Each year, a number of students who desire to go to college leave their K-12 experience underprepared for the rigors of four year universities.
Many opt to go to community college to close their learning gaps before transferring. At the same time, community colleges have moved away from offering remedial classes in core subjects. Even fewer community colleges offer student training in learn-to-learn strategies beyond basic study skills necessary to be successful.
While feeling confident in their subject knowledge and pedagogy, in surveys, college instructors say they struggle with several elements of instructional design and execution when it comes to having a variety of academic skill levels in one class. Those issues include, but are not limited to:
- Not being able to create a sense of community across different types of students.
- Not being able to help some students grasp key concepts.
- Not being able to present material in an engaging way that helps all students learn the content effectively.
- Not knowing how to teach to improve information processing as opposed to presenting content through lecturing, group work or projects.
Our task is to create learning environments where all students can access the content and make sense of it without instructors resorting to over-scaffolding or spoon feeding. For this course, our essential question will be: How can community college instructors create a culture of learning that gets underprepared students ready for college learning while not compromising course pacing and rigor for those who come college-ready?
We will focus on double loop learning: Building your skills so you can grow students’ ability to become powerful learners who can navigate the rigors of college academics.
September 6th, 2024
September 13th, 2024
September 20th, 2024
September 27th, 2024
11am–12:30pm PST / 12pm–1:30pm MST
1pm–2:30pm CST / 2pm–3:30pm EST
