APRIL FACULTY DEVELOPMENT NEWSLETTER
Honolulu Community College - University of Hawaii
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Volume 5 No. 4 April 15, 1996
A MESSAGE FROM THE FACULTY DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
How do we measure the passing of time? By the time a semester
begins, it seems that it is over. You get a graduation announcement
from a student receiving a Master's Degree who was in your 100 level
introductory course just last semester, it seems. Your child who was
in diapers yesterday is now asking for the keys to the car ("Sunrise,
Sunset" - Fiddler on the Roof and all that). How long is three
years? Well, for one thing, it is the time that I have been Faculty
Development Coordinator. That is 27 monthly committee meetings, 12
issues of the Faculty Development Newsletter, 283 Entertainment Books
sold by the committee, and who knows now many notes, memos, e-mails,
flyers, etc., etc., etc., to you from me?! It has been a great
assignment and no better way, I believe, to enable me to get to know
all of you, my fellow faculty and friends, here at HCC.
I have come to firmly believe that there are several benchmarks of
a successful faculty development program, and I encourage us all to
continue to support faculty development here at HCC. Many of the
benchmarks are well addressed in our program, many need work. In
summarizing these benchmarks -
The organization will have:
- A mission statement that includes faculty development.
- An organizational philosophy that emphasized the continual
improvement of faculty, staff, and learners.
- An explicitly-communicated belief in the continuing professional
and personal growth of each individual.
The leadership of the college will:
- Consistently communicate the importance of faculty development.
- Provide adequate status, funding, and resources to the faculty
development program.
- Model active personal involvement in faculty development
activities.
- Communicate clear expectations to faculty about job performance
and provide faculty development opportunities to ensure faculty success.
- Encourage faculty to enhance their teaching and professional
skills.
The faculty developers will:
- Regularly assess the needs and concerns of faculty.
- Provide programs and services responsive to faculty needs and
concerns.
- Develop strong collaborative relationships with colleagues.
- Assist in the development of effective self-, peer, and student
assessments that provide meaningful feedback on performance.
- Regularly evaluate programs and services and make appropriate
changes and enhancements
- Regularly facilitate meetings where faculty engage in reflective
discussion of teaching practice.
- Be actively involved in an ongoing program of professional
development.
- Maintain active professional relationships with colleagues
locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Individual faculty members will:
- Feel "ownership" of faculty development planning and programs.
- Understand the need for continued growth, skill acquisition, and
reflective practice.
- Be actively involved in faculty development activities.
- Enhance the learning of students as a result of participation in
faculty development.
Educational/academic resources will include:
- Protected time for academic activities, including faculty
development.
- Financial support for faculty development activities.
- Access to professional literature and current technology.
- Mentoring or coaching system for new and mid-level faculty, with
mentors receiving training.
- Adequate staff support.
- Resource sharing with local, regional, national, and international
networks.
As you read through this list, I assume you agree with my previous
statement that HCC does well on several individual benchmarks, but
needs work on several more - many of which are very important. It is
up to all of us to see that a viable Faculty Development Program
continues to thrive here at HCC. I ask us all to continue to support
the Faculty Development Coordinator and Committee, and thank all for
the opportunity to serve as coordinator the past three years. Mahalo!
Jerry Cerny
Faculty Development Coordinator
30 THINGS WE KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT ADULT LEARNING
from: Innovation Abstracts. Vol. VI, No 8, March 9, 1984. Published
by the NationalInstitute for Staff and Organizational Development with
support from the W.K.Kellogg Foundation.
by Ron and Susan Zemke
A variety of sources provides us with a body of fairly reliable
knowledge about adult learning. This knowledge might be divided into
three basic divisions: things we know about adult learners and their
motivation, things we know about designing curriculum for adults, and
things we know about working with adults in the classroom.
Motivation to Learn
1. Adults seek out learning experiences in order to copy with specific
life changing events--e.g., marriage, divorce, a new job, a promotion,
being fired, retiring, losing a loved one, moving to a new city.
