Learning Communities Research and Practice (LCRP - E-Journal, Washington Center at The Evergreen State College Research)
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Growing Pains and the Zen Rx: Surviving Success after the 6-Year Mark
Get PDFSubsequent to participating in the 2006 National Summer Institute on Learning Communities sponsored by the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education at The Evergreen State College, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College’s Learning Communities Team spent the next several months preparing the college for a fall 2007 launch of learning communities. In the ensuing semesters the learning communities’ initiative has experienced healthy, although not always consistent growth and refinement. Reynolds and its LC initiative are herein examined as an organic entity embodying interrelated needs for growth, equilibrium, reflection and sustainability. The Reynolds Learning Communities Team participated in the National Learning Communities Conference in November 2012, including providing a concurrent session presentation, “Growing Pains: Surviving Success after the 5-Year Mark.” In “Growing Pains and the Zen Rx: Surviving Success after the 6-Year Mark,” two of the team members update the 2012 presentation and take it to the next level through the perspective of Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Charlie Peterson is Assistant Dean of Educational Support Services, Professor and Director of Learning Communities at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College (serving greater Richmond, VA).
Miles McCrimmon is a Professor of English and the Coordinator of the Advance College Academy at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Colleg
Put Me in, Coach! Making the Academic Learning Community an Option for Student-athletes
Get PDFThere is a growing recognition among researchers and practitioners alike that student-athletes are an at risk group of students in higher education today. More specifically, research has identified several specific negative conditions that impact student-athletes and threaten their success in college. Learning communities, on the other hand, have a longstanding and successful approach to supporting new college students, and many of the traditional benefits of learning community participation line up closely with the needs of student athletes. From our perspective, this close alignment presents an opportunity to leverage the powerful potential of learning communities to support a group of students who have not traditionally participated in these programs. In this piece, we put forth a research-based rationale, as well as a call for action, to consider the needs of student athletes in learning community design and recruit them into these unique programs.
Geoffrey P. Mamerow is the Director of Institutional and Market Research at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, OH.
Kristina M. Navarro is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the School of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
Measuring the Effects of Problem-Based Learning on the Development of Postformal Thinking Skills and Engagement of First-Year Learning Community Students
Get PDFThis article presents an instructional model for teaching a gateway history course that affects students by: 1) improving their ability to think at higher levels; 2) increasing engagement; and, 3) enhancing their perception of the relevancy of the course material in comparison to traditional lecture and discussion. The model includes problem-based learning, a metacognitive reflection inducing approach to discussion, and integration into a learning community (PBL LC). The researchers conducted an evaluation of the outcomes of PBL LC and compared them to the outcomes of the same course taught by model methods without the learning community (PBL History) and by traditional lecture and discussion (TLD). We used a neo-Piagetian framework for developing the metacognitive reflection approach that also identified our target for higher level thinking and adult complex problem solving ability, i.e. postformal thinking dynamics. Change in cognitive ability, engagement and perception of relevancy of the content were measured using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results indicated that students taught with PBL LC had the highest levels of postformal thinking change, engagement, and perception of content relevancy, with both PBL LC and PBL resulting in higher levels than TLD.
Charles Wynn is an Assistant Professor of History and History Education at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA.
Richard Mosholder is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of First-Year and Transition Studies at Kennesaw State University.
Carolee Larsen is the Assessment Director for University College at Kennesaw State University
Students Connecting with the University Community: The Learning Community as Bridge
Get PDFThe purpose of this piece is to call attention to learning conversations—to bring forth an understanding of the power of storytelling, and how it functions to make communicative connections possible, thus helping students learn. I want to highlight the value of an embodied way of engaging students during service learning. I begin this perspective by telling the story behind the story of this “learning conversation.” Following that, I provide a rationale for building a communicative connection—a relationship—between the classroom and the community through service learning. Kolb’s (1984) “Experiential Learning Theory” is introduced as a means of building this relationship or bridge to connect the instructional environment of the classroom and the practices of the community through conversational learning. The final section describes a pedagogical praxis grounded in the experience of the learning community, its service learning initiative, and the power of organizing conversations through story.
