549 10 9760 https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/cebee0df6f9c7800a0d31dcec0f85351.pdf 60caf5eb1e38ad7166231d429c38c967 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Leon C. and Jane Goodrich Papers Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1910-1959 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context NCA 01.v.1982.01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Leon C. and Jane Goodrich Language A language of the resource ENG Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Leon C. and Jane Goodrich Papers, NCA 01.v.1982.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Five Wyoming Paintings file Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Casper Tribune-Herald; City of New York Municipal Art Committee Language A language of the resource ENG Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context NCA 01.v.1982.01_Five_Wyoming_Paintings_1936 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Extent The size or duration of the resource. 32 pages Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Five Wyoming Paintings selected for exhibition: Canvasses by Mrs. D. Dolph and Leon Goodrich are included in group, 1936. Leon C. and Jane Goodrich Papers, NCA 01.v.1982.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/50757124f283f5d8cf97adc85a168085.pdf 2dcb7127260226b6d5d078dbec028149 PDF Text Text ����� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Casper College 1962 Thunderbird Annual Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1962 Subject The topic of the resource Casper College -- History.; Community colleges -- Wyoming -- History Description An account of the resource Digitized copy of the Cover and Table of contents section for the 1962 Casper College Thunderbird annual yearbook. Type The nature or genre of the resource PDF Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Casper College Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Casper College Thunderbird Annuals, CCA 2023.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Casper College Thunderbird Annuals Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Table of Contents Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1962 Subject The topic of the resource Casper College -- History.; Community colleges -- Wyoming -- History Description An account of the resource Digitized copy of the Cover and Table of contents section for the 1961 Casper College Thunderbird annual yearbook. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource CasperCollege Language A language of the resource Eng Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Casper College Thunderbird Annuals, CCA 2023.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA2023.01_1992_Cover_TableofContents Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/dcf7370fd28130a348a609904c8bccb3.jpg 2a542d627033b288f5224363fc71ba04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alan K. Simpson Photographs Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Access Rights Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies. Archivists are happy to assist anyone with accessing the physical or electronic copies of photographs. The Casper College Goodstein Foundation Library is glad to grant uses of this material that it actively manages and cares for and will provide its publication policy upon request. Subject The topic of the resource Politicians United States; Politicians Wyoming Description An account of the resource This is a collection of 86 photographs of U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson that were created and used by the Casper Star-Tribune. These photographs are part of a larger collection that consists of photographs and negatives created and used by the Casper Star Tribune from 1967 until the middle of 1995 according to a newspaper article on the donation from February of 2000. Images in this collection may support the use of other collections in the repository or vice versa. Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context NCA 01.ii.2000.01_PeoplePhotos_AlanSimpson Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Casper Star-Tribune People Photographs, NCA 01.ii.2001.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1981-1993 Provenance A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource. The Casper Star-Tribune gifted 20 years of photographic negatives and prints to Casper College early in the year 2000. These photographs and negatives have been managed by the Casper College Archives and Special Collections housed in its Western History Center. Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1981-1993 Relation A related resource <a href="https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/collections/show/27" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/collections/show/27</a><br /><br />The finding aid for these and other items in this collection is available for viewing: <a href="https://caspercollegearchives.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/25384" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://caspercollegearchives.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/25384</a> Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photographic print Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alan Simpson Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Access Rights Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies. Archivists are happy to assist anyone with accessing the physical or electronic copies of photographs. The Casper College Goodstein Foundation Library is glad to grant uses of this material that it actively manages and cares for and will provide its publication policy upon request. Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1983-02-12 Subject The topic of the resource Politicians United States; Politicians Wyoming Description An account of the resource Photograph of Alan Simpson. This photograph is part of a collection of photographs of U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson that were created and used by the Casper Star-Tribune. They date from 1981 to 1993. These photographs are part of a collection that consists of photographs and negatives created and used by the Casper Star Tribune from 1967 until the middle of 1995 according to a newspaper article on the donation from February of 2000. In the words of Special Collections Curator, Kevin Anderson, the photographs in this collection serve to document "events in our own lives, events in our own history." There were 19,000 envelopes that were gifted to the repository, which totaled between 330,000 and 460,000 images. Images in this collection may support the use of other collections in the repository or vice versa. Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource CasperStar-Tribune Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Casper Star-Tribune People Photographs, NCA 01.ii.2001.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context NCA 01.ii.2000.01_PeP_AlanSimpson_1983-02-12 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPG Relation A related resource <a href="https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/collections/show/26">https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/collections/show/26</a> Provenance A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource. The Casper Star-Tribune gifted 20 years of photographic negatives and prints to Casper College early in the year 2000. These photographs and negatives have been managed by the Casper College Archives and Special Collections housed in its Western History Center. https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/d6701606fa82bdf615dcba5b810a6526.tif 798b7784e368304434a3f1c020480622 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Fishin' Vision Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> <em>Expression</em> claims first North American rights to submissions selected for publication. All rights revert back to the author/artist after publication. Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2025 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cassidy Baedke Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA_04.ii.c.2022.01_Exp_2025_Art_02 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource TIF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Casper College Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Expression Literary and Arts Magazine, CCA 04.ii.c.2022.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/7e3dc91a332d13d91e9544df6785ab93.pdf e63314dac050d0c894215f26fb8f9dce PDF Text Text FROM TEACHING TO LEARNING: ARE WE STILL EDUCATING STUDENTS? by Chad M. Hanson, Northcentral Technical College, IVisconsin hanson@northcentral. tec. wi. us by Terry O’Banion. Both describe what is wrong with higher education today, and both suggest a move from teaching to Editor's note: Here's a piece that takes a por­ learning as the solution to our ills. tion other than thepapular one 'with respect to According to Barr and Tagg, the prob­ the current interest in andfocus on learning. If lem lies with the assumptions we make it makes you think andyou'd like to respond, be about the purpose and structure of higher welcome to share your ruminations with us! education. They argue that our “dominant paradigm mistakes a means for an end ... n current efforts at reform in higher it takes the means or method — called education, I have noticed a recurring ‘instruction’ or ‘teaching’ — and makes it message that may slight our efforts to the college’s end or purpose.” The question improve. I would like to suggest that the I would like to raise is an empirical one. current “learning revolution” and the dis­ Which institutions conceive teaching as an cussion that surrounds the move from end in and of itself? I have studied and vis­ teaching to learning may be based on both ited two- and four-year schools all over the questionable assumptions about the goals country in the last several years, and each of higher education and a limited under­ one treats the production of educated stu­ standing of the classroom experience. dents as a primary goal and teaching as a My interest in this topic peaked after I means, often a partial one, to those ends. I noticed that in the discussion about the am not convinced that a large number of learning revolution, the word education and colleges or universities promote or have all that it means is rarely, if ever, included. promoted teaching for its own sake. Consider two notable examples of such A second consideration has to do with work, both widely referenced by learning the nature and purpose of education as it advocates: a 1995 Change article by Robert happens in classrooms. In contrast to Barr Barr and John Tagg entitled “From and Tagg, who question the epistemologi­ Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm cal foundations of higher education, for Undergraduate Education," and a 1995 O’Banion points out weaknesses of educat­ report, “School is Out — Learning is In” ing students on campuses and in class­ rooms. He explains that in the classroom, our work is time-bound, place-bound, and teacher-bound, and that learning is not bound by any of these conditions. Thus, the question is “why should our institutions be?” On one level that question is a fair one. It is true that learning happens every­ where, all the time, and certainly without the presence of professional educators. However, education is more than just learning, and it is certainly more than just teaching. The dictionary defines education as a complex social institution where stu­ I dents are involved in “acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of rea­ soning and judgment, and preparing one’s self or others intellectually for mature life.” One of my favorite illustrations of this definition in action comes from the award-winning film The Paper Chase. In one of the opening scenes from the film, the renowned Professor Kingsfield explains to a large group of students that in his class, “you teach yourselves the law, but I train your mind.” He goes on to prod students with the suggestion that “you come in here with a skull full of mush and you leave thinking like a lawyer.” What Professor Kingsfield is talking about is socialization. What I notice each time I watch the film is that by confronting students this way, he demonstrates that a college education is largely a process of professional socializa­ tion. Through the process, students come to know a detailed set of norms, roles, and values. Whether or not those appear on our syllabi, we teach and students learn a set of social expectations: how to think, talk, and act like educated people. My hunch is that many faculty will struggle with the idea that they have a responsibility to socialize students. However, I am personally ready to accept that I have a strong role in shap­ ing my students’ understanding of what it means to be a professional and a bet­ ter member of society. What concerns me about the learning revolution is that in both language and practice we do not acknowledge that teaching and learning are but two equivalent parts of the giant, complex, chaotic, and wonderful social process called education. Ultimately, that is what we are responsible for — our students’ education. # � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Newsletter Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource From Teaching to Learning: Are We Still Educating Students? Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1998-10 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_01 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>The Teaching Professor&nbsp;</em>is published by Magna Publications Inc. https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/59415d03e0e9c735d89dad805886dcb7.pdf a0836414ce8ca5d4233584d85f20ae6f PDF Text Text The National Teaching & Leamin fcMi Number 6 Volume 9 CONTENTS • Silence and Structure in the Classroom, Chad M. Hanson, Northcentral Tech, p. 1. “Post-It” notes don’t sound so hokey when you think of them as votes. • CARNEGIE CHRONICLE: Must Faculty Teach in Ways That Make Them Easily Dispensable? Craig Nelson, Indiana University, p. 4. Marcia Baxter Magolda’s new book synthesizes a lot of important modern thinking on pedagogy. Can the ideal be realized in the classroom? At a distance? • TECHPED: The Intelligent Management of E-mail, Tom Rocklin, University of Iowa, p. 6. There’s too much of it. It’s ruling our lives, but it’s also helping us teach as we never could before. • LEARNING DIARY: A Face, A Voice, James Rhem, Editor, p. 7. “E-mail’s dark side considered” or “An absence is always felt, and feeling affects learning.” • ERIC TRACKS: Enacting Diverse Learning Environments, p. 9. What the latest research shows about how diversity works in the classroom. • AD REM ...: Questions? Line. Fisch. Lexington, Kentucky, p. 12. Maybe asking for questions when they’re halfway out the door isn’t such a good idea. • EDITOR’S NOTE, p. 3. 2000 Silence and Structur^ in the Classroom From Seminar to Town Meeting via ‘Post-it’s Chad M. Hanson, Ph.D. Northcentral Tech Wausau, Wl ike most, I started out teach­ ing the way I was taught. My first inclination as a faculty member was to reproduce the format of the graduate course. I wanted my students to share the same feeling of excitement I had known as a student. I wanted their minds to sharpen and their pulses to quicken just as mine had in those vital forums. Sociology is my subject so it’s probably no surprise that I started teaching by selecting a textbook and several readings from within the field. Mindful of my students’ level of preparation, 1 chose well-respected articles written for a general audience, and I assigned only four of them in my Introduction to Sociology classes. I explained to students early on in the semester that the articles would serve as a basis for in-class discussions. When the first discussion dale rolled around I walked into class with genuine enthusiasm. I welcomed the students, reminded them about the discussion, then I followed in the footsteps of one of my fondest mentors by issuing a familiar challenge. “OK." I said, “who would like to begin?" No L one )egan. There were no hands in the : iir. I did not hear the cacopl Iony of voices I had come to kno\ ■ so well in graduate school— ever one anxious to support or refu 1e the claims of the author now up f )r discussion. Instead there was siler ce. This wasn’t graduate school. Twenty-nine pairs of eyes poinited in my direction. So I begrn. I ontinued, and eventually I finis ted the discussion myself, Mea iwhile, students wrote in their tab!' ts. They took what looked like deta led notes while 1 talked, and that was gratifying, but not part of my ] Ian. Unfortunately. I repeated rouj hly the same series of events foul more times the same week. By Frid iv afternoon, 1 had decided the app oach that worked so well for my ] irofessors was not going to work for me. Th<> Pendulum Swings; Structured Cooperative Learning Activities T le first step in any process of red< Impiion involves admitting you hav< a problem, which, obviously, I did. I needed help and I sought it out. The first place I found guidanci: was the literature on coopera­ tive learning. Years before, I ran acre ss a copy of Ken Bruffee’s CoUiborative learning (1993). I revi ited Bruffee first, because I remembered that he outlines a �theoretical foundation for col­ laboration in the college class­ room. For anyone experimenting with discussion leading or the grouping of students for educa­ tional purposes. 1 recommend Bruffce’s work. For the nuts and bolts of getting students involved in conversation, I relied on the work of David and Roger Johnson, namely Active Learning (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1991). Over the last several years I have had a great deal of success using the proce­ dures described by these authors. Success with the cooperative learning approach described by Johnson and Johnson hinges on having a clear set of guidelines for students. In the Johnsons' model, each student must have a clearly defined role in the class. The instructor’s job is to ensure that the students’ roles and the objectives of the class are both well defined. 1 have found that when 1 take that initiative, the procedures outlined in Active Learning provide a formal struc­ ture for ensuring that students slay engaged with course material, and with one another, during the class periods I set aside for coop­ erative work. Although 1 quickly became comfortable with the Active Learning techniques, 1 found that 1 still had a longing to create the excitement and spontaneity of the unstructured and free-ranging discussions that took place in my graduate courses. At die same time, I also began to feel a respon­ sibility to create an environment where students could interact with one another in an exchange that would mirror that of a discussion held outside of the classroom in places where our democratic traditions are strongest (Beckman, 1990). I had in mind the New England town meeting as an ideal (Bellah, et al., 1985). Conse­ quently, 1 set out to create a forum where I did not personally determine the nature of each student’s contribution to in-class discussions. I did not want to prohibit the discussions from unfolding on their own, as they would in a town meeting or similarly democratic forum. As 1 began to conceive the new format for my in-class discussions, 1 realized that citizens who attend town meetings are a self-selected group. The attendees are there because they have some­ thing to say. My students are also a self-selected group, but the primary reason for selecting one of my courses is that it fulfills a require­ ment for the degrees that they seek. Given the lack of inherent motiva­ tion, 1 needed a strategy that would ensure everyone’s participation. The solution to my problem was as near as the pad of Post-it notes lying next to my office telephone. FHE NATIONAL TEACHING & LEARNING FORUM Exec itive Editor: Jame iRhem, Ph.D. 213 Potter SL Madit on. Wl 53715-2050 EdKo lai Advisory Board Jonat lan Fife, Director Emeritus ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education Judy areene. Director Cenu r for Teaching Effectiveness Univc srty of Delaware Pal H jtchings. Senior Scholar The C amegie Foundation for th AdvarKement of Teaching Susa I Kahn Direc or. Urban Universities Portfolio Project Indiai ia University-Purdue University Indiai apolis Wilbe t McKeachie Profe sor of Psychology. Emeritus Unive sity of Michigan Edwa d Neal, Director CenK r for Teaching and Learning Unive sity of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Laura Rendbn Profe :sor of Education Arizo a State University Phylli. Steckler. President The C ryx Press Marill i Svinicki Direc or. Center tor Teaching Effectiveness Unrve -sity of Texas at Austin Edlto iai correspondence: Finding the Middle Ground: Required Participation Jame; Rhem 213 Potter St. Madit on, Wl 53715-2050 Today, I use a particular formal to create an environment in the classroom that approximates a town hall meeting. The first step I take is to allow the students to decide the topics to be discussed. 1 begin by having students brain­ storm a list of potential topics in small groups. After each group generates its own list, we compile all the topics on a chalkboard and hold a vote to determine the top ten to be discussed. Once the topics are determined 1 select groups of two to four students, at random, to lead the discussions. 1 require discussion leaders to find al least two articles on their topic and 1 give them a list of things to consider when they analyze the articles, including a set of guidelines on how to prepare a TheC Iryx Press 4041 'forth Central #700 Phoe' lix, Arizona 85012 Phon i: 1-800-279-6799 or 602-265-2651 Subs Tlption Information: The I lational Teaching & Learning Forum {ISSh 1057-2880) is published six times durini the academic year by The Oryx Press in cor iunction with James Rhem & Associ­ ates. nc. - October, December, February, Marci, May. September. One-: ear individual subscription: $39. Perio licals postage paid at Phoenix, AZ. Postr laster Send change of address to: The I lational Teaching & Learning Forum P.O. I lox 33889 Phoe lix, Arizona 85067-3889 Copyright O 2000 James Rhem & Associates, Inc. DUPIICATION BY PHOTOCOPYING OR OTHI ;R MEANS IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. Bulk liacountsubscriptlonrateaavallable. (Pho a:1«a00*2794799) edition of the " Forum is -------$32.00 for AnE mail................. indivi luals. Significant discounts and site iicerv es available to entire institutions. http://www.nttf.com October �Editor's Note: We all begin teaching with high ideals and unrealistic expectations. Or so it’s said. For years, it's been the “unrealistic" part of that truism that has bothered me. for one person’s “reality" is another’s lowest common denominator. The fight to raise the denominator—to nudge reality a little closer to one’s ideals—gets fought in unlikely ways. Chad Hanson’s use of “Post-if notes offers a prime example. “Post-if notes seem an unlikely topic for a cover feature in the Forum, but Hanson’s article isn't really about those little yellow squares. It’s about the fight for a certain kind of classroom, a certain kind of learning community. I like Hanson’s piece because you can see him learning about his own ideas, as he struggles to refine them. He moves from the giddy, romantic memory of graduate school seminars to an image of a New England town meeting: Democracy replaces privilege and ends up in the same heady place where the freedom of ideas breeds new learning. If the “Post-it" notes seem hokey, the end goal certainly isn’t. And who does not put on his shoes one at a time before walking even the most noble path? When I asked Hanson if students ever offered lame comments just to collect their points, he said no, he hadn’t had that problem. “I give a little pep talk in the beginning. I tell them ‘this is not the Jerry Springer show,’ and I give them a list of ‘hints’ for the discussions— 'criticize ideas, not people,’ and things along those lines. It seems to work," he says. If there’s a theme to this issue of the Forum, perhaps it’s the power of the personal touch and personal presence. Craig Nelson’s CARNEGIE CHRONICLE (the second of a six-part series) looks at a synthesis of the best contemporary thinking about teaching and wonders if it can really be accomplished via distance education. Tom Rocklin’s TECHPED column looks at the decorum of e-mail and its usefulness in teaching more effectively. (There’s a Virtual Companion at www.ntlf.com with additional information.) And there’s a LEARNING DIARY, written out of some powerful and painful learning I did this summer, about myself and the limits of e-mail in carrying on serious, scholarly conversation. 