Celebrate Learning!
Page 3
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A Global Education Vision for TCC
From the perspective of faculty and staff, many focus group
participants noticed that their values and expectations differed
from those of their students. Many faculty members found that
their students were not fully prepared to learn because their
knowledge and skills had not yet reached the college level.
Other faculty and staff remarked that the information available
to students about admission and enrollment was difficult for students to understand. In 2008-2009 the Data Team explored
barriers to success in developmental reading and developmental mathematics. We learned that most of the challenges students experience in these areas pertain to
difficulties staying in school rather than any
Focus groups
particular difficulty with learning reading
help us to explore
or math. Students in both developmental
areas told us they found it difficult to stay
the underlying
motivated to complete courses for which
reasons why
they do not earn college-level credit. Facstudents fail to
ulty and staff reported some effects of
achieve their
these challenges, perceived in terms of low
student motivation and insufficient study
dreams.
skills.
In 2009-2010, the Data Team turned its attention to TCC’s
African American male students so that TCC could address the
achievement gap between this population and TCC’s general
student population. We learned that TCC’s African American
male students experience many of the same challenges to persistence that were identified in earlier studies, but they also experience challenges related to the unique characteristics of this
student group, such as negative influences from their families,
peers, and the wider community and the low number of African
American males on campus. Faculty and staff noted the effects
of these barriers in terms of minimal class participation and
challenges with motivation, technology, and academic preparation. Some faculty and staff remarked that they themselves
needed help understanding and relating to this group of students.
The results reported above represent only a thumbnail
sketch of the rich reservoir of information available about our
students and their challenges to success. Our focus group information reveals multiple points of view, including those of our
students, faculty and staff. To learn more, consult the Achieving
the Dream page of TCC’s web site and go to the Data
Dashboard, http://www.tulsacc.edu/12770/ . In addition to all
the focus group reports, you will find Quick Facts about various
aspects of student success and detailed descriptions of the steps
TCC is taking to address our students’ challenges.
By Douglas Price, Ed. D.
This summer a group of faculty
worked with the Office of Global Education to begin crafting a global education
vision statement for the college. The
working group met two times. We
worked diligently considering multiple
statements and thoroughly pondered
many vantage points from which the statement could be written.
Some of the work will actually become part of a future mission
statement and/or TCC global education objectives under the
mission statement. The statement below is the broadest brush
stroke at which we could arrive that encompassed what our
dreams and aspirations are for global education and its related
activities at TCC for our local (and, of course, our global) community.
The next step will be to share this vision statement with the
campuses and conference center to obtain their feedback. The
Office of Global Education plans to send out communication (i.e.
all user email) at the end of August. This will afford faculty,
staff, and administration to provide comments, etc. for a twoweek period. In tandem, at the end of August, I will send an
invitation to the committee to review the feedback collected
from the "all user" note. At that September meeting, we will
either make modifications to the statement below or keep it the
same based on the feedback / comments from fellow TCC faculty, staff, and administration. After we have arrived at the
"final" version of the statement, I will present the statement at
the Academic Council meeting on Monday, September 12, for its
"endorsement / approval."
I will then send out a final "all user" email announcing this
historic moment of creating a global education vision statement
for the college. As the committee wishes, we can then reconvene
to discuss a TCC global education mission statement and objectives later in September / early October.
Here is a sneak peak at the global education vision statement:
"Tulsa Community College will be a leader in preparing students
to be globally competent citizens."