INTRODUCTION

The VaCIE-CEMP Exchange is an international faculty/staff exchange involving the VCCS and its counterparts from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the Netherlands. VaCIE (pronounced Vay-see) stands for the Virginia Council for International Education and CEMP is the Cheshire Educational Management Programme. VaCIE coordinates the American end of the program under the leadership of Becky Thomas, French professor at Piedmont Virginia Community College. The purpose of the exchange is to:

 

§         study another country's educational system,

§         learn what kind of teaching and learning techniques they use,

§         examine similarities and differences in the student bodies, and

§         expand cultural horizons and broaden understanding of other societies.

 

Individuals are usually paired with others in their own discipline, as they will have the most to share, but delegates are sometimes matched by similar outside interests. This exchange has been going on for approximately 6 years and originally involved only the British jurisdictions. The exchange is extraordinarily worthwhile (and inexpensive) because delegates visit a comparable institution and stay in each other's homes. Consequently, the cost to the college is little more than airfare. European delegates visit in October for two weeks and American delegates make their return visit in May just after finals. The academic benefits are extensive, and where else would you have a chance to bike through Rotterdam and sample Dutch pastries? Drink British ale and eat superb Indian food? Or ascend the faux Eiffel Tower at the tacky beach resort of Blackpool on the Irish Sea?

 

British Sixth Form Colleges

A sixth form college is part of the further education system in the UK and is their closest equivalent to a community college. In Britain one attends school through age 16, which is “school leaving age.” Students who wish further study then apply for admission to a sixth form college, which offers a core of academic programs similar to our own, as well as offering occupational programs in Travel & Leisure, Information Technology, Cosmetology, etc. Some students will complete their education at this level, which is less common than formerly (two decades ago only 20% felt the need for additional education). From there a student can apply to one of the approximately 80 universities in Britain. Thus college and university are not equivalent terms, as they are in the U.S., but rather different levels of education. However, sixth form colleges are similar to community colleges in that:

 

§         they are independent of high schools;

§         they teach at the same level that we do (two years of advanced study);

§         they offer broad survey courses in similar disciplines (English, biology, etc.); and

§         a full-time student's schedule is 15 hours a week (labs additional).

 

A major difference is that progress depends almost entirely on performance on standard exams. To get into university preparation courses at a sixth form college one must have passed at least five graduation exams from high school. College then prepares the student for the university entrance exams, which serve as a graduation equivalent (sixth form colleges don't grant degrees). Test questions are short answer and essay and are graded by faculty from other colleges, using common standards (or "mark schemes", as they call them). The virtues of this system are that grades mean the same thing regardless of what college a student has attended because national norms are applied. A similar system is in place at the university system, so grades actually matter more than which institution a student attended, at least more so than in America.

 

The following personal narratives by NVCC VaCIE participants further indicate the similarities and differences not only among American and European undergraduate colleges but among the European colleges as well.

 

Halton College

 

In May 1998, I (Cathy Sabol) visited Halton College (http://www.haltoncollege.ac.uk) in Cheshire, England for one week. My exchange partner, Kathleen Gaffey, a computer lecturer, described Halton as “a community college with approximately 12,000 (headcount) students. It believes in a technological future and is committed to developing new courses in areas such as multimedia, virtual reality, and the Internet. The college is also involved in developing new methods of curriculum delivery and presently delivers numerous courses by videoconferencing.”

           

My experience with Halton’s faculty and facilities bore out its emphasis on technology: numerous and readily available PCs and Macintoshes, color laserwriters, Apple laptops for staff use, video streaming via the UNIX server, and virtual reality courses.  On the other hand, the Halton library had been excluded from this technology banquet. The library was allocated just two Dolphin computers, one for the circulation system and the other for the Lexicon online catalog, which could not be accessed from other campus sites. Internet access, available to students and community users in the college’s Learning Centre, was, in 1998, not a part of their library services. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing a library of the dim past (an outdated archive) or of the imprudent future (an under-funded afterthought).

           

In the workforce development arena, Halton shone, with its Small and Medium Enterprise Centre (SME) targeting manufacturing and engineering businesses with fewer than 250 employees. About 400 companies were registered with SME and 250 microbusinesses. The Centre offered engineering and electrical simulations, computer interactivity on health and safety, CADD, National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) workshops, virtual reality training, robotics, computer assisted machinery, and computer hardware repair, all incorporating the same equipment used by private companies.

