Although community colleges are increasingly diverse, student outcomes across demographics are not necessarily equitable, nor does the representation of student demographics in a given class always reflect the diversity of the greater institutional student population. To achieve colleges' stated diversity and equity goals, we must broaden…

This article unpacks the challenge of culturally responsive teaching in rural community colleges, based on emerging insights from a study of two community colleges in North Carolina. Culturally responsive strategies ask, how do our classrooms welcome the perspectives, voices, and distinctive cultural resources of people of color and other…

The broad diversity of the students who enroll in community colleges requires understanding more about the pedagogical techniques that respond to the needs of students. This article presents findings from a study of 149 community college instructors in which they define for themselves culturally relevant teaching.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted courses at community colleges and forced a transition to emergency remote learning. This article focuses on the impacts of the rapid shift to online teaching on community college instructors and includes recommendations on ways for institutions to support faculty through professional development in curriculum,…

This chapter documents a partnership between university-based researchers and community college instructors and practitioners in their collective pursuit to improve student success in manufacturing programs at a large urban 2-year technical college, presenting an example of a contextualized instructional approach to teaching developmental math,…

This paper explores the model of a pedagogical system for business and entrepreneurship education and discusses the effects of its evolution on the balance between fidelity of implementation and ease of adoption.

This chapter explores the role of student development and culturally relevant theories to support 2-year tribal college student success.

This chapter describes a promising new approach to teaching developmental arithmetic and prealgebra, and presents research findings that demonstrate how a faculty support network helped instructors adopt new teaching strategies and gain confidence in teaching the reformed course.

Contemplative practices can transform curricula, classrooms, and students. Community college teachers are accustomed to greeting rooms full of students each semester who are there simply because someone told them they have to be. The decision to attend college in general may have been theirs, but the particular courses they take are largely…

In the year 2000, what started as an isolated pedagogical gambit at Glendale Community College (GCC) in Southern California has evolved into a program-wide initiative to revise the developmental composition curriculum and boost student learning outcomes. One instructor, frustrated with poor student motivation and success in his precollegiate…

This chapter discusses results of a fifty-state study conducted through the Academic Pathways to Access and Student Success initiative, and identifies curricular, instructional, and organizational approaches that increase opportunities for underserved students to attend college. (Contains 1 table.)

More than a decade ago, community colleges across the nation mobilized legions of faculty to craft critical thinking initiatives on their campus. Were these initiatives simply the latest educational fad, or did the implementation provoke substantive, lasting changes not only in what we teach but in how we teach?

This chapter presents an overview of approaches to assessing critical thinking in community colleges, a brief description of standardized tests, and examples of several institutionally developed methodologies and good practices. Finally, it identifies challenges in assessing critical thinking in two-year colleges. (Contains 1 table.)

Research demonstrates that most college faculty lack a substantive concept of critical thinking, though they mistakenly think otherwise. This chapter spells out the implications of such a robust concept and emphasizes that success in bringing a substantive concept of critical thinking to college faculty requires well-planned, long-term…

Critical thinking is foundational to the effective teaching of any subject, and it must be at the heart of any professional development program. This chapter presents a long-term professional development model based on a substantive concept of critical thinking, and ties critical thinking to the concept of the Learning College.