2. The more life change events an adult encounters, the more likely he
or she is to seek out learning opportunities. Just as stress
increases as life-change events accumulate, the motivation to cope
with change through engagement in a learning experience increases.
3. The learning experiences adults seek out on their own are directly
related - at least in their perception - to the life-change events
that triggered the seeking.
4. Adults are generally willing to engage in learning experiences
before, after, or even during the actual life change event. Once
convinced that the change is a certainty, adults will engage in any
learning that promises to help them cope with the transition.
5. Adults who are motivated to seek out a learning experience do so
primarily because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being
sought. Learning is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
6. Increasing or maintaining one's sense of self-esteem and pleasure
are strong secondary motivators for engaging in learning experiences.
Curriculum Design
7. Adult learners tend to be less interested in, and enthralled by,
survey courses. They tend to prefer single concept, single-theory
courses that focus heavily on the application of the concept to
relevant problems. This tendency increases with age.
8. Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they
already know if they are going to keep - and use - the new
information.
9. Information that conflicts sharply with what is already held to be
true, and thus forces a re-evaluation of the old material, is
integrated more slowly.
10. Information that has little "conceptual overlap" with what is
already known is acquired slowly.
11. Fast-paced, complex or unusual learning tasks interfere with the
learning of the concepts or data they are intended to teach or illustrate.
12. Adults tend to compensate for being slower in some psychomotor
learning tasks by being more accurate and making fewer trial-and-error
ventures.
13. Adults tend to take errors personally and are more likely to let
them affect self-esteem. Therefore, they tend to apply tried-and-true
solutions and take fewer risks.
14. The curriculum designer must know whether the concepts or ideas
will be in concert or in conflict with the learner. Some instruction
must be designed to effect a change in belief and value systems.
15. Programs need to be designed to accept viewpoints from people in
different life stages and with different value "sets."
16. A concept needs to be "anchored" or explained from more than one
value set and appeal to more than one developmental life stage.
17. Adults prefer self-directed and self-designed learning projects
over group-learning experiences led by a professional, they select
more than one medium for learning, and they desire to control pace and
start/stop time.
18. Nonhuman media such as books, programmed instruction and
television have become popular with adults in recent years.
19. Regardless of media, straightforward how-to is the preferred
content orientation. Adults cite a need for application and how-to
information as the primary motivation for beginning a learning
project.
20. Self-direction does not mean isolation. Studies of self-directed
learning indicate that self-directed projects involve an average of 10
other people as resources, guides, encouragers and the like. But even
for the self-professed, self-directed learner, lectures and short
seminars get positive ratings, especially when these events give the
learner face-to-face, one-to-one access to an expert.
In the Classroom
21. The learning environment must be physically and psychologically
comfortable; long lectures, periods of interminable sitting and the
absence of practice opportunities rate high on the irritation scale.
22. Adults have something real to lose in a classroom situation.
Self-esteem and ego are on the line when they are asked to risk trying
a new behavior in front of peers and cohorts. Bad experiences in
traditional education, feelings about authority and the preoccupation
with events outside the classroom affect in-class experience.
23. Adults have expectations, and it is critical to take time early on
to clarify and articulate all expectations before getting into
content. The instructor can assume responsibility only for his or her
own expectations, not for those of students.
24. Adults bring a great deal of life experience into the classroom,
an invaluable asset to be acknowledged, tapped and used. Adults can
learn well -and much - from dialogue with respected peers.
25. Instructors who have a tendency to hold forth rather than
facilitate can hold that tendency in check--or compensate for it--by
concentrating on the use of open-ended questions to draw out relevant
student knowledge and experience.
26. New knowledge has to be integrated with previous knowledge;
students must actively participate in the learning experience. The
learner is dependent on the instructor for confirming feedback on
skill practice; the instructor is dependent on the learner for
feedback about curriculum and in-class performance.
