Learning Communities Research and Practice (LCRP - E-Journal, Washington Center at The Evergreen State College Research)
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Thriving in Residential Learning Communities
Get PDFOur research presents a multi-institutional study on the concept of thriving in Residential Learning Communities (RLCs). The study utilizes the Thriving Quotient (Schreiner, 2010c) to research how RLCs at four U.S. institutions contribute to students’ academic engagement and performance, interpersonal relationships, and psychological well-being. Additionally, this study uses an institutional mapping inventory to examine how students’ thriving correlates with various components of RLCs (Inkelas et al., 2008), such as RLC size, theme, faculty involvement, budget, and linked courses. The data were analyzed using factor analysis tools and blocked linear regression to identify associations between RLC characteristics and the thriving outcomes. Results indicate that particular groups of students (women, first generation students), faculty involvement, and financial resources correlated with higher thriving in RLCs. The article concludes with implications and directions for future research
Student Demographics and Experiences of Deeper Life Interactions within Residential Learning Communities
Get PDFIn this article, we discuss the influence of demographic characteristics upon students’ deeper life interactions with peers, faculty, and staff within the context of residential learning communities. When examining student demographic characteristics, we found that Students of Color and first-generation students have lower satisfaction with deeper life interactions with peers, but sophomores, juniors, or seniors had higher satisfaction with deeper life interactions with peers. Students did not differ on their deeper life interactions with faculty based on students’ demographic characteristics. We discuss further the implications of the findings for student engagement and academic success across diverse populations and offer recommendations for maximizing the positive impact of residential learning communities on efforts to promote inclusive excellence. The article concludes with a series of recommendations for current practice and future research focused specifically on how different types of student interactions with different groups influence student outcomes
Development and Validation of a Survey to Assess Belonging, Academic Engagement, and Self-Efficacy in STEM RLCs
Get PDFThis study examines how to investigate traditionally underrepresented students’ sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and academic engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) residential learning communities (RLCs). A 28-item survey was developed that included items from three previously validated instruments to measure three constructs: academic engagement; self-efficacy; and sense of belonging to the academic major, institution, and residential community. The survey was administered to first-year residential students pursuing a STEM major at three universities. This article discusses the development and administration of a survey to measure these constructs and the resulting validity scores. Samples included students living in STEM RLCs and STEM students not living in RLCs. An exploratory factor analysis examined validity, and Cronbach’s alpha was computed for internal consistency. Belonging to the university, belonging to academic major, and belonging to residential learning community emerged as separate factors, indicating that students appear to conceptualize these different types of belonging during their college experiences. These constructs can be used to explore differences between student populations. Despite the small sample sizes, there were observations suggesting that differences in sense of belonging, academic engagement, and self-efficacy exist between traditionally represented and underrepresented students. However, further research is needed to explore these questions
Integrating High Impact Practices: A Learning Community Model to Enhance Identity Development, Civic Engagement, and Reflective Practice
Get PDFThis article describes the process of developing a pilot learning community at East Tennessee State University, focusing on the collaboration of academic and student affairs administrators. Exploring how the literature on the integration of high impact practices, namely learning communities, service-learning, and domestic travel study informed our decisions regarding the structure and content of the pilot, we examine how this experience set a foundation for institutional exploration of future learning communities praxis. We describe the nature of our collaborations in the curricular and co-curricular learning community components and discuss the self-reflections that were necessary to help guide the learning of students. The article concludes with a summary of assessment results and reflections on major takeaways
Notes for this Special Issue
Get PDFResidential learning communities or living-learning communities afford integration of and collaboration between academic affairs and student affairs. The articles in this special issue address unique elements and experiences in residential learning community programs
The Science and Art of Nursing: A Purposefully Designed Integrative Assignment
Get PDFThis article outlines the process of how the author purposefully designed an integrative assignment to meet the real-world needs of a nursing cohort, First-Year Seminar anchored learning community. The author provides evidence from her own teaching practices to explore the elements that contributed to the construction of this assignment. For example, it was projected that nursing students need to develop two nursing habits of mind- to develop an inquiring mind and to develop a critical understanding of diversity. These nursing habits of mind were intended to introduce nursing students to both the science and art of nursing. She concludes the article with advice for practitioners working in learning communities on how to design their own intentional integrative assignments
Notes for this Issue
Get PDFFoundational to the learning community movement is a view of teaching and learning as a collaborative experience. The articles in this issue ask us to consider new ways we might understand and enact collaboration in our learning community research and practice
Place-Based Learning Communities on a Rural Campus: Turning Challenges into Assets
Get PDFAt Humboldt State University (HSU), location is everything. Students are as drawn to our spectacular natural setting as they are to the unique majors in the natural resource sciences that the university has to offer. However, the isolation that nurtures the pristine natural beauty of the area presents a difficult reality for students who are accustomed to more densely populated environments. With the large majority of our incoming students coming from distant cities, we set out to cultivate a “home away from home” by connecting first-year students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to the communities and local environment of Humboldt County. To achieve this, we designed first-year place-based learning communities (PBLCs) that integrate unique aspects and interdisciplinary themes of our location throughout multiple high impact practices, including a summer experience, blocked-enrolled courses, and a first-year experience course entitled Science 100: Becoming a STEM Professional in the 21st Century. Native American culture, traditional ways of knowing, and contemporary issues faced by tribal communities are central features of our place-based curriculum because HSU is located on the ancestral land of the Wiyot people and the university services nine federally recognized American Indian tribes. Our intention is that by providing a cross-cultural, validating environment, students will: feel and be better supported in their academic pursuits; cultivate values of personal, professional and social responsibility; and increase the likelihood that they will complete their HSU degree. As we complete the fourth year of implementation, we aim to harness our experience and reflection to improve our programming and enable promising early results to be sustained
Indexing: Narrating Interdisciplinary Connections in the Classroom
Get PDFAn integrative tool that we have piloted in two LCs, the interdisciplinary index, is an integrative template that students use to make connections between disciplines. In the learning community, “Cli-Fi: Stories and Science of the Coming Climate Apocalypse,” faculty developed the Climate-Change Stress Index (CCSI) that students used to identify evidence of climate-change impacts in the fictional setting of each novel they read. In another learning community, “All things Connect: Living with Nature in Mind,” students again used an index consisting Ecopsychology principles to describe, explain, and/or evaluate how these principles informed excerpts from environmental literature. We present a variety of student samples using Barber’s (2012) model of integrative learning and conclude with a review of the functions of interdisciplinary indexing
“Our Stories”: First-year Learning Communities Students Reflections on the Transition to College
Get PDFAnalysis of diverse first-year and first-generation learning communities students’ reflective narratives shows this population of students at an urban commuter college of technology face significant challenges in the transition into college. Designed to assist in this transition, the “Our Stories” digital writing project incorporates reflective writing in the long established, yet recently revitalized, learning communities program. Through analysis of the “Our Stories” project, we examine how the structure of our learning communities program, together with writing on an open digital platform, builds community and has the potential to positively influence students as they identify, and begin to make sense, of the social, emotional, and bureaucratic challenges in their transition into college. The role of peer mentors, faculty and administrators in this project is discussed