from VCCA Journal, Volume 7, Number 1, Summer 1992, 30-33
© Copyright 1992 VCCA Journal
How is it that we became community college instructors? Most likely, it was through our experiences as college students. We may have admired a professor that we once had and, through that individual, developed a desire to teach. Perhaps we were first introduced to college teaching as a graduate assistant in a master's or doctoral program. Few of us had the opportunity to participate in college teacher preparation programs, though there were a few of them around in the early 1970's during the rapid growth period of the community college movement.
The fact is that the majority of our community college teaching faculty have had very limited preparation in teaching pedagogy. Graduate schools, by and large, prepare individuals for research and for digesting copious amounts of facts. We become extremely knowledgeable about our subject matter, but our teaching skills are usually acquired incidentally.
What serves as the bases for hiring new teaching faculty in community colleges? Often, it is having a firm command of subject matter, evidenced by transcripts, resumes, letters of recommendation, and the interview. Prior teaching experience is desired, but it is subordinate to subject mastery. And so it should be. However, how do we develop quality college teachers? How do we make good teachers better? How do we help struggling teachers improve their instructional proficiency? How do we foster pride in our craft, our teaching? How do we fend off burnout and job boredom?
One answer might be to have viable teaching centers on our community college campuses. With their help, we can corporately improve instructional effectiveness and contribute to job satisfaction. What is a teaching center? It can be an emporium. It can be a "workshop." It can be the nucleus of a professional development effort.
As an emporium, a teaching center can serve to collect a multitude of resources that can be made available to the teaching staff, full and part-time, to improve instruction. It can house books, journals, bulletins, magazines, films, videos, and newsletters which address teaching. It can also serve as a focal point for identifying people on campus who are talented in various aspects of pedagogy. It can serve to identify faculty who are willing to be mentors for new faculty members. It can be a place where adjunct faculty seek assistance in developing their pedagogical skills. The center might publish a newsletter which discusses teaching tips. These tips can include those from the body of existing literature as well as those which exhibit proven success for the faculty.
When I say a teaching center can be a workshop, I do not mean in the educational sense, such as attending a "workshop." I refer to the type of home workshop one may have, a place for tinkering with projects. A teaching center can be a workshop where instructors tinker with their teaching. It might be a place where faculty members get together and talk about their teaching-their strengths, successes, weaknesses, and problems. Collectively, problems can be solved. Synergistically, strengths can be compounded. The center might sponsor teaching forums, colloquia, seminars, and "how to" sessions. At Florida Community College at Jacksonville, The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning sponsors the Annual National Conference on College Teaching and Learning. In a forum like this, resource people can be brought to campus to assist the faculty; however, home grown talent should be highlighted and capitalized on. Often, we fail to recognize the ability, talent, and creativity that resides on our own campuses.
A teaching center can play a central role in professional development. A teaching center should be created by the faculty for the faculty. In other words, it is "owned" by the faculty. It must not be allowed to become another mechanical component within the workings of a college. One example is the College Teaching Center at Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, New York. According to Patricia Wagner, coordinator of the college teaching center, it is structured and maintained according to the desires of the faculty by the faculty.
Another example is the Office of Instructional Development at Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island, where staff members "offer guidance and support to beginning teachers and provide direct assistance to all faculty interested in self-evaluation through its Teaching Improvement Process" (Daszkiewicz 3). The workings of this center are divorced from the administrative rigors of the college.
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at the Florida Community College at Jacksonville financially supports faculty initiated classroom research. Collaborative projects are encouraged. Some of the monies that would ordinarily be used institutionally for "faculty development" are diverted to the Center, where faculty make decisions and take responsibility for improving instruction.
Massachusetts Bay Community College publishes two instructional newsletters for the faculty. One is called Teaching and Learning: A Forum on Practice by and for Educators, and the other is The Educational Forum. These resources are also made available to people outside of MBCC. Thus, the fostering of a collaborative environment contributes to improved teaching.
A recent survey conducted at Broward Community College in Florida indicated that faculty believe that the top five priority items for their teaching center should be the following:
What is involved in developing a teaching center? The first requirement is to have an interest in improving the quality of instruction. That means an interest in self improvement and an interest in helping colleagues.
A second vital quality is desire, including: a desire to be proactive; a desire to take an instrumental role in providing a structure for improving instruction; and a desire to work within a collegial framework for the explicit purpose of improving instructional effectiveness.
Third is commitment to success. This means a commitment to eliminating mediocrity from community college classrooms. This entails developing a grassroots concern for a center and providing the leadership and support necessary to ensure its success. As mentioned previously, the center should be "owned" by the faculty. The teaching faculty must assume the responsibility for the center's inception, for its advancement, and for its accomplishments. A teaching center cannot be viewed as a quick fix. It must be perceived as an integral component of the college which champions the improvement of teaching over time. It must be an enterprise where participation is voluntary. The reason for this should be obvious. We tend to support that which we want to support; we tend to abandon that which we are forced to endure. The desire to energize our teaching should be natural and personal.
A physical location for a teaching center is preferred; however, it is not absolutely required. The Florida Community College at Jacksonville has demonstrated that a physical structure is not requisite for faculty to embrace collective means for improving their teaching effectiveness. The faculty actively engage in classroom research projects which have been sponsored by their center.
Tompkins-Cortland Community College, on the other hand, has opted to outfit an actual site on its campus where faculty can get together and "talk good teaching." Housed in its center can be found a large number of resources that are used by faculty-- full-time, part-time, public school teachers, and faculty members at other neighboring colleges in their area.
Money is the least important factor in developing a teaching center. The people who will serve and be served, the faculty, are the most important element. Certainly, money can go a long way to secure the non-human resources that can be used in a teaching center. However, there are ways to avoid placing too much emphasis on it.
Does your library have books which address teaching? Pull them off the shelves and put them in the center.
Faculty members belong to various professional teaching associations. What happens to the journals, newsletters, bulletins, and magazines received by faculty? They often end up on the coffee table for a while and eventually find their way to a shelf in the den or office. Why not make these resources available to colleagues? Donate them to the center.
Have you ever read an article about teaching that you thought was great? Why not start a pool of these articles in the teaching center? Get a filing cabinet, or two, or three and start a collection of articles on teaching. Start a collection of teaching tips. Add to the collection. Borrow from the collection. Share the wealth.
A teaching center can help improve instructional effectiveness in many ways without financial support. Obviously, however, having access to financial resources can not hurt. Much of the activity generated by the Tompkins Cortland Center is the result of funds secured through FIPSE grants, Funds for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education. One only needs to be interested enough, desirous enough, and committed enough to seek creative sources of funding.
Works Cited
Daszkiewicz, R. J. "The Office of Instructional Development and a Teaching Improvement Process." National Conference on College Teaching and Learning. Jacksonville, 1991.
Wilkinson, D. "The Agony and the Ecstasy: Founding a TLC at BCC." National Conference on College Teaching and Learning. Jacksonville, 1991.
Donald K. Bartholomay is an associate professor of biology at Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands, Virginia.