 

As for Halton’s funding, the Further Education Funding Council provides 75-85% of the college’s income and the Local Education Authority provides some money to fund non-academic courses such as flower arranging. Some income is derived by teaching short courses for industry, offering consulting services, and renting college facilities. The college also has a revenue stream through Media Vault, an independent corporation on campus. In addition, the Training Enterprise Council funds training of students in skills in short supply and the European Union grants funds for “areas of industrial decline” such as Halton’s service area.

 

Other observations worth noting:

 

§         In Halton’s Key Skills Centre, all first-year, full-time students spent one hour with an instructor and two hours of independent computer practice learning Microsoft Office, CV Writer, STAR 2010 (a Canadian integrated learning system for literacy and numeracy), Netscape Navigator, and Key Typing Tutor.

 

§         The Languages Unit at Halton offered six different languages (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, and Arabic) to students with differing needs (academic qualifications, holiday purposes, business needs, vocational needs, and learning disabilities) at a variety of sites (college, local libraries, community centers), using the most appropriate modes of delivery (traditional, computer based, or videoconferencing to students in other countries).

 

§         Keeping faculty and staff up to speed on technology at Halton was a continuous process and was handled by a full-time staff development officer.

 

§         Much of what I observed reflected a typical American community college, and yet everyone always appeared to be “teaching to the test” so that their students would pass the General National Vocational Qualifications (GVNQ) or the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) or some other standard, changing the focus of the classroom and leaving little leeway for experimentation or electives.

 

§         Some of Halton’s challenges included new initiatives such as a pilot project in modern apprenticeships, preparing students for instructional technology (critical for life skills), “mass customization” (coping with large numbers of students while individualizing by using computer software such as CourseInfo), Web curriculum delivery, a greater diversity of students, more commercial links with the industrial community, and the college serving as facilitator of local problems/interest groups/community.

 

One of the rewards of being a visiting faculty member in a foreign college was the immersion into the host’s daily life and favorite pastimes. What other opportunity would I have had to:

·         dine in Halton College’s student-run restaurant?

• sample stouts, ciders, and shandies at a variety of pubs (including a Liverpool pub crawl on the penultimate night )?
• ride a donkey on the beach in the Victorian resort city of Southport?
• visit “The Cavern” in Liverpool where the Beatles first performed?
• attend my hostess’s mother’s  70^th birthday party along with 22 English relatives?

 

Gateway College

 

In May 2000 I (Craig Cowden) visited Gateway College in Leicester, which is in the English Midlands, and was paired with Lesley McDonough, a psychology instructor. Leicester is a medium-sized city whose economy was formerly based on textile manufacture, though that has declined substantially. Gateway College is well known for its psychology program, which supports four full time faculty, making it the largest program in the college. The campus and faculty sizes are similar to many community colleges although the college is in a center city location (see http://www.gateway.ac.uk).

 

While at Gateway I observed all the psychology faculty teach and also sat in on English, history, and sociology classes. I attended an Administrative Council meeting and had interviews with the Principal (read President) of the College as well as several administrators and their student development staffer. Overall I was very impressed at the rigor of their coursework with their heavy, and indeed almost exclusive, emphasis on analysis and application of theory. Class activities involve repeatedly being asked to problem solve and think critically to evaluate a psychological study or explain an observed behavior. Since their courses are two-year programs, they can include what we cover in PSY 201 and 202 but in greater depth. They are especially thorough in discussing research methods and statistics, which are very demanding subjects. Students are involved in two data collection projects, which they also analyze. I suspect that grade inflation has been kept to a minimum because only 10% of the Gateway psychology students achieved "A"s, despite a pass rate of 90%, which makes them an unusually successful department.

           

Unlike high-tech Halton College, at Gateway overhead projectors were rare, videos were infrequent, and there were no computers in the classrooms. Their faculty received e-mail addresses just this year, but are mandated by the government to establish IT components to all courses in the fall 2000 semester. They are frankly unprepared for this challenge, as computers for faculty are limited and they have had none of the training in which the VCCS has invested so heavily.

