Standardized testing has become the norm for education in the United States. Students are instructed to memorize and regurgitate, then repeat. However, this is far from what the average employer is looking for in a worker. According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities employers are looking for college graduates who:
- Work well in teams—especially with people different from them
- Understand science and technology and how these subjects are used in real-world settings
- Write and speak well
- Think clearly about complex problems
- Analyze a problem to develop workable solutions
How Delta College Achieves This
The instruction provided in Delta is focused on building these transferrable skills in students throughout the curriculum. Our students participate in a variety of team-based work, but are also required to do individual work.
The use of creative expression is encouraged to demonstrate learning. For example, our Human Heritage course requires students to work as a team to write, direct, and perform a modernized version of an ancient piece of literature. Each student may contribute as a script writer, director, stage manager, actor/actress, and/or videographer. Each role contributes to the overall performance by fulfilling their duty.
The purpose of this approach is to propel students to analyze and dissect the literature. They have to think about who the author was, what they were trying to communicate to the world through their writing, what was society like at the time, and how would a similar message “play-out” in our modern world.
Performance is just one way Delta asks students to demonstrate their learning. Each course has its own variety of assessment. Some examples include:
- Group presentations
- Skits
- Speeches
- Performances
- Mock interviews
- Films
- Music videos
- Narratives
- Debates
- Future memoirs