Innovative Educators Presents
Creating Learning Communitiesto Enhance Student Success
Dr. Jodi Levine LaufgrabenTemple University
Focus for this Webinar
Things to consider when…
Developing– Overview of models and definitions– Implementation issues
Sustaining– Benefits– Maintenance issues
Assessing– Methods– Outcomes
Learning Communities.
Outcomes
After this webinar, participants will be able to:
Identify the goals and purposes of implementing learning communities on their campus
Describe the basic definitions and models of learning communities
Imagine a learning community offering List the implementation and sustainability issues facing their
campus’ efforts Consider ways of assessing learning communities
Background: Knowledge Probe
Before we start, take a few moments to answer the following questions:
A learning community is…
“Our Campus” is implementing learning communities to…
Evidence of success will include…
Background Knowledge Probe is a classroom assessment technique that can be found in Angelo and Cross (1993) Classroom Assessment Techniques. Jossey-Bass.
Your responses
With your colleagues, share your response to the question:
“Our Campus is implementing learning communities to…”
..And email me (Q&A feature) some of your answers for the group discussion.
Aims/Goals of Learning Communities
It begins with goals…
Increase curricular coherence Promote deep learning Connect skill and content areas Build community Revitalize faculty Revitalize the institution Promote diversity Enhance student engagement Increase retention Enhance student achievement
What is a Learning Community?
A variety of approaches that link or cluster classes during a given term, often around an interdisciplinary theme, that enroll a common cohort of students. This represents an intentional restructuring of students’ time, credit and learning experiences to foster more explicit intellectual connections between students, between students and their faculty, and between disciplines.
Source: Gabelnick, MacGregor, Matthews, and Smith (1990) Learning Communities: Creating Connections Among Students, Faculty and Disciplines. Jossey-Bass.
Curricular Learning Communities
Dimensions of LCs
Student collaboration Faculty collaboration Curricular coordination Shared setting Interactive pedagogy
Where is your campus on each dimension?
Low………Mid……….High
Love, A.G. and Tokuno, K.A. (1999) Learning communities models. In J. Levine (Ed.) Learning Communities: New Structures, New Partnerships for Learning. Columbia, South Carolina: National Center for the Freshman Year Experience and Students in Transition Monograph Series.
“Learning” and “Community” as both means and end
COMMUNITY as a strategy to strengthen LEARNING
and…
LEARNING to work and to understand more deeply the value and challenges of COMMUNITY
Slide provided by Jean MacGregor, National Learning Communities Project, The Evergreen State College
Programs in which a small cohort of students enrolls in larger classes that faculty DO NOT coordinate. Intellectual connections and community- building often take place in an additional integrative seminar.
Programs of two or more classes linked thematically or by content, which a cohort of students takes together. The faculty DO plan the program collaboratively.
Programs of coursework that faculty members team-teach. The course work is embedded in an integrated program of study.
shading represents the student cohort
Learning Communities can be structured as:
+
Goal: The creation of small effective academic learning communities in a large college setting.
“F.I.G.’s” - Freshman Interest Groups
Vehicle: Triads of courses offered around an area of interest, an interdisciplinary topic, or courses related to a specific major. Each F.I.G. has a peer advisor, a more advanced student who convenes the group weekly to form study groups, to learn about campus resources, and to plan social gatherings.
Pre-Law
F.I.G.
American Government
+Intro. to Philosophy: Ethics
+Fundamentals of Public Speaking
+F.I.G. Discussion Group
Goal: Curricular coherence and integrating skill and content teaching
• Two courses for which students co-register.• Generally, faculty work to coordinate syllabi and assignments, but
teach their classes separately.• Often, a writing or speech course is linked to a lecture-centered
course, or a mathematics course is linked to a science course.
Linked or Paired Courses
Some Examples
American Political SystemsCollege Composition
College MathIntroduction to Psychology
General ChemistryCalculus
First-Year WritingIntroduction to Philosophy
TheaterHumanities
Two, three or more courses fully team-taught as an integrated program.
Goals:
• More intensive student immersion in interrelated topics, a theme or question
• Faculty participating as learners as well as teachers
• The blurring of boundaries between disciplines or courses in favor of a larger whole
• The faculty development that emerges from collaboratively planning, delivering and reflecting on a coordinated program
Team Taught Coordinated Studies
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9-10:30 9-10:30 8-1:00 9-10:30
Lecture Faculty Seminar
Literacies Workshop
Lecture
11-12:30 11-12:30 • writing 11-12:30 Prep
Book Seminar
Lecture • quantitative reasoning • photography
Book Seminar
Day
1:30-3:30 2:30-4:00 1:30-3:30
Film/Video Topical Workshops
In Conversation
Week in Review
Problems Without Solutions?A year-long program at
The Evergreen State College
Coordinated StudiesSample Schedule
Successful Learning Community Implementation
Successful Learning Community implementation requires extensive cross-unit coordination:
Assessment Evaluation
Program Delivery
Registrar Registration
PublicityStudent Recruitment
Involvementof Academic Advisors
Goals for theLC Effort
Faculty Recruitment
Faculty Development Support
LC Offerings Models
Planning Calendar
Scheduling - Time - Rooms
Locus of Learning Community Leadership
Learning Communities represent a transformation in how we think about structuring teaching and learning environments.
