EDLD 6890 – Summer II 2015 Reflective Journal Assignment Week 2 Part 1

Theory or Model	Course Material	Application to Your Life
The American System of Higher Education	Derek Bok Higher Education In America	Reading this chapter has helped me understand better how to handle the community college in the Dominican Republic. Universities do not understand that this is an opportunity for many people that would not be able to pay a four years program even in the public university. It has also made me think about UNIBE’s role as a non-profit four-year college that needs a business plan to be able to be financially efficient. Government role differs from the USA in the sense that our Ministry of Higher Ed is a regulating body with particular curriculum policies and management rules. Universities need to be accredited by the Ministry. They are non-profit, regulated and controlled by the Ministry. We have taken advantage of the American system competition ranking and were now in the QS ranking wich provides us with a benefit for our prestige. Unibe is the leading one in the Dominican Republic. Regarding governance effectiveness,  faculty participating role, its liberty and independence to perform,   creates a day to day learning of abilities to deal with conflict and negotiation in different situations.
Colleges and Universities as Complex Organizations Chapter One.	Bess & Dee Understanding college and university organizations: theories for effective policy and practice	Using organizational theory to understand universities presents an informative understanding of complex university systems. At UNIBE, we work with both American system for the medical school and local system for medical and all the other schools.  The environmental challenges come at the medical school from the Financial Aid when they lower the budget of the loans available for overseas programs. Also, changes in structure make my job more challenging so I can efficiently cross-purpose the different initiatives and hold the organization together. Interpersonal challenges are little because we have a work ambiance that motivates and encourages interpersonal life very well. Cultural challenges faced are mainly with new faculty that need to engage in an extremely innovative environment. Organizational Theory helps us understand the challenges in a way that we can identify patterns in each problem category and be able to reflect, think systemically, analyze and take action. At UNIBE,  my office is in charge of internship regulations for all schools.  Each program has its characteristics, and we have to analyze them to be able to come to an action that support the discipline. Also, this analysis allows to put together a policy that works for both the university and each particular program.
Colleges and Universities as Complex Organizations Chapter Two.	Bess & Dee Understanding college and university organizations: theories for effective policy and practice	This chapter has given me the topic for my Critical Analysis Paper. How the ITSC is organized comparing to the USA community colleges? I will look into the institutional goals differences and similarities and will compare the national and Internal organization comparison.
The Reconstruction of Community College Vocational Education: A Vision for Renewing American Democracy	Harbour and Wolgemuth. Vocational Education	This text uses Dewey’s vision in Democracy and Education to guide Grub and Lazerson’s policy agenda about community college education. Dewey's view referred to democracy as a way of life as a consequence of social and economic development, individual growth, learning an occupation, reconstructing experience as a way of life and social transformation. Grub and Lazerson’s policy agenda supports high-quality teaching, facilitating movement between academic and occupational curricula, change funding mechanisms to improve support for occupational areas classes and practices of occupational education. This impacts of these ideas are related by the author as six perspectives. These include that community colleges should prepare students for life in a democracy, for contributing to their societies and be successful in an occupation and progress socially with their education. This article has given me the philosophy of education necessary to inspire the faculty that works under my guidance at the ITSC.  By understanding this policy, I am now more capable of reflecting about the processed that we have to accomplish to center our activities around students.
Dominican Republic Policy Summary		I will focus on Chapter 4 that refers to the Structure of Higher Education Provision in the Dominican Republic. This chapter emphasizes the need to professionally manage and market the two years program that we have in our hands  I think that a more reflective work should be done to be able to implement the community college philosophy, strategic learning and student-centered practice for the benefit of this program.Teaching is the only process that is in place and after three years of operation, many initiatives that support student  development and social progress need to be implemented.