1 thought e-mail was magic. I see it’s something just as useful, but less wonderful. ERIC TRACKS reports on the latest research in creating truly diverse learning environments, ones that incorporate diversity and diverse populations in their world view. And finally, Line. Fisch’s AD REM looks at the old and important question of “questions," when to ask for them and how to ask for them. Perhaps as the fall term swings into high gear, it's a good time to remind readers that they, too, have a vital voice in defining the conversation about good teaching. As Chad Hanson’s piece demonstrates in a variety of ways, worthwhile writing about teaching can take many forms and have homely trappings at times. Not every little technique or gimmick will make an article for the Forum, but. again, it’s not Hanson’s technique per se, but the context of thinking in which it arose that makes his experience one others can learn from. Many readers have stores of such experience and thinking. Your experience, your reflections on more effective teaching have a place in the conversation. Faculty of all kinds have begun to feel the importance of thinking more concretely about their teaching and writing about it. And insights from one discipline often have cross-disciplinary implications. So, even though your workload is large and your lime limited, I urge subscribers to consider drafting a manuscript for the Forum. You can find further submission guidelines posted on the Forum’s Web site at http://www.ntlf.com/html/sd/mssub.htm. Be well. — James Rhem Vol. 9. No. 6 2(M)0 set )f talking points to use during the town hall meetings. I lowever, in the town hall for: nat, the most important step is to (nsure that all of the students hav: both the opportunity and the inc :ntive to participate. In order to < reate that incentive 1 make eac 1 discussion worth two points. To ;arn the points, people have to tak ; part. I begin town hall meetings by givi ng two Post-it notes to every Stu lent In class. The Post-its are woi th a point each, so I have them wri ,e their name on each note. Aft ;r the discussion leaders are giv n the floor, all of the students are free lo raise questions or to cor imeni. Each time they add to the discussion, students stick one of I heir Post-it notes on the front of heir desk for everyone to see. On:e a person has participated twi e and placed both Post-its on the front of their desk, they can no Ion jer earn points but they may stil contribute to the discussion, I have found that Post-it notes, visi ole to all, serve two importarrf rol rs in class. First, for students wh ) might otherwise dominate dis :ussions, the notes are visual rer linders that they have already said their piece. I have found this to )e a subtle, but important reninder in those cases. Second, th< notes are a less (han subtle rer tinder to those less likely to pai ticipate. In this case the notes ser kC as a reminder that you do no earn points if you do not contribute to the discussion. I res lize that may seem like undue pr< ssure to place on students who may not wish to participate. He wever, during the last three ser testers I have found that students who participate quickly an 1 place their notes out in front rigti away often go on to create op tortunities for other students to an wer questions or to comment. Or e of the most rewarding ob» ervations I have made during lovm hall meetings has been the ter dency of outspoken members of :lass to encourage others to add ih< ir voices to the conversations. THE NATIONAL TEACHING & LEARNING FORUM 3 �Each semester I watch students take steps to ensure that everyone has a chance to contribute. Conclusion During the time I've spent using Post-it notes and town hall meet­ ings, I have fell very close to the format of the graduate seminar 1 enjoyed so much as a student. The discussions flow freely, they are full of excitement and they serve as a model for democratic participa­ tion. As an unintended conse­ quence, 1 have also been pleased to find that Post-its have had the effect of producing an environ­ ment where students consistently demonstrate that they value each other’s thoughts. When I use the notes in class I am guaranteed not to face the silence that vexed me as a beginning teacher. At the same time, they provide a struc­ ture that is subtle enough to allow the freedom necessary for students to determine the nature of their own contribution to class. Today I can say that the unassuming stack of Post-its that sits next to my phone provides the means to create balance, equity and a model for democracy in the classroom. ||| References • Beckman. M. 1990. "Collaborative Learning: Preparation for the Workplace and Democracy?" College Teaching3^A,. 128-133. • Bellah, R,, et al. 1985. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. • Bruffee, K. 1993. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore. MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. • Johnson, D.. Johnson, R., and Smith. K. 1991. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom. Edina. MN; interaction Book Company. Contact: Chad M. Hanson. Ph.D. Faculty. Social Sdence Department Northcentral Tech 1000 W. Campus Drive Wausau. Wi 54401 Telephone: (715) 675-3331 *4802 E-mail: hanaonOnorthcentral.tec.wl.us 4 THF NJATirVMAI fl. I fiovixir CARNEGIE CHRONICLE Nelson’s Notebook Must Faculty Teach i i Ways That Make Them Easily Dispensable? Craig E. Nelson Indiana University Many faculty pay little attention either to the scholarship on effective pedagogy or to the literature that asks how our academic goals might be better articulated. One direct conse­ quence has been teaching that remains much less effective than it could be. Another is our tendency to attribute our lack of success more to student inadequacies than to our pedagogical deficiencies. The internet and ever-cheaper com­ puting have now made global distance education practical. Hence the question: How many professors can, or even should, be replaced with good distance education courses? One line of scholarship has made such change seem educationally appropriate. In “Explaining, Exploring [and] Under­ standing the No Significant Difference Phenomenon." T. R. Russell notes, "scholars have been able to find no significant difference resulting from the use of or lack of use of technological means of delivery” and "no matter how it is produced, how it is delivered, whether or not it is interactive, low tech or high tech, students learn equally well" (Adult Assessment Forum Winter 1997:6-9; see also http:// cuda.ieleeducation.nb.ca/ nosignificantdifference for summa­ ries of 355 studies). If we don’t like Russell's conclu­ sion, we should either document any important things we are already doing that distance education is not, or try to change our pedagogy so that it is belter than the teaching technology can easily provide. iii4 \ Tiai might such a pedagogy look like» 1 0 help you create your own ans «'ers to this question, read Marcia Bax :er Magolda’s new book. Creating Con texti for Learning and Self-Aulhorshif. ■ Constructive-Developmental Ped igogy (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1999). Even faculty wh< aren’t particularly concerned abo at the issues raised by distance edu ration versus face-to-face encounters with a teacher will profit from Baxter // Magolda's splendid, synthesiz­ ing over­ view. In her opening chapter Baxter Magolda creates a vision of what higher education might be. Specifically, she synthesizes three rich strands: an emphasis on the student’s own experience (John Dev ey and Jean Piaget through Par er Palmer, Nel Noddings, and several other feminists), an emphasis on : elf-authorship or liberaiory edu ration (Paulo Freire and Ira She r through Frances Maher and Mai y Kay Tetreault), and an emphasis ( n intellectual development (je: n Piaget, William Perry, Patricia Kin Karen Kitchener, and Robert Keg an). Her s)’nthesis provides a brie f introduction to much of the bes! thought about the goals of teat hing in higher education. 1 he collective vision is one of a ped agogy that will promote both disc plinary mastery and “selfautl lorship.” The sense of selfaut] lorship is broadened to include intellectual development, the � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. 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Title A name given to the resource Silence and Structure in the Classroom: From Seminar to Town Meeting via 'Post-it's Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2000-10 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_02 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>The National Teaching &amp; Learning Forum&nbsp;</em>is published by John Wiley &amp; Sons, Inc. https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/38adb872a441001dacd6fd65ef31202e.pdf cdf6fac50808fec2ffc716ab937eba3c PDF Text Text Notes A STOP SIGN AT THE INTERSECTION OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY: ILLUSTRATING MILLS’S IMAGINATION WITH DEPRESSION-ERA PHOTOGRAPHS* ChadM. Hanson Casper College There is disagreement about whether there Stasz adds historical perspective by pointing is or should be a set of universal goals for out how photographs became a “potential undergraduate sociology courses (Guppy and source of embarrassment for a young field Arai 1994; Wagenaar 1991). However, fac­ struggling to prove itself as a ‘rational ulty tend to agree that one of the primary discipline” (Stasz 1979:134). Despite the purposes of these courses is to promote the apparent contrast between the goals of art development of what Mills (1959) called the and science, Becker addresses the perception sociological imagination (Davis 1993; Olzak of difference between sociology and photog­ 1981) . Accordingly, a wide range of meth­ raphy by proposing that “the overlap and ods have been used to help students build a continuity between the aims of social science and art are, in the case of photography, perspective akin to Mills’s “imagination. particularly obvious” (1981:9). He suggests Methods described in the literature on teach­ that “ the two enterprises are confounded in ing sociology include the use of film (Prendergrast 1986; Valdez and Halley ways that cannot be unmixed. However 1999), music (Ahlkvist 1999; Martinez uneasy it may make everyone involved” 1994), fiction (Hendershott and Wright (Becker 1981:9). In this paper, I describe a visual and 1993; Lena and London 1979; Sullivan 1982) , poetry (Miley 1988; Moran 1999), historical technique for introducing students games (Strauss 1986), and museum field to the sociological imagination. The method trips (King 1992). Although there are a wide is based on the use of photographs by range of techniques available to teach Walker Evans, one member of a team of Mills’s perspective, photography has been photographers commissioned by the U.S. largely unexplored as a resource (Barthel Farm Securities Administration to make a record of individual and community life in 1987). Sociologists’ lack of interest in pho­ the aftermath of the 1929 stock market tographs stems, at least in part, from the crash. I describe my use of the photographs tendency to identify photography with art as and offer results from a survey designed to opposed to science. Barthel notes: “Any measure students’ reactions to the images. In reluctance to use this valuable resource must the end, I propose that depression-era pho­ be traced...to sociology’s alliance with the tographs provide students with a visual sciences over the humanities” (1987:21). counterpart to the perspective Mills suggests in The Sociological Imagination (1959). ♦The author wishes to thank Gregory Ormson, Jane Galarowitz, Lynn Hanson, and the anony­ mous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this paper. Please ad­ dress all correspondence to the author at the Department of Sociology, Casper College, 125 College Drive, Casper, WY 82601; e-mail: chanson@acad. cc. whecn. edu Editor’s note: The reviewers were, in alpha­ betical order, Barbara Carter and Chris Prender­ gast. PHOTOGRAPHY AS AN EDUCATIONAL MEDIUM There is a long-standing, but unstable, rela­ tionship between the fields of sociology and photography (Becker 1974; Stasz 1979; Wagner 1979). Stasz points out that if you “pull a tum-of-the-century volume of the __ c—V/sl 'if\ 0009 Z'Anrib9T5-242^ 235 �American Journal of Sociology off the shelf, blow off the dust, and open it up, you will find something virtually unseen in sociology journals of recent decades—photographs” (1979:121). In documenting the history of visual sociology, Stasz focused on the Jour­ nal, and found that “between 1896 and 1916 thirty-one articles used 244 photographs as illustrations and evidence” (1979:121). To­ day, photographs are as unseen in social science journals as they were in the late 1970s when Stasz was writing on the sub­ ject; the only difference is that the length of time since sociologists distanced themselves from photography has lengthened to more than half a century. Of course, photographs are a less than ideal means for discovering social facts or documenting broad social patterns; nonethe­ less, when those facts and patterns have been determined by other methods, pho­ tographs have the favorable quality of bring­ ing those patterns to life in a visual form. “Photographs scream ‘We are real!’ ‘We live!’ tugging on sentiments and emotion” (Stasz 1979:134). Even though it is the affective and subjective nature of pho­ tographs that makes sociologists unlikely to use them in other areas of their work, it is these characteristics that make visual images an outstanding teaching resource. Not sur­ prisingly, most undergraduate texts are filled with photographs, although pictures are en­ tirely absent from the professional publica­ tions the texts rely upon. In a sample of 45 introductory textbooks published between 1982 and 1994, Hall found 1,357 pho­ tographs dealing with the subject of poverty alone (Hall 2000). At some level, instructors, textbook au­ thors, and publishers all tacitly acknowledge the ability of photographs to convey ideas. As Hraba et al. explain: “Facts and fig­ ures...are often necessary, but show only sociological dimensions separated from the human drama. That drama needs to be in the classroom so that the significance of social forces for peoples’ lives can be better appre­ ciated” (1980:124). Commenting on the spe­ cific advantages that photographs bring to the teaching of sociology, Wagner further notes: Photographs which are used in social science leaching cut two ways. As visual illustration they can assist instructors in making a more powerful presentation of their argument and textual material. As visual stimulation, on the other hand, they can turn a passive student audience into active and critical analysts. (1979:19) It is the ability of photographs to serve as a common point of reference that originally attracted me to photography as an educa­ tional medium, although as Wagner sug­ gests, photographs also hold the potential for generating dialogue among students as visual images are open to a range of interpreta­ tions. MILLS’S “IMAGINATION” AND DEPRESSION-ERA PHOTOGRAPHS In the summer of 2(XX) I decided to make the economic depression of the 1930s, one of the great structural transformations of U.S. history, part of a lower division social prob­ lems course. In this case, I took a cue directly from Mills, who was quick to point out that “In the thirties there was little doubt...there was an economic issue which was also a pack of personal troubles. The values threatened were plain to see...the structural contradictions that threatened them seemed plain...it was a political age” (Mills 1959:11-12). In the second week of my social problems course, students read a brief overview of Mills’s work and the first eight pages of The Sociological Imagination (1959). The objective of this assignment is for students to develop an understanding of what Mills termed the “intersection of his­ tory and biography” (Mills 1959:7); my goal is to help students start seeing the relation­ ship between individual lives and the larger forces of politics and economics. Given Mills’s direct reference to the depression of the 1930s, photographs from the era seemed like a logical way to help students see, in a literal sense, how individual biographies are �ILLUSTRATING MILLS’S IMAGINATION 237 tion’s Web site (U.S. Library of Congress. tied to the forces of history. Fortunately, the social and economic con­ Special Collections 2000). Images on the ditions of the Great Depression are both well sites can be downloaded and a formal repro­ documented. During the 1930s and early duction service is also available. Costs for 1940s, notable photographers like Walker reproductions vary, but there are no copy­ Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, and right fees for U.S.-based educators. The Russell Lee were all commissioned by the federal government commissioned the work; U.S. Farm Security Administration to therefore, the images are public property record the far-reaching effects of the eco­ (see archival sources for additional collec­ nomic downturn. “From 1933 to 1943 pho­ tions of depression-era photographs). tographers were engaged by the Farm Secu­ PRESENTING PHOTOGRAPHS rity Administration (FSA) to photograph all IN CLASS phases of rural America in an effort to help fight the depression and to educate the American public about the problem” 1 began using slides of Evans’s work as part (Norman 1991: 194). In other words: of a pilot project by presenting them to a “Evans.. .and others made it their business to single section of a social problems class in record the poverty and hard times of depres­ the summer of 2000. 1 let my own aesthetic sion America,” and unlike other purely aes­ sense guide my choice of photographs, but I thetic projects, their work was “very much also employed the goal of illustrating Mills’s informed by social science theories” (Becker sociological imagination in selecting images. In all, I chose 26 photographs out of the 61 1974:4). Even though the work of the FSA photog­ appearing in Let Us Now Praise Famous raphers is remarkably consistent with re­ Men (Agee and Evans 1939) to present to spect to quality. Walker Evans is said to students. I started by walking the class through the stand out among noteworthy contemporaries slides one by one, offering my interpretation (Sontag 1973). In The Human Image: Soci­ of each photograph. 1 did not assign any ology and Photography, Horowitz writes: “To sociologists who take pictures...Evans depression-era readings or historical ac­ must rank on the same level as Max Weber, counts of the period prior to the presenta­ Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim; and for all tion, assuming students could rely at least in I know—somewhat higher” (1976:7). My part on the stock of knowledge they brought use of depression-era photographs began with them to class. During the slide show 1 with a set of images Evans created for the offered a brief history of the 1929 stock volume Let Us Now Praise Famous Men market crash and its consequences, but I (Agee and Evans 1939). I made 35nim slides also encouraged students to add to the dis­ of the photographs. In my experience, noth­ cussion with either historical facts or inter­ ing quite matches the clarity and visual pretations of the photographs. Overall, the slide presentation went impact of a 35mm slide presentation, though today it is possible to project digital images smoothly, although I noticed there were a limited number of students participating in on a large screen with comparable quality. A digital collection of Evans’s work and the discussion. On the whole, I felt that that of several other FSA photographers can students were comfortable enough in class to be accessed online at the United States speak their minds, but clearly only a small Library of Congress’ American Memories group of students contributed to the conver­ Web site (U.S. Library of Congress 1998). sation. In addition, the commentary covered The Library of Congress also hosts a broad a wide range of topics. Some students were Internet-based collection of depression-era forthcoming with comments, but the discus­ photographs at the Farm Security Adminis- sion drifted in and out of relevance to tration/Office of War Information Collec­ Mills’s central ideas. �’ fiOHirf'iiWiafi f vaii antfrW i'' ’ -J -..life - . — ................................ ■- -■ • ■■ ■ ' • ■ ■ ..... - science, as much a way of seeing as it is a cumulative body of knowledge (Hughes 1971). Perkins draws a connection between the processes of thinking and seeing by suggesting that “The looking we do should be thought through, and thoughtful looking is a way to make thinking better” (Perkins 1994:3). Perkins’ most basic advice for creating an environment where students can develop a thoughtful approach to analyzing visual ma­ terial is to allow them adequate time. Even if it means literally holding up a stop sign in class, his best suggestion is to allow students to take the time necessary to honestly inves­ tigate an image. Perkins assumes, and I agree, that “To think better, people need to develop general commitments and strategies toward giving thinking more time” (Perkins 1994:4). For my purpose, giving students time to think meant improving their thought processes and interpretations. Equally im­ portant, having time to think also held the promise of increasing the likelihood that students would contribute their thoughts to a discussion. In the fall of 2000, using Perkins’ work as a model, I decided to do more than merely ask students to look passively at the pictures I presented. We viewed all 26 slides as before, but this time I chose an image for students to focus on specifically, and I also developed a set of questions to guide them through the process of interpretation. I wanted students to have both an organized way to think about the photograph and a place to record their thoughts. I chose one image from among those I pre-selected (See Appendix A), and I created a set of guiding questions (see Appendix B) based on materi­ als developed as part of Project Engage: Exploring Intellectual Access Through Per­ sonal Connection, funded by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum (Lang and Fischer 1996). I placed the slide I wanted students to spend extra time interpreting at the end of the presentation. When we reached the slide, I asked students to stop, relax, focus their attention on the image, and write answers to : When we finished, I spoke candidly with students about the educational value of the photographs. I asked if the images and our discussion improved their understanding of Mills. The feedback I received was positive; there was unanimous agreement that the slides helped illustrate Mills’s perspective. Even so, I remained concerned about the small number of students participating and the unfocused nature of the discussion. The following semester 1 prepared to use the slides in two sections of a social prob­ lems course (56 students in one section and 42 in the other). The classes were held in a tiered auditorium well-equipped for slide presentations. Given the overall success of the pilot project, I was confident the images had potential for generating a meaningful discussion of Mills’s ideas. Still, I specu­ lated that the problem of limited participa­ tion would be worse in a large auditorium, and I wanted to make sure that most if not all students took part in the discussion. I began looking for a way to ensure that students would stay engaged in both the interpretation of the slides and the conversa­ tion that followed. I found a strategy in the literature on art education. In the field of art education, David Perkins stands out as a substantial contribu­ tor. As co-director of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Perkins has consistently been at ±e forefront of efforts to advance the understanding of teaching and learning processes. Perkins’ The Intelligent Eye: Learning to Think by Looking at Art (1994) is most germane to educators looking for ways to make better use of visual imagery in the classroom. The book serves as a guide to both the proce­ dures and rationale for incorporating visual images and critical conversations into courses across the disciplines. The core ideas in Perkins’ work parallel Mills’s (especially insofar as human devel­ opment is a steady concern). Mills (1959) often wrote in terms of developing a “quality of mind;” of that quality, certainly an “intelligent eye” is an integral part (Perkins 1994). Sociology is a paradigmatic �ILLUSTRATING MILLS’S IMAGINATION 239 the set of questions I provided. They took group before the conversation returns to the approximately 10 minutes to make their class as a whole. observations. When it looked like most were STUDENT REACTIONS finished, I issued an open invitation for students to share their views. The results in both sections of the course were lively, I surveyed students immediately after the thoughtful conversations. We discussed the slide presentations and our subsequent con­ private and personal aspects of the depres­ versations. The survey instrument included sion; we talked about the biographies of five questions on the value of using pho­ individual Americans, and how they were tographs to learn about the sociological shaped by the historic changes taking place imagination and one open-ended question in in the 1930s. Then the conversation moved which I asked students to describe the most to the larger consequences of the economic important thing they learned during the exer­ downturn as we talked about the profoundly cise. In all, I collected 162 surveys from public and social nature of the problems students in four sections of social problems during the 2000/2001 academic year. The people faced. When I gave students time to think, a responses to the first five questions on the framework for interpreting, and a place to survey were generally positive (see Table). Students’ responses to the open-ended record their thoughts, they were much more likely to participate in the class discussion. questions were also informative. When Perhaps more important, the subject of the asked to describe the most important thing conversations remained consistent with the they learned during the activity, students goals of the course. From what I gathered responded with comments like: during this exercise, each element seemed 1 learned to what extent peoples’ lives can be critical to increasing the number of partici­ affected by larger social forces like the econ­ pants and improving the quality of the dia­ omy. logue. However, other methods of engaging students in a discussion of visual material Severe economic depression affects everyone have also been tested. For example, Wagner in the family and society, not just the tradi­ has students begin their interpretations in tional worker. small groups before convening the entire Everything that happens to people is not pri­ class. He notes of one such activity: I quickly divided the class into small groups for five to ten minutes worth of discussion, and insisted that everyone in each group be given the chance to say anything he or she wanted to about the photographs. Having made a place in this fashion for the most personal of responses, we were then able to undertake a more collec­ tive discussion of the images and their relation­ ship to the topics we were investigating in the course. (1979:191) Whichever method an instructor finds appro­ priate, the most imporunt elements of an exercise in visual interpretation are: (1) ensuring that students have the time neces­ sary to think rigorously about the images, and (2) allowing students to practice their interpretation either on paper or with a small vate; people are shaped by patterns they don i even see. No matter who you are or what your social standing is, we are all affected by society. It is not always people who change society. At times, society changes people. Although the evaluation of the activity was quite positive, and I was pleased with the learning that students reported to have taken place, one shortcoming of the data is the fact that it was drawn from an attitudinal survey as opposed to a more rigorous performance measure. From the standpoint of student satisfaction, I can say with confidence that depression-era photographs are a desirable �Looking at Photographs of America During the Depression Mean Percent “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” Nof Evaluation ...helped me see the relationship between individuals and society. 4.00 85.80 162 ...helped me understand how large social forces affect individuals. 4.22 90.00 160 ...helped me understand what C. Wright Mills meant by the “intersection of history and biography.” 3.90 72.67 161 ...made it easy for me to imagine how my own life is shaped by social institutions like the family, education, and economics. 4.08 83.85 161 ...allowed me to use the “sociological imagination.” 3.92 77.02 161 Note: Perceptions range from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. lic affairs, but it is worse that they tend not to talk about public life: Kellogg notes that only “16.4 percent reported discussing poli­ tics” at some point in the past year (2001:A47). Should we expect more? I think Mills would probably say no; our students are ordinary men and women. Their thoughts and habits are “bounded by the private itaffairs in which they live...limited to the close-up scenes of job, family, neighbor­ CONCLUSION hood” (Mills 1959:3). Here at the dawn of a There is evidence to suggest that the socio­ new millennium, students are presented with logical perspective is more necessary to an historic bombardment of issues and obli­ student development today than at any other gations. Teaching sociologists have perhaps point in U.S. history. Commenting on the never faced a greater challenge to promoting Annual Freshman Survey conducted by the the sociological imagination or passing on Higher Education Research Institute at the the legacy of C. Wright Mills. Therefore, University of California, Los Angeles, Alex the time is right to explore creative means to Kellogg reported in the Chronicle of Higher help students develop the capacity to see. Education that “[PJolitical engagement discuss, and eventually solve the “problems among first-year students has reached an of biography, of history and their intersec­ all-time low, even though it typically jumps tions within...society” (Mills 1959:6). From in election years” (2001:A47). He adds: what I have gathered, depression-era pho­ “Only 28 percent of entering college stu­ tographs provide important imagery for stu­ dents reported an interest in ‘keeping up to dents beginning to develop a sociological date with political affairs,’ the lowest level eye. Further research may shed light on the since the survey was established, in 1966” question of whether or not they use that eye (2001 :A47). It is unsettling to know that to see outside the classroom. entering freshmen are not interested in pub­ way to augment a discussion of Mills’s work and thought. However, a more difficult question remains unanswered: did this activ­ ity have the effect of making students more likely to use the sociological perspective on their own, outside the classroom? That is a question that deserves fur±er research, both in the context of this activity and others like �ILLUSTRATING MILLS’S IMAGINATION 241 ology.” Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication 1:3-26. . 1981. Exploring Society Photographi­ cally. Chicago, IL: Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University. Davis. Nancy. 1993. “Bringing it All Together: The Sociological Imagination.” Teaching Soci­ ology 23:233-38. Guppy, Neil and Bruce Arai. 1994. “Teaching Sociology: Comparing Undergraduate Curric­ ula in the United States and Canada.” Teaching Sociology 22:217-30. Hall, Elaine. 2000. “Packaging Poverty as an Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender in Introductory Textbooks 1982-1994.” Teaching Sociology 4:299-315. Hendershott, Anne and Sheila Wright. 1993. “Bringing the Sociological Perspective into the Evans, Walker. 1939. Untitled. Let Us Praise Interdisciplinary Classroom Through Litera­ Famous Men, edited by James Agee and ture.” Teaching Sociology 2\:325-3l. Walker Evans. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Horowitz, Irving Louis. 1976. “Pictures at an Company. Exhibition.” Pp. 7-11 in The Human Image: Sociology and Photography, edited by Derral APPENDIX B. GUIDING QUESTIONS Cheatwood and Therold Lindquist. Fredonia, FOR IN-CLASS ACTIVITY NY; State University College of New York. Hraba, Joseph, Edward Powers, William Wood­ 1. What do 1 see in this photograph? man. and Martin Miller. 1980. “Social Change (List everything you can observe in this pho­ Through Photographs and Music: A Qualitative tograph. Do not forget to look for details.) Method for Teaching.” Qualitative Sociology 2. What do I think or feel about this photo­ 2:123-35. graph? Hughes, Everett. 1971. The Sociological Eye. (What would you do if you were “in” the Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton. photograph? How would you feel? What Kellogg, Alex P. 2001. “Looking Inward, Fresh­ mood does the picture seem to have? And so men Care Less About Politics and More About on...) Money.” Chronicle of Higher Education 3. Ask yourself some questions about this pho­ 47(20):A47. tograph: King, Edith. 1992. “Using Museums for More What does this photograph say about Ameri­ Effective Teaching of Ethnic Relations.” can society in the 1930s? Teaching Sociology 20:114-20. How does this period differ from the present Lang, Georgia and Stephen Fischer. 1996. period of U.S. history? “ Responding to the Art in Language Arts." What does this image say about the men and Wisconsin English Journal 4:18-20. women who live in 1930s America? Lena, Hugh and Bruce London. 1979. “An Intro­ duction to Sociology Through Fiction Using REFERENCES Kesey’s ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.’” Teaching Sociology 2:123-32. Agee, James, and Walker Evans. 1939. Let Us Martinez, Theresa. 1994. “Popular Music in the Now Praise Famous Men. Boston, MA: Classroom: Teaching Race, Class and Gender Houghton Mifflin Company. with Popular Culture.” Teaching Sociology Ahlkvist, Jarl. 1999. “Music and Cultural Analy­ 22:260-65. sis in the Classroom:lntroducing Sociology Miley, James. 1988. “By Its Right Name; The Through Heavy Metal." Teaching Sociology Relevance of Poetry for Sociology.” Teaching 27:126-44. Sociology 16:173-76. Barthel, Diane. 1987. “Using Art and Architec­ Mills, C. Wright. 1959. The Sociological Imagi­ tural Slides in Sociology." Teaching Sociology nation. New York; Oxford University Press. 15:21-26. Moran, Timothy Patrick. 1999. “Versify Your Becker, Howard. 1974. “Photography and Soci­ APPENDIX A. �Reading List: Using Poetry to Teach Inequal­ ity." Teaching Sociology 27:110-25. Norman, Wilbert Reuben. 1991. “Photography as a Research Tool.” Visual Anthropology 4:193-216. Olzak, Susan. 1981. “Bringing Sociology Back in: Conveying the Sociological Imagination in a Changing Undergraduate Climate.” Teaching Sociology 2:213-25. Perkins, David. 1994. The Intelligent Eye: Learn­ ing to Think by Looking at Art. Santa Monica, CA: The Getty Center for Education and the Arts. Prendergrast, Christopher. 1986. “Cinema Sociology:Cultivating the Sociological Imagination Through Popular Film." Teaching Sociology 14:243-48. Sontag, Susan. 1973. On Photography. New York: Anchor Books. Stasz, Clarice. 1979. “The Early History of Visual Sociology.” Pp. 119-36 in Images of Information, edited by Jon Wagner. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. Strauss, Roger. 1986. “Simple Games for Teach­ ing Sociological Perspectives: Four Examples of the Do-It-Yourself Approach.” Teaching Sociology 14:119-28. Sullivan, Teresa. 1982. “Introductory Sociology Through Literature.” Teaching Sociology 1:109-16. U.S. Library of Congress. 1998. America from the Great Depression to World War II: Blackand-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI 1935-1945. Retrieved August 27, 2001 (http:// memory, loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html). U.S. Library of Congress, Special Collections. 2000. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Prints and Pho­ tographs Division. Retrieved August 27, 2(X)1 (http://WWW. loc. gov/rr/pr int/052_fsa. html). Valdez and Halley. 1999. “Teaching Mexican American Experiences Through Film: Private Issues and Public Problems.” Teaching Sociol­ ogy 27:286-95. Wagenaar, Theodore. 1991. “Goals for the Dis­ cipline?” Teaching Sociology 19:92-95. Wagner, Jon, ed. 1979. Images of Information: Still Photography in the Social Sciences. Bev­ erly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. ONLINE SOURCES FOR ARCHIVED DEPRESSION-ERA PHOTOGRAPHS Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2(XX). Special Ex­ hibition, Walker Evans. Retrieved August 27. 2001 (http://www.metmuseum.org/special/ walkerevans/walkerimages.html). Oakland Museum of California. 1999. Dorothea Lange Collection. Retrieved August 27, 2001 (hltp://www.museumca.org/global/art/collections_ dorothea_lange.html). U.S. Library of Congress. 1998. America from the Great Depression to World War II: Blackand-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI 1935-1945. Retrieved August 27, 2(X)1 (http:// memory, loc. gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html). U.S. Library of Congress, Special Collections. 2000. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Prints and Pho­ tographs Division. Retrieved August 27, 2001 (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/052_fsa.html). University of Virginia, American Studies Pro­ gram. 2001. Walker Evans Page. Retrieved August 21, 2001 (http://xroads.virginia.edu/ ■■UG97/fsa/welcome.html). Wesleyan University, Davidson Art Center. 2001. Farm Security Administration Pho­ tographs. Retrieved August 21, 2001 (http:// www.wesleyan.edu/dac/coll/surv/phoi/ fsa.html). Chad Hanson is a member of the social science faculty at Casper College. He teaches courses on crimi­ nology and the family in addition to social problems. His research interests are focused on issues in higher education, specifically teaching and learning. He has also published in The Teaching Professor, The National Teaching and Learning Forum, and College Teaching. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Journal Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Stop Sign at the Intersection of History and Biography: Illustrating Mills's Imagination with Depression-Era Photographs Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2002-04 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Teaching Sociology</em> is published by the American Sociological Association https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/f354f9812d38ff91045a1550862c28ab.pdf 7b104bbb572dc64b8069eeeabfe92e7c PDF Text Text IMPROVING THE ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING: ADVANCING A RESEARCH AGENDA IN SOCIOLOGY * tn the last two decades, format assessment of student learning in higher education has become institutionalized. This paper summarizes current re­ search and writing about the key components of assessment plans (statement of purpose, goals and outcomes objectives, and assessment mechanisms) and about the work involved in conducting an annual assessment program. We discuss the evolution of assessment within sociology and the paucity of both descriptive and explanatory research on assessment of student learning. We also pose important research questions that sociologists could pursue to enhance understanding of the context, content, process, and effects of assessment. The paper also examines the assessment movement itself: forces that have stimulated the movement, the demonstrated benefits of conscien­ tious assessment of student learning, sources of resistance to assessment, and the genera! status of assessment in higher education today. Gregory L. Weiss Janet R. Cosbey Eastern Illinois University Roanoke College Shelly K. Habel ChadM. Hanson Georgetown University Casper College Carolee Larsen Millsaps College In the last two decades, an assessment student learning, (3) the systematic collec­ movement has emerged and spread through­ tion of information relative to the extent to out a variety of social sectors including which the objectives are being accom­ businesses, social services, and education. plished, and (4) based on the information Wi±in higher education, assessment can obtained, collective efforts to identify and occur at the institutional, divisional, depart­ implement specific program changes to en­ mental, program, and class level and on hance student learning. Assessment is both the academic and administrative sides grounded in the belief that effective institu­ of the institution. While the layers of assess­ tions and departments engage in a systematic ment are naturally inter-related, this paper and continuous process of improvement in focuses on the assessment of student learn­ order to better achieve their goals and objec­ ing by academic departments. As such, the tives. focus is on a process that includes (1) the Work on this paper began when the five of department’s development of an explicit us collaborated at a conference on The mission or purpose statement, (2) the formu­ Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in lation of broadly stated goals and more Sociology held in Harrisonburg, Virginia in specifically stated outcomes objectives for July 2000. The workshop brought together more than 40 sociologists from all types of *The authors wish to thank two anonymous institutions to review and extend current reviewers for their very helpful comments on an scholarship in sociology related to (1) the earlier draft of this paper. Please address all correspondence to Gregory L. Weiss. Depanintegration of styles of teaching and styles of ment of Sociology, Roanoke College. Salem. learning, (2) the assessment of faculty, (3) VA 24153; e-mail: weiss@roanoke.edu partnerships between community and Editor’s note: The reviewers were, in alpha­ academy, (4) technology and its uses in betical order, Charles Powers and Stephen leaching and learning, (5) the impact of Sharkey. Teaching Sociology. Vol. 30, 2002 (January:63-79) 63 �64 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY institutional contexts on teaching and learn­ ing, and (6) the sociology curriculum and assessment of student learning. The authors of this paper worked to identify knowledge that already existed about the assessment of student learning and what still needed to be known. In the course of doing this work we hoped to establish and promote a research agenda for sociologists interested in con­ tributing to an understanding of assessment and its effects on teaching and learning. FORCES PROMOTING THE ASSESSMENT MOVEMENT The primary stimulus for the assessment movement occurred in the early 1980s through increasingly vocal public dissatis­ faction with the quality of higher education and increased calls for institutional account­ ability for educational promises. Wellpublicized exposes of students graduating from college without fundamental reading, writing, and mathematics skills contributed to the suspicion that institutions were not fulfilling their obligations to students. When these complaints were coupled with requests by institutions for more public funds, legis­ lators, parents, and students began demand­ ing empirical evidence of the real—as op­ posed to claimed—outcomes and benefits of attending a college or university (Terenzini 1989). These public outcries caught the attention of two especially important groups: the six regional accrediting agencies for colleges and universities and several slate legislatures (Schechter, Testa, and Eder 2000). Though the terminology used by the accrediting agencies differs, all of them now place some emphasis on assessment (Maki 1999). For example, the Southern Association of Col­ leges and Schools (SACS) has placed ex­ tremely high priority on assessment (in re­ cent years assessment has been the area in which institutions have been most likely to be judged in non-compliance by SACS), and places it in the context of institutional effec­ tiveness. SACS’ Criteria for Accreditation (1998:19) describes institutional effective­ ness as being “at the heart of the commis­ sion’s philosophy of accreditation” and “central to institutional programs and opera­ tions.” It expresses an expectation that “each member institution develop a broad­ based system to determine institutional ef­ fectiveness appropriate to its own context and purpose, to use the purpose statement as the foundation of planning and evaluation, to employ a variety of assessment methods, and to demonstrate use of the results of the planning and evaluation process for the im­ provement of both educational programs and support services.” State legislatures have also become cen­ trally involved in the assessment and ac­ countability movement. Several legislatures have applied significant pressure on public institutions of higher education to engage in a systematic process of assessment of their programs and to document the outcomes and value of the education provided. Some states have created specific performance standards to evaluate institutions and upon which to base budget allocations (Burke, Modarresi, and Serban 1999; Wellman 2001). The same forces have in part been respon­ sible for stimulating considerable interest in assessment throughout a wide variety of academic groups, academic foundations, and disciplinary associations. Groups such as the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) now promote the value of assess­ ment as a legitimate means to improve student learning, encourage institutions to shape their own programs to be maximally beneficial, and sponsor annual assessment workshops. Disciplinary associations, including the American Sociological Association (ASA), also support and encourage assessment ac­ tivity and have become advocates for the development of sound assessment programs. For example, the widely-read Liberal Learn­ ing and the Sociology Major (ASA 1992:2223), prepared by the ASA in conjunction with the Association of American Colleges (AAC), identifies assessment as one of 13 recommendations for all sociology depart­ ments: �ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING