Faculty Workshops 2018-2019: Success at RCC

"This timely volume addresses the urgent need for new strategies and better ways to serve community colleges’ present and future students at a time of rapid diversification, not just racially and ethnically, but including such groups as the undocumented, international students, older adult learners and veterans, all of whom come with varied levels of academic and technical skills The contributing researchers, higher education faculty, college presidents, and community college administrators provide thorough understanding of student groups who have received scant attention in the higher education literature. They address the often unconscious barriers to access our institutions have erected and describe emerging strategies, frameworks, and pilot projects that can ease students’ transition into college and through the maze of the college experience to completion. They offer advice on organizational culture, on defining institutional outcomes, on aligning shifting demographics with the multiple missions of the community college, on strengthening the collaboration of student and academic affairs to leverage their respective roles and resources, and on engaging with the opportunities afforded by technology. Divided into three parts – understanding today’s community college campuses; supporting today’s community college learners; and specialized populations and communities – this book offers a vision and solutions that should inform the work of faculty, administrators, presidents, and board members."

"Two-year colleges are critical to science education’s future—in fact, some data indicate that half of future science teachers will take their first years of science at a two-year school. To address the unique challenges of this special setting, Teaching Science in the Two-Year College presents 24 articles featuring the most useful and relevant insights and advice from NSTA’s Journal of College Science Teaching. The collection is divided into four sections, all written from the two-year college perspective: An Overview of the Uniqueness of Teaching Science in a Two-Year College examines the isolation faculty members experience, the science anxiety many students feel, the special issues of part-time faculty, staffing crises, and the value of forming a partnership with the counseling department. Curricular Issues includes the importance of the National Science Education Standards; fresh approaches to designing courses for nonscience majors; key methodological and content-oriented ingredients; teaching strategies for adult learners; and case studies about a community-oriented science-learning activity and an integrated science course for nonscience majors. Teaching Strategies covers the hazards of lecture courses, the challenges and rewards of student-centered instruction, and case studies for teaching everything from biology to the value of science. Using Information and Communication Technologies looks at computerized quizzes in the classroom and developing, adapting, and evaluating distance learning for science students."

"In John Dewey and the Future of Community College Education, Cliff Harbour argues that before these questions can be answered, community colleges must articulate the values and priorities that will guide them in the future. Harbour proposes that leaders across the institution come together and adopt a new democracy-based normative vision grounded in the writings of John Dewey, which would call upon colleges to do much more than improve completion rates and expand educational opportunity. It would look beyond the national economic measures that dominate higher education policy debates today and would prioritize individual student growth and the development of democratic communities. Harbour argues that this, in turn, would help community colleges contribute to the vital work of reconstructing American democracy."

"Careers in the 21st century are changing, but traditional education methods are not preparing students for these new jobs and demands. In this thought-provoking book, esteemed educator A.J. Juliani describes how we need to modify our classrooms to instill in students the drive for inquiry and innovation that they will need to succeed beyond school doors. Juliani reveals the ways that teachers can use Google’s 20% Time, Genius Hour, and Project-Based Learning to make students more creative, inquisitive, engaged in learning, and self-motivated―the kind of people we need to move society forward! He offers easy ways to implement these ideas while meeting the Common Core and still allowing plenty of time for content instruction."

"In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year―nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction.

Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”―clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost."

"People who live in poverty consider life in different ways than those who have adequate basic resources. Many educators tend to see the world through their middle-class worldview. Because of this, they do not understand these significant and often rational differences. They may misinterpret behavior they see and ascribe negative connotations to how their students are reacting. Their assumptions can affect the quality of both the teaching and the learning that happens. Most teachers have real passion for educating their students but their experiences limit how they relate to the challenges some of their students face daily.

Understanding Poverty in the Classroom:
* Identifies perceptual differences
* Teaches strategies to address the special needs of children from poverty
* Encourages teachers to learn about the neighborhoods where their students live and what to look for in those areas
* Confronts myths about poverty and reinforces learning with specific illustrations

This resource is interactive with exercises that increase the reader's learning and provides specific tools to improve the educational process for teachers, students, and parents."

"The third edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology is sponsored by Division 15 of the American Psychological Association. In this volume, thirty chapters address new developments in theory and research methods while honoring the legacy of the field’s past. A diverse group of recognized scholars within and outside the U.S. provide integrative reviews and critical syntheses of developments in the substantive areas of psychological inquiry in education, functional processes for learning, learner readiness and development, building knowledge and subject matter expertise, and the learning and task environment. New chapters in this edition cover topics such as learning sciences research, latent variable models, data analytics, neuropsychology, relations between emotion, motivation, and volition (EMOVO), scientific literacy, sociocultural perspectives on learning, dialogic instruction, and networked learning. Expanded treatment has been given to relevant individual differences, underlying processes, and new research on subject matter acquisition.

The Handbook of Educational Psychology, Third Edition, provides an indispensable reference volume for scholars in education and the learning sciences, broadly conceived, as well as for teacher educators, practicing teachers, policy makers and the academic libraries serving these audiences. It is also appropriate for graduate level courses in educational psychology, human learning and motivation, the learning sciences, and psychological research methods in education and psychology."