SAGE ON THE STAGE OR GUIDE ON THE SIDE: AN OUTCOME‐BASED APPROACH TO THE PREPARATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE VOCATIONAL‐TECHNICAL FACULTY FOR THE 1990S AND BEYOND

Abstract

By the year 2005, 40% of Iowa's community college vocational‐technical (vo‐tech) faculty will retire. New faculty will have to teach in an environment where curriculum is outcome based; workplace basics and learning to learn will be integrated into each and every learning experience; teaching and learning is a process, not a method; collaborative learning will be a reality; and the evaluation of the learning‐reaching process will be synonymous with classroom research. Then, and only then, will the community college classroom be able to maximize the effectiveness of faculty and the potential, retention, and success of a very diverse student population. In 1992, eight Iowa community colleges in cooperation with Iowa State University “broke the mold” and implemented the Community College Induction Mentoring (CCIM) Program. CCIM is based on 43 teacher behaviors and validated by 66 Iowa community college supervisors and 177 teachers. New faculty attend over a 2‐year period 14 workshops conducted and guided by a university faculty member. Each participant collaborates with his or her local mentor. Each mentor attends an 8‐hour mentor‐training workshop in preparation for his or her role. Between each workshop, participants contextually implement the skills learned and document classroom research results by collecting feedback from students, self, and mentor, which in turn is shared at the following workshop. Data collected from students indicate that students consistently rated CCIM participants significantly higher than other instructors in 15 of the 18 survey items. Recently, CCIM received the National University Continuing Education Association 1994 innovation in Continuing Education Award.