Corey Reese
Published: November 9, 2005
On Nov. 2, Dr. David Sam, vice president of academic affairs, held an interactive workshop on the learning-centered college. About 25 students attended this workshop focusing on how to make PJC more of a center for learning.
“I wanted to involve students in the process and let them know what a learning-centered college is,” said Sam after the workshop was completed.
In March 2005 PJC approved its new strategic plan, placing the learning-centered college as its first priority.
The goal of a learning-centered college is to make it easier for the individual student to learn and succeed.
Dr. Sam went over the concepts of teacher and student, defining the different ways that students learn, and defining how teachers and students are measured to succeed.
Another topic discussed by Sam was service learning.
Service learning is when a person is assigned a real world project for a non-profit company to get real world experience.
PJC is already a learning-centered college with the implementation of hands-on activities with the actual teacher lectures. Sam asked the attending students for feedback to make PJC more of a learning-centered college.
“I was really pleased with some of the feedback that the students gave me. Most of them already understood the concept of the learning-centered college. They explained it to me before I ever said a word at the beginning,” Sam said.