Learning Communities Research and Practice (LCRP - E-Journal, Washington Center at The Evergreen State College Research)
Not a member yet
134 research outputs found
Sort by
The Learning Community Experience: Cultivating a Residual Worldview
Get PDFIn this essay, we conceptualize first-year learning communities as worldviews that, during the first year and residually in subsequent years, allow students to recognize and engage difference and acknowledge and articulate their biases. Students who take part in a learning community have an opportunity to develop the biases and presuppositions of the community, as well as a position that is present throughout life. Using the first-year learning communities at Duquesne University as an example, we contend that inclusion in a learning community upholds a given worldview – as narrative, philosophical or theological system, or shaper of individuals. This, in turn, fosters the biases and presuppositions of the community’s members, a residual outcome that stays with students for the rest of their lives.
Christina L. McDowell Marinchak is an Assistant Professor of Business Communication at University of Alaska, Anchorage.
David DeIuliis is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA
Link Aloud: Making Interdisciplinary Learning Visible and Audible
Get PDFAre there ways to document interdisciplinary learning, specifically the forms integration takes? This article reports on stage two of a Carnegie scholar project on interdisciplinary teaching and learning in learning communities at Holyoke Community College. In the first stage, the author used the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy as a course-level assessment rubric to document the strong relationship between learning community instruction and interdisciplinary learning. In this follow-up qualitative study to make interdisciplinary learning both visible and audible, the focus is on student writing, specifically the mechanisms students use to integrate their learning across learning community course levels and to develop integrative habits of mind. In-depth interviews were conducted with twelve learning community students or scholars using a Link Aloud method which preserves student voice in writing and conversation by drawing on two methods from cognitive psychology, concept mapping and verbal protocol analysis, where students “think aloud” while performing a task. After reviewing completed Link Alouds with the twelve student-scholars, twelve precise mechanisms of integration were identified
Why a Journal? Why Now?
Get PDFIn recent decades learning communities have grown from an isolated practice on some campuses to a professional field spanning diverse communities of practice. A professional journal provides a way to document our collective learning
Sustained Faculty Development in Learning Communities
Get PDFWhile it is common for learning community programs to provide professional development to support their faculty, such support may not be sustained. This article reports on a professional development framework instituted at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, that includes activities for faculty teams before, during, and after the semester. This cyclical practice grew out of administrators’ recognition of the need for faculty not only to create shared assignments for students, but also to assess their students’ work in response. Based on the principles of: (1) supporting collaboration, (2) promoting reflective teaching to encourage integrative thinking and learning, and (3) respecting faculty members’ agency, we present a professional development model that aims to equip learning community faculty with tools to transform their teaching and their students’ learning.
Janine Graziano is a Professor of English, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, and an instructor and the faculty coordinator of the Integrative Studies Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York.
Gabrielle Kahn is an Assistant Professor of English and is an instructor and the faculty coordinator of the Intensive ESL Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College