Rantings of a Community College Instructor: Honesty: Is it possible to be too honest with your...

Rantings of a Community College Instructor: Honesty: Is it possible to be too honest with your...: "During my lab times this week, I pulled each student aside and gave them fairly accurate progress reports as they enter the home stretch of ..."

Honesty: Is it possible to be too honest with your students?

During my lab times this week, I pulled each student aside and gave them fairly accurate progress reports as they enter the home stretch of their summer session. I teach human physiology, and from what I can gathe from colleagues in the nursing field, if students can't succeed in my class, then they probably won't have much of a chance in an RN program. So here is my dilemma! When I sit down to deliver these reports, I have adopted the stance that if the student is failing my class, then I feel obligated to "redirect" them to an alternate field. Is that the right thing to do? I think it is! I for one do not want an underqualified nurse taking care of myself or anyone in my family!

As an instructor at a community college, I have a unique opportunity to teach and counsel people from many different life stages. Don't get me wrong, I love freely dishing out the "A"s and "B"s because if it gets to that point, they are earned grades! If I can't give a student the grade they want, I still am able to find joy in knowing that I may be able to help them find a career path that might actually be better suited for their needs! So once again, is it possible to be too honest with your students? Resoundingly no! We as educators have a responsibility to our students to prepare them for life outside of the classroom, and if a little tough love is needed to spur them on to greater things, then so be it!

Rantings of a Community College Instructor: Program Review: Who's at Fault?

Rantings of a Community College Instructor: Program Review: Who's at Fault?: "When the topic of program review comes up, most instructors seem to cringe at the thought of being the one in charge of its implementation. ..."

Program Review: Who's at Fault?

When the topic of program review comes up, most instructors seem to cringe at the thought of being the one in charge of its implementation. Why? Shouldn't it be the responsibility of everyone in a department to evaluate the effectiveness of their program(s)? I say yes! In my Ed.D. program, we recently spent time researching and discussing the topic of program review and why it's important, what it's meant to accomplish, and various methods of evaluation. Over the past few months I have decided that my doctoral project study will focus on a program review of the health science program I teach in. About 2 years ago, I did the last program review on this same program, and I must admit that I did it with a poor attitude! At the time, I was told that I had to do it...I didn't even have a choice! Now, both my attitude and outlook on the process have changed dramatically, even to the point where I want to evaluate the heck out of my program!

The questions I want to pose to anyone reading this blog are these, "Where should the focus of a good program review be? The students in the program? The faculty? Both?" When I actually implement this process, my review will be focusing on underlying causes of falling student success rates, because if you try and locate research combining the two ideas, you can't find much! To do an honest, thorough review of a program and focus on success rates, you have to look at both faculty and students! Students may fail, but did they fail because we as faculty members didn't do everything possible to help them? What do you think? Let me know!