27. The key to the instructor role is control. The instructor must
balance the presentation of new material, debate and discussion,
sharing of relevant student experiences, and the clock. Ironically, it
seems that instructors are best able to establish control when they
risk giving it up. When they shelve egos and stifle the tendency to be
threatened by challenge to plans and methods, they gain the kind of
facilitative control needed to effect adult learning.
28. The instructor has to protect minority opinion, keep disagreements
civil and unheated, make connections between various opinions and
ideas, and keep reminding the group of the variety of potential
solutions to the problem. The instructor is less advocate than
orchestrator.
29. Integration of new knowledge and skill requires transition time
and focused effort on application.
30. Learning and teaching theories function better as resources than
as a Rosetta stone. A skill-training task can draw much from the
behavioral approach, for example, while personal growth-centered
subjects seem to draw gainfully from humanistic concepts. An eclectic,
rather than a single theory-based approach to developing strategies
and procedures, is recommended for matching instruction to learning
tasks.
BTW, DO YOU KNOW YOUR ACRONYMS?
by Penny Shrawder, Coeditor, Teaching for Success, November 1995
IMHO, anyone who has received E-mail messages has probably noticed
that the three- and four-letter acronyms is fast becoming the
speedwriting/reading sports car of the E-mail cyberbaun. Below is a
list of common acronyms that you will likely encounter in the subject
line or in the text of a message. Can knowing these accelerate
message reading and creating to turbospeed? Well maybe, FWIW, this is
FYI, TSTL; so E-mail your FAQs or favorite acronym to Teaching for
Success, (71121.1135@Compuserve.com) RSN TIA. Steer your E-mail into
the fast lane by merging them into your communications:
BTW By the Way
FAQ Frequently asked questions
FWIW For what it's worth
FYI For your information
IMHO In my humble opinion
IOW In other words
JFTR Just for the record
NRN No reply necessary
OIC Oh, I see
OTOH On the other hand
RR Reply requested
RSN Real soon now
TIA Thanks in advance
TSTL To say the least
URR Urgent reply requested
EMOTICONS - A BRIEF DICTIONARY OF THOSE IMPASSIONED CHARACTERS
by Penny Shrawder, Coeditor, Teaching for Success, November 1995
You've seen them on E-mail messages ... those little happy faces
created by various typographic characters that communicate the emotion
of a message or statement. The have been quite a few developed to aid
the e-mail communicators; here's an opportunity to test your knowledge
of these handy symbols. Try you skill at matching the graphic to the
illustrated emotion! Answers at the end of the Newsletter.
1. :_D ____ a. said with a smile
2. :_] ____ b. shocked, "Oh no"
3. 8-) ____ c. tongue-tied!
4. C:-) ____ d. sarcastic smiling face
5. :-Y ____ e. fright
6. :-, ____ f. disappointed
7. :^D ____ g. oops
8. <:-0 ____ h. big smile
9. : | ____ i. bored
10. :-o ____ j. indicated a brainy remark
11. :-* ____ k. smirking
12. :-& ____ l. thinking
13. :-| ____ m. Great, I like it!
14. :-e ____ n. very unhappy
15. :-c ____ o. hmm, not funny
16. |-0 ____ p. happy with wide-eyed look
1996 HAWAII GREAT TEACHERS SEMINAR
As an integral part of the University of Hawaii Community College
System's commitment to promoting faculty development, Leeward
Community College has organized the eighth annual Hawaii Great
Teachers Seminar. The Seminar will be held Sunday through Friday,
July 28 - August 2, this summer. Once again it will be held at the
Kilauea Military Recreation Center in the Volcanoes National Part on
the Big Island. Two HCC faculty will be sent to the
Seminar this summer with funds from the Dean of Instruction. Chosen
by the Faculty Development Committee to attend are Gaynel Buxton,
Instructor, Human Services/Early Childhood and Stacy Rogers, Assistant
Professor, Fire Science.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
DIVISION I
Tom Ohta, Professor, Geography, was recently elected to the Executive
Board of the National Council of Geographic Education. He will be
serving a 3-year term on the college-university division of the
Curriculum and Instruction Committee. Meetings of the committee and
Executive Board recently occurred at the annual meetings of the
Association of American Geographers and the National Council for
Geographic Education which he attended.
