The time for change in higher ed was a decade ago or longer. In my last post I discussed the fact that Covid-19 forced change in higher ed that was long overdue, but those forced changes were just…
Author: cdeacons
I am a wife, mother, grandmother, scholar, athlete, cook, gardener, knitter, and more. My husband and I eloped at the age of 19 and soon discovered that life is more enjoyable when you can learn to laugh at the things that might otherwise knock you down. At the age of 40, I decided to take my career in a different direction and went back to graduate school and found a position working at the University where I was taking classes. I now serve as the Director of Academic Support Programs for our institution and focus my research on student success, teaching and learning, and higher education policy.
Understanding Issues Related to Children in Poverty
We’ve completed our third full week of classes and students in my ECE class are very engaged and beginning to find their voices. So far, they’ve gotten a look at poverty from a unique perspective as we work our way through “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America” by Kathryn J. Edin and Hl Luke Shaefer. The book is a really easy read (not too long, simple language, etc.) and also an extremely difficult read as it exposes truths that most of my students have been blind to. Our class discussions have been lively as they have expressed outrage and frustration with a system that is considerably worse than they ever imagined.
In addition to the book, I’ve had them watching the PBS special “The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of Our Nation“. The first segment frames the issue of how the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world has fallen to 26th out of 42 developed countries in child welfare rankings. Many of my students are shocked to discover that, not only do we not rank at the top of the list for child welfare – but we’re not anywhere close to the top.
Last week, students were paired off and charged with the task to investigate a specific issue related to child welfare in the US, report out on why the issue exists, statistical facts related to the issue, ways the government is addressing the issue, and contact information for local agencies which support our community in this area with a brief description of their services. I introduced them to “The State of America’s Children” report on the Children’s Defense Fund website and let them start investigating their issue. When they reported their findings this week, I was so proud of what a thorough job they did of explaining their issue to the class, and I can see them beginning to think about their roles related to child welfare in the US.
One of the key things that I hope my students take away from this class is that we have a collective responsibility to address these issues as a nation. So many young adults in this country are disconnected from the political system – they don’t realize that what they do (or don’t do) has an impact whether they want it to or not.
Questions for Thought:
- Why is it that we are the richest country in the world and yet 1 in 4 children are born into poverty?
- What would make the US one of the best places to raise children?
- What does it mean when we say someone is living in poverty? What safety nets are available to help children and families get out of poverty?
- How do we ensure all families have access to affordable, high-quality early care and education?
Additional Information about Child Welfare:
- https://youtu.be/e0e-2-ENOYs
- Poor Kids (Links to an external site.)
- The History of Child Care in the US (Links to an external site.)
- What Does Good Child Care Reform Look Like? (Links to an external site.)
- A Blueprint for Child Care Reform (Links to an external site.)
- Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert (Links to an external site.)
Making Meaning
I’m teaching an Early Childhood (ECE) class about diverse children, families and communities this semester. The entire first half of the class focuses on children in peril and the implications for classroom practice. Most of my students in this class are juniors and seniors and this is a required course for them. They are all so committed to serving children and families and this is their first deep dive into some of the difficult issues they may encounter in their future careers.
Although the students in my class have already completed at least 2 years of college, I have found that most of them are so used to memorizing and regurgitating facts, that it takes some work to get them to start thinking about how they think, recognizing their biases, and helping them to develop their own ideas and informed opinions. To encourage this transformation, I have an activity I introduce the first day of class that we build upon throughout the semester. This activity is actually adapted from one I use with first-year students in our college transition course in the module about developing critical thinking skills.
On the first day of class, I explain that we will be discussing children and families living in peril and that I really want my students to think about how they are thinking about what we will be discussing. We then discuss aspects of learning and critical thinking skills. I introduce them to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Critical Thinking and we talk through the different levels so that they begin to recognize the difference between memorizing and applying information. At their tables, students discuss the differences between the different levels of critical thinking, where they think they are on the pyramid, and what this means for their futures in the field of early childhood education.
