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Jeanette Stephens
9/01/00
Commitment to Student Learning:
The 2000-2001 MIL Fellows
The Maricopa Institute for Learning (MIL) is a fellowship program sponsored by the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction for full-time faculty interested in focusing on student learning and in sharing their work with others (www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mil). MIL Fellows serve for one year examining significant issues in their respective teaching fields and participate in summer seminars and local and national meetings throughout the year. This year’s MIL Fellows are Dr. Maria Chavira, Ms. Madeleine Chowdhury, Dr. Yvonne Montiel, Ms. Sara Soller and Dr. Vanessa Wilson-Ford.
Dr. Maria Romo Chavira, Psychology, Mesa Community College, will explore the distinct advantages that instructional technology offers by measuring learning competency. “I plan to build this study on distance education Learning Theory. I would like to investigate new approaches that would make online teaching of the highest quality."
Ms. Madeleine Chowdhury, Mathematics, Mesa Community College, will investigate several hypotheses, ambiguities and needs generated by research in mathematics and will examine the relationships of visualization skills to specific concepts in calculus and the potential of spatial training in enhancing mathematical understanding.
Dr. Yvonne Monteil, Reading, Spanish, Elementary Education, South Mountain Community College, will work to developing the four semester student internship component of the Dynamic Learning Teacher Education Transfer Program. The key component of the internship is a disciplined inquiry approach in which future teachers learn skills of observation, reflection and analysis and collaborate with classroom teachers on issues related to learning.
Ms. Sara Soller, Communication and Theater Arts, Phoenix College, will examine teacher-to-student language styles in the classroom to ascertain if certain styles help or hinder student understanding. “I am interested in how the oral communication style of the teacher may or may not be appropriate for a specific discipline, course, course level and student population."
Dr. Vanessa Wilson-Ford, Sociology, Mesa Community College, will explore ways to effectively integrate diversity into what we teach and how we teach and to explore the use of collaborative peer teaching as a methodology for courses in diversity education. “As educators, we need to empower our students so that they will be able to critically examine alternative ways of understanding the world and its diverse populations."
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