May 19, 2006 Cojoined CTC-IT Quarterly Meeting 1

Building a Disciplinary Commons using Course Portfolios

Josh TenenbergJanet Ash, Donald Chinn, Ravi Gandham, Michael Gelotte, Richard Hoagland, Laurie Murphy, Brad Richards, John Staneff, Phyllis Topham, Jeffrey Weiss

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Teaching behind closed doors

College teaching is unique among the major professions: its practitioners receive no formal education or supervised practice in teaching. And having started, they almost always teach behind closed doors, isolated from other teachers.

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The Disciplinary Commons

Faculty meet on common ground, using scholarly practices to investigate teaching and learning in their own classrooms. The practices and artifacts produced become “common property”, available for use and adaptation by others.

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Outline

What did we do? What is a Course Portfolio? Why do this with others? Why do this in a single discipline? How much time does this require? What did we learn? Acknowledgements

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What did we do?

11 Computer Science (CS) teachers meeting face-to-face, monthly for ½ day throughout the academic year

Location rotated among all participant home institutions

Crossing borders: CS faculty from different institutions engaged in common practices and common goals

Talking about teaching: as scholars and practitioners

Parallel construction and mutual critique of Course Portfolios

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The Disciplinary Commons:A face-to-face Yackpack

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What is a Course Portfolio?

An organized collection of ideas and principles that guide the design and implementation of a particular course.

Focuses on the course. It is NOT a student portfolio. It is NOT a teaching portfolio, although

it can be part of one.

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Sessions & Portfolio Contents

Sept:Course Objectives

Oct: Institutional and Curricular Context

Nov: Course Content

Dec: Teaching Methods

Jan: Rationale (Situated Teaching Philosophy)

Feb: Evidence of Student Learning

Mar: Grading

Apr: Self- and Peer-Observation

May: Conf. Presentation & External Review

June:Complete Portfolio

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Why do this with others?

Begin with the end in mind - sharing A common framework elicits discipline Encouragement and camaraderie in the

face of a rather large amount of work Building a community of resources And besides, it couldn’t possibly be as

much fun

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chemistry

philosophy

literature

geography

psychology

artbiology

Why do this in a single discipline?

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CS

CS

CS

CS

CS

CS

softwaredesign

Java

controlstructure

C++

dataabstractionCommon

Language

1. Able to make assumptions about understanding

2. More emphasis on rationale for teaching choices

3. More thoughtful peer observations

Why do this in a single discipline?

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CS

CS

CS

CS

CS

CS

traditionalstudents

non-traditionalstudents

running startstudents

transferstudents

institutionaland individual

differences

semester quarter

teachingload

budgetary constraints

Why do this in a single discipline?

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Course Portfolio

CS-211Bellevue

Community College

Fundamentals ofComputer Science II

Why do this in a single discipline?

Course Portfolio

CSCI144Green River

Community College

Java I

Course Portfolio

CS – 142South Puget Sound Community College

Object-Oriented Prog I

Course Portfolio

CSCI161bUniversity of Puget Sound

Introduction to Computer Science

The power of the portfolio approach is multiplied when there are several examples available for a single disciplinary aspect.

Course Portfolio

CS100

Introduction to Computer Science

Course Portfolio

CIS 121Pierce College

Introduction to Computer Information Systems

Course Portfolio

CSCE144Pacific Lutheran University

Introduction to Computer Science

Course Portfolio

TCSS 390UW-Tacma

Undergraduate Seminar in CSS

Course Portfolio

CIS 201cPierce College

Intro to Java

Course Portfolio

CS-210Bellevue

Community College

Fundamentals ofComputer Science I

Course Portfolio

Compu 142 Shoreline

Community College

Intro. to Computer Programming

with Java

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Why you might want to make a Course Portfolio

For “permission” to take the time

to reflect on what you are doing

To focus on the Big Picture The curriculum/program The course The teaching

and focus on an element Testing, lectures, homework …

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Why you might want to make a Course Portfolio – 2

For “permission” to research

From others On your teaching

To Document

To Share

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How much time does this require?

128 Hours per person (average), as we did it Doing it as a group increased the cost due to meetings

and travel time You can do this by yourself in about 80 hours direct

time Benefit of group interaction far outweighs “extra” cost It’s probably your time, so the institutional cost is

minimal (unless ….) Benefit to your other courses is immeasurably

valuable!

Individual Portfolio Time Requirement

Drive time formeetings 20 hrs

Reading / Research 37 hrs

Vancouver trip 5 hrs

Meetings of the commons 31 hrs

Peer Observation 3 hrs

Writingdrafts/revisions 32 hrs

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What did we learn?

There is “commonality” of teaching contexts and practices – We are all in the same boat!

Benefit from articulating and sharing your teaching practices – Now you know why you do things the way you do them!

Realize that some of your practices do not directly relate to course objectives – A reality check!

Find new ways to enhance the course’s effectiveness from peer insights – A sense of self-accountability and accomplishment!

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What did we learn?

“through our sharing we have learned a lot about where to set the bar on quality.”

“I was suprised to realize how private the process of teaching can become . . . bymaking it more public and more available to scrutiny I am more accountable for the quality.”

“I think we have achieved what many teams envy: that magical balance of collaboration and critique, competition and cooperation, individuality and respect, work and fun.”

“It is wonderful to be around all of these teachers - they all know about the performance of teaching. … Teaching is a craft. They learned it - they weren't born like that.”

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The Commons Portfolios & Resources

http://depts.washington.edu/comgrnd/

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Acknowledgements

Sally Fincher has been a collaborator throughout this project. She runs a Commons in the UK.

Funding has been provided by the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges, the University of Washington Tacoma’s Institute of Technology, and the UWT Founder’s Endowment.

Julie Jacob of the SBCTC and Orlando Baiocchi and Larry Crum from UWT have been especially supportive.

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Participants and Affiliations

Josh Tenenberg University of Washington Tacoma

Janet Ash Green River Community College Donald Chinn University of Washington Tacoma Ravi Gandham Bellevue Community College Michael Gelotte Bellevue Community College Richard Hoagland South Puget Sound Community

College Laurie Murphy Pacific Lutheran University Brad Richards University of Puget Sound John Staneff Pierce College Fort Steilacoom Phyllis Topham Shoreline Community College Jeffrey Weiss Pierce College Puyallup