Import Test : Learning Communities

The New Core Competence of the Community College

Matt Scales — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 15:51:26 GMT

Thanks to Judith Kamber of NECC for forwarding the link to David Jacobson's piece in Leadership Abstracts that focuses on the community college's unique opportunity to support learning communities across high schools, community colleges, four-year institutions, businesses and community organizations.

From the abstract:

More than any other organization, community colleges are positioned to take advantage of broad changes in the nature of work and learning that have occurred over the past two decades. They have a striking opportunity not only to become far more effective at their core business of teaching and learning, but also to play major roles both in K-12 education and workplace reform. The community college can fully exploit these opportunities by building a new core competence for the institution and in doing so dramatically increase its educational impact.

...Over the past 20 years, a steady, well-documented shift has taken place across all sectors of society toward more decentralized, networked organizational arrangements. Organizations in all fields are devolving day-to-day decision-making to decentralized teams, creating partnerships with other organizations, and participating in a variety of learning networks. In both K-12 and higher education, this shift is found in the reorganization of teaching and learning around learning communities and the proliferation of education partnerships and networks connecting schools, colleges, businesses, and community organizations.

To view the abstract in its entirety click on the following link:
The New Core Competence of the Community College

Session 4B Summary

Matt Scales — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:02:35 GMT

Thanks to Dona Cady of MCC for submitting the following summary of the MCC Summer Institute session 4B, Learning Communities and General Educational Reform.

Judith Kamber and Jack Mino held a spirited round-table discussion centered around Barbara Leigh Smith's article "The Challenge of Learning Communities as a Growing National Movement." The session covered the challenges of student learning, faculty development, diversity, institutional change, and the ultimate purpose of learning communities. Judith and Jack stressed that through the initial enthusiasm of partnered faculty to the institutional reality of nuts and bolts teaching, learning communities provide a worthwhile and innovative model for student centered learning across the curriculum.

Building Learning Communities

Matt Scales — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:00:00 GMT

Building Learning Communities: Infrastructure, Program and Faculty Development
(MCC Carnegie Summer Institute Session III – B.)

This session dealt with administrative issues in starting and sustaining a learning community program in a college. The presenters, Jack Minot of Holyoke Community College and Judith Kamber of Northern Essex Community College shared their experiences in taking leadership roles in the development of this approach to teaching and learning at their institutions. They addressed crucial questions concerning the costs (top administrative support), faculty participation, marketing, and integrating learning communities into the overall structure of a college. Prof. Minot, who directs a maturing program (ten years +), represented a situation in which grant funding from Title III and FIPSE was used to initiate an LC program that was an innovative way to strengthen retention and instruction of underrepresented groups in the college. Prof. Kamber, Director of Faculty Development, on the other hand, represented a program in its beginning stages (six years), that started with an individual faculty’s sabbatical project and was able to continue and develop with the support of the Academic Vice President in the form of faculty stipends to study LC’s and release time to team teach fully integrated six credit courses.

Faculty who teach in LC’s encourage other faculty involvement by testifying to the professional development and rejuvenating experience of this approach, and participating students promote LC’s through word of mouth. Improvements in retention and student learning help promote LC’s with top administrators. Tying LC’s purpose and results to institutional mission is essential for sustaining this instructional approach. NECC has a faculty steering committee to promote and recommend LC’s to the college’s Curriculum committee. They also have a Web site that publicizes the program http://www.necc.mass.edu/learningcommunities/test.html.

The learning community approach to instruction is specified in HCC’s mission statement. Assessment should be an essential part of any initiation of LC’s. It’s also recommended to start small and build on successes. Prof. Minot has development many materials for assessing an institutions readiness to try LC’s and faculty compatibility for team teaching. (The link to the site for LC’s on HCC’s Web site is: http://www.hcc.mass.edu/html/Learning_at_HCC/Learning.html#. English Composition or developmental writing courses are recommended as excellent courses to pair with other disciplines to develop integrated learning communities.

