| dc.description.abstract | Developmental education, corequisites courses, student success, and professional development are words constantly echoed in higher education, particularly community colleges. Ultimately, the administration assumes faculty have the skill set to achieve high success rates with students in who are not college ready. The concern with professors of higher education is that the focus of developing and acquiring strong instructional skills to combat this challenge is not a priority for administration. Most higher education mathematics faculty’s undergraduate and graduate training has focused on developing strong knowledge of mathematical content. Faculty jobs in higher education require a mathematics degree, but a certificate or degree in education is not required. Successfully teaching developmental courses requires an understanding of the background and current context in which the students are living. Many community college professors are teaching remedial mathematics to adults, which requires a different skill set than teaching to traditional college ready students. Adding to the problem is the concept of corequisite courses. Corequisite courses combine the requirements of developmental mathematics and college level mathematics into one classroom, oftentimes doubling the challenge of teaching these courses. This book suggests some faculty development that can be used for teaching developmental education and corequisites courses. This book would be complete with techniques, pedagogy, instructional skills which, when combined all together, can help with developing meaningful professional development on any campus across the nation. The interviews conducted and analyzed revealed common trends in needs and characteristics of corequisite courses. Based on the themes found, professional development was suggested to aid in helping shift any negative components of those themes to help better understand the needs of teaching these unique and challenging courses. Understanding the needs of faculty and students can help to create a professional development plan that will enhance the developmental level mathematics courses in higher education. | |