 

There was little sign of the group work that is so much the rage in America currently, and there are no term papers. Students might write one to three page responses to previous test questions as homework, but writing term papers is not part of their system. There was also no talk of learning styles or learning disabilities, though it's possible that this was just a chance omission.

 

I went on this exchange hoping to learn something about how to teach critical thinking, and I came away with many ideas and approximately 12 previous exam questions that they use for practice in the classroom. I was very satisfied with this portion of my mission and will use those in my classes this year. My second goal was to see how they were using technology, and this was a disappointment as this particular college was behind the VCCS in computer development. Providing every UK faculty/staff member a computer is still a dream for which there is no funding. This exchange has stoked my interest in teaching cross-cultural psychology, which has increasing relevance in this multicultural age.

 

The exchange was incredibly valuable for seeing how different the two systems are. It was amazing on return to read stories in the Washington Post questioning whether students should have to pass the SOLs to graduate, when such a system is completely accepted in the UK and Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Gateway faculty and students were amazed that I create my own syllabus, write my own tests, and give my own grades. All of that is standardized and nationalized, and faculty follow a course plan designed by a central bureaucracy. While fitting into such a system would be like putting on a straightjacket for an American used to more freedom, I think that there is a substantial advantage in having ambitious national exams that students must pass to proceed. Every American faculty member has probably despaired over students who work very little and attempt to wheedle a better grade out of the instructor at the end of the semester. This is impossible in the British system, and their standardized test grades become part of their permanent record. For example, certain jobs require successful completion of two or three such exams.

 

Here are some general observations:

 

§         Students were younger than at NVCC but seemed as mature (though lateness to class was common, as it is here).

§         Evening and weekend classes exist but are minimal. The same is true for clubs and evening activities.

§         The college does not require purchase of textbooks, so a large part of the library collection is just this, and the photocopying expenses are immense.

§         Using e-mail for newsletters or announcements has not started there yet—it's just too new.

§         International exchanges are much more common, and involve Slovakia, France, and Italy, as well as the United States. Last year 47% of the British population traveled to another country, so they are much more international.

§         Minority populations are different, with the Indian subcontinent very heavily represented (and in other colleges, Chinese or Afro-Caribbeans).

§         Psychology instruction seemed rather old-fashioned in that it referred to theories and researchers from the 1970s or earlier. This is in accordance with national syllabi, so is not merely true of Gateway. There is very little of the neuroscience that has become ascendant in American psychology.

§         Home stays provide a much more thorough understanding of a country than just visiting it, because you can see the patterns of daily life and how they interconnect. I had visited the UK before but learned immeasurably more this time.

 

The Dutch ROC System

 

As in Britain, the Netherlands has a system of local colleges that fall between secondary education and the university system called ROCs, which stands for Regionaal Opleidingen Centrum or Regional Training Centres. ROCs offer a range of programs in vocational and adult education including programs for young people who have just completed their secondary education as well as basic adult education and secondary general adult education. Courses at ROCs are in four main sectors: Technics (engineering and laboratory), Trade/Commerce/Catering and Hospitality Services, Health Care, and basic and general Adult Education. ROCs offer courses in many different locations, some having only one building and specializing in one subject area such as medical laboratory skills. A student in the Dutch educational system has many choices, which are described at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science's website, www.minocw.nl/english. Vocational education courses can be taken only after a student has completed secondary education. At an ROC, the student is at the middle vocational level and can go on after two or more years to the upper vocational level. Both of these levels link theoretical classes with working experiences.  To study at the university level, the student would require a pre-university education at the secondary level or an upper vocational diploma.

 

ROCs are also responsible for running a compulsory social integration program for immigrants. They must learn Dutch and receive other training to help them adjust to the Dutch way of life. Immigrants are primarily from Morocco, Turkey, Suriname (a former Dutch colony), and various Eastern European countries, such as Poland, Bosnia, Georgia, and Ukraine.

 

 

ROC Zadkine

 

I (Marian Delmore) arrived in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on May 14, 2000, to begin my two-week exchange program with Anja Bierman, a German language instructor and counselor. As I talked with Anja's family and took a walking tour of Capelle aan den IJssel, the small town near Rotterdam where she lives and teaches, I realized how much the home stay adds to the program. It promotes friendship and collegiality, and really gives the visitor insight into cultural as well as educational aspects of a country.

