Syllabus

Rationale for this Professional Development Series

1. Kirkwood Community College's Learner Success Agenda - Through faculty collaboration, instructional excellence, and integrated support services, we will improve the learning experience for each and every student regardless of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, or disability (Iowa Code 216.9).  We will work to make sure instruction is available when and where our diverse learners need us.
2. In Fall 2012, a self-selected group of faculty participated in the Intercultural Development Inventory measure of intercultural sensitivity, and the results indicated that many faculty would benefit from a greater awareness of diversity and an improvement in intercultural communication skills.
3. A recent study (some statistics are available on the Making the Case page) revealed that certain subgroups of students have a lower success rate than others.  Cort Iverson from Institutional Research will explain this issue in more detail in the first session.
4. Nationally, teaching is still a rather homogeneous profession with only 20.7% of all faculty in higher education in the United States being non-white instructors, which is vastly different than the student population.  This may make it more difficult for higher education faculty to understand the academic background of their incoming students.
5. The racial makeup of the United States is continuously changing.

Desired Outcomes

The desired outcomes for this series is to increase learner success, to improve intercultural competence and sensitivity in faculty, and to increase faculty self-reflection with the purpose of affecting positive change in the teaching and learning environment.

Objectives
By the end of the series, faculty enrolled in the Culturally Responsive Classroom should be able to:

• provide strategies to maximize learner success with specific attention on learners from different backgrounds and orientations from themselves
• identify unique challenges learners are likely to face both inside and outside the classroom
• identify how cultural values and beliefs influence pedagogy
• create a learning environment that promotes a successful student integration within and beyond the classroom

Performance Standards

To successfully complete this learning experience, each participant is expected to actively engage in all discussions and workshops and to produce evidence of reflective practice, the latter of which has two options as shown below:

Option #1:  Take one of the discussion questions from the any of the modules and write a few paragraphs or produce a 3-5 minute video on

1. How your perceptions or feelings have changed since the first time you answered the question, or
2. How it helped reframe your ideas about learner success, or
3. How you plan to further explore your teaching approach and/or philosophy regarding the issues it raised

Option #2:  Revise one of the following items to demonstrate how you can raise the potential for success for all your students

1. A course syllabus
2. A classroom activity
3. A homework exercise
4. A text, quiz, or exam