Departments should assess the major (curriculum, courses, and instruction) on a regular basis using multiple sources of data. To implement this recommendation, departments should routinely collect data by: • examining the department’s goals, missions, needs, facilities, access to resources, etc.; • examining the faculty’s goals, needs, re­ sources, and perspectives on instruction; • surveying present students, both majors and non-majors, on needs, goals, levels of satis­ faction with courses and advising, social networks, career goals and actual plans, etc.; • surveying graduates on. similar issues, as well as on their identification with sociol­ ogy: • monitoring similar data in other “sibling” institutions and departments; • aniculating the findings’ implications for departmental programs. RATIONALE FOR ASSESSMENT The literature contains four primary argu­ ments for conscientious assessment pro­ grams as they relate to student learningincreased faculty conversation about teach­ ing and learning, improved classroom teach­ ing, effective curricular reform, and, most importantly, enhanced student learning. Conducting meaningful assessment re­ quires faculty colleagues to engage in seri­ ous conversation about teaching and learn­ ing: about the mission of the department or program, about explicit goals and objectives held for students, about ways to determine the best manner to assess the extent to which students are achieving the objectives, and about ways that department organization, curriculum, and course instruction can be modified to enhance student learning. While many departments never engage in this type of discussion, proponents of assessment ar­ gue that they should and that the teaching­ learning process will inevitably benefit (Howery 1992; Sharkey 1990). The assessment literature suggests that conversation about teaching and learning and the self-reflection that it engenders leads to a second benefit: improved teaching. The process of mission, goal, and objective artic­ 65 ulation forces faculty to think about their own courses and course components in a more focused way (Good and Brophy 1994; Posner 1995). It creates a greater awareness of how individual courses fit into the cur­ riculum, and it helps guide course construc­ tion and delivery. This benefit may be especially true in the case of classroom-embedded assessment techniques such as the use of primary-trait analysis (that is, the development of rubrics), which uses graded assignments that directly correspond to department and course learning objectives (Huba and Freed 2000), and with classroom assessment tech­ niques (CAT), which use ungraded feedback mechanisms to monitor the progress of stu­ dent learning during a course (Angelo and Cross 1993; Brookfield 1995; Nilson 1998; Tebo-Messina and Van Waller 1998). Be­ cause meaningful classroom assessment oc­ curs only when we lest what we teach (Cross 1999; Hilton, 1993; Lovell-Troy 1989) and when we are willing to continually evaluate what we are leaching (Angelo and Cross 1993), assessment creates a cycle of feed­ back, self-reflection, and effort to improve leaching. There is evidence that the use of these techniques constitutes good teaching as they both require students to focus on what they are learning (Eisenbach, Golich, and Curry 1998) and enable students to more actively monitor their own learning process (Cross 1999). Students typically respond favorably to these classroom techniques, expressing greater satisfaction with courses that use them (Steadman 1998). For these reasons, it is not unusual to see discussions of student assessment and faculty assessment in tandem, as willingness to engage in stu­ dent assessment is seen as one measure of faculty affectivity (Centra 1993; Weimer 1990). A third benefit of assessment cited in the literature is support for curricular reform. An obvious sociological insight is that aca­ demic departments rarely equal the sum of their parts—they are greater or lesser de­ pending upon the ability and willingness of members to work together for the common �TEACHING SOCIOLOGY l«xt, Sunihuly. sociology curricula do not many more such examples exist, but most timply equal lhe sum or aggregation of are only now finding their way into the hMllvuliially constructed sociology courses. literature. Miiiiy oj (he key curricular issues identified in Liberal Learning and lhe Sociology MaTHE CURRENT STATUS /fv -jniegration of the curriculum, meaningOF ASSESSMENT lul sequencing of courses, requiring devel­ opmental levels, and overall curricular co­ In the last 15 years, assessment has been a herence—cannot be addressed by individual primary movement within higher education. faculty members, no matter how conscien­ The insistence of state legislatures and ac­ tious they are. Assessment provides a means crediting agencies; the endorsement of for discussion of the collective departmental higher education associations, foundations, mission, goals, and objectives; a technique and disciplinary associations; the institution­ for systematically collecting data to deter­ alization of assessment on campuses in the mine the extent of success in achieving the form of assessment directors and commit­ objectives; and a forum for consideration of tees; and the ever-burgeoning growth of curricular changes that would strengthen assessment conferences and assessment liter­ student learning (Ellis and Pouts 1993: ature testify to the secure hold that assess­ Howery 1992; Posner 1995). ment has obtained. Yet, most higher educa­ Ultimately, the legitimacy of assessment tion experts around the country would agree rests with the final perceived benefit: the that, to date, assessment’s record of accom­ genuine enhancement of student learning. plishment has fallen far short of the ideal or The theoretical foundation of assessment is expected (Angelo 1999; Burke 1999; Lazerthat the focus of higher education should son, Wagener, and Shumanis 2000; Maki shift from being teaching-oriented and input- 1999.) oriented to learning-oriented and outcome­ In 1997 the New England Association of based. The measure of success shifts from Colleges and Schools (the accrediting what is being given to students or done to or agency in the New England area) surveyed for students to what happens to students as a its 188 constituent institutions about activi­ result of their educational experience. Those ties directed toward assessing student out­ who work in assessment agree that this is a comes. A dozen years into the assessment profound change. movement, the great majority (92 percent) Much of the evidence that exists regarding of the institutions indicated that they could the positive effect of assessment on student “demonstrate not very well or only moder­ learning is based on either (I) the positive ately well the success of their efforts to effects of clear goal- and objective-setting on assess, verify, and enhance the achievement student learning or (2) case studies of institu­ of their mission and purposes through stu­ tions and departments that have experienced dent outcomes assessment” (Maki 1999:2). enhanced student learning as a result of Sixty percent of administrators rated assess­ serious assessment. Examples in sociology ment as extremely important, but they esti­ of the latter include Sharkey’s report (1990) mated that 70 percent of the faculty viewed on Alverno College’s success in teaching assessment as only somewhat important or analysis and valuing: Jackson et al.’s report not at all important. (1992) on Rhode Island College’s success in A subsequent survey conducted by the teaching research methods and social theory; National Center for Postsecondary Improve­ and Bradfield’s report (1992) and Eek’s ment (NCPI) of 1,400 public and private reflection (2001) on James Madison Univer­ institutions examined the nature, extent, and sity’s success helping students understand impact of student assessment strategies on a the core paradigms of critical, interpreta­ national basis (Wright 2000). Although the tive, and naturalistic analysis. Certainly, survey found fairly substantial institutional �ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING activity on collecting student assessment data, most of what was collected were insti­ tutional data on students’ academic progress, basic college readiness skills, academic in­ tentions of students, and satisfaction with the undergraduate experience. Few institutions indicated an engagement in more complex assessment activities focused on evidence of student learning. Results also indicated that few institutions were making academic plan­ ning decisions based on the findings from assessment data. The NCPI report stated that while many state agencies and institu­ tional accrediting bodies have stimulated the adoption of assessment activities, these ac­ tivities have had little impact on how institu­ tions have used student assessment data to improve student performance. While assess­ ment holds much promise, the NCPI con­ cluded that it hardly constitutes an academic revolution (National Center for Postsec­ ondary Improvement 1999). Lazerson et al. (2000), commenting on their survey of 320 institutions that under­ went reaccreditation reviews between 1997 and 1999, acknowledged that some changes in leaching and learning in higher education have occurred in recent decades, “but there is little evidence that the changes add up to a systematic reconsideration of how and why students learn or of how institutions, rather than simply individual professors, can revise their approaches to teaching.” Palomba and Banta (1999) charge that although most insti­ tutions are now involved in assessment, their actions constitute little more than “a thin veneer of compliance.” Acknowledging that some academics and professional staff take their assessment activity seriously, most are only tangentially involved or not at all in­ volved in genuinely using assessment to enhance student learning. Yet, there are many examples of institu­ tions and academic departments that do take assessment seriously and report positive findings. Publications such as Assessment Bulletin and Assessment Update routinely report specific examples of successful as­ sessment programs. Books such as Banta et al.’s Assessment in Practice: Putting Princi­ 67 ples to Work on College Campuses (1996) and Nichols’ A Practitioner’s Handbook for Institutional Effectiveness and Student Out­ comes Assessment Implementation (1995) offer exemplars of effective assessment ac­ tivity. It seems clear, according to Hutch­ ings and Marchese (1990), that where as­ sessment works, it does so because it is an integral part of the entire educational experi­ ence. It is not a separate function on its own but rather a process woven into the daily fabric of college. REASONS WHY ASSESSMENT HAS NOT HAD MORE SUCCESS What guidance does the literature offer to help explain why assessment has not reached a higher level of acceptance nor led to more frequent genuine enhancements of student learning? Four of the key factors are sum­ marized here. First, conscientious assessment constitutes a significant departure from the traditional academic culture throughout higher educa­ tion but especially in larger, researchoriented institutions. Traditional academic culture often is very individualistic, with maximum emphasis placed on each faculty member enacting his or her own career without much interference or influence by department or college. Teaching and curric­ ular matters may rarely be discussed, and no one is likely to impinge on what occurs in individual classrooms. Meaningful assess­ ment requires faculty to discuss matters such as the mission of the program and its spe­ cific objectives, mechanisms to genuinely assess student learning, and changes in cur­ riculum, policies, standards, course organi­ zation, and pedagogy that could positively impact student learning. This requires coor­ dination, collaboration on teaching-learning matters, and some willingness to prioritize the common good or the student good over personal desires. In a paper presented at the 1999 Assess­ ment Institute, Banta et al. posited that the very definition of assessment implies collab­ oration, but that higher education contains a �68 variety of barriers to collaboration which make genuine commitment to assessment very difficult. While the reasons for lack of greater assessment success at large universi­ ties and small colleges may not be identical, Banta et al. identified the following barriers: disciplinary traditions, the faculty reward structure (as it relates to engaging in individ­ ual research projects and securing grants), and the traditional configuration of teaching as an individually practiced profession. Keith and Myers (1992) concluded that many faculty have little interest in collabora­ tion for the sake of student learning, have not been convinced of its desirability, and resent its interference with their own inter­ ests and autonomy. Second, the manner in which the assess­ ment mandate has been presented to faculties has further contributed to their resentment of it. The traditional mistrust between college faculties and state legislatures comes to the surface in cases where legislators enact poli­ cies that directly or indirectly dictate to the professorate (as occurs with performance standards). While regional accrediting agen­ cies have been among the leaders in support­ ing and requiring assessment, they have sometimes acted with such heavy­ handedness in working with constituent insti­ tutions that faculties come to see assessment mostly or entirely as a mandate associated with reaccrediiation rather than a genuine technique to enhance student learning (Sharkey 1990). This factor is further exac­ erbated by the fact that doing good assess­ ment does require time. Faculty members will inevitably resent having any time­ significant task imposed on their workload without some corresponding reduction in other responsibilities. Finally, Peter Ewell (1997) has suggested two additional reasons that institutions of higher education have not had more success in enhancing student learning. He suggests that those in higher education lack a clear understanding of what collegiate learning really means. This is consistent with the oft-expressed idea that student learning is such an obvious and taken-for-granted con­ TEACHING SOCIOLOGY cept that neither individually nor collectively have we thought through its meaning. An­ gelo (1999:3-4) argues that “most assess­ ment efforts have resulted in little learning improvement because they have been imple­ mented without a clear vision of what “higher” or “deeper” learning is and with­ out an understanding of how assessment can promote such learning.” This brings us to Ewell’s other conclusion regarding assess­ ment: that assessment initiatives have, for the most part, been attempted in a piecemeal fashion within and across institutions. This perception of haphazardness also contributes to a failure to view the teaching/learning process as part of the social institution of education. THE ENACTMENT OF ASSESSMENT: ASSESSMENT PLANS AND ANNUAL ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES As the assessment movement has evolved and as the literature on assessment and the number of workshops and sessions at profes­ sional meetings of academic disciplines and higher education associations have in­ creased, the basic expectations for assess­ ment have crystallized. Essentially, but with some important variations from region to region, academic majors and programs within higher education institutions must (1) construct an assessment plan consisting of a statement of purpose, a set of outcome objectives for students majoring in the disci­ pline and a roster of mechanisms used to assess success in achieving the objectives, and (2) conduct an annual assessment pro­ gram in which a limited number of the objectives are assessed and the results used to identify and implement changes to en­ hance student learning. The following sec­ tions summarize current knowledge about these components of assessment and suggest questions to which sociological analysis might be brought to bear. Sociology is especially well-positioned to offer both descriptions of what currently exists with regard to assessment plans and programs and analyses of factors that con- �ASSESSMEOT OF STUDENT LEARNING tribute to or impede effective assessment. A sociology of assessment practice could easily draw upon the insights of the discipline with regard to the institutionalization of a new paradigm and new activities. Such an ap­ proach would be enhanced both by macro­ level investigations of political, economic, and socio-organizational factors that affect the introduction and dissemination of assess­ ment and by micro-level analyses of the processes by which assessment questions are framed and assessment results used to mod­ ify curriculum and pedagogy. It could bene­ fit from all major theoretical analyses and use both quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain comprehensive understanding of assessment. Potentially, these analyses can offer important practical guidance to faculty and departments as they work and some­ times struggle to understand and effectively utilize results of assessment to enhance stu­ dent learning of sociology. The Statement of Purpose The statement of purpose is designed to be the foundation and inspiration for all assess­ ment activity. Sociology purpose statements, like those for all majors and programs, are intended to articulate the contribution of the discipline to the mission and goals of the institution and describe the purpose of study­ ing the discipline (for example, what sociol­ ogy majors ought to learn and be able to do as a result of studying sociology). While purpose statements often are written generi­ cally, the best statements are tailored to the specific programs and emphases of a partic­ ular department (Gardiner 1989). The Program Assessment Consultation Team (PACT) at California State University at Bakersfield (a typical institutional assess­ ment committee but one that has published an impressive assessment document) notes that the mission statement should identify the values and philosophy of the department and a vision of what the department is doing. It can include a brief history and philosophy of the unit, the type of students to be served and their geographic area, the academic environment and primary focus of the cur- 69 riculum, faculty roles, contributions to and connections with the community, the role of research, and a nondiscrimination statement (PACT Outcomes Assessment Handbook, 2000). A well-written statement should be used to guide decision-making about curricu­ lum, policies, and standards and should provide the framework for the program’s goals and objectives. The literature on higher education contains numerous essays and reflections on the im­ portance of purpose statements, key compo­ nents of well written statements, successful processes for writing statements, and ways to link purpose statements with goals and objectives. However, there has been almost no systematic research on the content of purpose or mission statements and on varia­ tions in statements based on type of institu­ tion. Many assessment experts believe that, despite the attention given to assessment in the last two decades, institutional purpose statements remain largely generic and not substantially different among various types of institutions—a pattern first reported by Weick in the mid-1970s (Weick 1976). This pattern was affirmed in recent re­ search by Delucchi (2000) who analyzed the academic mission statements of 303 liberal arts colleges in the United States. Among his findings was that 70 percent of colleges making liberal arts claims in their mission statements actually awarded degrees primar­ ily in professional disciplines. He concluded that the claim to liberal arts often failed to reveal the actual motives that shaped the curriculum, and that it may be both politi­ cally and methodologically more valuable for sociology faculty to frame their assess­ ment of student learning within the context of the discipline as opposed to the mission of a particular institution. Powers (2000:42) offers an excellent ex­ plication of the role of a guiding mission statement in his description of Santa Clara University’s efforts to build a developmental curriculum. His department’s mission is to “offer students sociological tools and in­ sights they can use to improve the effective­ ness of the organizations they are a part of �70 ___________ TEACHING SOCIOLOGY and enhance the quality of the communities identified as characterizing the sociology they live in.” This mission statement has program? What elements of educational phi­ become the department’s organizing focal losophy are included? Is attention given to point for the construction of specific learn­ the purpose of sociology as a general educa­ ing objectives, curriculum design, and as­ tion requirement? To what extent does the sessment techniques to gain feedback on the content of purpose statements differ in pri­ department’s success. vate versus public institutions, churchClearly there is an important research related versus secular institutions, small ver­ agenda for sociologists who want to shed sus large institutions, single-sex versus coed­ light on the context in which sociology ucational institutions, or by institutional lo­ purpose statements are written, the content cation (e.g., urban versus small town and of the statements, the process by which they south versus midwest)? were written, and the effects or outcomes of Process. What process is used to write the having a purpose statement in place. The statement? To what extent is it created out of following offers a beginning list of questions group discussion and collaboration versus that sociologists might pursue. Given that the work of the chair or a single individual? we are at a very early stage of sociological How is the process subsumed within the research on assessment, most of the identi­ traditional organizational bureaucracy of the fied questions are descriptive in nature. department? What occurs when most or Context. What is the institutional setting in even some faculty refuse to participate or which the department has been asked to undermine the work of others? How does the write a purpose statement? Is there adminis­ department assessment leader encourage trative support for the work of departments follow-through on collective decisions? in writing a mission statement? What guid­ What strategies are used to encourage fac­ ance do institutional administrators offer, ulty to keep an open mind about or support and what resources, if any, have been made conscientious assessment? available to assist in the work? What ratio­ Effects. Is the statement supported by nale does administrators and department faculty? Is it used as a framework for identi­ chairpersons offer for faculty to take assess­ fying goals and objectives? Is it viewed as a ment responsibility seriously? How much useful activity? Does the process by which time is given to draft the statement? What the statement is written affect the level of institutional rewards and sanctions are used acceptance of the statement? Does the pur­ to stimulate this work? What is the influence pose statement lead to departmental, curric­ of these factors on the content, process, and ular, or pedagogical decisions that affect the outcomes of writing the statement? teaching and learning of sociology? Are Content. To what extent and in what ways changes made to enhance curricular coher­ are sociology purpose statements linked to ence and student learning? Are improve­ institutional purpose statements? What do ments made in