30 JEMIC oN

VOLUME XV, NUMBER 30

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

*PUBLISHED'BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD), COLLEGE OF EDUCATION,

< THEUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN « WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

Advancing and Celebrating the Art of Teaching and Learning

Chemeketa Community College’s Opportunity Center has enjoyed resounding success as a catalyst for an “instructional revolution.” The seeds of the Opportunity Center were planted in 1989, when a small group of managers began to take deliberate steps toward focusing the “college conversation” on teaching and learning. “When we're all talking about teaching, we’re all thinking about teaching, and that moves us to care about what happens in the classroom.”

To help focus on the project, the group of managers initiated three new activities: Talking About Teaching, Thursdays at Three, and Chemeketa Lectures. Talking About Teaching is a monthly forum which allows staff from throughout the college to gather and talk informally about teaching and learning. Thursdays at Three is a weekly staff gathering held purely for fun and socializa- tion. Chemeketa Lectures are “our own presenting to our own” (and the public) in their specific areas of expertise. These activities were “mechanisms which were meant to say-—and said—that it’s important we talk together, it’s important that we talk about teaching, and it’s important that we act on what we say.”

These grassroots efforts to change the college focus resulted in support and action from the college adminis- tration. Administrators articulated their commitment to a focus on teaching and learning through directors and deans, and established a $10,000 Teaching Excellence Fund to provide training opportunities.

Ideas for what a teaching and learning center should look like were garnered from several retreats. Two individuals were recruited to head the center. Adminis- trators knew the faculty wanted a place to gather and share ideas, but they balked at the idea of a staff develop- ment center. Rather, they wanted an activist center.

Twenty-five instructors were selected to serve as “shepherds” and to survey their colleagues: “What would enhance your teaching?” “What barriers have prevented you from becoming the instructor you want to be?” “What can you give to the teaching revolution at Chemeketa?” The shepherds solicited information through casual conversations and written questionnaires, and reported the results to the directors. The responses were charted and trends identified. Some strategic planning—defined as “looking at where you're going, looking at what you’ve

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got, then looking at, regardless of what you've got, how you're going to get there from here”—began.

In Chemeketa’s case, strategic planning meant adopt- ing multiple tracks for the Opportunity Center—the more offerings, the greater the interest. Tracks included tar- geted trainings, individual consultations, social gather- ings, grants, a staff resource room, and a quarterly news- letter. Perhaps the most significant track was “affinity groups,” not just work or study groups.

Affinity groups meet to discuss such topics as acceler- ated learning, collaborative writing, integrated instruction, classroom assessment, and “food for the soul.” “We can get together and say, ‘this is how it worked for me,” one faculty member noted. “Then I can visualize what something will look like in my classes. Talking fills in that picture.” Another said, “Teachers are in an isolated business; I think the center works because it gives people recognition and honor for what they do.”

New ways of teaching are introduced through the center. For example, linked courses have brought basic study skills and writing and communication skills into the automotive lab. Student retention has improved, and higher grades have been documented in the automotive technology program. A writing and literature instructor credits the center with reshaping the way he uses critical thinking and writing techniques in the classroom. He believes the center is a unique blend of enthusiasm, collaboration, and innovation: “When those three things are all there, something happens.”

A sense of community has developed among the instructors who are involved regularly in the center. There is a strong commitment to teaching and learning at all levels of the college. The teaching and learning thread is everywhere now—it is implicit in our values. We think about teaching and learning in the classroom and when we are hiring new faculty and planning for the future.

Kim Christiansen, Publications Specialist

For further information, contact the author at Chemeketa Community College, P.O. Box 14007, Salem, OR 97309- 7070.

Community College Leadership Program, Department of Educational Administration

Y = THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD) / College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712