2004 FPG Summer Project #00189

Last Modified: Mar 26, 2004

Name	College	Department or Division
Scott Silberman	Chandler-Gilbert Community College	Psychology
Employee ID	E-mail Address	Work Phone
xxxxxxxx	scott.silberman@cgcmail.maricopa.edu	(480) 732-7078
Project
Title		Location
Annual Conference of the American Psychological Association (APA)		Honolulu, Hawaii
Group Application
This is not a group project

Project Dates and Amounts
	Summer I view timeline details	Summer II view timeline details
Timeline Dates	(none)	Jul 28 - Aug 1, 2004
Hours	0	28
Wages	$0.00	$622.44
Registration Fees	0.00	185.00
Subtotals	$0.00	$807.44
Total Proposal Amount		$807.44

Details
Abstract Write a concise overview with descriptive information about your project (location, time span, etc.) not to exceed 120 words. To take advantage of spelling and word count tools, you can compose this in a blank Word document, copy the text, and paste it in below (all formatting will be reset to normal text).
I hope to attend the annual conference of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Honolulu, Hawaii from July 28th to August 1, 2004. I am a member of APA's Division #2 (The Teaching of Psychology). Historically, this division has served the needs of university professors far more than community college instructors since issues of incorporating one's research into teaching and preparing students for graduate school have typically been the main focal points. This year however, a group of community college instructors plan on holding formal meetings at this conference so that issues relevant to us can be discussed. Assuming an adequate representation, we hope to make this an annual tradition and thereby increase the presence of community colleges within APA.
Purpose Explain your purpose in depth and include relevancy and components of the project. Include a statement of goals and objectives. This is what you want to do and why.
Attending the annual conference of the APA has been a tremendous learning experience for me three times in the past. At this conference, I have presented my own research, taken part in panel discussions, and attended many presentations by others. The purpose of this summer project is to attend the annual conference of the American Psychological Association for the first time as a representative of the Maricopa Community College District. My goals for attending this year are much different than in years past. More specifically, there are three goals that I hope to achieve. My first goal is to learn new teaching and classroom management ideas from my peers from around the country. My second goal is to support all psychology instructors from the Maricopa District in our efforts to get community college instruction of psychology better addressed, recognized and understood within the APA. My third goal is to learn leadership skills and ideas from other psychology instructors from around the country who have served in administrative roles because I will chair the Psychology Instructional Council for the Maricopa Community College District next year and that scares me silly! My objectives related to the goal of learning new teaching and classroom management ideas includes attending sessions where such topics will be discussed, participating in discussions a the sessions, and collecting information that is presented. I hope to share any and all information that I obtain with my psychology instructor peers within the Maricopa District. My objectives regarding getting community college psychology instruction better understood are many. Universities have historically decided transfer and other so called political issues with little input from those teaching at the community colleges. On a related note, course content within psychology classes at the community college level has typically been driven by university requirements for transferring credit. Community college instructors have complained about the articulation process for years yet done little to take part in psychology functions at the macro-level. Attending this conference is certainly one of those opportunities to work toward change. The objectives of the goal related to learning administrative tips and ideas is fairly straight forward and should be easily obtainable. I strongly believe that I need information and advice on what has worked and not worked in other situations outside of Maricopa. Without conferences of this nature, we rarely have the opportunity to learn from other psychology programs around the country. Quite often, by only communicating with others in the MCCD, we do not come up with the types of innovate ideas to create better courses, programs, and outside relationships that are truly necessary. Since current and former psychology instructors who have served in such roles have indicated their intent to attend this conference, I believe my time pursuing this objective will be well spent. All three of these goals are very important to me. I believe that my after the conference is over, I will have greater skills and far more information related to my teaching and administrative roles. Measuring whether or not I am successful in this endeavor will initially be based on how much information that I am able to bring home with me. As an outcome, this should be easily measured and quantified. The long term outcome of how much my attendance will improve my knowledge and skills may be somewhat harder for me to measure objectively. Hopefully, my students and peers will help me measure this outcome through formal evaluations of my performance as well as through informal feedback.
Professional Growth Your own professional growth is a large part of your project. Your professional growth is important to you, your students, and possibly other colleagues. How will this project affect you professionally? What skills will you learn? What environment will you be working in, and how will it influence your teaching or other responsibilities?
By attending this conference and participating in conference related meetings and activities, I expect to grow as and instructor as well as a leader. I am always looking for ways to grow professionally as an instructor and to learn from others who teach psychology. There is no question that, with the massive number of seminars available each year, this conference will provide me with ample opportunities for that type of professional growth. By participating in meetings and seminars related to the teaching of psychology, I strongly believe that I can represent well Maricopa at a national level and hopefully help increase communication between university and community college psychology programs. I sincerely hope that my participation in this conference will help reduce some of the helpless feelings that MCCD psychology instructors have long felt with regard to dealing with psychology programs at the university level. Although we hold regular articulation meetings with ASU and other universities, bigger issues related to community college and university psychology instruction remain that can be addressed at a national level. I strongly believe that communication that we can initiate and be part of at this conference is a good first step in the process. Finally, I also hope to grow professionally by learning leadership skills and ideas from others who have served administratively within a psychology program at a college or district level. This is the one goal that I view as most urgent to this proposed project. At this conference, I plan on collecting information and ideas that I learn in a notebook specifically dedicated to my professional growth in all three of the above mentioned areas.
Benefits
Select the primary area of benefit:	Benefits to your colleagues or department
What benefit is this project to the group checked above? What new information, ideas, attitudes, skills, appreciation, etc. will you bring back?
There are many potential benefits that I can envision from my participation in this conference. First, as the MCCD Psychology Instructional Council chairperson next year, I hope to be able to share the information that I learned from other community college psychology instructors in administrative positions with my peers on the instructional council. In turn, all of the psychology instructional council representatives will hopefully share this information with their respective departments. If I am able to attend this conference, I plan on spending time during the final part of the summer organizing and preparing the information that I obtain so that it will be in a format that I can share by the time the fall semester begins. As mentioned, I also hope to learn new teaching and classroom management by attending this conference. I also plan on synthesizing and preparing this information for dissemination among my psychology instructor peers at Chandler-Gilbert and throughout the Maricopa District. This can also be accomplished through my participation in the Psychology Instructional Council. I strongly believe that the skills and information that I obtain at this conference will serve to benefit me with my duties as the chair of the psychology instructional council and as an instructor of psychology. I also believe that what I bring home from this conference will be of benefit to other psychology instructors as well as to the future of psychology within the Maricopa District.