Discriminate learning needs
The major challenge that most people face in my school as an organization is the lack of an ideal academic course tailored to students’ careers. It is the desire of every student to undergo a comfortable experience while at college. Students see community colleges as a stepping block that will instill in them excellent decision-making skills when venturing into higher education levels. However, that is not the case for many students who pass through the community colleges. Many point out at the colleges as lacking the necessary means to guide students to make decisions regarding what they want to study. Likewise, students are kept in the dark regarding the different courses they are taking. For instance, a student might not be aware of the other requirements needed to undertake the study, exam periods, and various seminars touching on the course. The poor manner in which community colleges offer their courses makes it hard for students to attain their academic aspirations as far as choosing and graduating in a particular discipline is concerned.
I perceive the future of college education as one which will solve the current problem by making students more involved and aware of their courses. Providing students with more information on institutions’ courses and offering effective guidance will be the right step to take. The measure will ensure that students’ experience at community colleges is enhanced and that they are more educated about their decision-making. Therefore, it is necessary that community colleges abandon the developmental courses and adopt the guided pathways model.
The guided pathways approach seeks to better every aspect of student life while at community colleges. It allows students to be well informed of the choices they are making before selecting, and while learning a particular program (Jenkins et al. 2017). The guided pathways will also allow students to channel their efforts towards graduating and moving to other colleges for further studies. The guided pathways enlighten students of the means to attain their objectives. The criteria involve providing students with adequate information such as website maps showing the necessary steps to follow and graduate when taking particular courses. For instance, the model informs students how long the particular program will take and fields to be employed after completion. The guided pathways model also helps students select the program they want to pursue. It allows community colleges to display their courses and allow students to evaluate courses that satisfy their desires. Access to career maps will enable students to select courses that align with their professional interests. Likewise, the guided pathways model relies on academic counselors that are supposed to review student’s behaviors. The use of counselors will ensure that students are routinely checked on to determine whether they are on the right track to attain their goals. The criteria allow corrective measures to be taken in case one deviates from his or her path. Also, the guided pathways system will see that students find interest in learning teaching them of the specific requirements needed for their courses instead of exposing them to excess information that is not helpful from other professions.
My community college must do away with the development courses and adopt the guided pathways approach to meet its students’ future academic needs. Implementing the guided pathways policies demand that the college develop a practical model that will identify the various challenges it faces and formulate a good design to solve the issue. The Pebble-in-the-Pond model emerges to be the ideal design for the organization to implement the guided pathways learning approach.
Policymakers must carry out a useful analysis of the problem at hand and identify how to solve it. The pebble-in-the-pond model has its analysis part made up of three aspects: identification of the problem, analysis, and strategy formulation (Merrill, 2015). In this particular case, development courses have been highlighted as the critical problem hence the need to do away with them. Further analysis should be conducted to determine the extent and nature of the problem. Analysis of the problem will then inform the college stakeholders of the need to pursue the guided pathways approaches. The strategy will also dictate the different means that the college can take to ensure that the guided pathways approach has fully been implemented in the institution.
The next process of the pebble-in-the-pond approach is the designing phase. At this stage, the college will consider the resources required for the guided pathways system. For instance, the college will consider new website designs to include communications that allow students to find information about their courses. The designing phase will also require that the institution determine the positions of counselors who will be required to monitor students’ performance and offer help when they are stranded in making decisions about their courses.
The last process of the pebble-in-the-pond model is the development, implementation, and evaluation stages. In this part, the college will do away with the development courses and introduce the guided pathways mode of learning. The different resources required for the functioning of the guided pathways will be acquired and put into use. The college’s website will be changed to make it easy for students to go through and find many details regarding their courses. Resources such as counselors’ offices and venues for holding discussions on course guidance will be set up. The college will also put in place periodical evaluation standards that will allow it to review the college’s performance when it comes to improving student’s life under the guided pathways model. The evaluation will help the college determine different weaknesses in its model and take corrective measures to solve them.
Different factors influenced my decision to investigate the problem of development courses at community colleges. Political factors are one such reason. Recently, other states and institutions have taken measures to do away with development courses at community colleges. There have been claims that community colleges are dominated by people of color hence the low quality of academic standards. The perception that the move might have been politically driven across different states made me carry out a precise analysis of the problem to get first-hand information. Likewise, my analysis of the problem was guided by the ethical debate surrounding the quality of education that students from low backgrounds receive from community colleges (Peske & Haycock, 2006). It is claimed that a lot of students do not find any value in attending community colleges as they portray the institutions as lacking better ways to prepare students for their future life. Thus, the debate contributes to an ethical understanding of the issue by seeking answers on why students are exposed to a system that does not offer them the relevant skills as expected. The desire to determine whether development courses offered at community colleges are not effective thus pushed me to investigate the problem.
References
Jenkins, P. D., Lahr, H. E., & Fink, J. (2017). Implementing guided pathways: Early insights from the AACC pathways colleges.
Merrill, M. D. (2015). A pebble-in-the-pond model for instructional design. Performance Improvement, 54(1), 42-48.
Peske, H. G., & Haycock, K. (2006). Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students Are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality: A Report and Recommendations by the Education Trust. Education Trust.