Learning Centered College in Action

Integrated and systemic approach to employee learning is practiced with a focus on the following goals

• Develop a college climate that encourages relationship building, and rewards innovation and risk-taking.
• Encourage collaboration within and among employee groups, disciplines, work units, and functional areas.
• Provide opportunities to explore methods of improved teaching and learning and customer service.
• Provide opportunities for continuous faculty, staff and administrative learning and personal and professional improvement.

The Mission of Paradise Valley Community College is to educate the whole person.  A learner-centered approach views students as active and collaborative participants in their own learning. The ultimate goal is to make the educational process more meaningful to students.

Student success emphasizes active and engaged learning, connecting to the college environment, goal setting, successful navigation of college processes, and relationship building with faculty, staff, students and peers. We aspire to develop well-rounded, confident and responsible individuals who aspire to achieve their full potential.

Organizational conditions are required for an institution to continuously get smarter and better at what it does in order to facilitate high levels of learning among all students, as well as it's employees and the college itself. The need for more systemic approaches to creating diverse learning environments, supporting and rewarding faculty and staff, gathering and using information, developing a working collective framework for accountability, and managing and leading institutions are considered.

Paradise Valley Community College was founded on a student development philosophy and has always maintained learning as our core value. Our motto is “The Power of Learning” and our vision statement includes the aspiration “to be the higher learning organization of choice by creating engaging lifelong educational relationships that inspire and support all learners to increase their capacity for personal growth and positive social change.”

As a Learning-Centered College, two questions are at the core of everything we do: How does this course, program, service, budget decision, or process positively impact student learning? And, how do we know?

A Learning-Centered College Ensures That:

• Learning outcomes that create substantive change in learners are identified and made explicit and drive course, program, and curriculum development as well as delivery of student, academic, and administrative support services.
• Learning outcomes are assessed for the purpose of demonstrating that learning occurred and to expand and improve learning.
• Learning opportunities are accessible to learners and offered in a variety of formats and options.
• A culture of student success exists: student success outcomes emphasize active and engaged learning, connecting to the college environment, goal setting, successful navigation of college processes, and relationship building with faculty, staff, students and peers. These outcomes are made explicit to students.

Our Systems Support Learning By:

• College’s systems (human resources, policies, procedures, structures, technologies, strategic planning, budgeting and institutional effectiveness processes) and environments designed and evaluated in terms of their support of learning.
• Employee and Organizational Learning programs and the college’s employees demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning.
• Research about learning and learners routinely considered and systemically incorporated into the college’s learning processes, programs and services.