I drove home from the Valencia
Osceola Campus Tuesday night in a state of near euphoria. I teach one class as
an adjunct there after my office hours for UCF. I had just finished our third
Ethics and Critical Thinking class meeting with my Valencia students.
It was absolutely
inspiring. As I plowed through a
terrific storm along the Turnpike headed back to Orlando, I wondered what it is
about this experience that I love so much.
Great Questions
The class had been an
energized, intense 3 hours. We had ended the night with an exercise involving a
professor’s ethical dilemma. It featured a student trying to maintain her GPA
to get into law school who misses a deadline on a final paper and asks for an
extension. She claimed she was unavoidably taken out of town to attend the funeral
of a dear aunt. She also argued that she needed an A in the class to keep her
GPA high enough to get into law school.
As I told my students last
night, in my experience this is hardly a hypothetical.
The students were required
to individually assess the dilemma and write their own evaluation of it. Then
as groups they were required to come to consensus as to what the professor
should do and report back to the class as a whole. The discussion was
impassioned and well considered. A lot of possible considerations were raised:
- Should everyone have the opportunity for extra credit?
- What about the students who worked hard to attain their A without extra credit? What does a grade mean in the light of the extra credit when many people could make an A?
- How do we know the student is being truthful about why she missed the deadline? Should we require proof?
- Did the student have any obligations to contact the professor before missing the deadline and not two days later?
- What kind of precedent does this set for the professor’s classes?
- What kind of pattern might this reinforce in the student?
These are excellent questions. They are the kind
of questions students and faculty alike should consider in such situations. But
what was more important about this is that the students themselves came up with
them. They did not sit blankly staring at a screen waiting for the teacher to
give them “the answer” while glancing at the clock. They generated them in
group discussions and passionately debated them. They were engaged. Indeed,
they were alive. It was magical.
This is actual learning at work.
But it’s more than just
that. By the end of the night, I felt my hard work in planning this class had
paid off, my efforts in executing it had been rewarded, my investment had been appreciated
by my students, my role as their teacher respected. Not only was this learning
at work, this was also actual teaching at work.
As I thought about my
experience at Valencia, I asked myself what seems like some obvious questions: What is it about my experience at Valencia
that is so different from my experience at the university? Why do I enjoy the
former so readily and struggle to deal with the latter? What could the latter
learn from the former about higher education?
There is a History
Before addressing those
questions, I think intellectual honesty requires noting the contextual
differences of my engagement of these two institutions.
While I have been at the
university for 12 years now, I have a history at Valencia-Osceola that precedes
my time there. I spent five years at Valencia-Osceola right out of my doctoral
program in Tallahassee and left there to go to UCF. It was a difficult decision
to leave and one I have occasionally second guessed since then. In retrospect I
think it’s clear that my opportunities were greater by coming to the university
as I had thought and I believe I am a far better teacher as a result. On the
other hand, I never completely let go of my ties to Osceola and was welcomed
back like the Prodigal Son when I returned to adjunct there a couple of years
ago. For that I am immensely grateful.
I also must note that I am
not full-time at Valencia. My salary and my health insurance do not depend upon
my adjunct work there. For at least the time being, I am not a Freeway Flier. I
do not have to attend the endless meetings that I remember from my experience
there. I am only minimally impacted by the assessment procedures that are the
obsession of many public education administrators and politicians today. I come
to the college one night a week, visit my old buddies, check in with my
department, spend some time with students before and after class (they actually
can come to my university office hours on that campus prior to class), teach my
class and go home.
No muss, no fuss.
Institutional Cultures
But there are some
institutional cultural differences that are markedly in contrast between these
two institutions which I believe explain much. The Valencia campus where I
teach is still relatively small. It’s 11,000 students (out of 43,000 total on
five campuses) pale in comparison to the 62,000 at the university. Its campus,
confined to four good sized structures, a bell tower and a lake, could easily fit
into one small corner of the university’s sprawling campus.
Valencia-Osceola
lies on busy US 192 between what were once two sleepy citrus and cattle towns
which long ago were swallowed up by suburban sprawl and mass migration from Latin
America. But the campus retains its small town ethos.
Size makes a major
difference in an institution’s self-understanding and interaction between its
members. Contrary to the credo of the university, bigger is NOT always better. As size increases, tendencies toward impersonal
relations, competitiveness and alienation increase correspondingly. It’s very easy
to get lost in the shuffle of what is essentially a medium sized city.
Unlike the veritable black
hole of bureaucracy students and staff must negotiate at the university, on a
small campus like Valencia-Osceola it’s easy for all members of the community to
know where to go and who you need to see. It is also helpful that Osceola consciously
fosters an atmosphere of concern and cooperation that begins with students and extends
to members of the staff as well. Much like its large Latin population, Osceola
sometimes seems like an extended family.
Small classes make it easy for
students to actually get to know those with whom they attend classes and those who
teach them at the college. One of the most heartwarming aspects of teaching at
Valencia is watching the students leaving the night of the final, saying
goodbye to each other and scribbling email addresses and telephone numbers for classmates
with whom they wish to keep in touch. Community seems to spontaneously
generate itself in these small classes on this small campus, no small irony
given the fact it is completely non-residential.
Valencia intentionally caps
most courses at 25 and its writing courses at 20. It is actually possible to
get to know one’s students in small classes and for them to get to know each
other. It is possible to hold thoughtful discussions and not lose the back half
of a large classroom (or an auditorium) to social media. While Valencia does
offer online sections of many courses, most classes are held face-to-face with
the presumption that students need the personal attention to thrive. From my
experience, that’s pretty much on target for most students.
Perhaps more importantly, because
of the limited class sizes it is actually possible for instructors to read what
students write in such courses and offer feedback that is worth considering. That’s
particularly important given the writing deficiencies many of these students
begin with (many of them writing in a second language). It’s also a way to
offer insights to students who may not be able to come to office hours because
of work and family obligations.
Because the classes are
small enough to get to know your students, it is also possible for instructors
to tailor their courses in ethics so that they might actually serve their students’
hoped-for careers in nursing, law, business, architecture and make those
connections in class discussions, feedback and one-on-one talks with students.
In short, it is possible in intentionally limited enrollment classes for
teachers to actually teach (not merely present information) and for students to
actually learn (not merely regurgitate it upon demand).
That is hardly an accident.
Valencia sees its mission as
being a place for excellent teaching and learning and it has the awards to show
for it. While teaching and learning is obviously somewhere on the list of priorities
at an ambitious corporate university intent on insuring its “brand” is well
known, it is the primary focus of Valencia. Perhaps that is why a person like
me, who defines myself as a teacher and values my role as mentor to my students
and public scholar to the community at large, finds the institutional culture
at the college a breath of fresh air and struggles to keep my head above water
at the university.
But it is not only me for
whom this difference in institutional culture matters
What always strikes me when
I come through the faculty offices to say hello to my old buddies or to make my copies in the
departmental offices before class is how friendly and helpful people are. The
first time I heard “How can I help you?” at the college, I honestly didn’t
remember how to respond. I rarely hear that at the megauniversity where “You’re
on your own” is the operating presumption.
But this was not simply
opening night party manners. The willingness to assist faculty in their work is
a consistent mark of the institutional culture at this college on a mission. That
collaborative spirit is generally reflected in congenial relationships among
the faculty there.
Suffice it to say, it is a
very, very different reality at the university.
[Continued]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., M.Div. Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar
(inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church
(Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Religion and
Cultural Studies,
Osceola Campus, University
of Central Florida, Kissimmee
Adjunct Instructor: Valencia
College-Osceola
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an
unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production
in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