positive student outcomes? sociology faculties identify as the fundamen­ tal purpose of their department and its fun­ Goals and Objectives damental contribution to the instimtion? To “The departmental purpose statement is to what extent are statements focused on stu­ lead to the formulation of a list of goals and dents’ learning versus a research mission or outcomes objectives for students majoring in a community or public service mission? To the field. Goals are statements about general what extent does the purpose statement focus aims or purposes of education that are on the cognitive abilities of students versus broad, long-range intended outcomes that more generic skills (such as critical thinking can be used in policy making and general and effective writing), value acquisition, and program planning” (Johnson, Potts, and post-graduation employment? Hood 1999). They are “general aims or What major emphases and directions are purposes of the program and the curriculum; �ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING include broad, long-range intended out­ on task, and increased motivation for goal comes, wishes, desires, and intentions, as attainment. Educational treatises today rou­ well as statements about content knowledge, tinely cite the positive effects of carefully skills, attributes, broad knowledge/values, designed, clearly expressed, explicit learn­ and perspectives expected in graduates” ing goals (see Ellis and Pouts 1993 on clear (PACT Outcomes Assessment Handbook goal-setting contributing to effective 2000:11). schools; Good and Brophy 1994 on goals as Each goal has one or more corresponding motivators; Posner 1995 on the contribution outcomes objectives. The best-written objec­ of goal setting to coherent curricula; Cross tives are concise, clear statements that de­ 1999 on goal-setting as a motivator specifi­ scribe a measurable learning outcome. They cally among college students; and Johnson. are focused on the specific types of perfor­ Potts, and Hood 1999 on the contribution of mance that students are expected to demon­ department goal setting to course instruc­ strate at the end of instruction (Johnson, tion). Potts, and Hood 1999), Objectives “...flow There is a small body of literature in from the goals; [they are] operational defini­ sociology that specifically addresses the im­ tions that let you know if goals are being portance of goal- and objective-setting in reached; [they are] langible/observabie out­ shaping the curriculum and in assessing comes expected in your students” (PACT student learning. Given the demonstrated Outcomes Assessment Handbook 20(X):ll). value of goal articulation for student learn­ They should include the knowledge, skills, ing, it is surprising that more sociologists attitudes, behaviors, and achievements ex­ have not addressed this issue. Interestingly, pected of students in the major. some sociologists were addressing this issue The emphasis within the assessment move­ before the assessment movement in higher ment is on objectives that are clear, measur­ education really became visible. In an early able. and outcome- or result-oriented rather Teaching Sociology article, Miriampolski than process-oriented. This is contrary to the (1978) reflected on goals that would be tradition of most academic departments, appropriate in a humanistic approach to which are more accustomed to identifying introducing students to sociology. (He rec­ what the faculty will do than what will ommended understanding social determin­ happen to students. While some departments ism, relativizing culture, instilling a sense of still include some process-oriented objec­ social realism, and developing skills in criti­ tives, the emphasis now is on identification cal evaluation.) of what students will be able to do as a result Among the earliest attempts to discover of studying sociology. the content of goals emphasized in sociology Much education literature exists on the is the work of Vaughan (1980:268). She importance of clear articulation of goals and analyzed textbooks; study guides and in­ objectives. Empirical research (both labora­ structor s manuals for the introductory soci­ tory and in the field) across a wide range of ology course; course syllabi for the intro­ organizational settings strongly supports the ductory course (that were collected by the positive effects of goal-setting on learning ASA Section on Undergraduate Education); and performance improvement. In an early and surveys of departmental chairpersons to review of 17 empirical studies, Locke et al. assemble a list of Stated Goals for Under­ (1981) found that setting challenging goals graduate Instruction in Sociology. She iden­ versus more vague “do your best” goals tified the following goals: (1) to transmit a increased performance in every one of the body of knowledge to the students. (2) to studies. How did clear goal setting lead to develop cenain substantive understandings improved performance? It led to more fo­ in the students, (3) to contribute to the cused attention and action, greater mobiliza­ general intellectual and personal develop­ tion of energy and effort, greater persistence ment of students, and (4) to contribute to �72 students’ vocational preparation. Others who reflected on appropriate goals for sociology include Bradshaw and McPherron (1980), Hazzard (1991), McMillan and McKinney (1985), Rhoades (1980), and Stephan and Massey (1982). In 1991, Wagenaar extended and formal­ ized much of this thinking by drafting a list of 10 goals for undergraduate sociology (which linked goals and outcomes objec­ tives). These goals later became the basis for a list of 12 learning goals for the sociology major that was included in Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major (ASA 1992). These two sets of goals have been widely cited and used as a foundation for their own goal­ setting by sociology programs around the country. The Liberal Learning goals are contained in Table 1. Also, in 1992, the ASA’s Teaching Resources Center published Assessing Undergraduate Learning in Soci­ ology, edited by Sharkey and Johnson, which has also been an extremely useful document to many sociology programs. Much of the writing by sociologists on goals and objectives has been prescriptive, reflecting efforts to recommend goals and TEACHING SOCIOLOGY objectives that sociology departments might consider. What is needed is more empirical research—both descriptive and explana­ tory—that relates to the context, content, process, and effects of goal- and objective­ writing. Context. What is the institutional setting in which the department has been asked to write learning goals and objectives? Is there administrative support for this work? What guidance is offered by institutional adminis­ trators, and what resources, if any, have been made available to assist in the work? What rationale do administrators and depart­ ment chairpersons offer to faculty to justify this work? How much time is given to write goals and objectives? What institutional re­ wards and sanctions are used to stimulate this work? Content. What are the goals and outcome objectives that sociology programs have adopted? How do they compare with the goals and objectives identified in Liberal Leaming-nTe they more or less inclusive? Do they follow from the institutional and program statement of purpose? How do they compare with the goals and objectives writ- Table 1. Learning Goals for the Sociology Major (from Liberal Learning and the SocioIorv Major} The sociology major should study, review, and reflect on; (1) the discipline of sociology and its role in contributing to our understanding of social reality, such that the student will be able to; • describe how sociology differs from and is similar to other social sciences, and give examples of these differences; • describe how sociology contributes to a liberal arts understanding of social reality; and • apply the sociological imagination, sociological principles, and concepts to her/his own life. (2) the role of theory in sociology, such that the students will be able to; • define theory and describe its role in building sociological knowledge; • compare and contrast basic theoretical orientations; • show how theories reflect the historical context of times and cultures in which they were developed; • describe and apply some basic theories or theoretical orientations in at least one area of social reality. (3) the role of evidence and qualitative and quantitative methods in sociology, such that the student will be able to; • identify basic methodological approaches and describe the general role of methods in building sociological knowledge; • compare and contrast the basic methodological approaches for gathering data; • design a research study in an area of choice and explain why various decisions were made; and • critically assess a published research report and explain how the study could have been improved. �ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING 73 Table 1. con’t (4) basic concepts in sociology and their fundamental theoretical interrelations, such that the student will be able to: • define, give examples, and demonstrate the relevance of the following: culture, social change, socialization, stratification, social structure, institutions, and differentiations by race/ethnicity, gender, age, and class. (5) how culture and social structure operate, such that the student will be able to: • show how institutions interlink their effects on each other and on individuals; • demonstrate how social change factors such as population or urbanization affect social structures and individuals; • demonstrate how culture and social structure vary across time and place, and the effect of such variations; and • identify examples of specific policy implications using reasoning about social structural effects. (6) reciprocal relations between individuals and society, such that the student will be able to: • explain how the self develops sociologically; • demonstrate how societal and structural factors influence individual behavior and the selfs development; • demonstrate how social interaction and the self influence society and social structure; and • distinguish sociological approaches to analyzing the self from psychological, economic, and other approaches. (7) the macro/micro distinction, such that the student will be able to: • compare and contrast theories at one level with those at another; • summarize some research documenting connections between the two; and • develop a list of research or analytical issues that should be pursued to more fully understand the connections between the two. (8) in depth at least one area within sociology, such that the student will be able to: • summarize basic questions and issues in the area; • compare and contrast basic theoretical orientations and middle range theories in the area; • show how sociology helps understand the area; • summarize current research in the area; and • develop specific policy implications of research and theories in the area. (9) the internal diversity of American society and its place in the international context, such that the student will be able to describe: • the significance of variations by race, class, gender, and age; and • will know how to appropriately generalize or resist generalizations across groups. (10) one or more areas within sociology, such that the student will be able to: • compare and contrast the basic theoretical orientations in the area; • show how sociology helps understand the area; • summarize current research in the area; and • develop policy implications of the research and theory in the area. Two more generic goals that should be pursued in sociology are: (11) To think critically, such that the student will be able to: • move easily from recall analysis and application to synthesis and evaluation; • identify underlying assumptions in particular theoretical orientations or arguments; • identify underlying assumptions particular methodological approaches to an issue; • show how patterns of thought and knowledge are directly influenced by political-economic social structures; and • present opposing viewpoints and alternative hypotheses on various issues. (12) To develop values, such that the student will see; • the utility of the sociological perspective as one of several perspectives on social reality; and • the importance of reducing the negative effects of social inequality. �74 ten in other social science departments at the same institution? To what extent do they focus on the cognitive learning of sociology versus skill development (for example, theory construc­ tion or interviewing skills) versus generic skills (for example, effective writing and oral presentation)? Is there any focus on value socialization or on enabling students to understand their own education as being part of a larger social institution that has social, political, cultural, and economic conse­ quences? To what extent does the content of goals and objectives differ in private versus public institutions, church-related versus secular institutions, small versus large insti­ tutions, single-sex versus coeducational in­ stitutions, or by institutional location (e.g., urban versus small town and south versus midwest)? Process. What process is used to write the goals and objectives? To what extent are they created out of group discussion and collaboration versus the work of the chair or a single individual? How is the process subsumed within the traditional organiza­ tional bureaucracy of the department? What occurs when faculty refuse to participate or undermine the work of others? How does the department assessment leader encourage follow-through on collective decisions? What strategies are used to encourage fac­ ulty to keep an open mind about or to support conscientious assessment? Effects. Are the goals and objectives sup­ ported by faculty? Does the process by which they have been written affect their level of acceptance? Do the goals and objec­ tives genuinely influence decisions about curriculum, policies, and standards? Are faculty familiar with them? Are students familiar with them? Do they influence course content and pedagogy? Are they peri­ odically reviewed? What factors influence the degree to which the goals and objectives are used as guides? To what extent do they differ in private versus public institutions, church-related versus secular institutions, small versus large institutions, single-sex versus coeducational institutions, or by insti­ TEACHING SOCIOLOGY tutional location? Assessment Mechanisms Being accustomed to conceptualizing, opera­ tionalizing, and measuring human attitudes and behaviors, sociologists likely have as much experience as any academicians with mechanisms for assessing student learning. Early assessment programs often consisted of little more than administering test scores to measure student outcomes (Schilling and Schilling 1998). Today, however, assess­ ment of student learning occurs through a wide variety of techniques based on the collection of information from current stu­ dents, from alumni, from relevant con­ stituencies (for example, employers and graduate schools), from external reviewers, and from the monitoring of institutional data. Table 2 identifies some of the com­ monly used assessment mechanisms in soci­ ology. Most of the increasingly voluminous liter­ ature on assessment mechanisms focuses on one of ±ree topics: (1) a discussion about methodological issues involved in assessing outcomes (e.g.. Assessment in Higher Edu­ cation: Issues of Access, Quality, Student Development, and Public Policy IMessick 19991), (2) a description and evaluation of one or more specific mechanisms (e.g., Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Hand­ book for College Teachers [Angelo and Cross 1993]), and (3) a description of the mechanisms used in particular institutions (e.g.. Assessment in Practice: Putting Prin­ ciples to 'Work on College Campuses (Banta et al. 1996]). The literature on assessment methodology typically centers on recommendations for ensuring the validity and reliability of as­ sessment findings. Common in these recom­ mendations (American Association of Col­ leges 1992; Banta et al. 1996; Schilling and Schilling 1998) are the following five fea­ tures: (1) Assessment mechanisms should provide answers to genuine questions that faculty have. If faculty do not care about the �ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING 75 Table 2. A Partial List of Assessment Mechanisms From Current Students Classroom-embedded techniques that focus on a direct educational outcome Performance in senior capstone course Major papers and projects Nationally-normed examinations In-house examination administered in the capstone course In-house essay administered early and late in major Student portfolios Surveys and Focus groups Awards/grants/publications/presentations/honors Senior exit interviews From Alumni Placement records (education, employment) of graduates Alumni surveys From Relevant College and External Constituencies Focus groups of faculty in related programs and with staff in Admissions, Academic Services, and the Registrar’s Office Surveys of employers and faculty in graduate programs in which graduates have matriculated From Program Reviewers and College Data External reviews Monitoring of background/quality of students declaring major, grades, i>erformance in campus-wide competitions (2) (3) (4) (5) results of questions asked, then the mecha­ nism is a poor one. Assessment mechanisms should actually measure what they are intended to mea­ sure. Assessment mechanisms should en­ able faculty to draw correct conclusions about the extent to which objectives are being met. (One of the best-condensed discussions of the strengths and weak­ nesses of specific assessment mechanisms is the Cal Siaie-Bakersfield PACT Out­ comes Assessment Handbook described earlier.) Both quantitative (e.g., numerical data such as scores on comprehensive exams and number of students doing independent studies) and qualitative (e.g., assessment of student portfolios) measures should be used. At least two mechanisms should be used to assess each of the objectives. Assessment information should be col­ lected from a variety of constituencies. For example, departments might focus on current majors and minors, students in the introductory class, non-majors taking electives in the department, recent or older alums, faculty in other departments, student services staff, etc. There is significant sociological literature (primarily in Teaching Sociology) about the use of various pedagogical strategies and classroom projects and activities. Some of these articles include systematic evaluation of the technique, while others are simply anecdotal reports. Many have potential to be considered in an assessment context, though this connection typically has been implicit. Nevertheless, there are several good exam­ ples of assessment-related thinking. Watts and Ellis (1989) discussed using occupa­ tional status and mobility of graduates as an assessment mechanism; Sharkey (1990) dis­ cussed several issues related to organizing an entire curriculum around learning out­ comes; and the ASA Teaching Resources Center publication on assessment, edited by �76 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY Sharkey and Johnson (1992) includes pieces by Thompson on assessing learning in re­ search methods, by Vera on assessing read­ ing ability, and by Hartman on using a senior-level paper to assess the major. Given the expertise of many sociologists in the conceptualization and operationaliza­ tion of social variables and the exercise of sound research techniques, there is consider­ able potential for greater sociological contri­ butions to understanding assessment mecha­ nisms. Research is needed on the advantages and disadvantages of each assessment mech­ anism relative to the quality, depth, and quantity of learning that occurs. In sociol­ ogy, examples of specific questions are: To what extent do we obtain accurate assess­ ment data from examining performance on the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test or on some other nationally-normed examination? Are helpful in-house compre­ hensive examinations being used? If so, what can we learn from them? Is perfor­ mance in capstone courses or in internships and independent studies genuinely reflective of student learning in the major? How are student portfolios used to assess sociology learning? How do sociology faculty compare assessment mechanisms on the quality of information collected? Which mechanisms are most appropriate to use with particular learning objectives? Do we receive reliable data when we use multiple mechanisms to assess a single ob­ jective? Do external assessors (e.g., gradu­ ate schools and employers and outside re­ viewers of a department) confirm other indi­ cators of student learning? What is learned by studying the observations of alumni grad­ uates? Are their perceptions similar to those reported by seniors? pare them to pre-formulated expectations (that is, criteria of success), and, most importantly, identify and implement specific actions designed to enhance student learning (this final process is referred to as closing the loop}. This final stage is the ultimate purpose of assessment and reconnects the process to its underlying rationale: that gen­ uinely effective departments and programs continually look for ways to improve student learning and that they base their analysis on data that have been systematically collected (Nichols 1995). With regard to the assessment program, there is again an extraordinary need for empirical research. In addition to the same kinds of questions suggested for analysis of purpose statements and the writing of goals and objectives, other specific questions can be asked: How has sociology shaped the implementation of annual assessment pro­ grams? How are assessment activities sched­ uled into the routine administrative tasks that are accomplished during the academic year? How do departments configure themselves to accomplish annual assessment? Are there particular objectives that sociol­ ogy programs typically achieve? Are there particular objectives on which sociology programs typically fail? In what ways have sociology programs changed in response to assessment? What kinds of changes typically succeed and what kinds typically fail? What factors influence the conscientiousness with which departmental assessment is conducted and with which efforts to enact program improvements are made and carried out? An Annual Assessment Program Assessment-focused research indicates the potential for substantial enhancement of stu­ dent learning. Yet, much remains to be learned about the manner in which assess­ ment makes a positive contribution, about how assessment can be configured to pro­ vide the most and best data about student learning, and about ways to overcome resis- The Assessment Plan simply identifies the working pieces of the assessment process. Assessment becomes real each year when faculty select a small number of outcome objectives (typically about three to five) upon which to focus, carry out the necessary mechanisms, examine the results and com­ THE NEXT DECADE: THE SCHOLAR­ SHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING AND THE ASSESSMENT MOVEMENT �ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING lance to assessment. This is true for all of higher education, and it is true for sociol­ ogyThe need for more research and reflection on assessment of student learning coincides with the development and continued refine­ ment of a scholarship of teaching and learn­ ing (SOTL) within sociology. Defined as the systematic reflection on leaching and learn­ ing made public (McKinney 2000), SOTL seeks to promote the research that faculty members conduct on their daily activities. Research on assessment can contribute to the knowledge base about this important move­ ment within higher education and can pro­ vide information that contributes in a very practical and direct way to improved teach­ ing and learning. This paper ends with a call and encouragement for sociologists to partic­ ipate in the scholarship of teaching and learning in general and to assist in conduct­ ing research on the assessment of student learning in particular. REFERENCES Pro­ gram Review and Educational Quality in the Major. 