Faculty Development and Ensured Learning

 

 

 

The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges’ (SBCTC) Student Success Center is committed to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed in college and career. One of the ways that SBCTC accomplishes this goal is through a focus on ensured learning and faculty development, which are grounded in the guided pathways framework and a commitment to racial equity.

Faculty development is the process of supporting and preparing faculty to teach effectively. This is accomplished through a variety of strategies, including:

  • Providing professional development opportunities that are relevant to faculty's teaching needs
  • Offering opportunities for faculty to collaborate with each other and share best practices
  • Supporting teaching and learning professionals throughout our system
  • Providing resources and support to help faculty with innovation, research, and scholarship

Ensured learning references a connection between teaching and learning and guided pathways. Drawing from our strategic partners' rich research in this area, the following are key focus areas for faculty success and ensured student learning.  

  • Engagement: intentional and sustained student engagement
  • Effectiveness: employing high-impact practices in the classroom
  • Improvement: data-informed assessment and revision
  • Inclusion: equity-minded and asset-based teaching
  • Alignment: pathway-aligned and applied learning experiences

By ensuring that all students have access to high-quality instruction from supported faculty, SBCTC is aiming to improve learning, retention, and completion for all students in the community and technical college system.

Information, Resources, and Events

Purpose: The purpose of this community of practice is to provide a forum for faculty developers to share ideas, best practices, and resources. It is also a place to connect with other faculty developers, build relationships, and identify opportunities for collaboration.

People: The members of this community of practice will be faculty developers and other teaching and learning professionals from the 34 community and technical colleges in Washington State.

To join this community of practice, send an email to ssc@sbctc.edu

Announcing the 2024 New Faculty Institute On Demand course!

This online course offers new faculty the opportunity to learn about effective teaching strategies, including engagement techniques, high-impact practices, data-driven assessment, inclusive teaching approaches, and pathway-aligned learning experiences. The course also includes resources across the system and an opportunity to earn a canvas badge for their engagement.

Through this multimedia resource faculty will learn from expert faculty and staff across the system through videos, graphics, literature, and reflective activities. Faculty will be introduced to various pedagogical approaches, effective teaching strategies, and to the State Board for Community and Technical College system.

 

Led by SBCTC's Student Success Center with funding from College Spark Washington, a college consortium is working to change the assessment model for English 101 classes, which have been identified as key gatekeeper courses in college. Anti-racist writing assessments are a way to ensure students in English 101 courses are taught and assessed without negative racial bias.

Another purpose of building this work is to support English departments and practitioners across the Washington State CTC system to “increase the percentage of students who earn their first college-level credits in English within one year of college enrollment” by closing equity gaps for historically underserved students of color (HU-SOC). This project aligns with Guided Pathways in Washington State as this work will address one of the Essential Practices of a Guided Pathways redesign, College-Level English Within One Year of Enrollment, and do so in the spirit of the SBCTC vision to lead with racial equity.

Please reference the following open resources, (1) an accounting of the project and resources (2) a collection of curriculums and best practices, and (3) faculty development resources.

The Student Success Center will be working on creating more opportunities to participate in webinars and workshops if you miss them the first time around. We have created a YouTube playlist for OnDemand and encore presentations. 

To launch this playlist we are thrilled to have uploaded three encore presentations from the 2023 National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Ed. These videos are part of a larger series of content called NCORE Encore in which presentations were repeated at local conferences. 

Washington community college math faculty continue to reform and/or transform math placement and math course pathways with the goal of helping students complete their college level math requirements. To support these efforts, SBCTC is offering the following professional development opportunities for math faculty this year:

  • Attend in-person math retreats and convenings for math faculty to share with and learn from their colleagues across the state. Additionally, math faculty are invited to join their partners in Transitional Studies (BEdA) at in-person BEdA Math Pathways training sessions. For information about upcoming events, go to the SBCTC Professional Development Calendar.
  • Join virtual learning communities on topics such as data science, themed MATH& 107 courses, and instructional pedagogy. Learn more by emailing Dawn Draus to gain access to the Canvas Math Pathways and Placement Course.

This annual two-day event will bring together faculty members and teaching and learning professionals from community and technical colleges in Washington state to discuss topics in assessment, teaching, and learning. The conference will explore a variety of topics related to faculty and student success.

The conference will provide opportunities for participants to:

  • Learn about the latest research and practices in teaching and learning
  • Share best practices and strategies for using assessment data to inform instruction
  • Create a collaborative space for participants to network and learn from each other
  • Promote a culture of continuous improvement in teaching and learning

Check the conference webpage for updates.

Contact Information

Student Success Center & Strategic Initiatives
ssc@sbctc.edu