1

What does it mean to be

educated in the 21st century?

The Community

College Conversation

May 19-20, 2005

Mesa Community College

Mesa, AZ

Principal Investigator:

Gail Mee, VP for Academic Affairs

Co-Principal Investigator:

Liz Dorland, Chemistry Faculty

MCC: Five intended outcomes

• Generate new thinking from diverseconstituencies about “what it means to beeducated in the 21st century”

• Formulate new ideas about implications forcommunity colleges and STEM education

• Generate recommendations to inform futurefunding priority discussions at NSF

• Prepare a document of findings fordissemination to NSF and the community

• Be the voice for community colleges in thisseries of national conversations.

2

Program Structure

Thursday, May 18

– Morning session: Question Set 1

• Speaker: Clara Lovett

– Afternoon session: Question Set 2

• Speaker: Debra Humphrys

– Dinner session

Friday, May 19

– Morning session: Question Set 3

• Speaker: Mel George

MCC: Three themes

for Question Sets

Moving from general to specific:

• Global and social context and issues that

will influence and impact higher education

• Characteristics and expectations of

students in the 21st century, particularly

community college students

• Future of science, technology, engineering

and mathematics education in the

community college

3

Round

Table

Discussions

Major Themes

That Emerged

1. Systemic Change

2. Organizational Structures

3. Integration of Content and Soft Skills

4. Assessment of Student Learning

5. Student Expectations

4

Recommendations to NSF

• Funding: long-term infusion and commitment

• NSF Conversations at local/regional levels

• Increase funding for integration betweenresearch and practice

• Increase relationships between the researchand teaching communities

• Renew funding for Distinguished TeachingScholars (DTS) and other such programs

• Invest in proven practices

5

NSF: Provide funding to/for...• Assessment tools/methods

• Integrate STEM with other disciplines and applied

STEM community

• Strengthen connections/communication between CC

faculty and NSF

• Improve STEM gateway courses

• Improve/develop teacher education and preparation

programs

• Multi/interdisciplinary curricula & approaches

• Address developmental needs and mentoring for

students and teachers

6

Recommendations for Action

• Communicate ideas to policymakers/leaders

• Communicate/collaborate online

• Continue conversations at local, state,regional, and national levels

• Collaborate with K-12 and university partners

• Ask congress to support the NSF budget

• Local and individual action: support reformefforts at home

• Disseminate report: American Association ofCommunity Colleges (AACC)

7

MCC Planning Team

• Peter Brown

Biology Faculty

• Niccole CervenyGeography Faculty

• Madeleine Chowdhury*Math Faculty andFaculty Developer

• Mangala JoshuaPhysics Faculty

• Shereen LernerAnthropology Faculty

• Jonelle Moore

English Faculty

• David Nachman*Chemistry Faculty

• Ly Tran-NguyenPsychology Faculty

• Naomi Story*, FacultyDirector, Center forTeaching and Learning

• Carol Achs, Dean ofMath, Science andPhysical Education

• Andrea Greene*, Deanof Institutional Researchand Planning