DIVISION II
Miles Nakanishi, Assistant Professor, Human Services was the co-chair
of the recent Hawaii Association for the Education of Young Children
Annual Conference. The conference was especially interesting to
teachers and parents of young children and those interested in public
policy regarding programs for young children.
Sherry Nolte, Instructor, Human Services/Early Childhood, is a member
of the board of the Hawaii Kindergarten and Children Aid Association
(KCAA). KCAA recently began a pilot Infant and Toddler Program at
Farrington High School. The center provides quality care for the
children of Farrington's student parents and enables the teenagers to
continue working towards high school graduation. Two teachers and one
aid operate the program. All three recently attended Sherry's
infant/toddler care and development class.
DIVISION III
Over Spring Break, Gary James, Professor, and Muriel Fujii, Assistant
Professor, Language Arts, attended the 30th Annual Convention and
Exposition for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
(TESOL) in Chicago. Both will be joining counterparts from Kapiolani
and Leeward Community Colleges in presenting a colloquium titles
"Current Issues in Community College ESL Programs."
Sally Hall, Instructor, Language Arts, was recently nominated by a
former student to be includes in the fourth edition of Who's Who Among
America's Teachers. Only college students who have been cited for
academic excellence themselves in Who's Who Among American Students
or The National Dean's List are invited to nominate one teacher from
their entire academic experience. This publication will honor a
select 5% of our nation's teachers.
DIVISION V
As most of us, Frank Mauz, Associate Professor, Mathematics, was very
busy last summer and continues to be very busy this year. Last summer
he attended the American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges
(AMATYC) regional conference in Breckenridge, Colorado, where the main
topic was cooperative learning in mathematics. He also spoke at the
"Educators on Education" conference at his alma mater, Western
Michigan University, in Kalamazoo. His topic was the Writing
Intensive requirement at UH, in general, and specifically, his writing
intensive Math 205 calculus course. He presently is the editor of the
Hawaii Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges (HIMATYC)
newsletter "Makemakika Squared." This semester he is the problems
coordinator of the annual Hawaii State Math Bowl that will be held in
May at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.
DIVISION VII
After completing a five Saturday, forty hour, Gender/Ethnic
Expectations and Student Achievement (GESA) workshop during the past
Fall and this Spring semesters, three HCC faculty completed a three
day Train-the-Trainer GESA workshop over Spring Break. This workshop
was taught by Dr. Dolores Grayson who is the original developer of
GESA. Those who attended include Sherrie Rupert, Academic and Career
Counselor, Marcia Roberts-Deutsch, Division I Chair and Professor,
Art, and Jerry Cerny, Instructor, Special Programs, All are now
certified GESA trainers.
DIVISION VIII
Jon Blumhardt, Director, Educational Media Center, recently spend a
week in Saipan where he offered workshops on Digital Multimedia and
World Wide Web Site Development. He then traveled to Washington, D.C.
where he attended the International Distance Learning Conference. At
the conference he presented his recently published paper "Making the
Jump into Cyberspace" and attended a meeting of the Chapter Presidents
of the United States Distance Learning Association, of which he is
one.
______________________________________________________________________
Answers to Emoticons: 1-h; 2-d; 3-p; 4-j; 5-a; 6-k; 7-m; 8-e; 9-o;
10-b; 11-g; 12-c; 13-l; 14-f; 15-n; 16-i.
______________________________________________________________________
This final newsletter of the 1995-96 academic year was organized and
published by your HCC Faculty Development Committee. Members: Jerry
Cerny, (Coordinator, Co-editor), Wayne Lewis, (Co-editor), Grace
Ihara, Kathy Kamakaiwi, Pat Gooch, Lei Lani Hinds, Elizabeth Sakamaki,
Ivan Nitta, Mike Jennings, Shanon Miho, and Evelyn Puaa. Have a great
end of the year and a super summer!
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