At CGCC, the goal is to provide quality educational courses and programs to help students reach whatever their goals may be: transferring to a university program, entering the job market, seeking a promotion, or exploring a personal interest.
CGCC teachers use a variety of learning strategies. They use collaborative learning activities, perform classroom research, involve students in service learning experiences, and form learning communities. As often as possible, students are involved in seeing, doing, solving, discussing and reflecting, rather than just listening to an instructor lecture about a subject. Instructors focus on development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and other skills that will serve students well in their professional and personal lives. The student learning and outcomes assessment program helps gauge progress in regard to developing skills in these areas, as well as in writing, speaking, listening, critical reading, information and computer literacy, humanities, mathematics, science, and personal development.
Development of a sense of social responsibility and community engagement is another area of emphasis. CGCC's service learning program and learning communities have received national recognition by the League of Innovation, the American Association of Higher Education, the American Association of Community Colleges, and other prominent organizations for their effectiveness in increasing student connections to one another, to the faculty, and to their communities.
Beyond offering classes at convenient times, in a variety of formats, and at a reasonable cost to the student, CGCC has the added goal of providing an experience that will have lifelong worth. There is a serious institutional commitment to make students' college years a transforming experience by engaging them actively in the subjects they are studying.
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
In collaborative learning, faculty facilitate small groups of students who work together to optimize their own and each other's learning. When students interact with each other and become active rather than passive learners, their achievement as well as their cognitive and social development improve. The challenge for faculty is to inspire and motivate students toward the common purpose of maximizing each other's learning.
SERVICE LEARNING
Service learning combines community service with academic instruction, focusing on critical thinking, problem-solving, values clarification, social and personal development, and civic and community responsibility. Classes engaged in service learning provide meaningful service to the community while making the curriculum more relevant to students' lives.
When designing a service-learning component for a course, faculty must be careful to include a clear connection between the service and the course competencies or objectives, a carefully structured assignment that includes a reflection component, and a meaningful contribution to the community. The extent of the service experience will vary based upon the degree to which the service connects to the course objectives. Faculty are encouraged to work with the Offices of Student Life and Service Learning.
LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Sometimes called "blocked" courses, "linked" courses, or "interdisciplinary studies," two or more classes are connected through content, ideas, or activities such as study groups or field trips to form a learning community. Students explore a common theme to see relationships between different ideas and subjects. Often these courses are team taught by college faculty. Students and teachers benefit by having larger blocks of time for sustained discussions and activities about a theme, seeking connections between subject matter, disciplines, and ideas. Learning communities also build a sense of community among students and faculty. This connection contributes to students' success in college.
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.
STUDENT LEARNING AND OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT
Faculty and programs at CGCC are dedicated to effective teaching and successful learning with emphasis in the following outcomes: critical reading, speaking, listening, writing across the curriculum, mathematics across the curriculum, science, computer application skill, humanities, problem-solving, information literacy, critical thinking, and personal development.
In all courses, students will be engaged in individual and/or group tasks which will help them understand and assess their own growth in these areas. Periodically, students will participate in formal and informal assessment activities that will help faculty improve the instructional program and teaching strategies to facilitate students' growth in any combination of these outcomes that apply to a course.