CGCC's Instructional Philosophy

CGCC Instructional Philosophy

CGCC's Instructional Philosophy

from Chandler-Gilbert Community College's Faculty Guidelines 2008-09 Instructional Philosophy

CGCC's Instructional Philosophy embodies the College Mission by providing quality life-long learning opportunities in a learner-centered environment through effective, accessible educational programs and activities.

CGCC is committed to making students' college years a transformative experience by fostering a positive learning environment that actively engages students in the subjects they are studying. Further, dedication to a sense of social responsibility and community engagement develops students as informed and interested citizens.

CGCC faculty use a variety of instructional strategies and innovations that are learning-centered; for example, students are involved in seeing, doing, solving, discussing and reflecting, and actively listening. Instructors help students acquire current and relevant knowledge, developing critical thinking skills to apply that knowledge. CGCC also values instruction that is cross-curricular and that helps students become more aware of their own learning processes, which will serve them well in their academic, professional, and personal lives beyond CGCC.

Instructional Initiatives

Chandler-Gilbert Community College places a consistent emphasis on providing quality teaching and learning for students through ongoing faculty development. Each semester CGCC residential and adjunct faculty are offered a rich and diverse calendar of faculty development opportunities to ensure that they design classroom activities that actively engage students in meaningful and relevant learning. The CGCC Faculty Development program focuses on the following instructional initiatives:

ACTIVE LEARNING
When students interact with others and become active rather than passive learners, their achievement as well as their cognitive and social development improves. The challenge for faculty is to engage students in doing both in and outside of class. Faculty committed to active learning design assignments that ask their students to work cooperatively and collaboratively and to participate in meaningful conversation, simulation, investigation, role playing, debate, problem solving, service, research, self reflection, performing, reading and writing, etc.

CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
Civic responsibility involves the engagement of our students in civic activities encompassing a variety of salient issues. CGCC has a commitment to promote community service and student development opportunities. Our civic responsibility initiative focuses on the awareness of local, national, and global issues ultimately building an atmosphere of democratic dialogue.

CLASSROOM RESEARCH
Classroom research encourages college faculty to become more systematic and sensitive observers of learning as it takes place. Assessment instruments are created, administered, and analyzed by the teachers themselves. Students and teachers are involved in a continuous monitoring of student learning. This process helps students reflect on what they have learned and how they have learned it, while providing faculty with continuous feedback about their effectiveness as teachers.

DIVERSITY
Faculty infuse their curriculum with diversity-related materials and activities that promote the understanding, appreciation and acceptance of diversity. The goal is to transcend cultural boundaries to encourage students to acquire the knowledge, skills and willingness to participate in a diverse and multi-cultural world.

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT
Faculty work to broaden the context of course curriculum to create awareness of global perspectives. To successfully prepare students to understand the world they inherit and work to improve it, CGCC is committed to providing students with global-learning opportunities.

LEARNING COMMUNITIES The CGCC learning communities program is dedicated to offering student-centered and student-directed learning models that create a supportive network through the cooperative association among fellow students, instructors, administrators, advisors, and support staff, while providing learning experiences that often extend beyond the classroom walls. In learning communities, two or more classes are connected through content, ideas, and activities. Using a variety of learning methods, learning communities can be comprised of linked activities between courses, linked and clustered courses, and completely integrated single or team-taught courses.

SERVICE-LEARNING
Service-learning makes academic course material relevant to students' lives by providing them with hands-on learning experiences that serve community needs. Service must be thoughtfully integrated with academic instruction, including structured time to think, talk, and write about the service experience. This pedagogy provides meaningful service to the community as it fosters students' critical thinking and problem solving skills, social and personal development, and civic and community engagement.

STUDENT LEARNING AND OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT
Because faculty at CGCC are dedicated to effective teaching and successful learning, assessment of student learning at CGCC is continuous. Its goal is to monitor and improve the degree to which students are meeting course competencies and cross-curricular and general education outcomes. Faculty use assessment to systematically collect and examine student achievement data and to interpret results, which leads to reflection and review of teaching practices and recommended changes in curriculum and instruction.

Students participate in formal and informal assessment activities that will help faculty improve teaching and learning. Assessment of student learning occurs at multiple levels at CGCC: 1) Individual class, 2) Course or Learning Community, 3) Discipline or Program, 4) Division, and 5) College.

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
Writing is a multifaceted tool that can be used to create a sense of community among learners and to help students access prior knowledge, build new knowledge, reflect on what they have learned, assess their learning, and better understand their own learning processes. Writing Across the Curriculum at CGCC facilitates student learning by promoting the use of writing in all disciplines. It assists and supports faculty and students in using writing as a vehicle for student learning and for improving students' ability to write clear, effective prose.