Fundamental Articulation Meeting Minutes

Fundamental Articulation Meeting Minutes

UniversityCollege of the FraserValley – March 2& 3, 2006

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Chair: Jill Auchinachie; Co-chair: Leonne Beebe;

Recorders: Jill Auchinachie and Leonne Beebe

Attendance:

CamosunCollege / Jill Auchinachie / NWCC / Nancy Ross
CapilanoCollege / Carol Schoen / Selkirk / Wendy Tagami
CNC / Suzanne Lefabvre / NLC / David Szucsko
COTR / Mary Shier
Douglas / Marilyn Smitshoek / UCFV / Leonne Beebe & Barb Stirskey
Kwantlen / Bev Kreiger
Maureen Butler / VCC / Laurie Gould & Jan Weiten
Malaspina / Bridget Bruneski / NVIT (Friday) / Brent Langlois
NorthIsland / Colleen Ferguson
(away Friday, ill)

Regrets: OkanaganCollege: Maureen Stephens (last minute illness)

ThompsonRiversUniversity: Barb Masters (last minute cancellation)

Guests:

Dr. Karen Evans: UCFV Dean of Community Access, Business and Information Technology

Dr. Sue Brigden: UCFV CCP Department Head:

Introduction of Institutional Reps: Seven new or replacement reps this year.

2007 meeting date and location: DouglasCollege hosting meeting on March 1st & 2nd

Approval of Agenda with additions: moved by Laurie Gould; seconded by Carol Schoen; carried

Approval of FABE 2005 Minutes: moved by David Szucsho; seconded by Nancy Ross; carried

(1) corrections/additions: addition of Bridget Bruneski as recorder on Thursday pm and all day Friday

New Business arising from the minutes:

(1) The ABE Articulation Steering Committee asked the FABE Working Group to re-word and re-submit the motion regarding the use of on-line courses for Fundamental Level English and math courses as an Articulation Working Group is responsible for approving Course Level Learning Outcomes but not responsible for mode of delivery of the course content that is used to achieve the course learning outcomes.

Motion: We recommend that whenever possible on-line instruction at the Fundamental level is supported by fact-to face instruction.

Moved by Mary Shier; seconded by Bridget Bruneski; carried

(2) Regarding the use of the BCCAT ABE Course Outline Template, this was introduced at 2005 meeting.

Motion: We recommend that the BCCAT ABE Course Outline Template be completed and submitted for ABE courses.

Rationale: This action would increase the ABE Post-secondary visibility within BCCAT.

Moved by Bev Krieger; seconded by David Szucsko; carried.

Institutional Updates: Summary of Institutional Issues and Concerns

(1) Types of classroom teaching models:

(a) the traditional on-campus instructor-led, single level course

(b) continuous intake classroom

(d) community-based Adult and Family Literacy programs to help with transition to Fundamental level courses and to campus classrooms

(e) blended online/face-to-face model

(2) Types of students, issues and trends:

(a) increase in ASE students and students with multi-barriers in ABE classroom, which often puts an unrealistic expectation and strain on the ABE instructor and classroom

(b) increase in community ESL students in ABE classroom because there may not be ESL courses available in smaller communities or because there may be a course fee attached to International Ed Academic ESL courses, which these community ESL students cannot afford and Fundamental courses are free in most institutions.

This is a new defined identity for those students who have lived in Canada for some time, who speak and comprehend spoken English well, and who have graduated from public secondary school; therefore they do not consider themselves as ESL students.

However, many “Generation 1.5” learners have not achieved the required English reading and writing skills needed for post-secondary college and university courses.

When assessed, they are identified as ESL students. Yet their verbal language skills are not an appropriate fit withthe typical International Ed/Academic ESL programs at most institutions, so these students are often referred to ABE Fundamental/Intermediate level English classes.

3. decrease in First Nations Funding for students at the Fundamental level, which is where many First Nations students who are returning to academic work after being out of school for a while often need to start to re-build skills and self-confidence.

4. decrease in registration numbers; therefore recruitment and marketing strategies are required to help keep classes, and smaller community programs/ campus centresopen

4. increased competition from private educational institutions and public secondary schoolsis affecting course registrations.

