FIN Commons

Summary

A team of three Glendale College faculty members from ESL, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences will use an incremental classroom to strengthen student outcomes. 

Over the last few years, Chris Juzwiak has developed the incremental” approach for developmental English courses at Glendale Community College (see http://courseweb.glendale.edu/thefullemersion/)  In brief, the incremental approach divides course learning goals into many small steps, engaging students in tasks using color-coded analyses of texts, daily homework, in-class small group work, and tasks repeated with less and less support, all building toward significant work such as a complete essay that experience has shown to be a difficult task for many students. These protocols are based on learning principles that recognize the importance of metacognition, immediate feedback, explicit instruction on expert-like thinking, varied visual and auditory prompts, and the sequencing of tasks based on Bloom’s taxonomy.

In adapting the incremental approach to other disciplines we recognize that the learning goals will differ from the primarily text-based essay writing goals of the English course.  In addition, large class size and other constraints make it impossible for faculty to adopt all aspects of the incremental approach. Thus, we ask: what is the impact of partial use of the approach and which aspects are most appropriate and feasible for use in other disciplines?

Plans for Data Collection and Analysis

A. Zoom-Lens Inquiry: Focusing on Students

What data will you gather and analyze on individual students? (e.g. student work, self-reflections, interviews, videotaped think-alouds or problem-solving)

Spring 2009: The team members are now attending one unit (about three weeks) of English 120 courses taught by the English department mentors. The following data will be collected:

observations of students working in class

an initial survey to determine characteristics of students in the classes

interviews with five students chosen from each class by each team member

Fall 2009: Data on individual students will be collected by team members in their own courses. Method and techniques to be determined.

2) How do you imagine this data will help you understand the problem/issue you’re investigating? In other words, how does the data connect to and inform the overall focus of your inquiry?

In addition to learning about the incremental approach as a whole, each team member is examining student work and student viewpoints on the specific incremental technique chosen by the team member for adaptation to the new discipline.

3) When will you analyze this data? (e.g. mid-semester team retreat, after lesson-study session, at the end of the semester; )

Each team member will prepare a written report on the student data to be shared with the entire group. As the project proceeds, mentors will meet with team members to talk about what has been observed, and the entire team will meet to share what has been learned.

B. Mid-Range Shots: Focusing on the Classroom

Please name ONE specific lesson in a particular course that will give you a good vantage point for observing student learning relevant to your Inquiry.

All team members are studying one unit (about three weeks) taught in the target English 120 course, Spring 2009.

How do you imagine the Lesson Study will help you understand the problem/issue you’re investigating about students and their learning? In other words, how does it connect to and inform the overall focus of your inquiry?

The unit was chosen because it highlights the possible benefits of the incremental approach: immediate student engagement in the course; breaking down of course content into manageable units; and immediate feedback to students about their progress.

When and how will your team conduct this Lesson Study? Please detail the timeframes and participants for the three parts of the Lesson Study process (collaboratively planning the lesson, teaching/observing the lesson, and debriefing/analyzing videotapes & student work from the lesson).

The observation portion of the lesson study will be complete by the third week of the semester (March 13). The follow-up interviews with students will continue in the next few weeks. Meetings with mentors and with the entire group will take place on a regular basis through March. By mid-semester (April 10), each team member will have completed a report on the lesson study, and will have chosen one aspect of the incremental approach to use in the new discipline.

4) What kinds of things will the observers be looking/listening for during the lesson? What artifacts of student learning and student experience will the team collect during the lesson? Will you videotape any portion of this process (pre-planning, lesson, debrief)?

We will videotape interaction between team members (entire group and with mentors). In addition, we will videotape team members about their project as it emerges so that there is a record of the process of project development.

C. Wide-Angle Lens: Focusing on Larger Trends in Institutional Data

What data from your Institutional Research Office will you integrate into your Inquiry? For example, will you look at patterns of student success, defined as grades of CR, A,B C? Retention rates (completion of semester without withdrawl)? Persistence from one semester to the next, or from one course to the next in a sequence? Comparisons of student outcomes disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender, age? Data from surveys on student engagement? For a sample Inquiry using this kind of data, go to http://facultyinquiry.net and look for the category “Using Institutional Research,” then see the Learning Community Impact study posted there.)

None at this time. Considerable data is available on the incremental approach based on past semesters.

E. Inclusion of Student Voices

Each of the non-English instructors is now interviewing and videotaping students in English 120 using both common a common script as well as questions focusing on the likely project to be undertaken by that faculty member. The interviews will take place with individual students and in small focus groups.

Later in the semester, the non-English instructors will interview and videotape students in their own courses after the exploratory incremental approach is introduced. We anticipate that most the funds will be used to pay student co-inquirers in Fall 2009 when the incremental approach is used on a larger scale.

Timeline/Calendar

So that we can visualize how the work will proceed over the next several months, please give a timeline for when the above components will occur. It can be in either calendar or outline format.

Feb. 17 – March 10 Team members attend English 120 classes

March 10 – April 1 Interviews with students take place

March 10 – June 10 Videos of team members as project proceeds

By April 10 Team members prepare summary of findings and draft of plan for implementing the incremental approach in their own discipline.

April 20 – June 10 Team members design and test the use of the incremental approach for one concept in their own discipline.

Fall 2009 Incremental approach implement in new disciplines; student interviews take place; videos of student work and team member work.

By December 2009 Preparation by team members of 5-minute video documenting their work