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Steadman, Mimi. 1998. “Using Classroom As­ sessment to Change Both Teaching and Learn­ ing.” New Directions for Teaching and Leammg 75:23-35. Stephan, G. Edward and Douglas S. Massey. 1982. “The Undergraduate Curriculum in Soci­ ology; An Immodest Proposal.” Teaching Soci­ ology 9:423-34. Tebo-Messina, Margaret and Chris Van Aller. 1998. “Classroom Research and Program Ac­ countability: A Match Made in Heaven?” New Directions in Teaching and Learning 75:87-99. Terenzini, Patrick T. 1989. “Assessment With Open Eyes: Pitfalls in Studying Student Out­ comes.” Journal of Higher Education 60:64464. Thompson, Martha E. 1992. “How Do I Know if Students Have Learned Anything About Re­ 160-64 in Assessing Undergraduate Learning in Sociology, edited search Methods?” Pp. by Stephen Sharkey and William S. Johnson. Washington, DC: American Sociological Asso­ ciation Teaching Resources Center. Vaughan. Charlotte. 1980. “Identifying Course Goals: Domains and Levels of Learning.” Teaching Sociology 7:265-79. Vera, Hernan. 1992. “To Create New Meanings: A Method to Assess Students’ Reading.” Pp. 170-74 in Assessing Undergraduate Learning in Sociology, edited by Stephen Sharkey and William S. Johnson. Washington, DC: Ameri­ Loosely Coupled Systems.” Administrative Sci­ ence Quarterly 21:1-19. College Teaching.- Strategies for Developing Effective­ ness. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Weimer, Maryellen. 1990. Improving Wellman, Jane V. 2001. “Assessing State Ac­ countability Systems.” Change 33:46-52. Wright, Barbara D. 2000. “Assessing Student From Change: Landmarks in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from Change Magazine 1969-1999. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. Learning.” Pp. 209-304 in Learning Greg Weiss is professor of sociology at Roanoke College. His research interests center around the sociol­ ogy curriculum and assessment, end-of-life decision­ making, and health protective behaviors. He is co­ author with Lynne Lonnquist of 77ie Sociology of Health. Healing, and Illness. Janet Cosbey is associate professor of sociology at Eastern Illinois University. Her research interests focus on gender, family, gerontology, and teaching styles and techniques. Shelly Habel is visiting assistant professor of sociol­ ogy at Georgetown University. Her research interests focus on teaching and learning with Web-based com­ puter course delivery systems and assessment of student learning. Chad Hanson is a member of the social science faculty at Casper College. His research interests focus on issues in higher education, specifically teaching and learning. He has recently published in The Teaching Professor, The National Teaching and Learning Forum, and College Teaching. Carolee Larsen is assistant professor of sociology at Millsaps College. Her research interests include assess­ ment of student learning, the impact of technology on society, and welfare-to-work issues. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Journal Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Improving The Assessment of Student Learning: Advancing a Research Agenda in Sociology Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2002-01 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_04 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Teaching Sociology</em> is published by the American Sociological Association https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/f91ba1d5111cd432493d93a0093e9d27.pdf d1f937ded4d3a92a3fee351deb0a4111 PDF Text Text COMMUNITY COLLEGE JOURNAL Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 27: 173-190, 2003 Copyright £; 2003 Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis laytor LIreneb Cnup 1066-6926/03 $12.00 +.00 DOI: 10.1080/10668920390128834 OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE_____________________________________ ____________________ .'^Ki'isoni/joiiilly by the Hiitber Fjliiailiuit Pngram timl the Bill/ PritsI Cnilurfijr CommunHy CtJlt'ge al u (.ia »«ift efNorth Tiau EDITOR-IN-CHIEF D. Barry Lumsden University of North Texas P.O. Box 311337, Denton, Texas 76203 Phone: 940-565-4074; Fax: 940-369-7177 Internet: Lumsden@unt.edu LEARNING RESOURCF-S EDITORS CONSULTING EDITORS Fred C. Kintzer, Professor Emeritus Frankie S. Laanan, book Knita Editor, University of L'nivcrsitv of California North Texas Stephen C. Katsinas, Director, Bill J. Priest Center Maurice G. Fonin for Community College Education, Univerity of Angelo State University North Texas Elaine Howell Ron Newsom, Coordinator, Higher Education ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges Program, University of North Texas James L. Wattenbarger, Professor Emeritus, University of Florida Ray Young, Professor Emeritus, Washington State University EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Ronald K. Bass, Scholarly Writers Institute Ted Martinez, Grussmoni College Bob Brown, Dallas County Community College Michael T. Miller, San Jose State University District Claudia H. Moore, Genesee Community College Dale F. Campbell, University of Florida Ron D. 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Pawneni may he made by sterling check, dollar check, iniemaiional money order, National Giro, or credit card (.Aniex, Visa, MastercanVAccess). For mure information about online suscriptions. a complete guide to Tudor & Francis Group's journal and book puhlisliing programs, ontiiw subscriptions, and details on atherdsing in our juunuls, visit our wvbsiie: www.tayloraadfraiicis.com. Periodicals pustage paid at Jamaica NT 11 A31 US Posmi-xsier Send address changes loCunununit) College Journal, Publications Expe- THE PROMISE OF DEMOCRACY'S COLLEGE: TOWN HALL MEETING AS TEACHING METHOD Chad M. Hanson Casper College, Casper, Wyoming, USA This article examines the rale of the community college in American society. Numerous changes are mentioned with respect to the norms and values observed in two-year schools, particularly in the last 20 years as the “learning revolution" has shaped organizational beliefs and practices. The implications of the changing norms and values are discussed in terms of their impact on pedagogy in the twoyear college, and a specific teaching method, the town hall meeting, is offered as an alternative to technologically mediated and individualised modes of instruction. Results ofan evaluation survey are presented, and the article concludes with a call for future research on the social, cultural, and political roles served by the com­ munity college. As a beginning community college instructor, I spent much of my time searching for a teaching method that would help create an engaged and critical classroom environment. Three years ago I settled on a strategy that uses the New England town hall meeting as a model. In many ways, the New England town meeting represents an ideal forum for participatory democracy (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Tipton & Swidler, 1985). It is a format well suited to the community college classroom, as two-year schools have long been considered “democracy’s college” (Cohen & Brawer, 1982; Diekhoff, 1950; Griffith & Connor, 1994; Hanson, 1996; Rhoades & Valadez, 1996). In theory, the American community college was an institution meant to democratize higher education. In this article I propose a bridge from theory to practice and offer both the rationale and procedures for creating a classroom environment that rewards participation and supports democracy. d)ting. Inc. 200 .Vieacham Avenue, Elnioiu, NY 11003. Orders originating in the following territories should be sent directly to: India: Universal Suhscriptiufl Agency Pvt. lad, 101-102 Gimmunity Centre, MaKiyaNagarE:^. Post Bag No. 8, Sakti.^New Delhi 1IU017. Japan: Kinokuniya Company Ltd. Journal Depannieni, PO Box 55, Chiiuse, Tokyo 156. USA, Canada, and Mexico: Taylor & Francis liK, 325 Chesuiul Street, Ptiiludelphia, PA, 19106. UK and all other territories: Tuylur& Francis Dd, Rankine Rd., Basingstoke, Hampshire RG2A8PR. Gipyriydii 6 2003 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored, iransniitled, or disseminuied in any form or by any means wittwui prior written permisattn from Taylor K Francis Inc. Taylor & Francis Inc grants authorization for individuals to photocopy cupyrighi material lor private research use on ihe sole basis dial requtsK ft< such use an* rtftrraJ dinulyio die requester's bol RepnxlucDuti Rqdiis Organization (RRO), such a.s the CupyTtght Clearance Cenier in die USA or the Cupyrighi Lk'ensing Agency in ihe UK. This authorization does nut extend lo any other kind of copying by any means, in any fomi. and fur any puryxise uther than priv-aie rocarch use. 'Ihe publisher, ediiur, and sputburs assume no responsibility for any sbBcnwnis t^ba or opinion expressed in the published papers or adwnisemeiiis The piper in this pubJkatun mans lh« rtquitniimu olm ANSI Slindint Z3'M8-19IM ll’etfrune»K»<>U'jpcf) An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association. April 21, 2002, Vancouver, B.C. Address correspondence to Chad M. Hanson, Department of Sociology, Casper College, 125 College Drive, Casper, WY 82601. E-mail: chanson@ca8percollege.edu �C. M. Hanson Town Hall Meeting as Teaching Method Throughout its history, the American community college has been a controversial institution (Dougherty, 1994; Frye, 1994). Even during the great period of growth and expansion, the 1960s and 1970s, community colleges were praised by some (Gleazer, 1981; Medsker, 1960) and criticized by others (Karabel, 1972; Zwerling, 1976). Some claimed community colleges act as social and economic elevators, lifting disadvantaged people up into desirable occupations (Cohen & Drawer, 1982). Others saw two-year schools as a way of providing false hope to a class of Americans that would maintain their positions in society, even despite open access to education (Clark, 1960, 1980; Pincus, 1980). Historically, scholars have been deeply divided on the issue of assessing the community college’s role in society. However, the two-year school is a less contentious institution today than it has been at any point in the past. Tbday there are few public or professional debates with respect to the institution’s purpose or mis­ sion. At present, it is rare to see or hear questions about the institu­ tion’s role in the social or political life of the nation. There are few debates of this nature in the literature on community colleges, and few among faculty or staff. Today the value of community colleges is generally agreed on—cultural and economic forces have coalesced to forge a cohesive vision of the community college—with little or no opposition (Levin, 2001). When it comes to our current understanding of the American two-year school, we tend to see the institution in practical, utilitarian terms. Despite early democratic ideals, we are increasingly apt to view and use the institution as a public, tax-sup­ ported means to train workers for the private sector (Brint & Karabel, 1989; Levin, 2002). been shown that the decade of the 1990s brought a decisive shift in the organizational beliefs and practices commonly seen in two-year schools. Despite the fact that Americans conceived the community college as a public institution along the same lines as churches, museums, or parks, in the decade of the 1990s two-year college pro­ fessionals began to see their institutions in a different light. In the minds of those shaping the organizational culture of the two-year school, “community college stakeholders and interest groups were no longer synonymous with the social community but rather with the business and industrial community” (Levin, 2002, p. 141). The shift in emphasis did not take place on its own, as part of a nat­ ural course. The change represents a victory for special interest groups like the League for Innovation in the Community College. Over the last ten years, the League has successfully launched a “revolution” in American two-year schools (O’Banion, 1998a). Beginning in the early 1990s, the League and its corporate partners including Apple, Micro­ soft, IBM, and Sun Micro Systems, launched a “learning revolution” designed to change the way two-year college education is both conceived and practiced (Barr & Tagg, 1995; O’Banion, 1998b). Through con­ ferences, monograms, and carefully placed publications learning advo­ cates significantly altered the cultural landscape of the two-year college. The learning revolution has been espoused as a universally positive movement. The tenor of the work that has fueled the revolution is pleasant to the point where it almost seems nonpartisan. But there can be no mistake, the changes prescribed in the learning college lit­ erature are designed to serve the interests of conservative business leaders. By the late 1990s, with the revolution in full swing, students, faculty, administrators, and legislators had all come to view commu­ nity colleges largely as corporate training sites. Taken together, the changes wrought by learning advocates pose a direct challenge to the nonmarket values which support the view that liberal education is a cornerstone of American democracy. 174 THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN AMERICAN LIFE In 1992, Clifford Adelman published a U.S. Department of Education report on two-year schools titled The Way We Are: The Community College as American Thermometer. In the report, Adelman suggests the two-year school may embody many of our most central values and beliefs. He used data from the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) and over 10,000 college transcripts to develop a profile of those attending two-year schools. The analysis leads to a thorough description of course­ taking patterns, and also to key inferences about the mindset and attitudes of those Americans who enrolled in community colleges. In sum, Adelman suggests of the subjects in the research, “their experi­ ence may be emblematic of the ways in which we Americans use other normative institutions such as those of religion and the arts” (Adelman, 1992, p. 1). But in the years that followed Adelman’s analysis, it has also 176 With the concept of a learning college emerging as a beacon of change, the purpose of the institution decidedly moved from individual and community betterment to economic ends: development sites for work­ force preparation. (Levin, 2001, p. 170) Institutional rationales paralleled the view of education and training as a commodity, students as customers, and business and industry as cli­ ents—all reinforcing market ideology. (Levin, 2001, p. 17) Those currently shaping the culture of community colleges— admimstrators, legislators, trustees, and business leaders—all expect �C. M. Hanson Town Hall Meeting as Teaching Method twoyear schools to produce competent and dutiful employees for the new global economy. Those are admirable goals, at least at some level, but they are goals that stand in stark contrast to the broad social agenda that drove the institution’s expansion in the 1960s and 1970s. The changes have obvious political and economic overtones, but equally important are the curricular and pedagogical implications of the changes taking place as two-year schools continue to transform themselves into “learning colleges.” The changes have been promoted aggressively by college administrators and the institution’s economic stakeholders, but the consequences have been seen and felt in every comer of the community college, including the classroom. the larger process of becoming educated. Learning takes place nearly everywhere, almost all of the time, but that cannot be said of educa­ tion. What it means to be an educated person is something to be debated. But in any definition it must be said that education is a social process. Education is a social institution, just like the family, sports, religion, or the law. Like all major institutions, education is complex and multi-faceted. The facilitation of lefiming or cognitive develop­ ment is an important part of the process, but education is also a moral, cultural, political, and economic enterprise. Recent technological innovations, often promoted in the learning college literature as a means to improve access to education, provide educators with new and exciting ways to promote student develop­ ment. But an Internet based curriculum in the community college is something worth careful consideration, with an eye toward the social and cultural consequences. In particular, when technology breaks the bond between citizens and public institutions, we have reason to question our efforts at reform. In situations where electronic teaching methods sever the relationship between students and colleges, we have occasion to pause and consider the costs of our quest to transform public institutions into service providers for industries and indivi­ duals. In a strong democracy, public institutions do more than merely serve private interests. According to Robert Bellah and associates (1991), public institutions like community colleges “are the substantial forms through which we understand our own identity and the identity of others as we seek to achieve a decent society” (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Tipton & Swidler, 1991, p, 16). There is a growing body of research demonstrating that students learn effectively, even when isolated from their teachers and peers (Merisotis & Phipps, 1999). But the process of becoming an educated person is complicated. However it is defined, the process entails more than the acquisition of knowledge or skills. To be credentialed as an educated person means more than mere learning in the cognitive sense, it includes the development of purpose, integrity, and the fos­ tering of an identity as an active member of a free republic (Chickering, 1969). Ideally, public higher education has a decidedly public and social purpose. Unfortunately, in the rush to reduce education to its most basic utilitarian role, the learning revolution has undermined the proud and lofty public purpose of the American community college. The problem becomes more apparent when you consider social institutions outside education in the same light currently used to view the two-year school. If one considers institutions like religion, or even something as central to the American way of life as the neighborhood barbecue in the terms currently used to describe the community 176 THE LEARNING REVOLUTION IN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE In a 1997 publication titled A Learning College for the Twenty-First Century, Terry O’Banion established the basic tenets of the revolution in organizational culture that has Literally swept through two-year schools. The major thesis in the work is that teachers, campuses, and classrooms all impose unnecessary restrictions on the process of learning. According to O’Banion, learning has been time-bound, place­ bound, and teacher-bound in traditional institutions (1997). The efforts of learning advocates are aimed at overthrowing the time-honored physical and annual structure of education. The main objective is to free students from what they perceive to be undue constraints. Therefore, one of the primary goals of the learning college movement is to make college courses convenient—available any time, anywhere, even in the comfort of home. In large part, the emphasis on providing education any time, any­ where has meant a move to establish courses and degree programs on the Internet (Levin, 2002). The move to distance education and elec­ tronic delivery came as good news to the software corporations that support interest groups like the League; the learning college concept fits neatly with the technologically driven corporate training model favored in the private sector. American industries discovered long ago that employees can be trained on-line, alone, without an instructor or a public institution to host the endeavor. However, as two-year schools moved to aid industries with employee preparation in the 1990s, the new narrow focus on learning grew at odds with the broader and higher purpose of the two-year college—education (Brint & Karabel, 1989; Dougherty, 1994; Hanson, 1998). In the rhetoric of the current revolution, education is reduced to learning, the institution’s most utilitarian purpose. But at its very base, the logic of the revolution rests on a conflation of learning with 177 �179 C. M. Hanson Thuin Hall Meeting as Teaching Method college, the results are illuminating. For example, church services suffer some of the same drawbacks as college classes. They are bound by time, place, even particular pastors or priests. And of course, it is possible to worship in the convenience of home, any time of the day or week. Therefore, one might ask, should Americans continue to take time out of their busy schedules to commune with others while they worship? Should we launch a revolution to dissuade the American people from attending churches? The easy answer is no, and the simple reason is that there is a lot more to being a member of a church than worship alone; like education, religion is a complex social insti­ tution. Churches create a community where social bonds are estab­ lished, roles are enacted, norms are observed, and values are shared. The backyard barbecue serves as a similar example. Reduced to its most practical function, the purpose of a barbecue is to eat. As we know, the process of eating is not bound by time, place, or a specific chef. Should Americans continue to gather in backyards all over the country for the purpose of sharing meals, when everyone knows they can eat any time, on their own, and in private? The obvious answer is yes. Americans should continue to gather for neighborhood barbecues because they are meaningful social and cultural occurrences. There can be no doubt that Americans attend outdoor barbecues in part to consume calories, but the institution is much more complicated than an analysis of its most practical purpose could ever suggest. With examples like these it is easy to see if we launched a revolution to reduce other institutions to their most basic utilitarian functions, and labeled them as such—“worshiping churches” or “eating barbe­ cues” for example—Americans would think it absurd. But in the community college there have been few questions raised in opposition to the “learning college” revolution. Over the course of the last two decades, faculty and staff have made Herculean efforts to ensure that community college education is convenient for students and amenable to industry. But convenience and vocational applicability have been won without reflection on what the changes mean for local commu­ nities, let alone American society. The establishment and maintenance of community, roles, norms, and values are rarely ever printed on official church service schedules, seldom seen on agendas for neighborhood barbecues, and almost never spelled out on college course syllabi. Even so, these are the very pur­ poses the institutions serve. In fact, the purposes are so central to the maintenance of society they are woven into the fabric of daily life, invisible