EMPLOYERS WANT STUDENTS WITH REAL WORLD EDUCATION
An article in today's Chronicle of Higher Education reports that students worried about landing a job after graduation might be attracted to a narrow education that focuses on building their knowledge in one area. But that isn't enough to help them pursue successful careers, according to the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The AACU survey shows employers' support for the idea that students should be broadly educated and should apply their learning to the real world during college. More than half of employers indicated that recent college graduates should have "both field-specific knowledge and skills and a broad range of skills and knowledge."

GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP
Ann Zanders will present the second grant writing workshop on Thursday, April 11 at 3:00 PM in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia Building). The faculty development opportunity will focus on BRCC's internal grant process, approval of projects, and proposal writing. It is not required to have attended the previous workshop last Thursday in order to participate this week. You can reserve your spot by sending an email to Ann Zanders at zandersa@mybrcc.edu. The event is sponsored by the Grant Resource Center and the Teaching+Learning Center.

ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM FOCUSES ON STUDENT SUCCESS STRATEGIES
BRCC will host its 5th annual development education symposium on Thursday, April 11 from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM in the Board Room located in the Louisiana Building. Dr. John N. Gardner, President of the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, is the keynote speaker for the faculty development symposium focused on providing the tools to promote student success, retention, the first year experience, and best practices. The event is sponsored by BRCC STARS Gate Title III and the Teaching+Learning Center. Registration is continuing and open to everyone

UNDERSTANDING YOUR STUDENTS
Understanding what stage of cognitive development your students currently reside at is a key component to determining how you will approach teaching that class. William G. Perry's classic study Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years (LB3609 .P4 1998) gives us the four stages of cognitive development your students will typically experience. These include dualism, relativism, multiplicity, and commitment. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule modified Perry's categories based on gender in their book Women's Ways of Knowing (HQ1206 .W88 1997). They write about connected knowers versus separate knowers. Teaching at a community college, we know that economic issues also influence many of our students’ abilities to focus on their academic progress. This is often compounded by academic preparation, mental models, and learning styles. The key to providing an environment that promotes deeper learning is by being engaged with your students. Understanding their "story" and how they have come to be enrolled in your class will help you to provide the support they need to succeed.

WE GOT FLIPPED

The Teaching+Learning Center was filled to overflowing today for Dr. Bill Wischusen's Flipping the Classroom seminar. Dr. Wischusen, the tall gentleman at the front of the T+LC in the pictures above, is associate chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at LSU. He has a number of papers about the scholarship of teaching and learning. The main discussion at today's seminar focused on teaching students skills versus content. Most of the faculty attending agreed that skills were the more important of the two and that content is used to develop the necessary skills. Several of the faculty described how they planned to use what they learned at the interactive seminar today in their classes tomorrow. Sandra Guzman, biology, plans to use video power-points in her courses. Idell Adams, liberal arts, plans to use paired argumentative essays. DeWayne Logan, chemistry (who also picked up the door prize for being the first registrant), wants to implement the use of pre-quizzes. Becky Adcock, veterinary technology, plans to allow her students to make mistakes in the class and then challenge them to discover the correct solution. Wes Harris, English, plans to develop creative and engaging activities to teach skills in-class. Dr. Wischusen led the group through several activities designed to help them determine how they could flip their own classes. The discussion was lively as many of the participants shared their own versions of a flipped classroom using content from their own discipline.

GRANT WORKSHOPS PLANNED FOR APRIL

The Grant Resource Center and Teaching+Learning Center are teaming up to bring you two exciting grant proposal writing workshops. The first is set for April 4 at 3:00 PM and will focus on project construction and approval, researching funding sources, and an explanation of the needs assessment process. The second workshop set for April 11 at 3:00 PM will help you gain insight about the BRCC internal grant process, approval of projects, and proposal writing. Both of the interactive sessions will be held in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia). To reserve your spot now, send an email to Ann Zanders at zandersa@mybrcc.edu. Space is limited for both events.

HELPING YOUR STUDENTS LEARN TO LEARN

Dr. Elizabeth Barkley encourages us to help our students to develop learning strategies. She says that we need to help learners become better able to direct and manage their learning by showing them how to use learning strategies. Learning strategies are devices or behaviors that help us retrieve stored information as well as acquire and integrate new information with existing knowledge. They include, for example, previewing, summarizing, paraphrasing, imaging, creating analogies, note taking, and outlining. You can read more about this in Dr. Barkley's outstanding book Student Engagement Techniques: A handbook for college faculty (LB2342.92.B34).