5. increase in the number of Fundamental level courses as the result of splitting of Fundamental level Learning Outcomes into two, three or more individual courses to support and motivate student success and completion rates within a term. This helps to prevent the student who has been working well but needs more time to complete the Fundamental level Learning Outcomes from receiving an incomplete or no credit course grade at the end of a term. This is a win-win situation for the students in terms of more success in completing courses and more time to complete the Fundamental level and for both the departments and the institutions in terms of successful course completions instead of non-completions.

6. increase tension associated with the position of ABE departments in institutions that are now devoting time, energy and finances into the development of new college/university level courses and programs at the expense of and risk to existing ABE programs especially at the Fundamental and Intermediate levels.

New Course Articulations and/or Internal Institutional Course Name and/or Number Changes to Articulation Guide Grids

1. DouglasCollege– Marilyn Smitshoek:

The already articulated Fundamental course DVST 0100 has been divided into three separate courses numbered DVST 0100, DVST 0115, and DVST 0125

2. MalaspinaUniversityCollege– Bridget Bruneski

The word “or” was removed for the English 020 description.

3. Northern LightsCollege – David Szucsko

Fundamental Math 020 is divided into 3 courses: Math 20 A, Math 20 B and Math 20 C* is

the exit course.

These internal institutional changes were noted and will be changed in the Articulation Guide.

Student Assessment Updates:

(1) National ABE Assessment Project: Laurie Gould, VCC, who has been on the advisory committee for this project reported that the information gathered in the in national survey on ABE Assessment will be included in the book along with articles written by Dr. Pat Campbell and others; the book is expected to be published next year.

(2) Accuplacer Description and Discussion: Dr. Sue Brigden, UCFV, who was involved in an earlier provincial assessment of Accuplacer project and who now directs the CCP Accuplacer assessment program gave a brief description of the use of Accuplacer as one of the tools used for assessment and placement of English and math students into CCP courses. ThompsonRiversUniversity, KwantlenUniversityCollege and SelkirkCollege have been using Accuplacer, and DouglasCollege is exploring and considering the possibility of using Accuplacer

Practitioner Research and Research in Practice Update: Leonne Beebe, UCFV

(1) RiPAL BC – (Research in Practice Adult Literacy in BC)

Research in Practice Project: Collaborative Practitioner Research project designed to mentor practitioners while conducting and writing a report about a research in practice project. Former BC Research Friend, Dr. Marina Niks, co-ordinated a RiPAL BC sponsored cost-shared project that mentoredAnne and Melanie two community-based literacy resource people from Hazelton, and three institutional-based Literacy/ABE instructors: Dee McRae - NWCC Houston, Paula Davies - CNC Prince George, and Leonne Beebe - UCFV Chilliwack and Hope. The final reports are in the process of writing/editing with a publication date for April/May, 2006. Presentations of these RiP reports will be at appropriate meetings, workshops and conferences.

(2) Developing a National Framework for Research in Practice in Literacy in Canada: Leonne Beebe, UCFV

Description of project and provincial survey – lead by Leonne

Focus Group – After the meeting adjourned, Leonne conducted a focus group with five committee members.

Friday am, March 3, 2006

Social Policy Forum on Literacy: Laurie updated the group about this recent event organized by Service Canada in which regional literacy coordinators and other literacy practitioners worked with Service Canada’s representatives to draft an action plan that would build bridges between these groups, increase awareness of literacy issues among Service Canada staff, and expand access to adult learning.

English Outcomes Review

The committee spent the morning discussing aspects of the Fundamental Level Skills articulation guide. The new focus will be on reviewing and revising the Fundamental Level English outcomes. Committee members will review the English outcomes with their departments in the coming year and present their departments’ perspectives through email and at the 2007 meeting. The committee reviewed and revised, when needed, the Fundamental Level Skills goal statement and Learning Skills general statement.

Friday pm

Kate Nonesuch presented the findings of her NLS sponsored research on numeracy instruction for practitioners. As part of Kate’s practitioner-based research, committee members collaborated in groups and presented their interpretations of numeracy-related instructional challenges.

New Co-Chair

Marilyn Smitshoek of DouglasCollege was heartily endorsed as the new co-chair of the FABE working group.

Goodbyes

The working committee acknowledged the support and dedication of Leonne Beebe, Laurie Gould and Bev Kreiger who are all leaving the committee.