Tech Prep Postsecondary Grant Facilitates Integration

• Critical Thinking Skills
  
• Oral and Written Communication
  
• Mathematical Reasoning
  
• Maintaining Mental, Physical, and Emotional Wellness
  
• Ethical Awareness
  
• Being Responsible Members of Local, National, and Global Communities
  
• Aesthetic Awareness
  
• Workplace Readiness Skills

Faculty Collaboration Begins

Academic and career faculty identified areas in their classes where they believed assistance from a colleague in another area would be beneficial. Through the Office for Instruction using funds from Education-to-Careers and Tech Prep, the Associate Dean for Business and Industry and the Associate Dean for Allied Health coordinated the solicitation of proposals from faculty that included goals, objectives, activities, a timetable, and assessment procedures. Faculty submitted proposals that were then matched with appropriate colleagues from academic or career areas. Each faculty member received a stipend for his/her work, and the resulting materials were taught and assessed. The categories for integration also included partnerships with business, infusing work-based readiness components into academic or career courses, or developing an integrated career course that includes one career and one academic instructor.

The majority of the projects continue to be used in total or to a great extent. The responses of colleagues who had never worked with others outside their discipline, and the responses of students who made new connections with the course content in the integrated classes, have been most significant.

Integrated Projects at John A. Logan

Art in the Workplace. What do art and business have in common? Plenty, according to Renee Mavigliano, art, and Linda Taylor, business, who developed a unit for a humanities class that looked at architecture in the workplace. Students also created a quilt to illustrate the power of teamwork, different working styles, and meeting responsibilities, and they viewed and discussed paintings that showed work. According to Mavigliano, students seemed genuinely interested in the topic and liked the practical application of the arts. She plans to use the teamwork project in art appreciation.

Math for Nurses. Nursing instructor Joyce Steber and math instructor Roberta Brown created a series of math modules for pediatric nursing. Its success in the pilot project led to its continuation as part of the course. According to Steber, students initially resisted the modules, but the end result continues to be "light bulbs" flashing as the students better understand and grasp key mathematical concepts related to pediatrics and medication administration.

Technical Reading. Jon Rivers, computer integrated manufacturing, helped Kathleen Carl, English, integrate technical reading material into a developmental reading class. The course includes application of reading techniques to a variety of materials, but few of the sample readings used technical reading material as practice exercises, despite the significant enrollment of career students. Selections were added from autobody, auto mechanics, computer-integrated manufacturing, drafting, electronics, heating and air conditioning, and industrial maintenance. Carl stated that Rivers helped her locate course readings in technical and professional journals that she could not have known about otherwise.

Business Case Studies. Business instructors Cheryl Bernhardt and Shayne Crawshaw learned that a variety of skills could be taught using case studies. With the assistance of Kathleen Carl, textbook case studies were used to simulate the decision-making process using reading and writing skills and to infuse humanities concepts. Bernhardt and Crawshaw challenged students to develop deeper levels of critical thinking skills, examine cultural values that affect business decision making, and explore the ethical dimensions of the case studies. Although the textbook for the course has changed since the original project was completed, the instructors have continued to integrate the humanities concepts with some modifications to the new text.

Infusing Cyberspace into the Medical Office. Phyllis Jackson, business, and Beverly McCabe, English, taught students how to access and present material available on the Internet and how to collect information and make critical decisions. Jackson continues to use basic elements of this project in her medical office procedure classes. She noted, however, that in the two years since this project was implemented, students now enter the course much more familiar with the Internet and e-mail procedures. Students no longer need the detailed task sheets developed for the project but continue to need assistance to evaluate and report information found on the Internet.

Law Enforcement and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Issues. Rick Ellet, criminal justice, and Paul Menkis, interpreter preparation, developed a course in community policing/interpersonal relations. This project addressed issues within the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and hearing loss and communication needs as related to the criminal justice system. The module examined both educational needs for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community about law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies and training needs for law enforcement personnel on dealing with deaf and hard-of-hearing issues. Specific topics included traffic incidents, individual rights, witnesses, access to the criminal justice system, and domestic violence.