May 11, 2007

Wallace State Instructor’s Work Published



HANCEVILLE, Ala.—Dr. Teresa Ray-Connell, Dental Hygiene and Dental Assisting instructor at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, is the featured author in a recent issue of “Innovation Abstracts” published by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development of the University of Texas at Austin.



Ray-Connell’s work, titled “A New Advising Strategy,” describes her department’s use of advisory groups. These groups allow instructors to meet students in small, collaborative pairings throughout the semester. First-year students are paired with second-year students for mentoring.



“The initial objective of advisory groups was as a quality control and chart audit while the student/practitioner was present. We wanted to re-emphasize the importance of documentation,” Ray-Connell wrote. “It morphed into something far more fantastic. The students were comfortable sharing thoughts and ideas in these small groups. They asked questions they may not have asked in a larger group.”



Since the incorporation of advisory groups, Ray-Connell reports that student performance in clinic and classroom has improved.



Ray-Connell was selected as the American Dental Educator Association Dental Hygiene Instructor of the Year in 2005 and presented the National Institute of Staff and Organizational Development Excellence Award in 2007. She is a Master Teacher, and member of the American Dental Educator Association, and American Dental Hygiene Association.



Ray-Connell is well-known and widely respected for her use of classroom technology and innovations to improve teaching and learning. Her use of podcasting in the classroom was the focus of a recent television news feature on Fox 6 News Birmingham.



She has been a featured presenter at several Alabama College Association meetings, as well as nationally at the annual meeting of the League for Innovation, and the Dental Hygiene Educator’s Clinical Workshop.



A member of the Wallace State faculty for eleven years, Ray-Connell holds a bachelor’s degree and D.M.D. from UAB. She has one daughter, Mattie, and resides in Alabaster.

The full-text of her recent work follows.

Reprinted for this press release with permission of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development at the University of Texas at Austin



NISOD Innovation Abstracts, Volume XXIX, Number 13

A New Advising Strategy



We meet our hygiene students in individualized “advisory” groups of second- and first-year students, divided among five faculty members. Each faculty member meets over lunch with her students (usually 12 or more) two or three times in one semester. We pair second-year “big sisters” with first-year “little sisters,” have them sit together and help one another along the way.



The initial objective of advisory groups was as a quality control and chart audit while the student/practitioner was present. We wanted to re-emphasize the importance of documentation. It morphed into something far more fantastic. The students were comfortable sharing thoughts and ideas in these small groups; they asked questions they may not have asked in a larger group.



The meeting typically starts with the big sister and little sister exchanging a patient’s chart (selected randomly by the secretary), each reviewing the other’s for record of treatment, signatures, and information recorded about the dental hygiene diagnosis. This can take place between the two students only or be incorporated into the whole group.



Next, students share concerns—i.e., “I don’t think I’m going to finish my requirements.” or “I’m not doing well in pharmacology.” Many times it is not faculty members who reassure, but fellow students. Anything is fair game in these meetings as long as it remains positive and constructive.



The advisory groups have strengthened and improved the program by:

• offering opportunities for second-year students to mentor first-year students
• creating an evaluation tool for clinical procedures
• enhancing communication between students and instructors
• encouraging fellowship between students and instructors
• offering an opportunity for peer review of patient treatment
• developing higher-order thinking skills in students
• encouraging student self-evaluation
• improving overall patient care in clinic
• increasing faculty calibration, and
• enhancing student advising.
  

Challenges and difficulties include:

• Time—It is difficult to find a day and time when first- and second-year students are available.
• Instructor cooperation—Some groups meet more than others.
• Consistency—Meeting outcomes may be different because no guidelines are available.
• Follow through—We need better mechanisms for ensuring that issues being addressed in the meetings appear on the agenda for faculty discussion.
  
  
  

We have received positive feedback about our advisory group meetings. Students perform better in clinic, and faculty are more collaborative than before. We anticipate more positive changes as our advisory group concept develops and matures.



By Teresa Ray-Connell, Instructor, Dental Hygiene and Assisting Department

For further information, contact the author at Wallace State Community College, P.O. Box 2000, Hanceville, AL 35077.

Email: teresa.connell@wallacestate.edu



Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

January 26, 2007, Vol. XXIX, No. 2

The University of Texas at Austin, 2007



Innovation Abstracts (ISSN 0199-106X) is published weekly following the fall and spring terms of the academic calendar, except Thanksgiving week, by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD), Department of Educational Administration, College of Education, 1 University Station, D5600, Austin, Texas 78712-0378, (512) 471-7545, email: abstracts@nisod.org

  Kristen Holmes
  Director, Communications and Marketing
  Wallace State Community College
  P.O. Box 2000
  Hanceville, AL 35077
  256/352-8118
  E-mail: Kristen.Holmes@WallaceState.edu