Recipient Organization
LANGSTON UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
LANGSTON,OK 73050
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The national focus in higher education has shifted from the instructional to the learning paradigm where the emphasis on student-centered learning/education is of supreme importance. Under its Strategic Plan at LU, the Office of Academic Affairs' expectation for this current faculty development initiative is to "create a model center for the delivery and execution of instruction by incorporating strategies and technologies alongside traditional methods which serves all academic disciplines." Thus, this proposed project aligns with the university goals and Strategic Plan of faculty receiving current and relevant faculty training on effective instructional methodologies for university faculty in agriculture, education, and STEM disciplines. This project will aim to deliver exemplary and relevant teaching/education and extension outreach, improve teaching practices and methodologies in the food and agricultural sciences, education, and other STEM-related areas, provide teacher professional training, and cultivate faculty exchange and mentoring experiences through collaborative partnerships across the 1890 and 1862 land-grant communities.Project Type: This is an Integrated Project and Grant Type: Collaborative Project; Program Code: EP; Primary CBG Program Priority Area: Stainable Agriculture, Youth Development & Discipline Code: T9 & E3. This integrated project targets educational need areas of (i) Curricula Design and Materials Development, (ii), Faculty Preparation and Enhancement for Teaching, (iii) Instruction Delivery Systems, and (v.) Student Experiential Learning. The extension component will target the need area of (i) Extension Program Development Support Systems and Extension Delivery/Methodology.
Animal Health Component
80%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
80%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
The primary focus of this project is to enhance student learning by developing culturally responsive and learner-centered teaching capacity through a variety of teaching partnerships among Faculty, K-12 teachers, Extension educators, and undergraduate and graduate students: As such, there are three objectives of this project: (1) Faculty Exchange Experiences and Professional Development: Increase learner-centered teaching knowledge, skills and networking of faculty in Agricultural Sciences, Education and other STEM-related areas through national conferences, university campus-based faculty exchanges, online professional development modules and webinars, (2) Community-University Teaching Partnerships: Develop learner-centered teaching knowledge, teacher exchange knowledge and skills in in-service teachers, Extension educators, and community-based educators through summer teacher institute and service-learning opportunities, and (3) Online Professional Development Cohort: Expand and redesign the LCT Modules to include high-touch simulated experiences in (a) learner-centered teaching, (b) culturally engagement strategies, (c) inclusive and intentional mentoring, and (d) university campus-based faculty exchange experiences.
Project Methods
The Method of operation to achieve each objective and activity is provided below:Faculty Exchange Experiences and Professional Development: Increase learner-centered teaching knowledge and skills, University campus-based faculty exchange experiences, and networking of faculty in Agricultural Sciences, Education, and other STEM-related areas through national conferences, University campus-based faculty exchange, professional development workshops, and faculty seminars; University campus-based faculty exchange experiences: The University campus-based faculty exchange experiences are designed to share rich intellectual experiences and professional development, strengthen, and diversify academic linkages with partnering university 1890 and 1862 campuses. The experience will be a unique and enriching experience for faculty for partnering teaching and extension experiences at select 1890 and 1862 campuses. University campus-based faculty exchange experiences will involve mini-faculty exchange experiences between project partners (from 1890 and 1862 collaborating partners). The faculty exchange will include a week-long experience. When appropriate, visiting faculty may team up with faculty at the host institution to experience first-hand learner-centered teaching courses. After the completion of the faculty exchange experience, participating faculty will complete faculty exchange experience evaluations and reflections for descriptive evaluation purposes. The University campus-based faculty exchange experiences will provide faculty participants an opportunity to get to know colleagues and students at other 1890 and 1862 campuses and to experience teaching, research, and service efforts at different 1890/1862 institutions. The university exchange experiences will provide the opportunity for participating faculty to enrich their program curriculum designed to draw on expertise from other partnering university faculty campus resources.National LCT Conference: Project investigators, project coordinator, curriculum development trainer, and faculty cohorts will also plan and coordinate a National Conference on Learner-Centered Teaching.Each faculty cohort will formally