to all but the most thoughtful observers. It takes a reflective practitioner to uncover and give words to the processes most of us take part in each day, but take for granted. Dennis McGrath and Martin Spear are two such practitioners. In a description of the processes at work in their own classrooms they suggest: 178 Within... classrooms faculty and students encounter and try to under­ stand one another. They negotiate social norms, create forms of knowl­ edge, modify their identities; they make meaning together. (McGrath & Spear, 1991, p. 5) Even though these processes cannot be easily reduced to measurable learning outcomes, they are keys to the process of becoming educated. They are not described in college mission statements, and they do not appear on the lists of curricular objectives academic departments produce to satisfy accrediting agencies. Instead, they are part of every college’s “hidden curriculum,” the unspoken and often unrecognized processes that make education a rich, meaningful, contentious, and rewarding institution (Jackson, 1968; Margolis, 2001). IT'S NOT WHAT YOU TEACH—IT'S HOW YOU TEACH IT When I began teaching in the community college I was still a graduate student finishing coursework of my own. For me the period was one of great transition. As I made the move from my role as a student to my new role as a teacher, I was faced with a number of questions. How would I structure my Introduction to Sociology course? What kind of assignments would I require? What could I do to shape the tenor of the discussions I planned to hold in class? As I prepared to meet my first group of students, questions like these stretched out before me like a row of hurdles. In my search for answers to the questions I faced as a new teacher, I discovered the educational philosophy of John Dewey (1916,1956). For Dewey, the development of a model teaching practice begins with an educator’s image of an ideal society. For instance, if we wish to live in a society where people sit quietly and listen, schools requiring stillness and silence may be the shortest route to that end. On a similar note, if we wish to live in a society where people stay home and watch tele­ vision, schools that use television as a vehicle for instruction should provide a direct avenue to that future. But if we wish to live in a society where citizens come together in public places to have mean­ ingful conversations about the most compelling issues of the day, then schools must provide an environment where people can practice the art of citizenship, in a forum reminiscent of our most democratic institutions. �181 C. M. Hanson 7bwn Hall Meeting as Teaching Method Years before the phrase had been coined, Dewey was attuned to the concept of the hidden curriculum (Dewey, 1916; Jackson, 1968). In short, he suggested the power of education lies as much in the social process of the classroom as it does in the subject matter outlined in a text or a set of class notes. As a graduate student, that was easy for me to believe. In one seminar after another I could see and feel myself taking part in what were essentially exercises in socialization. Although I was expected to develop a working body of knowledge, I was also learning how to think and how to present ideas to others. I was developing a command of my subject, but I was also coming to know the protocol of public discourse. I found the exchanges in my graduate seminars exciting, and as a beginning teacher I was eager to bring that same level of excitement to the classes I was now responsible for teaching. In my first Introduction to Sociology class 1 asked students to research a topic appropriate to the course, and I required them to present a summary and analysis in class. I gave them a detailed set of instructions: I asked them to dis­ cuss their author’s central argument, the appropriateness of the research methods, and I also asked them to talk about the theoretical underpinnings of the work they chose to review. But despite careful planning on my part, the assignment was a flop. On the rare occasion when a student took all of the steps prescribed in the project, I observed that it nearly always incited eye rolling and even an occasional snicker from the class. When students used the terms of academic sociology, terms like “func­ tionalist,” or “symbolic interaction,” it was evidently a sign of caving in to authority or “sucking up” to me the teacher. At one point, I actually watched a student mouth the words ‘l5rown-noser” to a classmate under his breath as a fellow student described an author’s ideological leanings. That particular incident was enough to prompt me to explore the literature on teaching and culture in the community college. I had to know if other two-year college instructors met with similar resistance to the language and concepts of academia. The research on teaching in the community college confirmed that my experience was part of a broad pattern. Similar classroom dynamics are documented in the work of authors like Howard London (1978), Ira Shor (1980), and Dennis McGrath and Martin Spear (1991). McGrath and Spear suggest, in the community college: In an ethnographic account of life in an urban two-year school, Howard London (1977) describes how tension can develop between teachers and students. He explains, “by stressing the value of intel­ lectual activity... teachers became, in effect, another reminder of what... students thought to be their own shortcomings” (1977, p. 67). It is likely for this reason Shor (1980) observes that “students are suspicious of intellectuals” (p. 29). Clearly, my attempts to draw stu­ dents into a thoughtful academic exchange incited resistance. But for Shor, the solution to the question of how to overcome the suspicion and misgivings students bring to the classroom lies in the careful use of language. In his words, “the ... question is one of linguistic compat­ ibility between teacher and students” (1980, p. 29). Subject matter aside, teachers and students are immersed in a ritual of culture—the college class. Terms of engagement are negotiated as part of the ritual, and social relations in a class unfold according to the norms and roles mutually established by teachers and students. The norms and roles established in a course form the foundation on which the learning of a subject takes place. They are central to the success of the entire enterprise, but they are hidden in the sense that they are not typically discussed. In my own practice I was experimenting, or fumbling as it were, with the hidden curriculum. In addition to passing on sociology, I was working to create an environment that would allow students to observe and take part in a forum where public discourse was the norm; but I was struggling. The terms and values I brought with me from the university were a barrier to my success and the success of my stu­ dents. Ethnographic accounts of the community college classroom confirmed my own professional observations—the language and con­ cepts of the academy were stumbling blocks in my new environment. Consequently, I started looking for a way to remove the jargon of academic social science from my conversations with students. Still faced with the question of how to structure my classes, I began experimenting with various activities. I called them everything from “collective reviews” to “collegial discussions,” but I met with very little success. It was clear I needed a more colloquial title and a more prosaic format for the classroom environment I was trying to create. Ironically, in this case, as a teacher, I was the one being socialized. The classroom ritual exerts a powerful force on both students and teachers—shaping and molding attitudes and actions. 1 was looking for a way to create an environment that would foster student beha­ viors that matched my expectations for rigor and participation, but ultimately my methods had to be delivered on their terms. Finally, I settled on the format of the New England town hall meeting. What 180 Students and teachers appear to disagree about the most basic, most mundane features of the classroom, as well as the larger vision of the nature and purpose of education. (McGrath & Spear, 1991, p. 5) �183 C. M. Hanson Tbwn Hall Meeting as Teaching Method could be more American? What method could be better suited to an institution considered democracy’s college? I ask them to think about the data presented and whether it is reliable or valid, and I also ask them to reflect on their reading and prepara­ tion. I make a point to ask students about their original positions; I ask them to talk about whether their research either confirmed or challenged their prior convictions. In addition to completing the form I provide, students are required to prepare a set of talking points. Ground rules for the discussion require students to prepare a detailed set of notes for their part on the city council, but the rules also specify their part cannot be so detailed that it reads like a script. I show students 3-4 examples of talking points in class, prepared on a range of subjects. From there, students are free to use the format that suits their interests and their articles. As for the meetings themselves, I ask the city council members to sit as part of a panel in the front of the classroom. We determine an order or progression prior to the start with a logical beginning, middle, and end. Once the council begins sharing their information, the remaining students are free to ask questions or make comments. In fact, students are required to participate in the meetings. They earn a point per meeting by either making a comment or raising a question. In the past, I asked students to mark their participation by placing Post-it notes on their desks (Hanson, 2000). Today I allow students to keep track of their own participation on the honor system; they fill out a checklist I provide them at the beginning of the semester. Over the course of the last year I have had considerable success with this method and very little incidence of fraud. With very few exceptions, students have been forthright when keeping a record of their own participation. 182 TOWN HALL MEETING AS TEACHING METHOD As of this writing, I have been conducting town hall meetings in lower division sociology courses for six semesters. Tb start, I provide stu­ dents with a general overview of the assignment, complete with a brief description of each stage involved (see Appendix A). In the first phase of the activity, students determine the 5—8 topics to be discussed in class. I allow them 15-20 minutes to brainstorm a list of potential topics on Post-it notes, in groups of 4-5. When students have had ample time to generate ideas, I circulate among the groups, announce each topic to the class, and ask the others to remove duplicated topics from their lists. When through, we have one set of Post-it notes, with one distinct topic written on each note. Next, we assemble the notes on a table near the front of the room and I distribute three small adhesive dots to every student in class. I explain each dot is a vote, and during the next stage of the activity every person casts three votes. Students vote by placing dots on the Post-it note(8) and topic(s) of their choice. In the end, I tally the number of dots per subject, and the top vote-winning issues are the ones we discuss. After topics are determined, typically the following class period, we hold a drawing to decide which city council each student will serve on and, in effect, which subjects they will study. The city councils are made up of 4—5 students, so I fill out 4—5 slips of paper for each topic. On each slip of paper there is an issue and a date. Once I assemble enough slips of paper for each topic, they all go into a hat (I keep a tengallon cowboy hat in my office for this purpose). I bring the hat to class, and from it students choose their topics and the date of the meeting where they serve on the city council. This element of seren­ dipity gives students incentive to take the selection of topics seriously; they know in advance they may be required to research any one of the top vote-winning issues. When we have a city council committed to each subject, I provide students with a form on which to keep a record of their research activities (see Appendix B). Students are required to bring a minimum of two sources to the table when it comes time for them to share their knowledge with the class. The worksheet contains space for biblio­ graphic information on each source, along with three questions I expect students to answer during the meetings. I ask them to think about their authors and whether there is any bias from the source. ASSESSMENT As evidenced in an evaluation survey I conducted for three consecutive semesters, students appear to be comfortable with the town hall for­ mat; it seems the meetings afford them an opportunity to think and grow (see Table 1). From an educational standpoint, students affirm that in-class town meetings challenge them to think critically and creatively. Students also claim the activity helps build their capacity to analyze research; in large part I suspect that is true because the assignment requires them to study a subject in depth. In addition, from a social and political standpoint, the meetings provide a com­ fortable forum for students to practice participation in a public sphere, both as speakers and listeners. One shortcoming of the evaluation research I have conducted to date is that it is based on an attitudinal survey as opposed to a direct �184 C. M. HaA»on Tbwn Hall Meeting as Teaching Method TABLE 1 Student Perceptions of Tbwn Hall Meetings, Fall 2000-FalI 2001 meetings stand to make good on the promise of democracy’s college. The format mirrors the structure and social relations found in our most democratic institutions. lbwn hall meetings Mean Percent “agree” or “strongly agree” Were a good way for me to participate in class discussions. Helped me learn how to analyze research. Were a chance to listen to a wide range of views. Were a good opportunity to practice public speaking in a comfortable setting. Allowed me to see the political side of social problems. Encouraged me to think creatively about current events. Encouraged me to think critically about current events. Were a good way to study a subject in depth. 4.40 04.00 124 4.07 4.48 84.00 95.00 124 125 4.28 90.40 125 4.16 90.40 125 4.24 90.40 125 4.27 91.13 124 4.23 87.90 124 AT of evaluation ATote: Perceptions range from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. measure of student performance. From the data I collected I am comfortable concluding that students epjoy town hall meetings, and I am also confident their reports of having learned were given in earnest. But further research is necessary in order to draw broader conclusions about the social, political, or educational value of the town hall meeting as a teaching method. This is an area where a perfor­ mance-based measure of creativity, critical thinking, or problem­ solving skills could be applied. More important, future research has to focus on the long-term effects of taking part in a series of town hall meetings. Currently, questions remain—are students more likely to attend city or county functions after taking part in classroom-based town meetings? Are they more likely to vote? Do the meetings inspire a life-long interest in political affairs? A program of longitudinal research is the only means by which questions such as these can be addressed. Still, from data collected both formally and informally, I can say with confidence the town hall format is a desirable way to structure the community college classroom. In my own discipline, sociology, the town hall forum lends itself to the subject matter. But the format could easily be adapted for use in other fields: nursing, biology, English, accounting, or even math. Anywhere they are practiced, town 185 CONCLUSION The learning revolution and learning college culture have made it difficult for teachers to challenge the conceit that education is a business, learning is a product, and measurable outcomes are more valuable than the quality of the process by which students are edu­ cated. The debates over the social role of two-year schools and the best means to embody the spirit of democracy’s college seem over, at least for the time being. But in retrospect, the historic debate over the role and mission of the community college never had much to do with democracy. Critics of the community college were concerned that twoyear schools lacked the potential to create upward economic mobility for the American working class (Zwerling, 1976). Generally speaking, advocates of the two-year school acknowledged the colleges could not ensure class mobility, but they maintained the schools provide ave­ nues for individual success (Cohen & Brawer, 1982). Even in the age when scholars had the courage to question the role of two-year schools, the debate was focused solely on the question of whether or not the community college could help create a more egalitarian society. Despite all of the rhetoric about the democratization of higher edu­ cation, and even despite the title—democracy’s college—scholars have yet to considered the role of the community college in the creation and maintenance of a strong democracy. In the classic. How College Affects Students, Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini (1991) reviewed more than 2,600 research projects aimed at understanding the social, economic, political, moral, and psychological impact of attending a college. They only uncovered one study of political engagement and social responsibility among twoyear college students, and it was unpublished (Marks, 1990). The study suggested “two-year college attendance is negatively related to changes in social responsibility” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, p. 300). Apart from research aimed specifically at community colleges, the most comprehensive source of data on undergraduate student atti­ tudes and values is the annual Freshman National Norms survey conducted by the staff of the Higher Education Research Institute (HERD at the University of California, Los Angeles. Reporting on the 2001 survey for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Alex Kellog notes, “political engagement among college freshmen has reached an all-time low... only 28 percent of entering college students reported an �C. M. Hanson 7bu/n Hall Meeting as Teaching Method interest in keeping up to date with political affairs, the lowest level since the survey was established in 1966” (2001, p. A47). Unfortu­ nately, two-year college freshmen were not included as part of the sample in either the 2000 or 2001 surveys. According to \^vian Deluna, HERI staff member, “The number of two-year colleges parti­ cipating ... dropped gradually since the late 19808 with an increasing turnover in the two-year colleges that participate” (Vivian Delna, personal communication, October 17, 2001) start taking the risks Cohen and Brawer cautioned us against. By the early 1990s, capitalism had demonstrated itself to be global in its scope and influence. But at the same time, it is also argued that democracy stands “on trial” (Elshtain, 1993). The free enterprise system gains new devotees every day around the globe, while Amer­ ican democracy withers on the vine, strangled by low voter turnout and campaign finance largesse. It is time for those who call democracy’s college their professional home to start taking democracy seriously. As public servants, com­ munity college teachers have an obligation to address the shifting mission of the two-year school toward serving global economic inter­ ests, at the expense of the institution’s role in local affairs. As edu­ cators, two-year college teachers have a responsibility to counter the trend toward political disengagement among students. As a teaching method, town hall meetings hold the potential to address both con­ cerns. Future research on the social and political role of the two-year school may uncover still better means to ensure the community college is equal to the task of supporting and advancing American democracy. 186 The combination of these factors has resulted in ever-larger cell weights being applied to the two-year college data and increased the possibility of non-random variation in the overall national norms. (Sax, Astin, Kom, & Mahoney, 2000, p. 113) The absence of two-year college students from the Freshman National Norms survey is an unfortunate development. But prior data suggests, had two-year college students been included, their level of interest in politics would have fallen short of the national average. In 1999, the last year community college students were included in the study, 20.7% of two-year college freshmen considered keeping up to date with political affairs important or very important; hardly a glowing endorsement for an institution described as democracy’s col­ lege (Sax, Astin, Hom, & Mahoney, 1999). To address the alarming level of political apathy on two-year college campuses, educators are going to have to take a more direct approach to fostering the quality of mind that makes effective citizens. As a teaching method, town hall meetings are a start. They are a means to reassert the community college’s social and political roles; roles that have been under attack for more than two decades. The current learning revolution not withstanding, even in the early eighties there were signs that community colleges were being transformed into taxsupported training sites for multi-national corporations. In a prescient history of two-year schools, Cohen and Brawer (1982) offered an early eulogy for the community college’s broader role in society and a pre­ view of the current emphasis on what they consider the college’s main purpose—workforce development: Each time the colleges act as social welfare agencies or modem Chautauquas, they run the risk of reducing the support they must have if they are to pursue their main purpose. (Cohen & Brawer, 1982, p. 282) The data I collected as part of my search for a promising classroom structure suggest it is time for community college professionals to 187 REFERENCES Adelman, C. (1992). The way we are: The community college as American thermometer. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Barr, R. B., & Tagg, J. (1995). From teaching to learning—a new paradigm for tinder­ graduate education. Change, 6, 12-25. Bellah, R. et al. (1985). Habits of the heart: Individualism and commitment in American life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Bellah, R. et al. (1991). The good society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Brint, S., & Karabel, J. (1989). The diverted dream: Community colleges and the promise of educational opportunity in America, 1900-1985. New York: Oxford University Press. Chickering, A. (1969). Education and identity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Clark, B. (1960). The cooling out function in higher education. American Journal of Sociology, 6, 569—576. Clark, B. (1980). The cooling out function revisited. New Directions for Community Colleges. 4, 15-32. Cohen, A., & Brawer, F. (1982). The American community college. San Francisco: JosaeyBass. Dewey, J. (1916). Education and democracy. New York: Macmillan. Dewey, J. (1956). Philosophy of education. Ames, lA: Littlefield, Adams, and Co. Diekhoff, J. (1950). Democracy’s college: Higher education in the local community. New York: Harper and Brothers. Dougherty, K. (1994). The contradictory college: The conflicting origins, impacts, and futures of the community college. Albany: State University of New York Press. Elshtain, J. (1993). Democracy on trial. New York: Basic Books. �186 C. M. Hanson Frye, J. (1994). Educational paradigms in the professional literature on community colleges. In J. Smart (Ed) The Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Vol. X. pp. 181-224. NY: Agathon. Gleazer, E. (1981). The community college: values, vision , vitality. Washington, DC: American Association of Community and Junior (Colleges. Griffith, M., & Connor, A. (1994). Democracy's open door: The community college in America's future. