Ask a Colleague
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by Jill McKenney
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 This is a trial run for a possible
column in News & Opinion. The motivation for the column came from
discussions I had with colleagues over the years. It seemed to me that
the products of those discussions might be of value to others. I also
thought there were additional points of view and bits of knowledge that
we needed to have. I thought the questions and “answers” might be put
into a “Dear Abby” format where readers could offer their
advice, information, or objections to an initial answer.
The two questions and answers that follow are write ups from real
situations. If this type of thing is of interest to the LCC
staff, the column could evolve to questions submitted anonymously. A
panel of people (retirees?) could provide initial answers with
readers providing additional information or comments.
For now, I would appreciate responses as to the usefulness of such a
column. If you find the column useful I would also appreciate any ideas
for fleshing this out. I would like to keep copyright for some
LCC entity in case it becomes of value beyond LCC. At one time there
were funds allocated from the Shafer grant, but no Foundation funds
have ever been used. Please reply to mckenneyj@lanecc.edu.
Dear Colleague
I just read my evaluations from a course I taught last term and I’m
feeling so discouraged that I’m wondering if I really should be
teaching. Any advice?
Signed: Discouraged.
Dear Discouraged,
Without knowing the details, it’s difficult to give advice, but here
are some questions you might ask yourself. Your answers to the
questions might help you see what to do.
continued
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New Editorial Board
Bill Griffiths, editor and publisher of
News&Opinion, is retiring
next year. Gary Mort, Lee Imonen, Margaret Bayless, Ken Zimmerman and
Dennis Gilbert
have formed an editorial board to continue and expand this newsletter.
Bill Griffiths will continue as a member of the new board during the
transition period next year.
The purpose of this newsletter is
to provide a means for faculty to share news and opinions and to
facilitate free and open college-wide conversations.
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| LCC Debate Team |
by Andrew Kemp
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In the fall of 1987 Lane Community
College started a forensics team, offering intercollegiate speech and
debate competition to students to enhance education and opportunities
for personal growth. Our origins are humble, beginning with a dedicated
founding Director, Barbara Breaden, two-hundred dollars, one
tournament, and 70-year old man who believed learning never stops.
Today, the team is entering its 18th season of competition and
participation in the Northwest Forensics Conference, which has allowed
our students to compete in local and regional competitions to hone
their deliberative, analytical, and speaking skills. For nearly every
year of its existence, the team has qualified for the national
tournament and enjoyed a reasonable amount of interest from students
who are interested in being part of a successful and educational
co-curricular activity.
Last year, I was hired to direct the team, while teaching as an interim
full-time faculty member in the Speech and Communication Studies
department. This year, I have been fortunate enough to be hired as a
permanent contracted faculty; to me, this signals the beginning of my
real work as the Director of Forensics. This article is written in the
interests of making an introduction to the faculty at Lane Community
College, communicating my goals for the team in the years to come, and
seeking your support in these goals.
I have been involved in speech and debate since I had braces in junior
high school and I can say, without hesitation, there has never been a
more valuable co-curricular activity for students. This activity is an
incredible supplemental to scholarship applications and job searching.
This activity trains students critically listen, think, write, and
speak.
continued
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Metacognition
from
the Advocate February 2005, p. 7
. . .Finally, if students are
to develop
profficiency as learners, they must acquire the skills of selecting,
monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting their learning strategies, what
some cognitive psychologists refer to as metacognition. In essence,
students need to understand the role of prior knowledge, organization,
and active engagement, among other things, in the learning process. One
way to accomplish this is to explicitly focus on process, not just
outcome, and ask students to reflect on how they solve problems or
construct arguments. For example, a colleague of ours routinely assigns
students two less homework problems and, instead, asks them to choose
two of the assigned problems and document why and how they did what
they did to solve the problems. |
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Polymeal
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| by Gary Mort |
 A
few months ago in one of my random perambulations around the web I
happened on something (in the respected peer reviewed British Medical
Journal) called the polymeal.
A diet which the authors' characterized as " a more natural, safer, and
probably tastier (than the Polypill) strategy to reduce cardiovascular
disease by more than 75%.".
The polypill reference jiggled another memory from a year ago or so and
I was able to locate the original
article. That study's authors had proposed using a mixture of 6
drugs (including a statin, aspirin and folic acid) at lower doses than
they typically are used therapeutically. That study got some airtime in
the mainstream media since it proposed that a daily pill of this nature
could reduce cardiovascular disease by as much as 80%.
The somewhat tongue-in-cheek polymeal study and the more serious
polypill study relied on identical epidemiological methodologies
involving meta analysis of studies such as the Framingham Heart Study
(http://www.framingham.com/heart/). Both studies are part of a growing
trend of what is called Evidence Based Medicine (EBM).
.continued |
Editorial
by
Bill Griffiths
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Whiners?
At the Spring Inservice after thanking the
invited speaker Dr. Takaki for his talk, President Spilde gave a
brief introduction to
Appreciative Inquiry—the technique to be used in revisioning LCC. In
her explanation of why we were using Appreciative
Inquiry she said "whining
never solved anything." Instead we are going to focus on what works
well, then dream of how to expand what works well to swallow up that
which isn't working so well.
As is clear, this system works from the point of view of the existing
power structure. It sanctions change that is compatible with that
structure. It first establishes strongholds within the organization and
then works to encompass problem areas. It will come as no
surprise that this technique was developed at a school of management
(Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management).
continued
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Letters
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Send letters to
griffithsb@lanecc.edu
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