Syllabus for “Coaching at a Learning-to-Learn Camp”
Course number: Coaching and Mentoring at a Learning-to-Learn Camp
Credits: 2 credits (Graduate or Undergraduate)
Dates andLocations: / at various times during the year (primarily during the summer months)
refer to the Pacific Crest “Schedule of Events” document or
the Pacific Crest web site at www.pcrest.com
Completion of
required work: / five months from date of the institute
Instructor: Dr. Daniel K. Apple
President – Pacific Crest
Office Location: 875 NW Grant. St
Corvallis OR 97330
(541) 754-1067
Email address:
Phone number (603) 926-2986
Fax number: (603) 926-2986
Contact Hours: leave a voice mail message – I will contact you within 48 hours
Educational Philosophy: see www.pcrest.com – explore Process Education philosophy and bio-sketch
Course Description
Learning-to-learn camps integrate two key processes, learning how to learn and mentoring. The success of a camp is dependent upon a strong facilitation team that includes a lead facilitator and a team of coaches who serve as mentors, challenging and inspiring students to grow and develop skills essential for success in college and beyond. Through a rigorous and diverse set of camp activities, coaches learn strategies, techniques, and processes to help students develop cognitive, social, affective, and academic skills. What is learned about teaching/learning processes at a camp is can be applied to classroom situations with students.
Coaches/mentors become part of a learning community environment that helps students to build relationships, gain a sense of “belonging” and improve their ability to perform in the classroom. They work with students to facilitate the process of developing learner ownership, self-esteem, and empowerment. By creating situations whereby students experience both successes and failures during the week, coaches are able to witness students gaining confidence in their abilities to perform in areas such as writing, time management, problem identification, listening, adapting to change, personal reflection, coping, teamwork, and articulating an idea.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
1. Engage in and practice learning strategies that support and promote personal growth in students.
2. Improve the facilitation skills in active, student-centered learning environments.
3. Improve and develop mentoring skills including peer coaching.
4. Develop respect, rapport, and networking among and between faculty and staff.
Required Work Products and their Associated Performance Criteria
1. Produce or build a learning journal and an assessment journal during the camp. Your journals, due by noon of the last day of the camp, should include the following:
a. key personal goals and associated outcomes,
b. self-assessments for each activity you facilitate with students,
c. ten documented techniques for teaching and learning,
d. five documented techniques for assessment, and
e. ten inquiry questions for mentoring the growth of students.
The quality of your journals will be based on the following factors:
· thoughtfulness, / · documentation of accomplishments, and· completeness, / · personal performance evidence.
· amount of supporting material,
2. Develop a personal implementation plan which details the changes you plan to make during the current or subsequent semester/term. Your plan, due by noon of the last day of the camp, should include a one-page paper for each of the following:
a. three new ideas for mentoring,
b. three new teaching tools or techniques, and
c. three new assessment tools or techniques.
Note: each one-page paper should address the following questions pertaining to the tools and techniques you choose: What is it? How do you plan to implement it? What value will it have? How will you measure the value you derive from it?
The quality of your plan will be based on the following factors:
· level of critical thought,
· strength of connectivity between changes,
· strength of measures chosen,
· use of terms and language to bring precise meaning, and
· how well you address a current problem(s) with your changes.
3. Produce an assessment report that measures your performance at implementing change. Your report, due within five months of the completion of the institute, should include the following:
a. the five greatest strengths that resulted from your changes along with an analysis as to why the changes worked,
b. the five most important improvements that you will make the next semester or term and how these changes will produce the outcomes you want, and
c. five insights about making changes that will help you better understand how to increase the rate in which you make meaningful changes in educational processes.
The quality of your assessment report will be based on the following factors:
· honesty,
· level of critical thought (especially in analysis of skills),
· effectiveness in measuring value from your changes,
· teaching tips produced from your insights, and
· the effective use of supporting evidence.
Extra Project for Graduate Credit
Due within five months of the completion of the institute.
