Group #1 Roundtable Discussion--Discounted Dreams

Facilitator: Lorraine Barber
Recorder: Melissa St. Pierre

1. What did the film Discounted Dreams say about the need for faculty professional development?

• One of the greatest areas in which professional development is needed is in the developmental level classes
• At some schools, instructors are given these classes as a last resort (as in the movie)
• At CCP, it seems those who teach developmental level want to be there and vice versa: these courses are not given to those who don’t want them
• A question was raised about what training is given for those teaching developmental courses
• An initiative promoted by Tom Ott is to require certain professional development sessions to be eligible to teach developmental courses, such as attendance at certain workshops held during Professional Development Week
• Participants also noted that faculty might benefit from a training and workshops on strategies to teach reading and writing across the disciplines. The rationale for this is that while faculty are competent in there content area, they may not have received any training on teaching and learning.
• Suggestion that classes, such as Engl 098 etc…should have standards used by all sections. One English faculty noted that there are exit criteria faculty can use in their English courses but they are not mandatory.

2. What do we do at CCP already with faculty professional development?
• Praktikos is a great step/resource to address professional development
• Professional Development Week & Days
• Teaching Circles in some departments, such as English
• Meetings and professional development opportunities within departments, such as Social Sciences
• The Teaching Center
• Scenarios on-line course
• New Faculty Orientation
• Viewpoints
• Mentorships provided in some departments
• Academic Computing area: workshops and one-on-one assistance
• Training for on-line teaching

3. What have we learned from these efforts?
• There are some really good things in place but some things are not easily accessible or are fragmented
• Professional Development needs to be timely and relevant.
• Advertising is key to attendance

4. What more do we need to do?
• Not necessarily directly related: some group members suggested that students who don’t pass a course have other possibilities, rather than repeat a course 3-4 times, similar to the student in Discounted Dreams
• Teaching Circles between departments
• Sustained training opportunities, for example, in the use of technology
• Mentorships in more departments
• Educate new employees on the culture of the college
• Look at how VL’s are treated differently than FT faculty. For instance, a VL here for 7 years will automatically be given FT status. At that point, they are “welcomed” to the college at PD week and offered the opportunity to participate in the “New” Faculty Orientation. These things would be more valuable during their first year with the institute, not their 7th.
• Find ways to help adjunct faculty feel more included and engaged in the life of the college; bridge the divide between FT and PT faculty. One minor thing departments can do is simply include adjunct on listservs.
• Consider how the Teaching Center might best be used if additional resources were provided. For example, some institutions have their Teaching Centers staffed by full-time employees.
• On the whole, resources need to be available and allocated to the initiatives deemed most critical
• Regarding A/V: some instructors feel there are barriers to using technology in the classroom, including: limited number of smart carts, having to pick up and drop off equipment themselves, and a disorganized system for checking out videos, for example
• Fix what is easily fixable (i.e., the video lending library)
• Space is a huge issue
• More “smart” classrooms
• Find ways to use work study students more effectively; for example, having students deliver technology to the classrooms.
• More input by faculty into professional development planning

5. How do we know if our PD efforts are effective?
• Increased attendance at training opportunities
• Use of surveys and other assessment measures
• Institutional Research, such as looking at student outcomes