APPLIED ACADEMICS NEWSWIRE:
How did you become involved with Applied Academics?
DAVE CHOWDHURRY: In the mid
90's, the Provincial government made funds to develop initiatives that
would connect education with employment. A couple of years earlier, I had
taken an educational leave from my position as Dean of Engineering
Technology at BCIT, and travelled to England. There I observed that they
approached these problems with the recognition that most high school and
college graduates sooner or later end up in the workforce. Education
needed one of its goals to be making graduates successful in the
workplace.
Using many of these ideas from
England, the US, Australia and NZ, BCIT put forward a model that embraced
skills development, literacy, numeracy, technology and computing. This
would eventually be known as Applied Academics. When the model and
recommendations were accepted by the Ministry, I was asked to help with
Applied Academics implementation.
AAN: Why was the Center for
Applied Academics created?
DC: The Ministry of Education
came to the conclusion that a champion was needed to explain the purpose
and rationale, while working with the system to allow these courses to
become established. The CFAA was created with the mandate of implementing
the recommendations of the Applied Academics Report.
AAN: Was Applied Academics
well received?
DC: When we introduced Applied
Academics to teachers at schools that prided themselves in preparing
students for university, the reception was usually hostile. They told us
that they were doing quite well, thank you, and felt that they didn't need
Applied Academics.
AAN: How did you counter this
view?
DC: We were able to use
Ministry information to create a database that tracked a specific school's
students 5 year performances in math, English, science and computer
courses. Without pointing fingers, we showed that many students took these
courses under the advisement that the result would be a university
education, but their performance wasn't good enough to gain entrance. We
were then able to suggest to the schools that these were a group of
students that would benefit from taking applied academics courses.
AAN: Which of the CFAA's
accomplishments are you the most proud?
DC: The recent Applied
Academics Evaluation shows that the students who have taken Applied
courses indicate that they feel that this is a good way to better prepare
a large number of students for entry into the workforce and post-secondary
system. This is especially pleasing, as this was our mission when we
started.
AAN: Where do you think
Applied Academics will be in 10 years?
DC: I think that most of the
Applied Academics courses will be the mainstream. The combination of the
content and the instructional strategies and the assessment will have most
of the characteristics of what we currently call Applied Academics. That
has been the intention right from the beginning, but sometimes you have to
create a model 'B' for people to understand what the differences are
between model 'A'.
AAN: What will you miss when
your role with the CFAA is over?
DC: I will miss the
opportunity to make an impact on the educational system and to champion
something that benefits a much broader range of students than those going
to university or college.
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No need to panic. All of the
Applied Academics initiatives will be continuing. Only the addresses and
contacts have changed. The primary contact will be Scott MacDonald and the
Career and Applied Programs unit within the Curriculum Branch of the
Ministry of Education. They can be reached at (250) 356-2317.
Donna Palmer and Lucy Westaway
will continue to be the contacts for AWAL and can be reached AWAL Project,
Centre for Curriculum, Transfer & Technology, Suite 602, 510 W.
Hastings St., Vancouver, BC,V6B 1L8. Their cyber co-ordinates are now http://www.awal.ctt.bc.ca
or dpalmer@ctt.bc.ca and lwestaway@ctt.bc.ca.
They can be called at (604) 681-4580.
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