TCCTA Blog

Fall Conference Schedule Slated

The TCCTA Fall Conference for Faculty Leaders is always a highlight of the school year. This fall, please note that the event will be slightly earlier than in previous years. The 2014 date is Sept. 26-27. The location is the Marriott Austin South, a short trip from the Austin Airport.

The conference provides attendees with essential information on legal, legislative, and leadership issues for community college faculty. Also on the program are organized discussions for TCCTA campus representatives and on faculty senate leadership.

Designed especially for faculty organization leaders, the event is open to anyone interested in the important role faculty play at Texas two-year colleges. The registration fee is only $95, which includes meals during the conference.

Here is a link for more details, including a tentative schedule, conference registration form, and hotel information. You can reserve a room at the hotel by phone at 512-441-7900. The site will be updated with specific program information as it becomes available.

TCCTA members on the Professional Development, Legislative, Membership Services, or Publications Committee for the 2014-15 year can also find response forms (on the right) at this site, as these groups will meet prior to the conference.

Join us!

Syllabus Creep and Philadelphia Lawyers

Syllabus creep is the phenomenon that occurs when syllabi grow with each attempt to cover all possible contingencies. Some clever students learn how to work the angles, searching for loopholes with a "Philadelphia lawyer mentality," as one teacher put it. After a bad experience, trying to do the right thing, the teacher inserts another disclaimer, just to be safe. Which only leads to more hair-splitting, as rules mutate and metastasize.

For instance, teachers commendably invite phone and e-mail communication in their syllabi, presumably to answer student questions, most of which can be answered by reading the syllabus.

Spring-Serenity Duvall, assistant professor of communications at Salem College, reporting in her blog, decided to choose a different path. Have a look here (it's hard to miss the "Most Interesting Man in the World" Dos Equis beer guy, from the TV commercials, with a new message), for sheer entertainment if nothing else.

A serious theme in the post is an overall pedagogical strategy to encourage personal responsibility in students.

Syllabi are starting to resemble those "I ACCEPT" affirmations (that no one reads) when making credit card purchases or entering private digital domains. One detects corporate legal counsel trying to head off litigation. "You accepted! Caveat Emptor, Baby!"

Then we have the Texas Legislature and Coordinating Board, adding provisions such as learning objectives. All with the best of intentions.

Job Training the German Way

Employers often reportedly complain that, after hiring college graduates, new employees still require lots of expensive and time-consuming training.

According to an article by John Marcus of the Hechinger Report, as broadcast on "PBS NewsHour":

Now some hiring managers, a few policymakers, and a handful of community colleges are accepting help to solve this problem from an unexpected source: Germany

Through an initiative being quietly promoted by the German Embassy, U.S. colleges, which consider themselves part of the greatest higher-education system in the world, are importing the German model of career and technical education to keep up with a demand they can’t fill for skilled American workers.

The key ingredient appears to be an optimum combination of classroom learning and on-the-job apprenticeships. Many colleges are engaged in close cooperation with local employers, but the German model appears to dial this up a notch.

PBS NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan traveled the country this year to explore the state of higher education. He will share five of stories he found as part of a week-long look at how America is rethinking the college experience. The series comes at a time when many believe higher education is at a crossroads, according to the PBS announcement.

Here's a link for more information.

Ranking Adjuncts

A community college in California has initiated a program to award academic titles to adjunct instructors. Adjunct faculty members at Grossmont College can now rise in ranks that are the same career steps as full-time teachers, at least in nomenclature.

"Once you could be known only as an adjunct. Now you can be an adjunct assistant professor, adjunct associate professor, or adjunct professor," according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Sara Jerde.

But, as Shakespeare put it, there's a rub. The change in title does not come with a raise in pay or benefits. Furthermore, the honor can be taken away if an instructor tries to use it in an attempt at promotion to full-time status. Perhaps the rose does not smell as sweet as it sounds, to invoke the Bard once more.

The program was initiated by the Academic Faculty Senate to recognize the contribution of part-time teachers, according to the article.

Some don't like the idea:

Some people, though, see the titles as irrelevant. They just sugarcoat tensions and don’t deal with the real problems some adjuncts face in their workplaces, said John D. Rall, who has been an adjunct at Grossmont and its sister institution, Cuyamaca College, for five years, as well as at San Diego Mesa College for 10 years.

"The administration is trying to keep the adjuncts from organizing and complaining, and it’s a way to brush over the hard feelings that adjuncts have," Mr. Rall said.