 

My exchange program at ROC Zadkine (www.rotan.nl/mbo/zadkine) was a wonderful educational experience in learning about higher education in a ROC. Several faculty members from the ROC Zadkine arranged a lively educational and cultural program for the five visiting delegates from American community colleges. We participated in many activities as a group and had many opportunities for discussions. We spent one morning talking with administrative staff at the Central Headquarters in Rotterdam, discussing current and future education issues such as multicultural education and technology's effect on education and the work force. We observed classes at the Capelle aan den IJssel campus, and we were participants in a class to give us a first-hand experience in learning how students from another country are introduced to the Dutch language. We also visited a medical laboratory site in Rotterdam followed by a visit with a student doing an internship at the Rotterdam Zoo’s laboratory, where he worked with the breeding and animal health testing programs. We visited a school site in Schoonhoven where students learned clock making and worked with silver and other precious metals in jewelry design. We walked through the small town afterwards and saw some of the sites where students were placed for internships, and we ended the day by visiting the instructor’s home.

 

All of our experiences seemed to combine a professional experience with a friendly personal tone as we got to know our Dutch colleagues. We had a delicious dinner prepared by the students in the Catering/Hospitality program at the small, student-operated ROC Zadkine Culinair, which is open to the public. Our cultural activities included a walking tour of Rotterdam to study the varied pre-and post World War II architecture, a historical tour of Rotterdam, a tour of the Rotterdam Harbor (the world’s largest port), and an excursion to Amsterdam.

 

As a librarian, I was interested in the library system as well. The ROCs that we visited had small collections covering the subject area that the ROC specialized in, such as laboratory technology. Students used the public libraries for their assignments. The two public libraries that I visited had large collections and a very helpful staff. I also arranged a visit at the Erasmus University library in Rotterdam, a large university with a library that offers its students the latest developments in technology (www.eur.nl/ub).

 

Here are some miscellaneous observations:

 

§         Our Dutch colleagues at the ROC Zadkine have a wonderful knowledge of history. Whether we were visiting the Church of the Pilgrims or a Cubist-style apartment complex, they could give us background and many interesting details.

 

§         I really enjoyed the sense of humor and good nature of the Dutch people. They made the U.S. delegates feel very welcome. We exchanged many cards and e-mail addresses.

 

§         Interestingly, at the main Rotterdam public library, patrons pay 1 guilder (50 cents/U.S.) to use the Internet. A coin box is at each computer terminal where the Internet can be accessed (a pay system was also observed in Derby, England).

 

§         As we visited classes, the students were friendly and very talkative. The English language is widely spoken, allowing us to have in-depth discussions with the students.

 

§         Delicious pastries always accompanied morning and afternoon coffee. Cafes are common in Rotterdam as well as in small towns.

 

§         The sense of history was pervasive as we walked along the old canals and wended our way though the small streets to the University of Leiden, founded in 1575. A nice bonus was the chance to talk to exuberant students who had just finished taking a final exam at Sint-Pieterskerk. The National Museum of Antiquities was a special surprise.

 

§         I enjoyed hearing the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra at the De Doelen Concert Hall, which has wonderful acoustics. And ironically the guest conductor for that performance was from the United States.

 

Conclusion

 

The benefits of our exchanges were both academic and personal. The colleges of both countries deal with many of the same issues as we do, such as teaching both teen-agers and adult students and making education accessible to all. As heavy industry is replaced by knowledge industries, greater pressure is placed on colleges to ensure student success. The architecture and age of buildings is impressive in Britain and the Netherlands, and the city centers are much more vital than in America. While Europeans complain about shopping malls being the bane of the high street, the amount of downtown shopping traffic in Europe is amazing to American eyes. They mourn the introduction of superstores such as Safeway or Ikea, but one small town contained 5 butchers and 5 bakers in a single mile. Public transportation is ubiquitous and easy to use, with both metro and train service far more extensive than in the U.S. Finally, our exchange partners were warm and gracious and we consider them lifelong friends. The VaCIE-CEMP exchange is an experience of a lifetime for VCCS faculty who want to extend their horizons.

 

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Craig R. Cowden, Northern Virginia Community College, 6901 Sudley Road, Manassas, VA  20109. Electronic mail may be sent via Internet to ccowden@nv.cc.va.us.