The Faculty Inquiry Network
Basic Skills in Complex Contexts
ASCCC Voc Ed Conference
March 11, 2010
Lin Marelick, FIN CTE Coach
Scott Albright, Diesel Mechanics
College of Alameda
Kathryn Browne, Early Childhood
Education, Skyline College
Faculty Inquiry
What is faculty inquiry?

Faculty inquiry is a form of professional development by
which teachers identify and investigate questions about
their students’ learning. The inquiry process is ongoing,
informed by evidence of student learning, and undertaken
in a collaborative setting. Findings from the process come
back in the form of new curricula, new assessments, and
new pedagogies, which in turn become subjects for further
inquiry.
http://facultyinquiry.net/the-faculty-inquiry-cycle/
Faculty Inquiry
What Colleges have Faculty Inquiry
Network (FIN) projects?
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College of Alameda, Berkeley City, Cerritos College,
East Los Angeles College, Glendale College, Laney
College, Las Positas College, Los Angeles Trade Tech
College, Los Medanos Puente, Los Medanos/San
Diego City, Mt. San Antonio College, San Diego
Mesa College, Santa Ana College, Santa Barbara
City College, College of the Siskiyous, Skyline
College.
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http://facultyinquiry.net/teams/
Faculty Inquiry
What resources are available to learn more
about the FIN or other Faculty Inquiry
Groups (FIGs)?
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This Faculty Inquiry Toolkit is a resource from the
SPECC Project (Strengthening Pre-Collegiate
Education in Community Colleges), sponsored by
the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching, and funded by the Hewlett Foundation

http://facultyinquiry.net/about-this-toolkit/
College of Alameda
Diesel Mechanics
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Diesel Mechanics program
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Question: Will the integration of contextualized
basic skills curricula embedded into CTE courses
improve student success? How will this compare
to student success under the existing program
model?

What did we do?
What resulted from our efforts?
How did our question change?
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College of Alameda
Diesel Mechanics
What did we do – Year 1
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Assessed students for English and Math to determine at
what level our students were
Surveyed students on their current reading strategies as
well as the difficulties they experienced during reading
Pretested students with Chapter Reading Quiz
Taught session on reading strategies w/think-aloud
demonstration
Reformatted Classroom Pedagogy to incorporate
student group work and add group presentations of
reading material
Post tested students on Chapter Reading Quiz
College of Alameda
Diesel Mechanics
What did we do – Year 1

Reformatted classroom pedagogy again to address
slipping test scores
 Students given in class time to work in groups
to prepare for classroom presentation
 Cut lecture time even further to allow for study
and presentation time
 Added hands on lab time as lecture time was
cut even further due to coverage of material
during students presentations
College of Alameda
Diesel Mechanics
What resulted from our efforts – Year 1
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Improved test scores
Increased student ownership of curriculum
Increased student engagement
Increased amount of actual reading taking place
College of Alameda
Diesel Mechanics
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Our plan for FIN – Year 2
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In the coming year we plan to incorporate a
technical writing component
Develop pedagogy
Analyze results
Skyline College
Early Childhood Education
Early Childhood Education Program

Question: What is the impact of first-language literacy
levels on Spanish-speaking students’ ability to succeed
in the ECE program? Can an intervention that
combines Spanish literacy education and contextualized
ESL improve outcomes for these students?

What did we do?
What resulted from our efforts?
How did our question change?

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Skyline College
Early Childhood Education
What did we do?

Spring 2009: surveyed students in 9 sections to
identify a Spanish-speaking low-performing
cohort
 Difficulty finding our cohort
 Not many students openly self-identified as
Spanish-speaking on the survey
 We had difficulty pulling students into focus
groups
 Many students remained “under the radar”
Skyline College
Early Childhood Education
What did we do?
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Fall 2009: Targeted only 2 sections; went into the
classes instead of them coming to us
 Presented multi-lingualism an asset
 Did lesson studies highlighting careers and
language
 Held focus groups (pullouts from class) with
the aim of illuminating the behaviors of
strong and weak students
 Result: higher numbers, found our cohort
Skyline College
Early Childhood Education
What resulted from our efforts?
 Characteristics of High-performing
Bilinguals
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Self-knowledge, vision, skills.
Attitudes: confidence, eye contact, relaxed
body language, ability to talk about one’s
strengths, engagement in a group, strong
skills in both 1st and 2nd language
Skyline College
Early Childhood Education
What resulted from our efforts?
 Characteristics of Low-performing
bilinguals
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Lack of self-knowledge/awareness
High goals, but vague idea of what it takes to get
there
Ill-defined and generally poor study skills and
behaviors.
Attitudes: were characterized by apathy, hesitance,
reticent body language, passivity, or lack of
engagement, spotty skills in English and heritage
language
Skyline College
Early Childhood Education
What resulted from our efforts?
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Spring ’10: Student Behavior Identification
Survey Personal Ideas of Success
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Sample question: “I know what it takes to get
the career I want to get.”
Goal: To illuminate behaviors that might
predict student success.
The next step: Create a series of self-reflective
activities with the aim of strengthening
students’ self-knowledge, self-confidence, and
ability to build their own skills.
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Skyline College
Early Childhood Education
How did our question change?
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From: What is the impact of first-language
literacy levels on Spanish-speaking students’
ability to succeed in the ECE program? Can an
intervention that combines Spanish literacy
education and contextualized ESL improve
outcomes for these students?
To: What factors contribute to low student
success in self-identified Hispanic students in
ECE? What behaviors do strong and weak
students engage in? How can we identify weaker
students early enough to improve their success?
Skyline College
FIN Y2
Our plan for Year 2
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Analyze survey
Develop self-knowledge and reflection and clarity
of goals in students
Create a series of self-reflection activities inspired
by the OnCourse materials used in our counseling
department in order to increase awareness and
self-knowledge.
Identify focus groups to improve student success.
Skyline College
FIN Y2
Our plan for Year 2
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Future actions
 Create a learning community of ECE and Spanish
(not ESL as previously thought, although perhaps
as a later step)
 Implement a workplace “ESL for Educators”
course to support ECE second-language English
speakers.
Faculty Inquiry Network
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Questions?
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Exercise- Discuss the following question with
others at your table:
What are you grappling with in your
classroom?
FIN
Basic Skills in Complex Contexts
URL: http://facultyinquiry.net/about-fin/
Contact information:
Lin Marelick, linz1@cruzio.com
Scott Albright, salbright@peralta.edu
Kate Browne, brownek@smccd.edu