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton-Cook Publishers. Hanson, C. (1996). Democracy’s college: A case study of social processes in an urban community college. Dissertation Abstracts International (University Microfilms No. 9720619). Hanson, C. (1998). From teaching to learning: Are we still educating students? The Teaching Professor, 8, 1. Hanson, C. (2000). Silence and structure in the classroom: From seminar to town meeting via Post-its. The National Teaching and Learning Forum, 6, 1-4. Jackson, P. (1968). Life in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston. Karabel, J. (1972). (Community colleges and social stratification. Harvard Educational Review, 4, 521-561. Kellog, A. (2001). Looking inward, freshman care less about politics and more about money. Chronicle of Higher Education, 3, A47. Levin, J. (2001). Globalising the community college: Strategies for change in the twenty^ first century. New York: Palgrave. Levin, J. (2002). Global culture and the community college. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 26, 121-145. London, H. 1978. The Culture of a Community College. New York: Praeger. Margolis, E. editor. 2001. The Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education. New York: Routledge. Marks, H. (1990). The college experience: Differential gender effects on the development of social responsibility. Paper Presented at the American Educational Research Asso­ ciation. Boston, MA. Medsker, L. (1960). The junior college: Progress and prospect. New York: McGraw-Hill. Merisotis, J., & Phipps, R. (1999). What’s the difference? Change, 3, 12-17. McGrath, D., & Spear, M. (1991). The academic crisis of the community college. Albany: State University of New York Press. O’Banion, T. (1997). A learning college for the 21st century. Phoenix: Oryx Press. O*Banion, T. (1998a). The learning revolution: Perched at the millennium. Community College Week, 12, 12-15. O’Banion, T. (1998b). The center of the learning revolution. Community College WeeA, 4, 24-26. Pascarella, E., & 'Ibrenzini, P. (1991). How college affects students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pincus, F. (1980). The false promise of community colleges: Class conflict and vocational education. Harvard Educational Review, 3, 332-361. Rhoads, R., & Valadez, J. (1996). Democracy, multiculturalism and the community col­ lege. New York: Garland. Sex, L., Astin, A., Kom, W., & Mahoney, K. (1999). The American freshman: National norms for Fall 1999. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA. Sax, L. (2000). The American freshman: National norms for Fall 2000. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA. Shor, I. (1980). Critical teaching and everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Zwerling, S. (1976). Second best: The crisis of the community college. New York: McGraw-Hill. Tbwn Hall Meeting as Teaching Method 189 APPENDIX A Town Hall Meetings Differences of opinion lead to inquiry and inquiry to truth. Thomas Jefferson Objective The objective of the Town Hall assignment is to explore how issues in criminology are understood from different standpoints. Steps 1. Research the issue/Find the debate: Each person needs to find two articles that approach the issue from different perspectives. Hint—it is best to review a few different articles so that you can be sure you get two good ones. You can certainly use more than two. 2. Organize your information: Complete the discussion work­ sheet. 3. Create a list of “talking points:** You should have a list of the main ideas you want to convey along with questions you’d like to raise. 4. Prepare your thoughts: Practice the discussion with your partner/s. 5. Present and support your ideas/Listen to the views of others (In class). 6. Make a decision: As a class we summarize the best arguments from the different points of view. Then, we decide which position is more just, ethical, accurate, or appropriate. 7. Turn in your written work Helpful Tips 1. Avoid thinking of a discussion as a win-lose proposition. Focus on coming to the best decision possible, not necessarily on winning. 2. Confirm other’s competence while you disagree with them or challenge their points. 3. Criticize ideas and not people. 4. Separate your identity from criticism of your ideas. 5. Listen to everyone, even if you do not agree with their ideas. �190 C. M. Hanson Community College Journal of Research and Pnctice, 27: 191-201. 2003 t i cc Copyright © 2003 Taylor & Frands 1066-8926/03 112.00 +.00 APPENDIX B DOI: 10.1080/10668920390128843 Town Hail Meeting Worksheet Topic : Article 1: Author : Source: Date: Article 2 : Author : Source: Date: The author’s background: The author’s background: Is there any bias from the source or author? Is there any bias from the source or author? Was the information valid and reliable—or—were the research meth­ ods appropriate? Did the article change your view or support the one you already had? TALKING POINTS (use your own paper & turn in with this page as a cover sheet) CAREER CONCERNS OF DISPLACED WORKERS IN VOCATIONAL TRAINING T. Ross Owen Trey J. Fitch Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky, USA The purpose of this study was to identify the career concerns of displaced workers in vocational training. Participants completed the Vocational Identity Scale of My Vocational Situation. There were 83 completed questionnaires for a response rate of 100%. Descriptive data and chi-square tests were calculated. Results indicate that students were most concerned about identifying potential career possibilities. Career counseling implications and recommendations are discussed. The 1990s in America were characterized by rising corporate profits and falling unemployment rates (Rocha, 2001). Americans were prospering economically. “But there was a large segment of the labor force plagued by declining and stagnant wages, involuntary and parttime employment, and decreasing job security” (Rocha, 2001, p. 53). Due to an increase in companies which shifted all or part of their production offshore to lower wage countries, American manufacturing companies lost more than 2 million jobs (Mishel, Bernstein, & Schmitt, 1997). “Dislocated workers may face higher stresses than other unemployed workers because of lost earning potential but also because of the lost career identity and the higher emotional investment they may have had in their former positions” (Mallinckrodt & Bennett, 1992, p. 482). This shift in the American manufacturing sector has presented community colleges with important new challenges regarding the career concerns of displaced workers. The displaced worker is defined as a “person on layoff with a stable employment history who has little Address correspondence to T. Ross Owen, Assistant Professor of Adult & Higher Education, Morehead State University, 503 Ginger Hall, Morehead, KY 40361. E-mail: r.owen@morehead8tate.edu 191 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Journal Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Promise of Democracy's College: Town Hall Meeting as Teaching Method Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_05 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Community College Journal of Research and Practice</em> is published by Taylor &amp; Francis Group, LLC https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/4fb3f05c51fee3d01d872821d61240f0.pdf f991aab3c249929532317973d805e86e PDF Text Text Woikifig Class Glass Chad Hanson By the time I tried fly fishing for the first time, it was the early 1990s, and by that point the fly rod had been through three transformations. Since the 1800s, fly rods had been built with split canes of bamboo. Then in the 1970s, we began to fashion them from spun glass fibers. But glass fell out of favor ten years later, and our staffs of fiberglass were replaced by graphite sticks. With the exception of a bamboo rod I received as a Christmas gift, graphite was all I knew, and I didn’t question it too much. I was comfortable with the status quo. That is, until eight years ago. 1 was struck by a notion in the spring of’97. As pan of the process of courting my would-be wife, it occurred to me that I ought to buy my lady friend Lynn a fly rod. We were living in northern Wisconsin, surrounded by cold water and brook trout. I was spending more than my share of time chasing fish, and I figured if my plans for a wedding were going to work out, I’d better involve Lynn. The shopping ritual began, as it often does, at a high-end fly fishing specialty shop in an upscale part of town. 1 was happy to drool over their elegant rods and reels, but the prices were out of my range, so I drove to a popular sporting goods warehouse. I saw some possibilities in the stadium store, but the atmosphere wasn’t great. I’m big on ambience, and the retail arena didn’t feel right. That left me with one option. Like most towns in the Midwest, our city was home to a lonely bait and tackle shop set in an unseemly neighborhood, where weathered paint, sagging roofs, and broken windows were the norm. I drove past the store each day on my way to work. I thought, “Why not?” Cobwebs were the main feature of the interior design, and to complement the webs there were aluminum landing nets hanging from the walls. In the middle of the shop, there were piles of crank baits, pork rinds, and spinning lures stacked on slouching sheet-metal shelves. A row of live wells shaped like laundry tubs lined one side of the room, and a quick stroll past the tubs revealed a plethora of animals: leeches, shiners, crawdads, and a few things I didn’t recognize, all of them waiting for the t f i I < 72 coast �day when they’d be impaled and then flung into one of the neighboring lakes. Behind the counter sat a man who struck me as an identical twin to the person in the THIS IS WHAT YOU’LL LOOK LIKE IF YOU SMOKE CIGARETTES poster, the one the American Lung Association used to scare children in the 1970s. His hair was disheveled and oily; his face was lined with creases you couldn’t put in your pants if you tried; there were bags under his eyes like kangaroo pouches, and his lips were permanently pursed to accept the ubiquitous cancer stick. Less than an arm’s length away, there sat a black plastic ashtray, buried under a mound of sickly orange butts. “How goes it?” he bellowed. “Not bad,” I said, thinking, I better make this fest. “What can I do for you?” “I’m looking for a fly rod. A gift. Something for my lady-friend.” “Fly rod?” He looked puzzled. “No fly rods. Used to carry 'em. I don’t know what happened. Folks stopped askin’ for ‘em I guess.” While he thought about his customers’ buying habits, I perused the only rack of rods in the shop. It was a tight mess of dust-covered spinning gear: Ugly Sticks, ABU-Garcias, and foam-handled Berkely Avengers. But to our mutual surprise, at the far end of it all, there stood a marigold yellow fly rod. It was a six-foot, five-weight, Eagle Claw “Sweetheart,” complete with a little red heart-shaped symbol stamped near the book­ keeper. I plucked the rod from the rack and gave it the old retail waggle. It was the first time I’d ever laid hands on a fiberglass fly rod. It was more flexible than the graphite I was used to. I was intrigued, but the rod wasn’t for me, and I knew the details of its construction weren’t going to matter anyhow. I knew a technical explanation of rod materials and their qualities wouldn’t inspire Lynn, but I had a feeling the heart-shaped symbol might pique her interest. Three minutes and twenty-four dollars later, I was headed for the door with the Sweetheart under my arm. It wasn’t graphite. It wasn’t the latest or the best. It wasn’t a bamboo classic or a classic of any kind. Even so, I had a hunch the yellow rod would make Lynn happy, and at home my intuition was confirmed. She loved it. At this point, she didn’t know much about fly rods, but that didn’t make any difference. The gesture was not about fishing or tackle. This was a way to create common ground. The little yellow stick was a perfect excuse for us to spend time together in the woods. I bought the sweetheart early in the spring. That meant we had the �whole summer to ply the waters of Wisconsin. We fished the Wolf River, the Prairie, the Plover, and the Peshtigo. We fished lakes by canoe, and we fished a few icy cold spring ponds reminiscent of the glaciers that once covered the area. We caught fish everywhere we went, but mostly we reveled in the warmth and freedom of long summer days spent with brook trout in our midst. I’ll be honest, though, the warmth and freedom were more important to Lynn than the brookies. By the end of the season, after a few token casts, she’d slip back onto shore to look for brightly colored rocks or the perfect pinecone. Lynn didn’t take to fishing like I thought she might, but we were together, we were outside, and that was really the whole point. Besides, since she wasn’t that excited about angling, I knew she wouldn’t mind if I borrowed the Sweetheart when I fished the Tortoise Shell River. The Tortoise Shell is a classic Midwestern stream. Its headwaters lie in the tamarack swamps and muskeg bogs of the North Woods, and its lower stretches run through rolling hills pocked by dairy farms and hardy fields of corn, barley, and wheat. Like neighboring Minnesota and Michigan, Wisconsin was once covered by white pine and hemlock trees, so tall and thick toward the top they formed a canopy over the land. The canopy shielded the ground from sunlight, and the arrangement created a park-like setting where a person could amble through ancient forests unobstructed by brush. The lumber barons oversaw the wholesale removal of those trees in the 1800s. Thankfully, the forests have returned. But they’re not the same. They’re thick. In some places they’re downright impenetrable, and they cover the hills and valleys beside many of my favorite streams, including the Tortoise Shell, where the forest envelopes the river in a tube of tangled branches and leaves. It is no place for a nine-foot fly rod. With Lynn’s permission, I started packing the Sweetheart on trips to the Tortoise Shell. It was the rod’s diminutive length that appealed to me at first, but it was the feel that made me wish the Sweetheart was longer and more useful on lakes or in wide-open spaces. It was the bend and sway, the graceful manner of the glass, that made me wish all my rods had the same laid-back disposition. I grew fond of the little Sweetheart, but there were limits to the affair. It was too short for all but the most tree-snarled creeks. In addition, it was marigold yellow from tip to reel seat, and it was embossed with a heart-shaped symbol. I wasn’t about to jump out of my truck, open the topper, and expose the Sweetheart in front of my macho fishing friends. I would have been the laughing stock of Langlade County. So there I was, (bill 74 coast �falling in love with fiberglass, but it was a clandestine affair, limited to solo trips on wood-choked streams where I cast the glass in secrecy. We left the Midwest before I had a chance to look for an eight- or nine-foot fiberglass rod without the girly moniker. In the summer of 2001, Lynn and I sold our furniture, rented a trailer for our books and clothes, and struck out for Casper, Wyoming. I had accepted a post on the faculty at Casper College. We were excited about the move for a number of reasons, but Wyoming is a long way from Wisconsin in more than just miles. There would be no more quiet casts to brook trout poised in soft rippling streams or calm spring ponds. I realized, if I was going to fish in my new setting, I was going to fish big, strapping rivers—the North Platte in particular. Wyoming is home to a wide range of waters, but in Casper, the North Platte River is the only game in town. Its a good game. If you had to choose one body of water to have close to home, it might be the Platte. There are tailwater sections close to town, and the river supports healthy populations of both rainbows and browns, some of whom are giants. Unfortunately, there was nothing in my arsenal of three- and four-weight brook trout rods that would help me catch fish in Casper. I didn’t have the right equipment, and I was unfamiliar with the technique of fishing weighted flies underwater, a method called “nymphing,” standard practice on rivers in the West. Luckily, the historian Thomas Renn took me under his wing early in my first season. For Tom, fishing is a form of scholarship. He approaches the selection of flies and the rigging of rods the same way he approaches source documents penned in the seventeenth century. He brings the keen eye and mindset of a well-trained academic to the process. Since I tend to approach fly fishing the same way 1 approach a Sunday game of Frisbee in the park, we’re perfect partners. He brings all the knowledge and equipment that we need to catch fish, I bring beer. On our first outing, I brought a six-pack of Amber Bock and the strongest rod I owned—an eight-foot, four-weight. When we found our spot beside the river, we started gearing up. Tom handed me a strike indicator and two split-shot sinkers. I thought, “Sinkers and bobbers?” I asked myself, “Can this be right?” Along with the sinkers and a strike indicator, Tom gave me some good advice about mending line and managing a drag-free drift, but I didn’t listen. I was so baffled by the prospect of hurling the lead and foam H11 i 11 75 �menagerie back and forth with my four-weight noodle rod, I couldn’t think of anything other than my equipment and the unlikelihood of catching a fish with the outfit. Truth be told, I didn’t catch a single fish. I watched Tom land three brawling rainbows, and I was happy to give him a hand with the net, but I was clearly not onboard. I needed a stronger fly rod, and I also needed to read and think about fishing with nymphs, so I could understand what I was trying to accomplish out there on the Plane. The reading came first. A trip to the county library turned up an early edition of Ed Engle’s Fly Fishing the Tailwaters, and also a copy of Ffy Fishing the North Platte River by Rod Walinchus. Both are excellent. With time, I came to understand the feeding patterns of our local salmonids, and at some point I finally accepted the proverb passed down by old-timers at fly shops in the area, “On the Platte, the trout don’t ever look up.” I bought a plastic dispenser full of split-shot sinkers, and I started leaving my dry flies at home. With respect to a rod, I garnered advice from everyone I could think of that had ever caught a fish on the North Platte River, and the counsel was consistent. The consensus was that I needed a nine-foot, six- or seven­ weight rod, with brands and models ranging from the moderately priced graphite, to not-on-a-teacher’s-salary, not-if-you-want-to-stay-married. I took the suggestions of all the fly fishers I knew, but even as I listened to veteran casters extol the virtues of graphite technology, I kept harking back to my days on the Tortoise Shell, Sweetheart in hand. In the end I was determined—it had to be glass. Without further contemplation, I called Clark Davis of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Clark is regionally famous for his collection of vintage bamboo rods, but I knew from his website that he held onto a handful of old fiberglass rods as well. In fact, at the time we talked, he had a ninefoot, six-weight rod he was willing to part with. “Perfect,” I thought to myself. It was a custom job—black fiberglass blank, half-wells grip, and gold-wrapped guides. He didn’t know the rod builder, and he wasn’t sure which company rolled the blank, but I like a little mystery, and the price was right, so I bought it. Roughly one month after my first fly fishing trip in Wyoming, the rod I call “Black Bart” arrived at my doorstep. It was a Tuesday, and by Wednesday afternoon Tom and I found a few hours to fish the Platte. As usual, I watched him fight and land three of Casper’s finest. I was anxious to catch my first rainbow on the river, so I studied Tom’s technique. The uncanny thing about his approach, the thing that t h i I d 76 coast �took the longest time for me to understand, was the curt and concise nature of his casts. Tom drifts his flies three feet in front of where he stands. Through the eyes of a brook trout fisherman, the strategy borders on the absurd. For years I’d been making long casts to mistrustful little brookies who were frightened by any sign of motion on the stream. But North Platte rainbows don’t mind if you steal their turf. They don’t even mind if you stand beside them in the current. The water’s heavy green tint blurs their vision, and given the raw number of fly fishers on the river, fish accept anglers as features of their environment. I began reciting a mantra: “There are no brook trout in the North Platte.” Over the course of the afternoon, I practiced the skills I watched Tom use successfully, but at the end of the day I was fishless and feeling low. The sun started setting and I stopped thinking about trout. The color of the sage-covered hills at dusk lulled me into a prairie-river daze, and it was from this trancelike state that I watched my strike indicator slip below the surface at the end of a long, slow drift. It took a moment for the strike to register, but when it did my instincts flew to my forearms and I pulled up on Black Bart. I was bound to a leaping, plunging, hard-running, Platte River rainbow. The rod bucked and heaved as the fish used its length as a lever in the current. The glass gave enough to keep my tippet from breaking, but the rod’s backbone was strong. The fish eventually tired, and after a five-minute battle I brought the proud silver pugilist to the net—my first fish on the North Platte River—courtesy of a modest old fiberglass rod, made by somebody I’ll never know, and purchased for less than the cost of a meal at a Chinese restaurant. I understand old fiberglass rods aren’t for everyone. Their charm is subtle. It takes a mischievous streak to appreciate their qualities. For instance, if you occasionally call your rod a “pole” in front of your highbrow fishing friends, just to watch them squirm, you’re a candidate for glass. If you drive a Lincoln Navigator, but wish you still owned the Volkswagen bus you sold because it wasn’t practical, you could easily aspire to a vintage fiberglass rod. Let’s face it, old glass rods are the Volkswagen vans of the fly fishing world. They’re not Ferraris or Land Rovers. They’re not fast or responsive, but in upscale cars and trucks, the vehicle is the focus of the drive. You pay more attention to the car than you pay to the world outside. In a Volkswagen van, it is the scenery that matters. Likewise, with a fiberglass rod in hand it’s all about the water, the fish, your friends, and the sun sinking under the horizon, casting memorable shadows on the day. H u s 11 77 �For what it’s worth, in this era of uptight, high-priced, nose-in-the-air angling gear. I’m going to keep carrying honest, understated fiberglass rods to the river. It’s the best way I have found to soothe my trout-andcold-clean-river-loving soul. t 1 i 78 coast I i � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Working Class Glass Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_06 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Third Coast</em> is published by Western Michigan University