4. Provide peer coaching or peer mentoring to a colleague to help him or her effectively implement change through the use of a new tool or technique (learning, teaching, assessment, and/or curriculum design). Document the tool(s) or technique(s) used and produce assessment reports that provide feedback and data to your colleague about his or her performance over time.
a. Identify, describe, and answer the following questions pertaining to the new tool(s) or technique(s) being used. In a one-page paper, answer the following questions: What is it (the tool or technique)? How do you implement it (in the given context)? What value will it have? How will you be able to measure this value?
b. Produce three peer assessment reports taken over a period of time. The reports should (1) document and measure performance (using the tool or technique), (2) provide strengths about the performance, (3) provide areas for improvement with suggestions for improving effectiveness, and (4) include insights made or gained from the unique vantage point of a peer coaching.
The quality of your peer coaching/mentoring will be based on the following factors:
· effectiveness of your mentoring,
/· documentation of accomplishments, and
· follow through over time,
/· quality evidence of (personal) performance
· thoughtfulness of your feedback,
/Reasons for this Course
A learning-to-learn camp environment fosters the growth of skills for both students and coaches.
Camps provide a quality learning community in which bonds are built among and between students, mentors/coaches (faculty and staff), and facilitators. They provide a model for a quality freshman foundations course, addressing issues related to retention, student readiness, and academic performance. They also serve as model for learner empowerment and growth that can be replicated in many contexts throughout the institution.
Camp Content and Activities
Successful completion of the learning to learn camp requires students to submit various forms of work products which can be integrated into a portfolio. For most students, this portfolio will contain more than 100 pages of writing. In general, work products will include academic activities, entries in from a learning assessment journal, documentation of math and problem solving skills, a self-assessment or self-growth paper, and a life vision analysis.
Coaches will be involved in the delivery and facilitation of various classroom-oriented activities. These include:
Campus related: / Student related:Building a Learning Community / Educational Goals and Objectives
Exploring Your Campus / Time Management
Introduction to the Library
/ Coping SkillsGeneral Education Requirements / Becoming a Self-Grower
The Student Handbook / Personality Styles
Technology related: / Learning and practicing methodologies:
Introduction to the World Wide Web / Learning Process
Assessing the Quality of Internet Information / Reading
Writing
Using E-mail / Problem Solving
Communication
Personal Development
In addition, coaches will be involved in the several general camp activities. These include a writing contest, a talent show, a speech contest, an art contest, a problem solving contest and game playing. Note that on the final evening of the learning to learn camp, a banquet is held to honor the camp participants. Students are encouraged to invite their family to attend the banquet. Certificates will be awarded along with prizes to acknowledge learners who perform to a certain standard of excellence. In addition, special awards in different contexts will be handed out.
Sample Agenda
Evaluation System
1. Learning journal and Learning assessment journal 40% (see Performance Criteria)
2. Implementation plan 30% (see Performance Criteria)
3. Assessment report (at implementing changes) 30% (see Performance Criteria)
4. For Graduate credit: Peer mentoring 30% (see Performance Criteria)
In this case, the Learning journal and Learning assessment journal are 30%, the implementation plan is 20%, and the assessment report is 20%.
Assessment System
Assessment feedback will be provided according to the following:
1. An assessment of your implementation plan on the evening of the second day;
2. Five assessments of your “learning assessment journal,” assessing your educational philosophy, two of your self-assessments, and two of your discoveries;
3. An assessment of your performance during one activity;
4. Assessment feedback at the mid-point of the institute; fill-out or complete the mid-term assessment and I will assess your self-assessment.
Resources and Materials
Supplied Materials:
Foundations of Learning, by Krumsieg, Karl and Marie Baehr, 2000. Pacific Crest, Corvallis, OR.
Foundations of Learning Activities Book, by Krumsieg, Karl and Marie Baehr, 2000. Pacific Crest, Corvallis, OR.
