Elizabeth Barkley: From catastrophe to celebration - an analysis of a curricular transformation
This is a compelling case of an improvement in educational performance, that I would like to nominate it as an example of best practice; it is a general education music course in a community college in Foothill College, Los Altos, California which was heading for disaster back in the mid 1990s. The course was seeing a progressive reduction in admissions which alarmed and discouraged the teaching staff.
This is a compelling case of an improvement in educational performance, that I would like to nominate it as an example of best practice; it is a general education music course in a community college in Foothill College, Los Altos, California which was heading for disaster back in the mid 1990s. The course was seeing a progressive reduction in admissions which alarmed and discouraged the teaching staff.
The professor, Elizabeth Barkley set about a fundamental redesign of everything about the course; content, design, delivery, assessment and so on. Over a 6 year period, the changes that were introduced transformed participation levels; from a low point of around 45 enrollments per year registration levels increased by 1638% - from 45 enrollments to 782. Assessment of the extent to which deep learning is being achieved was also very positive. Word of mouth from happy students has contributed to the popularity of the course with new student enrollments, the course becoming one of the most popular on the campus.
I have identified best practice examples using several of the characteristics of excellent teaching from NTFS, referenced by Goodyear et al (2001).
Innovation in Design and Delivery
The new course makes a priority of student engagement with the material. This was done by looking at the learning outcomes that an adult education general music course should achieve, and then linking that back to music genres that would engage the interest to the students. The solution was to focus on the music the five major ethnic groups resident in the USA. The tradition approach in music education of focusing on largely European, classical repertoire was abandoned.
Innovation in Design and Delivery
The new course makes a priority of student engagement with the material. This was done by looking at the learning outcomes that an adult education general music course should achieve, and then linking that back to music genres that would engage the interest to the students. The solution was to focus on the music the five major ethnic groups resident in the USA. The tradition approach in music education of focusing on largely European, classical repertoire was abandoned.
Ability to organise and present material
Students allowed to choose f2f, electronic, or combinations of both for learning. There was immense flexibility in the combinations that students could choose.
Ability to stimulate independent learing and critical thought
Students are encouraged to take ownership of the creation of their own programme of music learning, taking advantage of the modular approach to delivering the curriculum.
Effective and Sympathetic Guidance of Advancement
The aim was for Authentic Assessment using what Barkley calls backward design. This identifies the deep learning outcomes that are required, and then positions a range of activities through which students can achieve this deep learning, and also demonstrate that they have done so for assessment purposes.
Recognised Commitment to Scholarship
The theoretical underpinning of the new course is documented, and a second e-portfolio continues to analyse the development of scholarly thinking around this innovative new course. Students are encouraged to participate in the compilation of this review portfolio.
Finally, I found the the format and presentation of this portfolio most inspiring, and it has given me many ideas about how to create my own e-portfolio. A combination of video, audio, photographs and graphics surround the text based artefacts most tastefully.
Madeleine
References
Capturing Change A Tale of Two Portfolios
Capturing Change A Tale of Two Portfolios
Elizabeth Barkley
Goodyear, P., Salmon, G., Spector, J.M., Steeples, C., Tickner, S., (2001) Competences for Online Teaching: A Special Report, ETR&D, Vol 49. No 1. 2001. pp65-72 ISSN 1042-1629
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