Essay 4

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=145 BGCOLOR="#3366CC" TEXT="#080000" background="03fff483.gif"> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Learning the Highline Way</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>By: Ryan Esber</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="040ff483.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#6666FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>HIGHTIMES</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#663399" FACE="Times New Roman" >    </FONT> |    <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="HIGHTIMES"><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contents"><U>Contents</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Editorial Letter"><U>Editorial Letter</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Essay 1"><U>Essay 1</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Essay 2"><U>Essay 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Essay 3"><U>Essay 3</U></A>   |   <B>Essay 4</B>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Essay 5"><U>Essay 5</U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="041f0050.gif" border=0 width="496" height="5" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Essay 4</div> <bR> <div> One day I woke up, and I was twenty-six.  I made the decision to return to school and enrolled in Highline, my local community college.  Highline Community College is like other community colleges around the nation in that it is instrumental to the professional word.  It is a community college that teaches a wide variety of people.  Students range from retired to fresh out of high school.  Highline Community College is an excellent place to start a secondary education.  The age diversity impacts the teaching and learning in a way that fosters a more well-rounded education.</div> <div>      I found myself returning to college after an eight year absence.  I enrolled at Highline and started in the winter quarter of 2002.  I was slightly unprepared for the experience I was about to have. I began by taking afternoon and evening classes. My courses had a myriad of age groups in them. Some students were fresh out of high school, but most seemed like me, returning to school for job advancement; some were just returning for personal enrichment. No matter the reason, there was a strong diversity in age. I noticed twenty-something's, thirty-something's, and just about everything after. I began to wonder about how that might affect the teaching style of a professor.</div> <div>      Age can affect how people relate to learning. Younger students might have encountered math recently (spending less than a year away from practice). Older, returning students tend to forget some of the more abstract mathematics that their professional careers may not have required. They may also be less familiar with computers. Teachers need to compensate for these differences to be effective.</div> <div>      I noticed these differences when I began taking courses at Highline. I had been placed in a beginning (pre-college level) algebra class that was computer based. On my first day, I noticed most of the class was over thirty. Some seemed to have difficulties with the computers. I had a friend who said that he was having trouble with the algebra it had been twenty years since he graduated high school, and algebra was the highest math he learned. I, on the other hand, had been placed wrong. I knew it when I finished the first two chapters in the first hour and scored above the ninety percentile on the computer led tests. I took the placement test again, scored higher and changed classes. I transferred into a morning Pre-calculus class, and there I found a profound age distribution change. Hardly anyone seemed over twenty-five. There were only about three students over thirty in the whole class. This was a dramatic change and surely must effect how the teacher relates the information to the students. You might imagine that exposure all ages would create a better teacher and make courses more consistent.</div> <div>      These are observations and with any observation they are biased by the individual experience. There is a way of looking at the situation unbiased: demographics. The overall average of students enrolled in colleges and universities nationwide is 27, up from 25 within ten years. At the community college level singled-out, the average age between universities and colleges as a whole and community colleges by themselves. These numbers show us that community college teachers have a very different student body to teach.</div> <div>      How does Highline fare in those national statistics? The majority of students are under 30. Just over 24% of the students are between 25-35, and almost 25% of the students are between 20-24. So, half the student population is between 20 and 35. One quarter is under 20. (See Appendix A) This shows us that something very important about Highline's student population. Community colleges are typically two-year colleges built for Associate degrees and transferring to universities. Anyone over twenty falls into a returning student category, because most students going to a community college after high school would have completed their intent by then. So we see that at Highline, traditional students only account for one quarter of the population. Teachers have to teach to a 75% returning students population, two-thirds of which are over 25. If you are following the dizzying array of number you will see that teachers must contend with classrooms that consist of equal numbers of students under 25 as over.</div> <div>      Teachers at Highline have to contend with a broad range of student ages. This diversity adds to the learning experience. Being exposed to older and younger students can create a more objective view of your own ability to teach effectively. Generally most teachers have a personal style and stick to it, allowing those who need help to seek it. Being exposed to different age groups can alter that style to benefit a wider audience. Many teachers may find themselves teaching to their peers. Most people would use a different style to teach to their peers than they would to someone younger or older. There are many issues with a varying technique like that. Someone in bound to be left out, the peer of the older/younger. It should seem necessary to find a common way of teaching that benefits as many students as possible with the least amount of dead weight drowning in the tidal wave of information.</div> <div>      In many classes so far in Highline, I have encountered a variety of teaching styles. Some to them have been easy and relaxed, some more rigid. As with any class, the students talk about their instructor. I discovered though conversations with classmates that even though they sometimes joked about a teacher, the teachers that taught well also received the most praise. It seemed as if the classes in which the material was taught consistently and with authority were the most effective. It also seemed very important to have a sense of humanity, an even hand, in the classroom.</div> <div>      Highline teachers have the ability to teacher to smaller classes on the introductory level, whereas many universities can have up to a hindered people in an introductory class, sometimes being taught by an assistant. Highline and other community college allow for more direct learning. The student, no matter what age, can be more engaged in the class. They can get more out of it.</div> <div>      Highline and other community colleges give a great chance to find the right situation for a student, a place for optimal learning. Because there are varied are groups in Highline, teachers have to compensate and that benefits the students. Everyone learns from everyone else, and learning is why we all here. Right?</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>