Learning Assessment Journal. 4th Edition. Daniel Apple, 2000. Pacific Crest, Corvallis, OR.
Math and Graphing Skills, Apple, Casler, Krumsieg, and Lawrence, 1999. Pacific Crest, Corvallis, OR.
Additional readings:
Process Education Teaching Institute Handbook. by Apple, Daniel K. and Karl Krumsieg. 2001. Pacific Crest, Corvallis, OR.
A Handbook on Cooperative Learning. 3rd Edition Daniel K. Apple, Wendy Duncan-Hewitt,
Karl Krumsieg, and David L. Mount. Pacific Crest. Corvallis, OR.
Classroom Assessment Techniques, A Handbook for College Teachers, by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross. 1993 Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco.
Effective Grading, A Tool for Learning and Assessment. Barbara E. Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson. 1998. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco.
Emotional Intelligence. Daniel Goleman. 1995. Bantam Books.
An American Imperative, Higher Expectations for Higher Education. 1993. The Johnson Foundation. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 93-061441.
Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Learning a Living: A Blueprint for High Performance. U.S. Department of Labor. Washington, D.C., April 1992.
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, by a committee of college and university examiners. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. Benjamin S. Bloom and David R. Krathwohl. 1956. New York: Longmans, Green
Policies and Procedures
1. Registration for course credit must be done two weeks prior to the start of the camp.
2. A prerequisite for being a coach is completion of a Pacific Crest Teaching Institute.
3. You must be a positive contributor to the community of learners .
4. Full participation is required. This includes participating in both classroom activities and general camp activities.
5. Your work products must meet the level of quality as described in the Performance Criteria section.
6. Your work products must be completed within the time frame identified. The camp journal and implementation plan must be completed by the noon of the final day of the camp. The assessment report must be completed within five months of the institute (as well as the peer coaching write-up required for graduate credit).
Faculty/Facilitator Responsibilities
From the old TI syllabus:
During the camp, the facilitator/instructor will provide guidance and mentoring to each coach with respect to improving a set of selected learning skills, and use of educational techniques and tools. The instructor will provide in-depth consulting on ten inquiry questions during breaks, evenings, and with email. The assessments made will model the high quality of performance desired by students. The instructor will provide help in locating additional resources as needed by the participant. Should a participant wish to see a technique “in action,” the instructor will make every effort model it.
From the LLC brochure:
Responsible for the overall flow of the camp.
Determine the schedule and sequencing of activities.
Facilitate an activity from the course content of the camp.
Support coaches with their mentoring of students.
Provide assessment feedback to the coaches and assistant coaches.
Oversee the peer coaching system; coach the peer coaches.
Responsible for the scoring and award system.
Performance Criteria for Facilitator/Instructor
The facilitator will:
1. perform every technique or tool asked (with prior notice),
2. assess personal performance and individual work products,
3. provide quality consulting with respect to issues and/or current problems,
4. mentor on specific learning skills defined at the beginning of the institute, and
5. provide quality evaluation of performance to model the evaluation process.
Student Responsibilities
From the old TI syllabus:
1. Illustrate professionalism as an educator.
2. Constantly strive to improve personal performance.
3. Provide strong effort in self-assessment.
4. Provide full effort in preparation, performance during the institute, managing the implementation plan, and assessment of effort.
5. Emotionally engage in the challenge of personal growth and make the necessary effort for continuous quality change in personal performance.
From the LLC brochure:
Coach
Responsible for the overall performance and experience of his or her learning community.
Manage and support the assistant coaches with their teams of students.
Provide assessment feedback to grow the performance of the assistant coaches and students within his or her learning community.
Peer coach a colleague’s facilitation of an activity at least once during the camp.
Facilitate an activity from the course content of the camp.
Responsible for a review project or organizing one of the general camp activities (see previous section for a listing).
Assistant coach
Responsible for the overall performance and experience of his or her learning team.
Motivate, counsel, and provide quality feedback to help grow the performance of his or her learning team and learning community.