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Essential Skills Instruction in General Education - Meeting on 9/10/2019

Join Dr. David E. Smith, Director of Assessment and Chair of the GE Course Certification Committee, as he discusses the purpose of general education, instructional goals, and resources for GE faculty. Learn about the essential skills in GE, the six content areas, and how GE courses contribute to student success and social mobility. Gain insights on developing transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Discover the benefits of learning in multiple contexts and the importance of critical thinking in GE. Take away recommendations for incorporating essential skills in your courses.

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Essential Skills Instruction in General Education - Meeting on 9/10/2019

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  1. Essential Skills Instruction in General EducationDACC Division Meeting9/10/2019Dr. David E. SmithDirector of AssessmentChair, GE Course Certification Committee Topics • Purpose of General Education (role in Student Success) • Instructional goals: integration, transparency, transferability • Resources for GE faculty General Education

  2. What is the primary purpose of general education? Disciplinary foundation for degrees To assure a breadth of content learning (liberal arts ideal) Priority of the new state model Development of transferable skills To make it challenging to graduate on time?

  3. Skills-Centered GE Five Essential Skills Communication Critical Thinking Information & Digital Literacy Personal & Social Responsibility Quantitative Reasoning Six content areas I. Communications II. Mathematics III. Science IV. Social & Behav. Sci. V. Humanities VI. Creative & Fine Arts

  4. General education and student success GE courses are a key component of most students’ initial academic experiences at NMSU • Students should know the purpose and value of our GE program! • Goal today: provide a framework for communicating GE’s purpose GE courses comprise one-half of a 60-credit associates degree… General Education

  5. Opportunity! General Education Reform: • Emphasis on broad, transferable • “essential skills” • Institutional flexibility NMSU LEADS 2025 • Enhance student success… • Promote social mobility… • Close the achievement gap… 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

  6. Measures of student success and social mobility • Retention and degree completion • Career attainment • (small) Achievement gaps • Social Mobility Index • Etc. Characteristics of a successful student/graduate?* Transferable competencies - Cognitive - Intrapersonal - Interpersonal GE Essential Skills *Pellegrino, J. W., & Hilton, M. L. (2012). Education for life and work: Developing transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.  http://nap.edu/13398

  7. Benefits of learning in multiple/varied contexts A • Groups A and B practiced as shown • When tested later on a bucket 3 ft away, group B did best by far B 2 ft 3 ft 4 ft Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel (2014)

  8. Benefits of learning in multiple/varied contexts Critical Thinking “… varied practice … improves your ability to transfer learning from one situation and apply it successfully to another.” Co-Curricular SOC 101G ENGL 111G BIOL 111G Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel (2014)

  9. Instructional goals Critical Thinking • Integration not decoration. Disciplinary context is vital • Transparency. Students must know our learning objectives • Transferability. Teach for ”deep” (transferable) learning “Decoration” BIOL 111G BIOL 111G

  10. Distinguishing state common course numbering and GE essential skills Essential Skills Disciplinary Context Course description and student learning outcomes (SLOs) reflect discipline-specific skills and content Transferable essential skills are taught in this disciplinary context. Certification narratives and assignments illustrate how. NM Course Numbering System Designation GE Certification

  11. Example narrative excerpts: Critical Thinking in BIOL 111G • Problem sets are … based on real-life situations (e.g. an authentic and scientifically-relevant problem) that can be grounded in a course-specific scientific topic. • Information is routinely provided to students in the form of data (raw or presented in charts and graphs). This provides students opportunities to practice their data graphing, interpretation and evaluation skills. • Students identify the key problems or questions. Students then draw a conclusion based what they have evaluated and make evidence-based recommendations.

  12. Example narrative excerpts: Critical Thinking in BIOL 111G • For example, in the sample assessment… students are challenged to think about quantitative models of population growth in Whooping Cranes. • They then use reasoning skills to devise their own conservation strategy. • After modeling population growth with their conservation plan, they critically evaluate the results and exercise reasoning skills to discuss which parameters are effective in increasing population sizes in both the short and the long term.

  13. Recommendations for GE faculty • Review GE Certification documents • Communicate the purpose of GE to your students (in the syllabus, assignments, etc.) • Analyze existing course materials for essential skills connections • Modify/develop assignments as needed for transparency with respect to essentials skills

  14. How we teach matters! From NMSU LEADS 2025, our goal is to be a “Recognized leader in serving diverse students and eliminating achievement gaps” • Currently, achievement gaps for our students mimic those that are ubiquitous in higher education nationwide • Student success depends on a variety of cognitive and non-cognitive factors, i.e., on the transferable competencies discussed above • Closing those gaps likely will require us to reconsider how we teach

  15. How we teach matters! Students preferred study strategies… • give the illusion of mastery • don’t really help them learn Do faculty prefer teaching strategies that… • give the illusion of students’ mastery? • don’t really help students learn? Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel (2014)

  16. Farrington, C.A. et al. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners: The role ofnoncognitive factors in shaping school performance.

  17. Student success depends heavily on non-cognitive factors. • Quality course design and instruction reduces achievement gaps Farrington, C.A. et al. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners: The role ofnoncognitive factors in shaping school performance.

  18. Resources for GE Instructors http://gened.nmsu.edu/Resources: • Introduction to teaching GE Essential Skills, a 75-minute workshop, will be offered this fall. Dates TBD or by request. • Certification documents are available for review. These include narratives on teaching of essential skills and sample assignments. • (planned) A library of assignments for teaching and assessing essential skills is being created

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