Learning Communities Research and Practice (LCRP - E-Journal, Washington Center at The Evergreen State College Research)
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An Integrated Approach to Learning Communities: Designing for Place-Based, Communication-Intensive Learning
Get PDFThis article describes the design of a learning community that paired an English Composition and a Public Speaking course at the New York City College of Technology (City Tech) and explains the embedded teaching strategies: flexible scheduling, integrated assignments, and a place-based (Brooklyn) focus. These tactics, developed with the aim of engaging first-semester students in their general-education communication courses, served to orient students to City Tech and its neighboring environment. Flexible scheduling helped avoid making concessions due to time constraints and allowed for greater fairness and efficiency, while also expanding opportunities for classroom and out-of-classroom activities. Designing overlapping assignments helped students by scaffolding coursework throughout the semester, building toward increasingly challenging course objectives. The place-based focus on Brooklyn oriented students to the campus, supported their ability to find nearby places that expanded their campus experience, and gave them tools for interacting critically with their surroundings. Grounded in maker pedagogy, the semester’s final project asked students to make a shared Google Map that included their videos and summaries of their research, creating a virtual tour of downtown Brooklyn. Ultimately, these strategies supported better student success and engagement in the courses while providing a creative outlet for successful college work.
Jody R. Rosen is an Assistant Professor of English and Co-Director of the OpenLab at New York City College of Technology, CUNY, where she teaches in the First-Year Learning Community program each fall semester. Her scholarship focuses on pedagogical approaches to foster community, and on Modernist narratological representations of gender and sexuality.
M. Justin Davis is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. His research explores processes related to the production, performance, and consumption of identity, cultural memory, and public mind
Washington Center’s Online Student Survey Validation Study: Surfacing Students’ Individual and Collective Understanding of Their Learning Community Experiences
Get PDFThis article reports on findings from a mixed-methods validation study of the Online Survey of Students’ Experiences of Learning in Learning Communities. In the quantitative part of the study, we found strong correlations among survey items related to faculty behaviors, student behaviors, and critical thinking. Factor analysis yielded four primary factors: faculty behaviors that support quality learning for all students; student behaviors that foster responsibility for their own learning; student behaviors that support collaborative learning; and, student and faculty behaviors that together create an academic learning community. For the qualitative part of the study, we worked with LC programs at four institutions to investigate whether students think about the survey items in the same way we do. These findings—and an in-depth analysis of student responses at one campus—led to unexpected outcomes and new insights regarding LC assessment, specifically what students are learning from one another. In response, we developed a companion tool to the online survey, the Peer-to-Peer Reflection Protocol. We conclude by addressing the potential of this guided discussion protocol to surface students’ experiences of individual and collaborative learning.
Gillies Malnarich co-directs the Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education at The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA) and teaches in Evergreen’s Evening and Weekend Studies program.
Maureen Pettitt is the Director of Institutional Research at Skagit Valley College (Mt. Vernon, WA).
Jack Mino is a Professor of Psychology and Learning Communities Program Coordinator at Holyoke Community College (Holyoke, MA)
The Play\u27s the Thing: Embodying Moments of Integration Live, On Stage
Get PDFThis study of an interdisciplinary learning community at Holyoke Community College, which combined adolescent psychology and theater, attempts to show that embodied learning is not only a valid means of knowledge production and integrative learning but can also function as a gateway to deeper integration of course material. The authors document instances of embodied learning with thick descriptions of student work derived from samples of student writing, presentations, seminaring, videotaped performances, and student self/peer assessments. While the findings reveal students were engaged in integrative learning of an embodied kind, the crucial intermediate steps such as improvisations and rehearsals that set the stage for embodiment were not documented. The authors conclude there is much to learn about the integrative function of embodied learning by examining everyday classroom transactions on the way to the final performance.
Patricia G. Sandoval is the Chair of Communication, Media, TheaterArt, Fine and Performing Arts at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Jack J. Mino is a Professor of Psychology at Holyoke Community College
Autobiography and Community: A Personal Journey
Get PDFOur personal and professional lives intersect: the story of how one young man dropped out of a doctoral program in physics to figure out what to do about the continuing problem of dropout in higher education.
Vincent Tinto is Distinguished University Professor and former Chair of the Higher Education Program at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York
Linking Classes: Learning Communities, High Culture, and the Working Class Student
Get PDFHow do you teach the humanities to working class students living in the shadow of a BP oil refinery?