Impetus for Change
Administrative Support
Leadership Team
Comprehensive View/Shared Vision
Strategic Plan
Inclusive Planning
Student-Focused Goals
Faculty Involvement
Project Director
Information
Networks
Resources
Incentives and Rewards
Source: National Learning Communities Project http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/lcFaq.htm
Critical Elements of the Change Process
Teaching in Communities
Responsibility for learning is shared with student Teacher:
– Invests expertise into designing new learning tasks– Performs helping functions
probing encouraging explaining
– Listens to students– Evaluates and assesses student learning and tasks
Successful Teaching Practices
Use information technology Allow as much time as possible for pre-semester
community planning Anticipate problems Consider the community plan “bendable” Frequently debrief and adjust plan
Adapted from Strommer, “Teaching and Learning in a Learning Community”
Successful Teaching Practices in LCs
Emphasize active learning approaches Allow time for process Build in classroom assessment Feature a “community-defining event” early in the term
– Attend a film, concert or theatrical performance– Participate in a community service project
Successful learning communities create or deepen the connections between and among students and teachers…
INTERPERSONAL Students with each other Students with their teachers Faculty with each other
CURRICULAR Between academic disciplines Between in-class work and homework Between theory and practice
CO-CURRICULAR Academic programs and residence life Academic Affairs and Student Affairs Students with academic advising and support resources
Connections
Organizational dynamics and change as a process Purposes of learning communities Integration of LCs with mission of the institution Expansion of LC leadership across campus Continued buy-in and involvement of new faculty Extent of curricular integration Sustained faculty development Availability of resources Assessment, and…
New ideas, new energy, new vision!
Critical Elements to Sustaining LCs
Source: Love, A.G. in Levine Laufgraben & Shapiro (2004), Sustaining and Improving Learning Communities. Jossey-Bass.
The 10 minute Community
Consider what courses/disciplines you might like to bring together to create a community around this theme. Discuss the type of learning
community (FIG, link, …) how the theme will be addressed across the courses, assignments or learning activities for students, and teaching
strategies to engage students in active and collaborative learning.
Theme: A Different Angle
Report out in just 10 minutes!!!
Effective Learning Communities
Effective Learning Communities have a number of distinctive features:
They are usually smaller than most other units on campus.
They have a sense of purpose.
They help overcome the isolation of faculty members from one another and from their students.
They encourage faculty members to relate to one another both as specialists and as educators. (In effect this encourages the development of new faculty roles.)
They encourage continuity and integration in the curriculum.
They help build a sense of group identity, cohesion, and “specialness.”
Source: Involvement in Learning, 1984.
Some Purposes of Learning Communities Assessment:
Program description– Describing the program to others
Program monitoring– Monitoring the program over time
Program impact– Assessing program impact
Program improvement– Evaluating program for improvement
Program validation– Building support through assessment
Assessment
Collaboration and Multiple Methods – Building partnerships through assessment – Understanding learning communities through multiple lenses
Quantitative Methods– Comparative descriptive data– Comparative longitudinal tracking– Comparative survey data
Qualitative Methods– Interviews– Focus groups– Diaries, journals, etc.– Portfolios
Methods
Student outcomes– Student retention, achievement– Student involvement, motivation– Time to degree, degree completion– Intellectual development
Faculty outcomes– Faculty development in terms of expanded repertoire of teaching approaches,
revised course content, and new scholarly interests.– Faculty mentoring– Faculty engagement with beginning students, with general education offerings.
Institutional outcomes– Learning communities as “skunk works,” i.e., R&D sites for curriculum
development, and the strengthening of teaching and learning
Are Learning Communities Effective?
Final Assessment
On a piece of
paper, list 5-7 items/issues that will be essential to the success of learning communities on your campus. Include one approach for assessing your learning community initiative.
Focused Listing is a classroom assessment technique that can be found in Angelo and Cross (1993) Classroom Assessment Techniques. Jossey-Bass.
National Learning Communities ProjectNational Learning Commons Websitehttp://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/project.asp?pid=73
Resources
Shapiro, N. S., and J. H. Levine. 1999. Creating Learning Communities: A Practical Guide to Winning Support, Organizing for Change, and Implementing Programs. Jossey-Bass.
Smith, B. L. 2001. "The Challenge of Learning Communities as a Growing National Movement." Peer Review. Association of American Colleges & Universities. 3/4, (4/1) Summer/Fall: 4-8.
Laufgraben, J. L. and Shapiro N. S. 2004. Sustaining and Improving Learning Communities. Jossey-Bass.
Smith, B. L., J. MacGregor, R. Matthews, and F. Gabelnick. 2004. Learning Communities: Reforming Undergraduate Education. Jossey-Bass.
Final Thoughts
Slides and Recording – https://www.innovativeeducators.org/creating.ppt – We will send you a link to view the recording by the end of
the day on Friday
Evaluation Exit Thank You