Christina L. McDowell Marinchak is an Assistant Professor of Business Communication at University of Alaska, Anchorage
Now You See It: Using Documentation to Make Learning Visible in LCs
Get PDFThe practice of documentation is discussed as a means of making learning visible in the LC classroom. A documentation heuristic consisting of a four-stage cycle was used to capture, analyze and report what Bass and Eynon (2009) refer to as the “visible evidence of invisible learning” (p. 5). A variety of documentation samples are presented and examined in terms of what and how students integrated their learning individually and collectively over time. Documentation can prove to be a challenging pedagogy and professional development activity however, due to the time and effort required to enact the process. Despite these challenges, the author concludes that documentation can deepen student learning through revisiting and reflection. It can also improve assignment design and teaching through more precise scaffolding relative to the integrative moves students make as they construct knowledge. Finally, documentation can fulfill multiple functions, including that of a pedagogical practice, assessment strategy, and research method.
Jack Mino is a Professor of Psychology and Learning Communities Program Coordinator at Holyoke Community College (Holyoke, MA)
Identical Profiles, Different Paths: Addressing Self-selection Bias in Learning Community Cohorts
Get PDFThis article presents a method for addressing the self-selection bias of students who participate in learning communities (LCs). More specifically, this research utilizes equivalent comparison groups based on selected incoming characteristics of students, known as bootstraps, to account for self-selection bias. To address the differences in academic preparedness in the fall 2012 cohort, three stratified random samples of students were drawn from the non-LC population to match the LC cohort in mean ACT composite scores and mean high school percentile ranks. This process is called bootstrapping. The study suggests that LCs do impact student academic achievement and retention. The results indicate that LC students with similar entering characteristics to those of the bootstrap sample had higher rates for both GPA and retention than non-LC participants
An Integrated Interdisciplinary Faculty-Student Learning Community Focused on Water Issues: A Case Study
Get PDFIn response to a request from a campus student organization, faculty from three fields came together to develop and teach an integrated interdisciplinary course on water issues and social activism. This course, Water as Life, Death, and Power, brought together topics from the fields of anthropology, biology and chemistry to explore water rights, access to clean water, and water treatment methods. Students enrolled in the course developed projects related to a variety of local and global water issues to present real-world solutions at a university-wide student research showcase. This article describes how we organized the learning community, composed of students, faculty, and staff, and outlines the training process of developing a sense of community, content integration, and interdisciplinary teaching techniques.
Cathy Willermet is a Professor of Anthropology at Central Michigan University.
Eron Drake is the Assistant Director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching at Central Michigan University.
Anja Mueller is a Professor of Chemistry at Central Michigan University.
Stephen J. Juris is a Professor of Biology at Central Michigan University.
Pratik Chhetri is a graduate student and a member of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) at Central Michigan University.
Samik Upadhaya is a graduate student and a member of UAEM at Central Michigan University
Response to Julie Watts\u27 Examination of Hyperbonding: What Might a Focus on Learning Have to Offer?
Get PDFSonja Wiedenhaupt is a member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA
Against the Odds: The Impact of the Key Communities at Colorado State University on Retention and Graduation for Historically Underrepresented Students
Get PDFLearning communities are a high impact activity that can influence students’ likelihood for success. Colorado State University (CSU) created the Key Communities (Key) program, which is open to all students but targets students that have persistently lower graduation and retention rates. The majority of Key students are under-represented (ethnically diverse, low-income, and/or first generation to college) and/or students with lower levels of academic preparation. This paper describes the structure and purpose of Key and shares the results of an institutional level assessment of Key’s impact on graduation and retention. Since participation in Key is not randomly assigned, this analysis utilizes propensity score matching to estimate Key’s treatment effect. Results show that Key has a positive impact on graduation and retention for all students, but Key is incredibly effective for students who come to CSU with characteristics that have historically put them at risk for attrition.
Taé Nosaka is the Director of the Key Communities and University Learning Communities Coordinator at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO.
Heather Novak is a research analyst in the Office of Institutional Research at Colorado State University