Therefore, the committee recommends that no basic skills discipline be established at this time. The committee does acknowledge, however, that the constraints placed on colleges, programs, and instructors by such a decision deserve attention. The committee also recognizes the need for faculty to refine their methodology to meet the challenges of the growing numbers of basic skills students in California. By the year 2005, it is anticipated that the California Community Colleges will hire 18,000 new instructors. Therefore, the committee has included as part of the document, along with the recommendation that no discipline be established, suggestions to address some of the problems encountered by not having a discipline and strategies to strengthen basic skills programs and instructional methodologies.
All faculty agree that basic skills students deserve quality instruction.
Those opposing a discipline argue that an in-depth and sophisticated understanding of the discipline is necessary for effective teaching and that faculty without this background would not have sufficient expertise in a given field to meet the needs of adult learners who need to understand underlying principles. Though they recognize the need for special training in order to teach basic skills students well, faculty opposing a discipline believe that the necessary training can be developed more easily by an instructor in a discipline area than the expertise in the fields of math, English or reading can be developed by a basic skills instructor. Proponents of a discipline felt that the existing minimum qualifications for each discipline are too narrow and do not recognize specialized training in the related fields of learning theory, counseling, cross-cultural training, etc. which prepare instructors to meet the needs of basic skills students. Faculty with advanced preparation in individual disciplines only, discipline proponents argued, may not be the most interested and appropriate faculty to work with these students. Also at issue is maintaining currency in one's discipline.