Foothill Teaching Academy 2000

Now in our second year, the Foothill College Teaching Academy Campus Conversations continue with a greater emphasis on research. Our main area of focus for this year will be to look more closely at the area of Course Transformation by examining and critiqing the courses of two of our members. Our goal is to understand what enduring core Knowledge students should leave these courses with, how faculty are currently assessing that knowledge and review at least one example of an activity currenly in use. We will then develop and publish a research model for course portfolios which can be used as a model by other faculty as they strive to improve their own courses.

Other additional areas included in our discussions/research:

• Continuing discussion of our campus-wide Learning Inventory Project.
• Follow-up on the Internet Student Survey done by Roxanne Mendrinos.
• Continuing discussions of the implications of the Digital Divide and how technology is changing the way we teach and learn.
• Continued outreach to the Foothill Community by offering open sessions of our Campus Conversations during College Hours and during Flex Day in May.
• Upgrading and updating our Campus Conversation Intranet web site.
• Planning our newly allocated space at the Center for Innovation on the Foothill Campus.

Continuing Staff Development

Student Success Workshops are offered periodically during our Wednesday Campus Hour. Also planned are Instructional Skills Workshops and sessions which address Diversity and Multicultural Relations and Body Language, the Hidden Meaning.

Interactive Learning Model

Last spring twenty five faculty were selected to participate in our Interactive Leanring Model project. The purpose of the project is two-fold: 1) to identify students' individual learning styles to enable them to take greater responsibility for their own learning and 2) to document whether implementing an interactive learning approach improves students' performance outcomes. During this year, faculty have received training and are now implementing the model standards and conducting classroom research to evaluate their effectiveness. For more information about this project, please contact Campus Conversation member Tess Hansen.

Pass the Torch

Pass the Torch places students in study teams in twenty three different courses ranging from English as a Second Language to higher level English composition, all mathematics courses, and some general education science classes. Each team consists of a team leader and a team member. The leader has already completed the subject with an A grade and the member is currently enrolled in the course, attempting to earn an A so that he or she can become a leader next quarter. The program has received the 1999 California Academic Senate Awared as an Exemplary Program and was awarded a 1999 California community College Chancellor's Grant to expand the program. For more information, please contact Jean Thomas at 650-949-7284.