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Scholarly teachers do things such as reflect on their teaching, use classroom assessment techniques, engage in systematic course design, update their courses, discuss teaching issues with colleagues, try new teaching techniques, and read and apply the literature on teaching and learning in their discipline ... The scholarship of teaching and learning goes beyond scholarly teaching and involves the systematic study of teaching and/or learning and the public sharing and review of such work through presentations or publications.
Kathleen McKinney, 2004
To Improve the Academy, Vol.22
The Maricopa Institute for Learning (MIL)
The Maricopa Institute for Learning (MIL), established in 1999 by the Maricopa County Community College District, was established with the goal of creating an active community of scholars who view teaching as a scholarly activity and who want to engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Since then, 34 faculty members from a variety of disciplines have participated in the Institute.
The goal of the MIL is to support scholarly teaching and reflective practice through faculty-designed classroom research projects that:
- focus on teaching for understanding;
- investigate how and under what conditions students learn;
- can be tested with students;
- can be documented and made public;
- contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning in a discipline;
- have implications beyond an individual classroom.
To learn about the program and read about Fellows' projects, visit the MIL web site:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mil/
Who is eligible to apply to be an MIL Fellow?
Residential faculty in any discipline, academic and occupational, who want to develop a classroom-based project and to engage in reflective practice.
What is the application process?
- Faculty members are nominated by their college president and/or dean of instruction. All residential faculty members are eligible. Nominations are due by December 1, 2004.
- Nominated Faculty members are invited to submit a 3-page proposal.
- Proposals are due by February 4, 2005.
- Proposals are reviewed by former MIL Fellows via a blind process.
- Six Fellows are chosen each year (top scoring proposals).
Interested in applying? Have questions?
Please contact:
Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick
(480) 731-8294
(480) 731-8282 FAX
maria.harper@domail.maricopa.edu
2004 MIL Fellows
Dr. Ann Brandt-Williams, Psychology, Glendale Community College
The Value of Assessment at the
Course Level
Though many disciplines currently document assessment as a requirement for program accreditation, teachers are often confused about the difference between assessment and testing. It is vital that all disciplines understand that assessment can take a variety of forms, including but not limited to traditional testing, and that documentation of course assessment clarifies for the teacher and student the essential elements of each course.
My research will examine a variety of methods available to assess student learning and how documentation of assessment and analysis of data allows teachers to identify areas for improvement in the process of helping students learn.
I intend to conduct classroom research with my own students to evaluate the effectiveness of tools suggested in the literature, such as portfolio assessment, performances of understanding, and one-minute papers.
Dr. Brian Dille, Political Science, Mesa Community College
Enhancing Student Learning through Community-based Research
My project seeks to explore and promote community-based research as a pedagogical strategy for courses in the social sciences. In political science, the literature on this type of research is sparse, as little funding is available at research universities for these types of efforts. Due to their unique role and access to local interests, community colleges are ideally situated to combine the research needs of a community with the discipline-based learning needs of students.
I will review the existent literature on problem-based learning, action research, and other pedagogies of civically engaged scholarship so that I can build on best practices rather than rediscover them through trial and error. I will then apply these practices in my courses and direct students in gathering, analyzing, and presenting policy-relevant data on topics they generate. I will compare assessments of student learning and civic engagement between courses that use this pedagogy and courses that don't, then publicize both the pedagogical and policy findings produced.
The existing literature on community-based research focuses primarily on the research outcome generated and its utility to the faculty member or the community being investigated. My project will focus on assessing student learning, gathering both quantitative and qualitative measures, and students' sense of political efficacy, one measure of civic engagement.
Dr. Craig Jacobsen, English, Mesa Community College
Beyond the Hybrid: the Chimera Course
chimera (n.): a living organism, the product of grafting together two or more genetically distinct organisms
This project seeks to develop a course model that allows traditional, online, and hybrid students to enroll, interact and collaborate within one section of the same course. Unlike a hybrid course, which blends elements of traditional and online courses to create the hybrid, a chimera course would allow traditional, online and hybrid models to coexist.
Designing such a course model requires pedagogical strategies that effectively assimilate students taking the course via a range of delivery methods. True integration of such a class (so that online, hybrid and traditional students learn equally effectively) will likely involve employing such technologies as networked classroom space, online discussion boards, and perhaps archived streaming video. All course materials must be fully accessible to all students.
Once such a course model demonstrates its viability, it must be integrated into the existing advisement, registration, and faculty loading systems.
Research will focus on several areas, including:
- the most effective strategies for fostering collaboration and communication amongst students taking the course online and those taking it primarily face-to-face
- collaborative construction of knowledge artifacts (databases, hypertexts, etc.) as a learning strategy
- emerging technologies that might facilitate such interaction
Some elements of the model will be tested by having students taking a course face-to-face collaborate with students in an online section of the same course.
Nancy Johnson, Radiation Technology, GateWay Community College
Critical Thinking in the Healthcare Environment
The overall goal of this project is to help students develop and expand their ability to transfer knowledge acquired in medical imaging courses to real life settings. The instructional design will merge components of critical thinking, problem-based learning, and cooperative learning, and will be implemented in classroom and laboratory settings.
The following research questions will be addressed in this study:
- Do students who experience an increase in higher-level-thinking activities in laboratory classes expand their critical thinking processes?
- Will students feel they have experienced a higher-level of learning as a result of these activities?
- Will students transfer knowledge gained through laboratory activities to the clinical settings?
Throughout the semester students' progress will be assessed using quantitative and qualitative methods. As students engage in activities designed to promote higher-level thinking, their ability to understand and apply increasingly complex content should improve.
Dr. Nora Amavisca Reyes, Education, Mesa Community College
Content Application Through Situated Learning
This project will investigate how social structures and interactions within college classrooms and service learning sites impact students' ability to apply content knowledge within authentic contexts. The underlying premise is based on situated learning theory, which views learning as inseparable from social practice.
This project aims to:
- identify situated learning strategies used within education courses and programs that enable students to make connections between theory and practice,
- develop/refine organizational socialization structures within courses and programs to promote content application through optimal situated learning opportunities, and
- promote the use of situated learning strategies that enable students to apply content knowledge within authentic contexts.
Data collection will include focus group interviews, participant journals, and participant observation.
Dr. Roselyn Marie Cruz Turner, Communication, Estrella Mountain Community College
Articulating Service Learning and Brain Theory: Fostering Emotional Intelligence in the Community College Classroom
The purpose of this project is to increase student learning by implementing instructional practices that foster Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the community college Service Learning (SL) classroom.
Primary and secondary research will be conducted to learn current learning theories resulting from brain research, including EI theory, and to study the connection between service and emotional health. Research findings will be integrated with SL practices and implemented in a Small Group Communication classroom. EI-fostering teacher practices could be a valuable part of SL tools to ensure student success.
Implementation will occur in formal cycles of Action Research that will involve both qualitative and quantitative research designs, including EI inventories. Findings from each cycle will be applied in the form of a new appropriate teacher practice that will be implemented in each subsequent cycle. The effects on student learning will be determined via statistics and themes that develop regarding emotional intelligence and student cognitive and affective learning.
Results of the project will be evaluated and materials prepared for sharing in a public domain.
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