Group #1 Roundtable Discussion: Student Engagement and Discounted Dreams

Professional Development Day
October 8, 2007
Group Discussion of Student Engagement

Suzanne Felix’s Notes for the Group

How do we define student engagement?

Develop social environment:

• “Active participation. The students were not actively participating in the film. I would never allow anyone to listen to headphones, eat in my class, no hair combing, hand lotion, etc.”
• Make a list of successful habits and rules in the beginning of the class.
• Orientation, ground rules, college success activities should be in the beginning of the class.
• An atmosphere of college participation.
• Teach participation skills
• Have students give out each others email address
• Teacher should develop a personal relationship with student and students should know at least five other students in the class.

What can we as teachers do to foster the environment?

• Students’ immaturity can hamper student engagement.
• The student social politics can be fairly juvenile.
• Students stay in College when they are connected to at least one other person.
• The social environment is very important.
• In the social networks, a lot of learning can take place.
• It can reinforce what you cover in class.

Class structure:

• Review work everyday; put objectives on the board everyday
• Very structured class—“This is how you are a college student.”
• Having an interest in the course could help engagement.
• In English, you could choose topics that are more engaging.
• Engage students in group work.
• Lab courses are hands-on; Hands-on experience can be engaging.
• Also there should be student engagement outside of the classroom.
• There should be contact with other students outside of class.
• Make courses relevant in students’ lives.
• Problem-solving is a really good way to promote student engagement.
• Also, they are working as a team.
• Identify a role model in the class. That student could counteract negative behavior and promote student engagement.

Positive Habits:

• “Learn students’ names.” It makes a difference
• Pay attention to students.

Teacher Reflection:

• “I need to be more engaged as a (teacher), than I thought I needed to be. By engaged I mean going actively after students…Maybe I need to regroup. I am not as an interventionist as I use to be.”
• “Inside the classroom, are we addressing the needs of the lower level students?”
• How sure are we that that students are at the right academic level?
• In the film, the students with the teachers team-teaching, students were humorous, laughing, talking, supporting each other in English class.
• Build collaborative opportunities, not “information transfer.”
• It is an opportunity to create knowledge together. For example, labs re opportunities for student engagement because students have opportunities to communicate. Students pay attention.
• Teachers’ attitude for success is important. It can impact student success.
  

Understanding the System at CCP:

• “What is the sequence of these gatekeeper courses?”
• Students take more than one remedial course at a time. Look at this group as a cohort. The inability to be a college student shows up in all the courses they take.
• Students work full time. The system encourages students to take multiple courses.

Facilitator divided the attendees into pairs. He asked the group two questions: (I) List of things that individual teachers can do to improve student engagement. (2) What would orientation in the beginning of class look like?

There was only time enough for the pairs to answer question (1).


Chuck Herbert’s Notes

See praktikos

Outcomes identified for Achieving the Dream Initiative at CCP

• improve student support systems (early warning?)
• effective education practices
• Math initiative
• faculty professional development
  
  

Film

• Retention – community colleges are hemorrhaging students
• academic planning and advising are most important to students
• Student in the file received bad advice
• Student in the film had trouble getting her classes
  
  

Quotes from faculty in the film:

• “I’m always around.”
• “They have to become independent students.”
• “Their learning is not just up to them.”

Notes from our discussion

• Chuck gave a short intro to our topic, based on the notes provided.
• Larry started the conversation by asking:What about students who fail Engl 098 & Math 017 at the same time?
• How do we handle students who fail multiple courses?
• What does it mean if they have an Inability to do well in multiple courses?
• What does the faculty do to recognize such students?
• Chuck suggested we focus on active practices faculty can use to engage students.

The group discussion followed.

• The students need structure, but it cannot be overbearing; not rules from “on high” – conversation, discussions.
• let them know you expect them to participate
• students should talk to one another
• must include activities external to class; how this happens depends on the subject
• What the students do outside of class is relevant to what happens in class.
• New students are immature.
• They often act as if engaging with the teacher is not cool.
• Teachers need to be more engaged.
• Teachers need to create learning communities.
  *the Tinto retention model -- see: http://www.cscsr.org/article_retention_revisited.htm
  

Orientation

• What about an orientation within Gateway the course for new students? (perhaps it could be the first hour of class, then references to this throughout the semester.)
• Should this be extended to all courses that are on the waiver list? Don’t of these courses have first semester students? In a sense, aren’t they all “gateway” courses?
• Should we offer departmentally-based seminars to show teachers how to provide such a brief orientation at the beginning of the course?
• Should new faculty be required to attend student engagement workshops?
• We need a list of suggestions for an in-course orientation for new students.
• Larry Mackenzie is worried that orientations within the course will kill FOS 101.
• We agree that this idea is not intended to replace FOS 101.
• There are many reasons why FOS 101is not taken by more students – institutional politics, student financial issues, fitting it into various curricula, etc.
  

Our group should list suggestions for ways to improve student engagement. There are nine of us we will break into three groups of three for about 15 minutes; each group will develop a list, then we will compare the lists.


From Group A

• Introduce students to each other at the beginning.
• Use small groups
• Have students engage in collaborative problem solving in class and out of class (short-term and long-term)
• Structure the classroom layout (seating, etc.) to facilitate interaction
• Collaboratively define class rules in the beginning
• Teacher should have a welcoming attitude
• Individual teacher – student conferences must be built in, (even if regular class sessions are supplanted by these conferences)
• Show off and praise good student work (papers, reports, etc.)
  

From Group B

• Get to know students: (Use activities that allow for this.)
• Learn students’ names; students’ learn teachers’ names; students learn each others’ names
• Group work; give students projects to complete or problems to solve together.
• Require outside work
• Be available to students
• Learn about and address learning styles
• Tell students about your style as an instructor
• Provide a good syllabus (expectation, calendar, contact information, grading system)
• Tough love? Provide a structure, without being overbearing.
• Let students know what you expect from them.
• Provide students with a brief introduction to college within the course.
• Give students rapid, constructive feedback.
  

From Group C

• Put a directed list on the board: “Successful Participation in College”.
• The professor should have a positive attitude of success.
• Have students actively greet each other.
• Give a problem or project to solve in a small group.
• Create a title for each group.
• Arrange the classroom to accommodate both small group and large group; Faculty walk around to each group; faculty attention; active faculty
• Other student skills
  a. Behavioral
  b. Student study skills
• Students and faculty should be physically engaged in the group process.
• Positive acceptance of student questions is important.
• Learn student names.
• Support student success.
• Don’t assume skills are there.
• What about a workshop for faculty who teach gatekeeper courses?