Transcript Student Competencies: Global Changes

Student Competencies:
Global Changes
Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College
Alice Mecom, Glendale College
Student Competencies: Global
Changes?
• What is up with our students these days?
Students with academic and workplace skills
gaps are everywhere, at every level. What do
we do in the General Education courses when
the students can’t write and they don’t read?
How are Career Technical faculty dealing with
underprepared students coupled with increased
technical training? This breakout elucidates
some chronic challenges and describes
strategies for faculty to help their students meet
basic academic and workplace competencies.
Outcomes for this Breakout
• Attendees will be able to relay to their
institutions what competencies employers
report are deficient in graduates and the
degrees needed for a healthy economic future*
• Attendees will be able to relay to their
institutions the breadth and depth of student
needs upon entry into college and the
community colleges’ role in addressing these
needs
• Attendees will share anecdotal observations of
and homegrown solutions to these student
needs in their classrooms
Outcomes for this Breakout
• Attendees will reflect on whether or not
faculty have the professional obligation to
support students who are not “collegeready” yet are enrolled in college*
•Attendees will be able to access, for
themselves and for their institutions,
effective practices to meet those needs
• Attendees will identify ways to get nonbasic skills faculty to embrace and use
the effective practices as researched and
implemented throughout the state
Getting Started
Please share:
• Your name
• Discipline
• College
• and name a core competency, GE outcome, or
institutional outcome at your college
What employer and state
research is reporting
• Hand out pamphlet
• Comments – any info/data that surprises you or
that you can confirm through your experience?
• Any modifications
• Would they use this, if so where?
• Degrees for a healthy future?*
Faculty Assumptions – Does this
sound familiar?
• In one class at a CCC, a researcher has been
sitting in on an Oceanography class to observe
students and see what dynamics are going on.
What they are observing is that students are not
struggling with oceanography; for instance
students are:
• Unable to read maps and graphs
• Struggling with readability of the text
• Unfamiliar with common vocabulary e.g. latitude
and longitude
• Unable to calculate and convert
Misconceptions faculty report that
students have about learning
CTE Courses
• It’s easy
• No math
• No reading
• No writing
• No homework
• Showing up is
enough
College Level GE course
• Showing up is enough
• Reading material only once or just
read the bolded stuff
• Highlighting every sentence is the
same as reading it
• This is how I always did it in high
school
• If I put it in my own words, I don’t
need to cite
• “I’m confused” means I shouldn’t
have to do this.
• I did the problem in my head so I
don’t need to show my work
Group discussion
• Use the post it notes to collect common
complaints* of student performance in classes
• Report back
How would you define Basic
Skills?*
• Poppy copy definition - “Basic skills are those
foundation skills in reading, writing,
mathematics, and English as a Second
Language, as well as learning and study skills,
which are necessary for students to succeed in
college-level work.”
• Title 5 definition
• 80% of students who enter the California
Community College system are Basic Skills
students
Which of these skills that you
have noted are actually basic
skills?
• Do any of the core competencies that we
named at the beginning of this workshop relate
to basic skills?
• Do any of our complaints reflect Basic Skills
needs?
• Where does the obligation lie to correct this gap
in skills or ability to learn?
Your strategies?
•What are some homegrown methods or
approaches you have used to
accommodate these gaps so that students
can succeed in your classes?
• Are you aware of or have you made use
of any of the resources and support
offered by your local basic skills
committees?
Important Concepts: What do all
students need to learn
• Positive attitude
• Reading
comprehension
• Show up, be present
and do all the work
• Think critically
• Time management
• Self-driven
• Ability to follow up
• Willingness to make
mistakes
• Practice
• Scaffolding
• Persistence
• Positive attitude
• Motivation
• Critical thinking
Useful tools from the Poppy copy
and Basic Skills Handbook
• Student readiness pamphlet
• Student Self assessment which responds to
previous
• Reading worksheet
• Math worksheet
• Others
What you might already know…
• Do any of these solutions reflect what you are
already doing (from Strategy slide 12)?
• Are there any new ideas or useful tools here
that would help you or your colleagues?
• Can we identify certain useful tools that may
be particularly appropriate for students in
transfer-level courses?
What to do next?
•How do we get transfer faculty to embrace
and use the effective basic skills practices
as researched and implemented throughout
the state?
•How do we get faculty to recognize that
basic skills students are everywhere, and
not just contained within certain disciplines
or programs, such as developmental
sequences, noncredit, etc?
Take something with you…
What is one new piece of information or one
idea that you have learned here that you think
would surprise your colleagues or that you
think your institution should know about?