When I ask how many people take notes as they read, fewer than 1/2 raise their hands. I pass out a modified version of the Cornell Notes template and explain that I will be expecting them to take notes as they read while thinking about the relevance of what they are reading. We watch a brief video in class and I have them practice taking notes. They exchange notes with a partner and provide feedback. One or two students do a really good job providing great insights into how the information from the video relates to their college success and futures as ECE professionals. Because so many of the students struggled to provide meaningful insights (which is expected at this point), I pass out a “Bloom’s Cue Questions” worksheet a colleague shared with me a few years ago.
As class concludes, I assign the first reading of the semester with the hopes that through the use of these critical thinking tools and application of today’s lesson, my students will begin to take their critical thinking skills to the next level. If this happens, what they will experience in this class over the course of the semester will be transformational for them.
Gotta Love Professional Development
NCLCA 2018 – Niagra Falls, NY
Another great conference! So great to meet new colleagues and to connect with older ones. I picked up so many ideas at this event.
This year, my presentation was about self-directed learning and the data analysis I completed over the summer examining first-year student behaviors and academic success. Working on the front lines with first-year students, it is clear that college success is less about academic preparation and more about student habits related to self regulated learning. The following are a few slides from my presentation:
Aside from re-connecting with colleagues and hearing about the innovative approaches other institutions are taking to improve student learning, I really enjoyed meeting the keynote speaker, Andrea Vahl, to gain insights regarding how we can improve our social media presence to drive engagement with students, parents, and former learning center employees. This is so important because as state appropriations continue to dwindle, we must develop other sources of financial support to continue to support students in increasingly innovative ways.
Beyond Growth Mindset
I’m wrapping up my visit to San Antonio, TX and the First Year Experience Conference 2018 – waiting for my flight home and thinking about the past 4 days. This is always such an outstanding conference. Getting to connect with colleagues and friends from across the country and hearing about their programs, successes, and failures. It’s funny how trends catch hold. 2017 certainly seems to be the year of the “growth mindset” with particular emphasis on teaching and learning.
Researchers like Carol Dweck and Barbara Oakley have done some great work related to growth mindset, metacognition, and an individual’s capacity to learn, and I’ve attended several sessions this week expanding their work. Given the numbers of academically underprepared students attending college today, it’s important that practitioners understand the power of the growth mindset related to student success. At EMU, we added growth mindset mini-lectures/ activities into everything we do – first-year experience course, supplemental instruction, success coaching, tutoring, peer mentoring, etc. It was a great first step.
We witnessed several “aha” moments in our professional development sessions with our success coaches, peer mentors, tutors, and other academic support staff. Student workers were eager to share their new knowledge with our students. Some students really embraced the new techniques. Others were reluctant adopters. Many viewed the strategies as tedious. The thing these students failed to recognize is that while we can teach them about neuroplasticity, and share learning techniques to help improve learning, without effort and continued practice students will not see improvement.
So, the old saying about “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink” really manifested itself this year. We tried to lead lots of horses to water – most just looked around and stomped their feet. Some tried the water and it paid off. Participation in supplemental instruction (SI) sessions for our gateway biology course increased from 203 visits in fall 2016 to 409 visits in fall 2017. Students earning a D, F, Incomplete (I), or withdrawing (DFWI) from the course decreased from 41% in fall 2016 to 25% in fall 2017. Of course, we cannot attribute this dramatic decrease in DFWI rates to our increased focus on metacognition and learning to learn, but we like to think it contributed. We’re in the midst of a thorough review and hope to have some statistical insights soon.
New Beginnings
Today is our last new student orientation of the summer for students entering our Edge program this fall. I always have mixed emotions about these events. On the one hand, I dread them as they are so much work – sessions to coordinate, staffing to manage, details to organize. However, they are also so fulfilling as these are the days when we get to connect with our students who will be attending college for the first time in the fall. This is our chance to set the tone for them and start them off on the right foot. You just want the day to be perfect for the students and their family members – which is challenging because each family’s needs are different. Every orientation session, I am reminded of my own experience with my children.
my mad life 