Part 2. Visits, Tours and Activities in Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo College

This institution is a four-year college of liberal arts and sciences with 1,500 students. Our visit started at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership where their students engage in developing their leadership on human rights. The design of this building focus of elements that unifies the structure and its use to the environment.

I call this visit the lifelong learning experience because It was inspiring to find a female president Dr. Eilee Wilson-Oyelaran. She shared with us her educational model where students learn the regular academic course and gain experience through practice, community work, civic engagement, career and professional development, including internship and study abroad programs. They promote high impact practices that consist in a mandatory undergraduate research, a creative piece of work or a professional practice experience. All of them oriented towards leadership and student development.

One of the phrases from their wall that I'll take with me is "People give when they are inspired".

President's Welcome

Dr. Dunn has visited the Dominican Republic and our institutions a couple of times. As Dominican, I have to recognize his vision of bringing Dominican faculty to obtain a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership. This decision has been of great benefit for all of us. In his welcome reception, Dr. Dunn openness to collaboration with our country is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Bowling at Airway Lanes

Sunday evening gets a little blue when you are away from home. I couldn't have thought of a better activity for positive reinforcement of belonging to a Ph.D. cohort than this one. We engaged in a fun, relaxing and inter-personal relationships building activity that will help us develop a support group from our colleagues.

WMU Med School Tour

During this visit, the Associate Dean for Planing explained how this privately funded stand-alone school benefits from a productive liaison with a university. A joint program with Western Michigan, Borgess & Bronson corporations made possible to support a facility like the one visited. Their governance model where the Presiden of the University is a member of the board and not the main responsible gave us a different perspective on how to run a medical school financially.

Their educational model centered on team-based learning is an innovative way of teaching. Their methods include problem-based learning, case studies and simulation. Simulation center are high technology equipped so students can practice to improve patients outcomes safely. 

It was also interesting to visit their library and see how to use information technology to improve student learning. Students only use their laptops for all their classes and electronic books are available for them. 

In our visit, we observed their online library. This visit clarifies how staff can be helpful with electronic resources and what conditions should the technology platform have to facilitate the use of these devices.

Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Visiting the  Academic Services Administrators/Student Services Meeting at this institution reminded me of our meetings back in ITSC, Dominican Republic. I took my notes digitally so I could share them right away from there with mi staff back in DR. As similar institutions we face similar challenges in course selection, admission, leveling in math and language, 2+2 articulation, placement testing opportunities and, student dropout.

Their explanation of follow-up on enrollment was very convenient because I was looking for a different way of doing this back in my school. And the idea of phone calls, text messaging, post
cards, and targeted email are more in advance ways of approaching the students.

The best part for me was the culinary part. By listening to him looking for a similar business model than mine, to be in liaison with the American Culinary Federation was reinforcing. We are doing it with their international office, the World Association of Chefs Societies. Also, to see similar contracting problems with expert culinary instructors without a formal degree showed me how important it will be to think of a level of their interest.

It was also enriching to see their prior learning, apprenticeships and internship department and understanding how they integrate the different companies and small business for the student benefit.

The use of the strengths test for student development is an idea that I'll take back home.

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.

EDLD 6890 – Summer II 2015 Reflective Journal Assignment Week 1

Week 1. Journal

As soon as I read the name of this course, the question of how educational systems differ between my country, Dominican Republic and the US Educational System raised in my mind. After being in class, the theories that I've read before about education became to make sense in a more logical and challenging way after the discussions and different opinions of classmates. Various authors read present efficient ways of teaching and different educational systems that work. Thinking about all the limitations that our country has in the field of education systems; make me feel the responsibility of assessing those gaps, we have as educators.

Theory or Model	Course Material	Application to Your Life
Critical Pedagogy Combine Education with power and the ability of the learners to take action.	Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Paulo Freire	My role is to collaborate to implement the educational models where I work. When reading Freire, I can say that implementing new processes or making educational changes are more productive when intentionally we adapt the principles of continuous dialog, critical questioning, love for humanity, and praxis. As Freire indicates the praxis reflects the synthesis of critical reflection. Also when you run a culinary program the teaching process takes places as banking education just to maintain the standards, I’ve always question if this approach diminish the creativity that a good chef should have. Moreover, if making changes in this teaching plan should reflect a better graduate.
Students are active participants in their learning and their communities.	Democratic Education Bell Hooks	When reading and discussing this model I completely identify myself with many of the characteristics that represent this approach.  I had the experience of using the Practicum Methodology for field studies in tourism. Students work as consultants with a real client and work in developing a tourism product in a destination. The product development process takes place in two phases: a preparatory phase and a field approach. In the preparatory phase, students conduct a documentary research on the target and markets; in the field approach, they apply the concepts learned together with the community members where tourism takes place. This experience engaged them in such a positive way that many of them still work in different communities helping then develop a more sustainable tourism practice. During the process students were allowed to plan their field work using self-directing learning, the group shared decision-making, individualized project-based work, and student interviews in the community. Even if it was not a democratic school or program, it was my democratic course. The statements of education presented in class indicated that for most of the group members, education was about generating agents of change in society. For my teaching experience, this was the course that I could count as an achievement o producing agents of change in sustainable tourism. These students are now the professionals that are in continuous learning. Democratic education teaching and learning take place continuously, and this process is never confined to a classroom. Democratic education implies that anyone can be in a higher education classroom. And understand that a college education is an experience that enriches life in its entirety. Education is about finding our place in the world; this place is constantly changing, and we must be fully engaged and maintain our capacity to learn. The learning space should be inclusive and challenge our teaching school. Democratic educators are often stereotyped by their more conservative counterparts as not as rigorous or as without standards. The atmosphere in the classroom should generate happiness and respect freedom and satisfaction. Democratic Education is centered in conversation and undermines structures of domination such as gender or race. It embraces different perspectives, wholeness, and closeness. Learning as an end in itself.
Philosophy of Education	Dewey Video	I admire Dewey's faith in the intelligence, and at the same time have doubts about how each learner can follow their interests and learn content that is necessary to a particular degree.  In his Analysis of Human Learning, the reflex arc model of external stimulus and the internal response is an admirable approach of how to teach from experience. As my area of interest is internships; I relate this approach to the practice that takes place when student go for the first time to an organization or institution for an internship. Experience and context will allow the student to become an active player in his learning and start to solve problems on its own. Understanding the Truth and its regulative principles helps me be aware that educators have to be open to new experiences and be aware of the habits that we have over ideologies just because they work satisfactorily and are practically accepted. Faith in Democracy makes me think of how could we improve our educational systems to promote democracy as a way of life and create equal opportunities for those in disadvantaged.
Helping others with teaching	Katza	I have had the chance to work with other professors as an in-service educator and call it a growing experience. Teachers have to clarify their common goals with in-service educators and share the insight of constructive knowledge so the accompaniment system can take place as a productive and continuous improvement process.  The in-service educator should inspire professors to try new things and encourage and support the objective of teaching practice.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.	OECD Education at a Glance	Constant change influence changes in school systems. Seeing the American approach and looking from a global perspective it still surprising for me to see the small effort and investment on early childhood education. Very young children learn their stable educational formation that can help them prepare for a more structured classroom experience ahead.