recruit a faculty colleague from their institution in agricultural science, education, or related programs. This national faculty development conference will offer extensive approaches and hands-on sessions on LCT (allowing 1890 and 1862 faculty and Extension specialists to network and share knowledge in discipline areas and courses) and provide a forum for innovation of teaching materials to develop active learners in the food and agricultural sciences.Develop learner-centered teaching knowledge and skills for in-service teachers and community-based educators through professional development (Summer Teacher Institute and short-course seminars): The Project investigators, project coordinator, curriculum development trainer (along with expert presenters) will plan and implement a four-day LCT Summer Teacher Institute and exchange experience to develop learner-centered teaching knowledge and skills for teachers (K-12) and community-based educators. Teachers will learn LCT and cultural engagement approaches and develop class lessons and hands-on activities that incorporate the essential elements of LCT concepts and strategies. Thus, lesson-preparations will include: teachers exchanging classroom resources and successes, working in cohorts/ collaborative cooperative groups to develop learning modules (using Ag resources): Ag in the classroom resources, Farm to School, etc.) or lesson plan/units, and mini hands-on field trip experiences that will lead to "active learning" in their (traditional) classrooms. Lesson plans will include, but not limited to: (a) Rationale, an explanation of why each lesson is included; (b) Goals, the kinds of abilities the student should develop; (c) Objectives, specifications of the activities the students can probably accomplish upon completion of the lesson; (d) Classroom Procedures, a detailed plan for conducting each lesson; (e) Scripts, dialogues for encouraging independent thinking in students; and (f) Documentation for managing cooperative learning units. Additionally, teacher (participants) will have the opportunity to develop instruments that seek to evaluate learning outcomes for their lesson plans/units. Other key teacher institute components will include a focus on culturally responsive pedagogy.As a result of the Teacher Institute professional training, the proposed project will reach an estimated 1,200 students from urban Tulsa public and charter schools. This demographic school areas are selected based on their geographic location in the North Tulsa and metro area, have a 90% or higher free or reduced lunch status, and serve predominately African American and Hispanic students. The students who attend these schools come from homes with pervasive poverty and low-income, currently reside in food deserts, and have limited access to educational resources.Online professional development course for teachers An online course will be developed to continue and enhance the teachers' professional development experience (from the teacher institute) for successful implementation of "Learner-Centered Approaches to Teaching." The project PIs and project coordinator and curriculum development trainer will develop a one credit-hour (undergraduate and graduate-level) web-basedcourse for 24 participating teachers (Year 1 and 2) in the Tulsa area. The online teacher professional development course (referred to as Learner-Centered Approaches to Teaching) will serve as an LCT tutorial and a resource for online communication and assessment on how to re-designtheir classrooms to reflect learner-centered approaches, LCT resources, and to share successes with teacher colleagues. Seminar resources will be posted on the course website and used as classroom instructional development tools. The online course willbe linked to a Learner-Centered Teaching website which will serve as an on-line evaluation vehicle for analyzing new class lesson plans/syllabi, student achievement and motivation, and monitoring teacher's progress for the duration of the project. The online courses will also feature a video-streaming communication tool to help teachers to network with faculty from 1890 and 1862 institutions that are LCT experts and mentors associated the Learner-Centered Teaching modules.Expand and redesign online professional development including asynchronous LCT Modules and synchronous webinars to include high touch simulated experiences in: (a) learner-centered teaching, (b) culturally engagement strategies, (c) inclusive and intentional mentoring, and (d) University campus-based faculty exchange experiences: Online learning modules will be developed to help faculty, teachers, extension educators to LCT culturally relevant engagement strategies, learn land-grant principles of community-based education, and learner-centered teaching strategies. The learning modules will help engage project participants to examine best practices that are grounded on culturally responsive and constructivist learning theories using video case studies. The modules will also guide participants on how to create engaging students in grounded in best LCT practices of informal, and formal educational contexts. Moreover, the modules will facilitate the development of lessons using the backward design process and community-based, culturally responsive strategies that promote engagement in field-based, Extension and K-12 and higher education settings through learner-centered teaching approaches.