Current Search: College teachers, Part-time (x)
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Title
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Using classroom assessment techniques: The experiences of adjunct faculty at a Vanguard Learning College and two non-Vanguard community colleges.
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Creator
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Tuby, Heidi S., Florida Atlantic University, Acker-Hocevar, Michele A.
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Abstract/Description
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) by adjunct faculty at 3 homogeneous Florida community colleges, 1 Vanguard and 2 non-Vanguard. A qualitative methodology, with a phenomenological approach, helped to describe the meaning that the experience of using CATS had for adjunct professors. Interviews with 18 participants, including adjunct faculty and faculty development administrators, were the primary means of data collection,...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to investigate the use of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) by adjunct faculty at 3 homogeneous Florida community colleges, 1 Vanguard and 2 non-Vanguard. A qualitative methodology, with a phenomenological approach, helped to describe the meaning that the experience of using CATS had for adjunct professors. Interviews with 18 participants, including adjunct faculty and faculty development administrators, were the primary means of data collection, supplemented by researcher field notes, demographic profile sheets, and analysis of actual CATS. The data synthesized into 3 levels of meaningful encounters, revealing the barriers that inhibited adjunct faculty use of CATS and how those obstacles were overcome, as well as facilitators that promoted use of CATS. A critical finding was that CATS did not motivate adjunct faculty to move from "private" investigation of student learning to "public dialogue" on teaching and learning that can add to the scholarship of teaching. The data showed that institutional commitment to CATS and a formal introduction to them as formative assessment, built upon a solid research base, were important steps toward encouraging their use. Also, "high touch" faculty development activities, which included CATS, effectively complemented those that were "high tech." The findings of the study indicated that the Vanguard and non-Vanguard colleges shared similar ideas. The Vanguard Learning College, however, distinguished itself by the actions taken to become more learning-centered; adjunct faculty participants assumed leadership roles as educational researchers who pursued independent projects to develop instructional materials to improve student learning as compared to adjunct professors at the non-Vanguard colleges. The following conclusions were reached: (a) Community college adjunct faculty use CATS to expand their own learning, often by designing probing questions in response to immediate classroom concerns. Therefore, the experience of using CATS is unique for each professor. (b) Deprivatizing adjunct faculty teaching is difficult, and sharing meets with resistance. At the Vanguard College, individual and communal learning are beginning to fuse. (c) CATs strengthen learning colleges as communication tools between instructors and individual students, but are not used to their fullest advantage to generate public dialogue on student learning.
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Date Issued
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2003
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT12049
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Subject Headings
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Educational tests and measurements, College teachers, Part-time, Effective teaching, Community college teachers
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Format
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Document (PDF)
