Читать книгу Group Coaching and Mentoring - Linda Algozzini - Страница 14

Just as in every business, the product (in this case, the course) has to be relevant and useful to the consumers (students). It was vital that the gateway course that the department taught was relevant to the student population that it served.

The John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (2017) labels gateway courses as having three distinct qualities. They are foundational and have high enrollment. They are high risk for the rate of D and F grades and withdrawals (W) and incompletes (I) earned at the end of the course.

The gateway course under the manager’s purview replicated Gardner’s characteristics and impacted institutional first-year and transfer student retention and persistence rates. Therefore, a revised curriculum was needed in order to honor each student’s skill level as they entered the university.

As a result, the course was redesigned to be more inclusive of 21st century adult learners and their need to be successful researchers, critical thinkers, and savvy consumers of digital information. Knowing the new curriculum was going to be implemented early in 2016, the manager knew her department needed extra support as they enhanced and built their own skills to meet the needs of the course and the students. Successful student development is created when there is a balance between support and challenge (Sanford, 1962). Thus, the employees needed to support students while the curriculum needed to challenge them to become independent thinkers and lifelong learners.

Not only was the course about to change, but this would prove to be the third major curriculum change for this particular course and those who taught it. Considering this and that the new content would be a major shift in the thinking and teaching for the employees on a daily basis, the manager realized the need for a comprehensive solution to the problem. While this would be the first curricular change with the current manager, the employees had experienced multiple significant changes in the past, causing concern and resistance to face such a dramatic change once more.