Calumet College uses freshman learning communities that link humanities, social justice, and English composition classes to provide a foundation for college success to predominantly first-generation students who are often underprepared for college-level courses. This article describes the program, including the curricular linkages between the classes. Retention results between students who took stand-alone classes are compared to students who participated in loosely linked learning communities and closely linked learning communities. In addition, data from a pre- and post-course assessment of students’ knowledge of general humanities concepts is included. A notable finding was the consistently higher performance of cohorts enrolled in closely linked learning communities, those in which the instructors shared assignments, responded to ideas raised in their colleagues’ classes, and met regularly to discuss students’ needs.
Ginger G. Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor of English at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Indiana.
Christopher Buczinsky is an Associate Professor and Director of the English Program at Calumet College of St. Joseph
Learning Communities and the Completion Agenda
Get PDFLearning communities are widely recognized as a powerful pedagogy that promotes deep learning and student engagement, while also addressing a range of challenges that plague higher education. The Completion Agenda represents a complex set of intersecting priorities advocated by federal and state government, nonprofit organizations, colleges, and universities that shift the national focus from expanding access to degree completion. Policy shifts and emerging educational practices aligned with the Completion Agenda such as dual credit courses, prescriptive degree maps, and the expansion of online general education courses are considered in terms of their impact on the administration of learning community programs. Although subtle adjustments in curricula may be necessary, learning communities remain critically important to preserving the quality of student learning and the integrity of undergraduate curricula in a policy environment that sometimes seems to emphasize efficiencies in degree completion above all else.
Kathy E. Johnson is Dean of University College, Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, and Professor of Psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Pulling it Together: Using Integrative Assignments as Empirical Direct Measures of Student Learning for Learning Community Program Assessment
Get PDFThis article outlines a systematic and manageable method for learning community program assessment based on collecting empirical direct measures of student learning. Developed at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi where all full-time, first-year students are in learning communities, the approach ties integrative assignment design to a rubric for grading the assignment developed by teams at a planning retreat each semester. The rubric specifies competencies from each class included in the assignment as well as a criterion for success of earning an overall grade of B or better (80 points or higher). The authors describe an advocacy letter assignment designed for a political science course in state and local government, a first-year composition course, and a first-year seminar. An appendix includes the assignment along with the grading rubric as well as the method used by administrators to aggregate data across all learning communities
Beyond Parallel Play : Creating a Realistic Model of Integrative Learning with Community College Freshmen
Get PDFWhat does interdisciplinary integration actually look like for students beginning their college studies? This article describes what a LaGuardia Community College teaching team, who typically share a theme and consult periodically but keep their classes distinct—discovered when they designed an integrative assignment for a paired developmental learning community pilot. During the semester, students in Introduction to Algebra and Critical Thinking completed three common assignments exploring the environment through mathematics: they collected data on their energy consumption, made sense of the numbers in an essay, and were asked how critical thinking and math contributed to their understanding of the environment theme. An examination of student work revealed that becoming an able integrative thinker involves learning very basic integrative skills. In turn faculty realized they needed to design an assessment tool which would reflect the developmental stages of integrative learning
Becoming Responsible Learners: Community Matters
Get PDFStudents at Iowa State University had the opportunity to enroll in a two-year National Science Foundation (NFS) Scholarship for Service (SFS) leadership development program, in addition to their work within their majors. This interdisciplinary program included faculty and students in computer engineering, computer science, mathematics, political science, management information systems, and education. The expected learning outcomes for this interdisciplinary effort were focused on “learning in community,” specifically to develop professionals and citizens who will continue learning for life while consistently supporting and encouraging the growth of others. The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to examine students’ experiences of learning in community in the SFS program. Participants identified a definable developmental process where students’ experiences moved from resistance to the interactive and participatory nature of the class, to reluctance to step outside comfort zones, to reliance on others within the community, to assuming responsibility for self and others in the community
Learning Community Assessment 101 - Best Practices
Get PDFGood assessment is part of all good learning communities, and this article provides a useful set of best practices for learning community assessment planning: (1) articulating agreed-upon learning community program goals; (2) identifying the purpose of assessment (e.g., summative or formative); (3) employing qualitative and quantitative assessment methods for assessing the most critical outcomes for administrative and instructional team-member decision making processes; (4) employing indirect and direct measures of student learning; and (5) ensuring that assessment results are used and that campus decision makers are equipped with the information required to create high-quality learning experiences to meet the diverse needs of all students