"The most frustrating thing is to get a title and do more work for a title that doesn’t actually provide substantive benefits," he added. "It’s actually kind of outrageous."

Whither Algebra?

College algebra can be seen as an essential foundation, the holy grail, or an obstacle to student success, depending upon one's perspective. Nationwide, community colleges have started allowing students in non-STEM fields to skip algebra altogether. A related trend involves eliminating developmental math, placing remedial students into credit-bearing courses.

Needless to say, these policy choices are controversial.

A new study conducted by the City University of New York System is attracting a great deal of attention. The project tracked 717 remedial students, with subgroups taking three different paths: non-credit developmental algebra, the same course with a weekly workshop, and introductory statistics with a weekly workshop.

The statistics course had the highest pass rate, at 56 percent. Here's the study, posted in Inside Higher Ed., in an article by Paul Fain.

Texas community college educators in the field of mathematics will note that this study is pertinent to the New Mathways Project.

These are important developments, with lasting implications. If replacing algebra with statistics for students in non-quantitative disciplines becomes the norm, then faculty practitioners will need to re-boot their entire approach. Those who have taken statistics courses know the subject can be extremely rigorous—just like algebra and calculus. But some fear the regimen will be more consumer-friendly and impressionistic, what critics have called "rain forest math."

These are matters best guided by those in the discipline. However, teachers are far from unanimous at this point.

One mistake we shouldn't make is assuming that curricular courses are carved into stone. Greek and Latin were once considered to be the foundation of a good education.

Prescription Meds Update from ERS

Starting September 1, Texas Employees Group Benefits Program (GBP) participants will pay about 30% less for Tier 1 prescription drugs, which include most generic drugs. The copay for Tier 1 drugs will be $10 for a 30-day supply, down from $15. The cost for a 31- to 90-day supply will be $30, down from $45. The new copay will apply to participants in HealthSelectSM of Texas, Community First Health Plans, and Scott & White Health Plan.

ERS is making the change to encourage members to use generic drugs, which generally are no different than their brand-name counterparts. Generics not only help members save money, but also help reduce overall costs for the GBP health plans. Lowering costs in the health plans helps preserve benefits for active employees, retirees, and dependents. We hope you’ll take advantage of this savings opportunity in the new plan year.

When you buy your prescriptions on or after September 1, 2014, don’t forget that prescription drug deductibles for you and each of your dependents start over on September 1. You pay a $50 deductible per person each plan year before the plan begins to cover drug costs. This applies to participants in HealthSelectSM of Texas, Scott & White Health Plan, and Community First Health Plans.

The above information is taken from an official press release from ERS.

The Bear in the Woods

Generally speaking, experimentation is good. New ideas are often very good. Let's get that out of the way. But experienced teachers, after incessant exposure to the latest fashions in pedagogy, may feel as if they are dinosaurs who need to limp off to the bone yard of oblivion.

However, the dizzying array of new techniques should be tempered in the crucible of one's personal comfort zone, according to Rob Weir, in Inside Higher Ed.

Take, say, the flipped classroom. Professor Weir points to bad results for those in certain disciplines or classroom environments, and for those with contrary instructional proclivities. Teaching must feel natural, or it just doesn't work.

To paraphrase one commentator many years ago: Sure, you can teach a bear to ride a bicycle in the circus, but the bear is not very good at it, and would much rather be in the woods, doing what bears do. So, channel your Inner Bear, the article seems to say.

In addition to the flipped classroom, the author brings up the purported need to adapt teaching to the various learning styles of students. Actually, he notes this trend approvingly, but one online commentator to the piece posits a lack of evidence that this approach is actually effective. Here's one article from a few years ago, in Change magazine, cited by the online contributor.

One could go on. The lecture is reportedly suspect as an outmoded method of teaching. Then there is collaborative learning and a host of other relatively new approaches—many undoubtedly praiseworthy and worth a try. And the digital age changes everything, so why not teaching, too?

But we should always keep that bear in mind, and give her room to protect and nurture her cubs. It's the bear way.

Study Focuses on "Nearbies"

The nationwide student completion agenda has concentrated understandably on entering freshmen, and the low percentage of those who earn a credential during a given period such as six years. However, a surprising number of students quit attending college after they have successfully finished a year of school or more.

At least one publication has coined the term "nearbies" to describe these students. It's reported in a recent study posted on Community College Review (Click on "current issue." Subscription may be required for the entire article.)

Based on the abstract, there are many reasons why these individuals don't finish school. However, the researchers recommend mentoring initiatives and stress the importance of a personal sense of connection found in students who succeed. As noted here many times, engagement is crucial, according to many studies.

