Moria Dailey
Published: March 8, 2006
“Our students here, as well as community college students in Florida, have roughly the same, if not better, GPA’s than native university students after they get A.A. [Associate in Arts] degrees and transfer,” Dr. David Sam, vice president of academic affairs at PJC, said.
However, Sam explained, skills math literacy, especially scientific literacy and critical thinking skills, such as those needed for research for papers and reports, are not as good as would be liked.
Over the course of the next several semesters, starting in fall 2006, students at PJC are going to be hearing quite a bit about Global Learning Outcomes.
The outcomes are being instituted to give students a more well-rounded experience during their time at PJC, as well as to reinforce certain needed skills across all general education courses, as well as have those classes become more closely coordinated. General education courses are classes such as English Composition I & II that all students getting an A.A. degree are required to take.
Chair of the outcome’s general education subcommittee, Sharon Spencer said, “The development of the learning outcomes is the biggest project ever undertaken at PJC that has been faculty-driven.”
During the spring 2005 semester, the outcomes committee developed seven broad, cross-disciplinary learning outcomes applicable throughout the general education coursework.
“For example, instead of teaching writing in a writing course alone, we’re going to reinforce it across all general education,” Sam said.
The outcomes are also being put in place to hopefully measure how students have done at PJC, both in classes and outside of them.
“We’re very good at measuring how a student does in one class,” Sam said, noting that it is not so easy to measure the student’s complete experience. Sam also explained that the college is in talks with the University of West Florida to join efforts with them in measuring students’ acquirement of these needed skills, including PJC getting data back from UWF regarding how students perform in certain areas.
Though nearly 40 faculty members are participating in the two subcommittees, committee members expressed concern that not all faculty are familiar or comfortable with the development and assessment of the global learning outcomes.
“It is very important that faculty understand that neither the revised syllabi nor the assessment tools will dictate teaching methods. Instructors remain free to teach course material in the style that is most effective for them and for the students,” Julia Ruengert, chair of the assessment subcommittee, said.
Scott Ajila contributed to this article