Workshop Topic Detail
Reaching With Our Teaching: Creating an Inclusive Classroom That Incorporates High Schoolers
Description
Community college classrooms are expanding to include an even broader range of students from the K-12 sector. These students are referred to as dually enrolled (DE), meaning they are enrolled in their local high school while also taking college-level classes. This influx of DE students provides for a new richness of dialogue and contextualized learning within higher education classrooms. It also requires that faculty steep themselves in classroom management techniques and teaching methodologies that align with the needs of regularly matriculated students, as well as students who are still traversing adolescence. While cognitively capable of college-level coursework, the social and emotional development of these students sometimes necessitates a nuanced approach. A nuanced approach does not entail changing learning outcomes or reducing rigor. Rather, the idea is to create an inclusive classroom that proactively addresses such variability. Through engaging activities and the interactive sharing of best practices, this workshop exposes participants to a variety of tools to use across their courses, especially reaching DE students, but benefitting all students.
By the end of this workshop, participants will know or be able to:
- Develop a foundational understanding of the social, emotional, and other developmental-related characteristics associated with dual enrollment students.
- Explore classroom management techniques that can facilitate a focused and productive learning environment.
- Examine the utility of various pedagogical approaches as applied to the DE population.
Plans for Audience Participation and Interaction:
Attendees will be engaged through multiple means and modalities, including large- and small-group discussions, case study analysis and review, polling and quizzing, reacting/responding to examples, and active application of management and pedagogical techniques.
Facilitator(s)
Elizabeth A. Mosser Knight, PhD (Beth; she/her) completed her initial graduate work in educational psychology at The Ohio State University where her research focused on student self-regulation and the assessment/reflection cycle. Her doctoral work at Notre Dame of Maryland University focused on faculty development and organizational growth with specific emphasis on the tenets and structures that best support faculty in deepening their teaching skills. During her time as a faculty member, Beth taught a variety of psychology and educational philosophy courses across modalities and continues to be an active proponent of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach to curriculum development, having facilitated many UDL-related workshops, conference presentations, and keynote addresses on the subject. Beth shares a firm commitment to the mission of community colleges and student success in whatever form that may take for each individual–and holds a professional goal of positively contributing to an inclusive student experience. She believes in challenging students to learn new ideas and evolve as scholars and professionals in their fields, and in the importance of authentic and relevant experiences that leverage innate abilities and encourage the development of new skills. Currently Beth serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs for Austin Community College District. In this role, Beth provides student-focused and inclusivity-minded leadership and oversight of college credit academic transfer as well as adult education courses and programs. She provides leadership for collegewide initiatives and priorities in support of the college’s strategic plan and academic master plan. In addition, Beth provides leadership in improving student persistence, retention, and successful completion of college access courses and programs; transitioning of students into college credit courses and programs; and increasing equity of student success in all college-level courses and programs.
Ryan Knight (he/him) is Associate Director of Recruitment and Retention at Achieving the Dream (ATD). In this role, he organizes ATD’s recruitment, onboarding, and retention efforts with ATD colleges. He began his career teaching at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, NC. There he taught composition, literature, and college success courses to hundreds of students (many of whom were dually enrolled high school students attending the early college high school on campus), while also serving as a faculty advisor and on numerous committees. While completing his Ph.D. coursework, Ryan worked as lead program associate for Envisioning Excellence for Community College Leadership, which evolved into the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research. He worked with a team that re-aligned NC State’s education doctorate program in community college leadership to today’s essential presidential competencies and expanded professional and executive development. Ryan holds a Ph.D. in adult and community college education from NC State University. He is an Editorial Board member and serves as an article reviewer for the Community College Journal of Research and Practice (CCJRP).