Importantly for community college faculty, this particular strategy does not necessitate changes in the curriculum, pedagogy, academic standards, or rigor. This is not to suggest that fostering campus engagement is a quick fix or without cost. But such initiatives would appear to be money well spent.

A complicating factor in Texas is the booming energy industry, which undoubtedly lures many individuals away from school for high paying jobs that don't require a college education. Many of these students undoubtedly end up as "nearbies." It may be a good circumstance for them at the moment, but Texas colleges may appear less effective because of our particular situation.

Here is the abstract of the study:

Nearbies
A Missing Piece of the College Completion Conundrum

Abstract
Community colleges enroll nearly half of the students enrolled in public undergraduate programs and a disproportionate number of first-generation, low-income, underprepared and minority students. The new national completion agenda has brought both visibility and pressure to these open-access institutions, which have completion rates of less than 25% for first-time full-time students and even lower rates for part-time students. While interventions to improve success tend to be focused on the first year, a surprisingly large number of students successfully complete more than 1 year of college credits yet leave without completing a credential or transferring. This study focuses on these “nearbies,” successful students close to completion who leave higher education. Results indicate students have varied reasons for departing, demonstrate behaviors at odds with their espoused value of earning a certificate or degree, and need support and encouragement throughout their time at the college. Personal relationships are particularly important in fostering a sense of connection.

 

Robo-Readers: Better Than Humans!

Reading and correcting student writing is likely the least favorite activity of college teachers. But help is on the way, according to an article in The Hechinger Report by Annie Murphy Paul. Please have a look.

Controversy still exists about the utility of robo-reading software for grading. However, evidence is mounting that such programs are quite good at reading essays and providing feedback to students on proper grammar and punctuation. The new technology appears to be vastly superior to grammar-checkers in word processing software.

Interestingly, students are more likely to follow up and persist when it's a machine making the corrections rather than a teacher, according to researchers.

Some faculty members believe such pedagogy merely enables students to submit sloppy work the first time, since mistakes are so easily fixed. It does resemble a game, but with higher stakes. A few years ago, some wise guy submitted the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address for machine scoring. Jefferson and Lincoln were rejected as inferior writers. No wonder those boys never amounted to anything. Also, it's entirely possible to compose a sentence with no grammatical errors ("Dude, you suck!") that doesn't measure up, for a variety of reasons. That's where the grading comes in, and the need for a teacher.

Here's an interesting passage from the article:

The computer program appeared to transform the students’ approach to the process of receiving and acting on feedback, [researchers] El Ebyary and Windeatt report. Comments and criticism from a human instructor actually had a negative effect on students’ attitudes about revision and on their willingness to write, the researchers note. By contrast, interactions with the computer produced overwhelmingly positive feelings, as well as an actual change in behavior — from “virtually never” revising, to revising and resubmitting at a rate of 100 percent. As a result of engaging in this process, the students’ writing improved; they repeated words less often, used shorter, simpler sentences, and corrected their grammar and spelling. These changes weren’t simply mechanical. Follow-up interviews with the study’s participants suggested that the computer feedback actually stimulated reflectiveness in the students — which, notably, feedback from instructors had not done.

The piece discusses a particular Web-driven product from Criterion. Here are some testimonials from various institutions. Undoubtedly there are other products out there as well.

Teacher as Spirit Guide

Some individuals believe that teaching is merely a matter of conveying information. In the digital age, a boneheaded conclusion arises that, since students can get information online, instruction is less necessary. Those who say such things have probably never been teachers. But they were students once, and should know better.

If you want to read a nice antidote to this point of view, have a look at this article in Slate called "Spirit Guides," by William Deresiewicz, which is excerpted from his book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and The Way to a Meaningful Life. As the title indicates, the book addresses the universe of highly selective institutions, not community colleges. However, you will likely find his perspective interesting—perhaps even inspiring.

William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic. He taught at Yale from 1998-2008 and was a graduate instructor at Columbia from 1993-98.

The author argues that good teaching resembles parenting, and this is a good thing. It may be more true in K-12 education, but the relationship applies also to college, he says. In loco parentis has always been somewhat controversial, and you certainly don't want to push the comparison to the limit. College students are not children, for the most part. However, mentorship, sharing personal experiences, and open expressions of concern are things that good teachers tend to do, even if it's an online class.

You will note that Dr. Deresiewicz thinks small classes are best. Good luck with that these days, but even in a large lecture hall we can share our humanity and relate to students on a personal level. Try getting that from a MOOC.