News
| Disclaimer | Communications/Humanities | Return to Division/Area Menu | PVCC Home | Students | Employees | Visitors | Alumni |
News |
|
Fifth Annual President's Advance explores ‘living’ in a learning centered college By Frank SpinkNews Editor In a continuing effort to work together as a learning centered college, PVCC held its fifth annual President's Advance on Feb. 22. Faculty, staff and students gathered at the North Phoenix Elks Lodge and listened as PVCC President Dr. Gina Kranitz discussed the college's focus for the future. "We have creative, energetic people to guide and inspire us, and make us successful," said Kranitz. "But we have limited funding, so we must use these resources to do more with less."
Kranitz pointed to an increase in underprepared students, continued enrollment growth and developing a quality service culture as major areas of focus for PVCC over the next few years. She closed by sharing a story: A kindergarten class was told to split into two groups, giants and trolls, so the class could play a game. One girl asked where the mermaids should go, and when her teacher insisted that mermaids didn't exist, the little girl continued to insist that they did. She knew, she said, because she was a mermaid. "Fifty percent of our students are mermaids," said Kranitz. "We need to find a way to reach out to these students and help them to contribute." The college’s first steps to reach out to these students started in March 1998 during the First Annual President's Advance. At that time, PVCC made the decision to transform itself into a learning centered college. This transformation meant moving from an instructional paradigm to a learning paradigm. In an instructional paradigm learning exists outside oneself and is classroom centered, linear and cumulative. The learning centered college uses a learning paradigm to focus learning and shape it using individual experiences. Learning takes place in and out of the classroom. Linear and cumulative learning is replaced with a process of hands-on, interactive learning frameworks. Classrooms become cooperative and collaborative. Five years after shifting educational paradigms, PVCC finds itself in the "living" stage of this transformation. At this stage, a learning centered college exhibits five major characteristics:
Dean of Administrative and Instructional Services Bob Bendotti spoke to the audience about having a common purpose and a willingness to share. He focused the audience's attention on a potential pitfall for PVCC. "If we allow ourselves to slip into an absence of communication and conversation, change can't take place, " Bendotti said. He indicated that people need a focal point that is clearly defined in order to focus with clarity of purpose. Without a clear focal point, he said, "anxiety, tension and confusion in people is created." "Our focal point or center is learning," said Bendotti. Dean of Student Services Paul Dale followed Bendotti's comments with a discussion about the freedom to act and experiment combined with a desire to constantly improve. He encouraged the audience to move forward under stressful challenges by using available resources and thinking creatively, “out-of-the-box.” PVCC will need creative, “out-of-the-box” thinking to address two important emerging issues. One is how to develop a quality service culture to serve the customer base at PVCC. The other is dealing with the growing problem of the underprepared student. Dale said, "Being a learning centered college requires us to create a systematic and sustainable customer service culture to nurture our current and future growth." He added that PVCC used the Disney Quality Service cycle as a model to develop a service theme that will help build and focus PVCC's service standards. "We have developed a simple service theme of our own," said Dale. It says, "We develop good hearts and able minds through lifelong learning opportunities." Dale indicated that PVCC must now develop a set of quality service standards to successfully implement and sustain that theme. Customer service will be a significant factor in dealing with the challenges of the growing underprepared student population at PVCC. David Gerkin, director of the Learning Support Center, told the audience that dealing with widespread student unpreparedness, "will require a cultural change, with all members of the college contributing to the development of the underprepared student." The Underprepared Student Initiative project team was formed in Spring 2001 to create new programs to help students cope with and be successful in the college environment. Some of these include the Grammar Workshops, Supplemental Instruction (SI) and the Passport to Paradise. |
|
Last
updated: March 28, 2002 |
