ST. GEORGE — Hefting a pair of foot-long scissors, Jordan Rushton, interim president of Dixie Technical College, cut a thick red ribbon on Thursday, officially opening the college’s Center for Instructional Excellence.
“We want to make sure that every instructor knows they have the support they need so that our quality of instruction is above everyone else,” Rushton said. “We hire the best industry experts from everywhere to come teach these students.
“But being the very best industry expert doesn’t always mean that you just automatically know how to create a syllabus, how to write a curriculum, how to manage a classroom – that’s all important stuff. It’s all part of being successful.”
The large, freshly furnished room is on the second floor of the college’s Building B. The center will be run by Sheila Farrell, the technical college’s instructional and compliance manager.
“Sheila has been here three years, helping us with instructors,” Rushton said. “Sheila is fabulous about being able to go out and visit with instructors in their spaces and their areas. The idea about (the Center for Instructional Excellence) is that we want instructors from different parts of the college to come together and share best practices and collaborate.”
Once a month, Farrell said, she facilitates seven different professional learning communities in the technical college’s different educational fields. Each group works with groups from other departments, creating an inter-department focus on increasingly effective teaching methods. The new Center for Instructional Excellence will provide a designated, permanent space for the groups to collaborate.
“It’s really just an open resource for the instructors,” she said. “It’s warm, it’s cozy, but it’s still academic. It’s lively and friendly, and people like being here.”
Farrell expressed her excitement for the increase of one-on-one time she’ll have with college instructors seeking pedagogical help.
“Instead of me going to them and finding an empty classroom or empty area of campus, they can come here,” she said. “I have a library of resources here.”
When asked what the Dixie Technical College instructors generally seek aid for, Farrell said the most common concern is instructors seeking to close the student-achievement gap. Some students may be farther ahead in the lesson material and hungry for more, while their classmates are struggling with the same material. Instructors, Farrell said, want to adapt to this challenge to help both types of students.
“They come to me with whatever their needs are, whether it’s to look over the entire program curriculum or just a specific unity module.”
Last week, she said, the pharmacy tech instructors went to her and asked her to meet with each student one-on-one and give them individualized study strategies to help for the next test.
“I don’t focus on the content so much as how the content is delivered, because that’s universal,” she added.
Farrell has a master’s degree in teaching with an emphasis in leadership. Before taking her current position at Dixie Technical College three years ago, she was a high school English teacher for 11 years and is nationally board-certified for English and language arts.
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