Gen101 Commentary
by Allan Ament,
Director of Academic Affairs for the Washington
Campus
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Setting appropriate expectations for their students,
ensuring that students appreciate the time and energy commitment
entailed in obtaining a college education.
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Presenting students with the general expectations, and
outlines, of what constitutes acceptable/good written work.
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Providing students with the opportunity to make oral
presentations and learning what is and will be expected of them in
future class presentations.
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Introducing them to the concept of Learning Teams, and
providing them with the skills and resources to work effectively in
their groups. This requires:
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Making sure students understand teams are as much about
process as they are about producing a deliverable.
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Training students in the proper way to complete Learning
Team logs and impressing upon them the importance of Logs.
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Modeling appropriate behavior with regard to the
Logs�reviewing them for accuracy and validity; signing both sets of
logs each week; checking in with the teams to ensure that they are
functioning effectively and that their logs reflect what is actually
happening at the meetings
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Emphasizing the importance of charters and instructing
students on the appropriate way to complete them. (I do this, in
part, by having the students read Section Two of Tools for Teams before
their first Learning Team meeting). Charters are to be reviewed,
and evaluated for appropriateness, by the instructors; teams can be
required to redo them if they are not completed properly the first time. If
instructors do not have the knowledge to provide this training, they
should let the College Chair or me know. We can provide it. If
instructors are not comfortable with these concepts and processes, we
need to know that as well, as Gen101 is probably not the appropriate
class for them to be teaching.
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Educating students that issues such as conflict management
are best discussed before they are needed and that agreed-upon methods
should be described in the charter, which is a contract among the team
members. Similarly, the areas of contribution and development,
contained in the self-evaluation portion of the charter, relate not only
to general areas but also to the requirements of the learning objectives
and assignments of the particular course. Consequently, each course
is different, requiring a new charter.
That’s probably more information than you want or need. Thanks for taking
on this important responsibility, and for listening, with your eyes, to my
ramblings.
| Gen101 is one of the two or three most important courses we provide our students. It provides instructors and the university the opportunity to set the expectations, model expected behaviors and help students form the habits that they will take with them throughout the rest of their UOP careers. These are important roles for those facilitating this course, difficult to do in five weeks. Too much focus on content, or the intricacies of how to write a good paper or give an good oral presentation, unless one is an exceptionally gifted instructor, could result in students missing equally important matters. I would rather GEN 101 instructors focus on the following: |