“In research, having a "problem" is at the heart of the investigative process….But in one’s teaching, a "problem" is something you don’t want to have, and if you have one, you probably want to fix it.  Asking a colleague about a problem in his or her research is an invitation; asking about a problem in one’s teaching would probably seem like an accusation.  Changing the status of the problem in teaching from terminal remediation to ongoing investigation is precisely what the movement for a scholarship of teaching is all about.”
– Randy Bass, “The Scholarship of Teaching: What’s the
    Problem,” Inventio, Feb. 1999

A PARTNERSHIP MOVES FORWARD
(updated October 3, 2005)

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has recognized WestHillsCollege for our work in the area of Learning Communities by granting us funds to continue the development of our Basic Skills Learning Communities. In connection with this work, we will also develop a process to critically examine our classroom teaching and learning outcomes in order to identify, foster and publicize our best practices.

Our West Hills College-Coalinga Basic Skills program serves a diverse array of students.  In addtion to traditional high school graduates seeking to develop pre-collegiate skills,many ESL students also come to our Basic Skills, reading and writing classes directly from high school.  Others come through the ESL classes, particularly at NorthDistrictCenter.  The Disabled Students Program (DSPS) relies on our Basic Skills English and math classes to serve their population.  We also serve a number of re-entry students who lack the confidence to directly enter higher level courses.  Students also use the Basic Skills classes to complete high school units.

How can we best serve this group? We believe that the answer lies in drawing on the talents of our instructors to develop Basic Skills Learning Communities and related approaches.

THE PLAN IS ACTIVATED

We are using the resources of this grant to nurture and expand our previously successful Learning Communities program for Basic Skills students.  We are using the grant to explore innovative and related pedagogies to support Basic Skills students and improve their learning outcomes as the students traverse the difficult path to higher level courses. The project will also develop avenues  for Basic Skills instructors to develop partnerships with instructors of higher level classes with a goal of student success.

Faculty training in methods to deal with this population is often lacking because few graduate programs address these issues.  The best source of information and training for faculty is other faculty members, either on our campuses or those nearby with similar populations, who have found successful methods of addressing students’ diverse needs.  Therefore faculty collaboration to create and sustain Learning Communities leads to sharing of best practices and consequent faculty development.  Relatedly, our Learning Community work leads to informal  mentoring of new faculty  with regard to effective Basic Skills instruction. 

Every one of our college's full-time and many of our part-time Basic Skills and ESL faculty are participating in this grant effort.  Our Basic Skills students must transition successfully into higher level college courses, and faculty who teach those courses need a clearer understanding of those students and their preparation.  More collaboration between faculty, as well as new tools and processes for student success, will increase students’ success in higher level classes. This will involve partnerships between basic skills instructors and other instructional personnel. We are using the Learning Community Steering Committee, the Forum and individual Learning Community meetings as tools to facilitate a dialogue about Learning Communities and successful student outcomes between all of the involved people.

The Learning Community Steering Committee is authorizing the funding of modest stipends and expenses of WestHillsCollege faculty, working to develop Learning Communities or related learner centered pedagogies and testing strategies. These strategies generally  relate to active learning and collaborative  approaches which deepen the level of student learning, and make that learning more memorable and more general to other contexts. We believe that the Learning Community approach is an excellent organizing strategy and foundation for incorporating other learner centered approaches. Funds from the grant will also allow for speakers at our Forums for participating instructors and staff. The funds will also allow for faculty to attend conferences and workshops to present on their work and to learn more about additional pedagogical and assessment strategies.

Faculty with innovative ideas have applied for mini grants and stipends to support development of their ideas. Faculty may work alone but collaborative efforts with other faculty either from WestHillsCollege or from neighboring colleges are encouraged.  Mini grants will require a proposal/description and progress reports if funded.  The Learning Community Steering Committee composed of faculty and administrators will evaluate the brief proposals for mini grants. The grants cover expenses and a modest stipend.

During the next two and a half  years we will evaluate ongoing programs and ideas. We will identify and highlight successful practices. We will seek to both disseminate what we have learned, as well as to incorporate successful ideas from other institutions.  In addition to the quantitative evaluation strategies, our process for evaluation will include a Quality Circle approach, which the College used successfully in the process of developing its most recent accreditation self-study. We will use the Quality Circle approach to evaluate new approaches to teaching and learning.  We believe that the approach will lead to increased interaction between teachers with a focus on pedagogy.

Collaboration is one of the hallmarks of our efforts. This collaboration extends beyond West Hills College Coalinga to groups from other local colleges, including WestHillsCollegeLemoore, the San Joaquin Valley Learning Communities Consortium (SJVLCC) and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC). We also welcome the participation and contribution of Carnegie scholars in our processes. Ideas delineated in Carnegie concept papers are supported by the results of our campus work. The leaders of the Learning Community movement at WestHillsCollege are enthusiastic about moving forward to strengthen our teaching/learning process as part of a more general movement to improve the results of  community college Basic Skills instruction, and this grant allows for that moving forward.
 

For more information about the Carnegie Foudation Grant, here is an excellent article on the scholarship of teaching and learning by Pat Hutchings and Lee S. Schulman: THE SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING New Elaborations, New Developments.

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