Research assists in improving ULM classrooms
Originally published July 8, 2007 in The (Monroe, La.) News-Star
The last few columns published here dealt with the improvements in the way we teach students at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. I fully expect that we will be sharing more of those changes in the future.
However, I thought it was time to examine why we are making those changes and how they directly affect students and the learning paradigm.
The vast majority of our faculty-led initiatives are in direct response to the University of Louisiana System's effort to improve student success and graduation rates at all of the system institutions. As I have stated in earlier columns, The National Center for Academic Transformation's — NCAT — Roadmap to Redesign, or R2R, philosophy is influencing universities, including ULM, across the nation.
Even more influential are the decades of research on effective college teaching and student learning. These are the basis for enhancements in today's classroom. Several articles, books and reports explore effective teaching methods.
One of the most frequently quoted and re-printed is a 1986 article by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson titled "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education."
These principles establish fundamental guidelines for quality higher education and can be used as building blocks for success by faculty, students, administrators and staff.
The principles are based on the question, how can students and faculty members improve undergraduate education?
According to Chickering and Gamson, good practice in undergraduate education:
- encourages contact between students and faculty
- develops collaboration and cooperation among students
- encourages active learning
- assures prompt feedback
- emphasizes time on task
- communicates high expectations
- respects diverse talents and ways of learning
These principles address pedagogy; in other words, how a teacher delivers the subject matter or content. It is important to recognize the healthy interaction between content and pedagogy.
The most brilliant student in the classroom may find difficulty in the lab. The virtuoso in the performance hall may be all thumbs in the writing lab.
Chickering and Gamson recognize that each of these principles taken alone can have a direct and beneficial impact on student learning. These good practices, when employed together, blend the forces of activity, responsibility, cooperation, interaction, diversity and expectations. In other words, they create success in the classroom.
It is interesting to note that the Chickering and Gamson article followed a number of reports on the quality of education in the United States. The most critical of these was a 1983 report to the secretary of education by the National Commission on Excellence in Education titled "A Nation at Risk."
This report shocked the American people, and waves of reforms were started in the public and private K-12 systems.
Twenty years later, another report was issued to the secretary of education dealing with the shortcomings of the higher education system in this country. The report, titled "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," called for similar far-reaching reforms.
ULM is once again ahead of the curve in applying innovative solutions to difficult problems. We began to address many of the student success issues even before this latest report was issued.
According to Chickering and Gamson, "There are not enough carrots and sticks to improve undergraduate education without the commitment and action of students and faculty members." Two groups that are making noticeable improvements in the educational environment at ULM.
We continue to see gains in the quality of the students at ULM, as the recent dramatic increase in entering freshman ACT scores illustrate. This increase in student quality is now being met with specific quality initiatives in the classroom by the ULM faculty.
As we see the demographics changing in northeastern Louisiana, it is expected that university enrollment will remain fairly constant. Therefore, increases in the quality of students' learning experiences will occur only if the quality of learning improves as a direct result of better instructional techniques as the quantity of students remain constant.
In previous articles, we discussed how faculty members at ULM were improving the quality of instruction by the use of such techniques as self-paced learning, math and writing labs, smaller classes and innovative technology.
It is important to know that the changes are well conceived and based on "Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Instruction."