vociferous critics of higher education. 

Obviously, the controversy relates primarily to university educators and not community colleges. Here's a passage:

Academics are of course aware that there is a certain amount of hostility toward them and their practices, but they like to attribute that hostility to the public relations efforts of conservative critics who, they contend, construct caricatures that are too easily accepted by the public. But the comments I received come from readers of all political persuasions and from both inside and outside the academic world, about which almost no one had a good thing to say.

Data on Student Evaluations Sought

At the recent TCCTA Fall Conference for Faculty Leaders in Austin, a major topic of conversation was the impact of HB 2504, a new statute that requires institutions of higher education to "develop a plan" to make student evaluations available online. (For background, please view this post.)

Soon colleges will likely begin finding ways to implement the new law. While there is no shortage of commentary on this issue from faculty, it is more difficult to find empirical evidence on the subject. Is there, for instance, a strong correlation between high grades and high student evaluations? Do evaluation results vary across disciplines? What are the best questions to ask students when they evaluate their instructors? What are the technical obstacles and alternatives? These and other questions are vital in addressing what appears to be a formidable challenge for Texas colleges and universities during the coming months. 

Members are urged to share their specialized knowledge regarding any valid measurements, studies, pilot programs, etc., that have been conducted in recent years. Ideally, any studies submitted should be accessible in published form. Anecdotal or impressionistic narratives can be extremely useful and often compelling, but at this point the association is interested especially in statistical evidence that can be used by educators at the campus level. TCCTA will share such information on the association's Web site.

Please send any documents or pertinent information to [email protected].

Facebook Helps Retention

We have all seen the reports and anecdotes claiming that Facebook and other social networking sites may be harmful to students—if nothing else because the sites tend to be tremendously time consuming as well as entertaining. For instance, here is a recent post about a study that finds a link between Facebook and lower grade point averages among students. 

Now comes a report from BBC News that paints a more favorable picture.

Officials at Gloucestershire College in England say that the social networking site is used to keep students informed and in touch with staff. "There has been a significant improvement in retention," says media curriculum manager, Perry Perrott, since the school started using Facebook.

For years, many surveys have indicated that one key to retaining today's students is to give them a sense of "engagement." This can be done through clubs and organizations, focused advisement, and personal contact between the student and the professor. Instructors have observed frequently that the simple act of learning students' names can make a difference in keeping them in class and advancing their academic careers. Given the fact that tools such as Facebook are all about "engagement"—at the most personal levels—perhaps the Brits are onto something.

Check this passage, for instance:

When the use of such websites was so widespread among students, Mr Perrott said it made sense for colleges to take advantage. With social networking also available through mobile phones, it means that students can keep in touch with each other and be given support outside of class. As a practical example, he says students had been asking each about what was needed for an assignment - and he was able to intervene and explain, allowing the work to be handed in on time. "This can be a properly managed way of sharing information," he says. It was also used as a way of keeping in touch with students who were about to start courses, helping them to make contact with future course mates.

Here's the link to the BBC report.

TCCTA has a Facebook page, and plans to conduct a workshop during the annual convention in Houston, on March 4-6.