A resource on developing LC’s and making them an essential part of a college is the National Learning Communities Project at Evergreen State College (http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/). Participation in its Summer Institute is highly recommended for those wishing to start LC’s at their colleges.

Thanks to Stan Hitron of MCC for submitting this session summary.

The Challenges of Teaching with Others

Matt Scales — Mon, 09 May 2005 10:00:00 GMT

Thanks to Judith Kamber for calling attention to the following information on learning communities distributed through the Tomorrow's Professor listserv. The link below will open an excerpt from the book "Sustaining and Improving Learning Communities" by Jody Levine Laufgraben, Nancy S. Shapiro and Associates. Mention is made of some of the challenges for faculty working together as a team as well as suggestions for supporting such an endeavor.

Download teaching_together.rtf

Learning Communities & Team Teaching Resources

Matt Scales — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:41:27 GMT

Thanks to Jack Mino of Holyoke Community College for forwarding the following resources related to team teaching and learning communities. Use the links below to access the resources.

Holyoke Community College Learning Communities Program Resources:
Download hcclc_program_resources.doc

Structuring and Delivering Interdisciplinary Courses:
Download interdisciplinary_courses_a.htm

Guide to Interdisciplinary Syllabus Preparation:
Download GuidetoInterdisciplinary.pdf

The Learning Community Initiative at Northern Essex

Matt Scales — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 11:00:00 GMT

Other members of our COPPER group have expressed interest in how the Northern Essex Learning Communities initiative has been developed and maintained for several years on campus. Here is a brief explanation from Barbara Stachniewicz, our current LCRP—learning communities resource person:

Learning communities began to be offered college-wide at NECC in Fall 2001. One faculty member investigated Learning Communities as his sabbatical project and, upon his return, worked with the Director of Faculty and Staff Development to initiate a year-long professional development program to research and develop LCs. In 2000, 10 faculty members participated in the program. In the summer of 2001, a group of seven faculty and administrators attended the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education National Learning Community Project at The Evergreen State College. The experience was invaluable and we returned with an administrative plan.

We established a Steering Committee (comprised of six faculty – we have since expanded to seven – and three administrators) to create and administer policy and procedures. The Committee is chaired by a Learning Communities Resource Person who works closely with the Director of Faculty and Staff Development and reports to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. The committee developed an application process, worked with the Vice President on compensation and other issues for faculty, developed goals for the project and worked to create a campus-wide network to “grow” the initiative.

We have grown from an initial offering of five LCs in 2001 to the point where we now average 10-12 LCs in an academic year.

Currently, we have an active Steering Committee and an application process that we continually refine. We have strong support from the Office of Faculty and Staff Development and have just finished a new job description that expands the role of the Resource Person to include both facilitator and coaching tasks. We sponsor two web sites: one for faculty and staff that includes information about the program and the application process (http://www.necc.mass.edu/departments/ofsd/lc.shtml) and one for students that includes up-to-date information about our offerings (http://www.necc.mass.edu/learningcommunities/index.php).

Post submitted by Richard Lizotte, NECC

Learning Communities & Developmental Education

Matt Scales — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 10:00:00 GMT

Learning Communities and Developmental Education: A Case Study A learning community linking a reading and sociology course along with a Supplemental Instruction (SI) group has been implemented successfully at Bristol Community College (BCC) for the last four semesters, and is now in its fifth semester. The classes have identical rosters and are made up of students who have not met the required college reading criteria upon registration. Each class meets for the standard three lectures per week. A peer tutor or SI leader also attends these classes, modeling appropriate and effective student behavior. In addition to the class time students meet for two additional class periods per week and discussions are held on the subject led by the SI leader. Consistently, many of the students initially resist this design, but soon discover its benefits and become enthusiastic about the arrangement. Attendance at these sessions is almost universal. As the students discover that they are able to master the material and do well on quizzes and tests, they come to see the value of developing appropriate learning skills and the necessity for ongoing review of the material. There have been three SI leaders and all of them have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They have played an important role in its success through their creativity in assisting the students in mastering the learning skills necessary to succeed. At the same time they have derived benefits through developing a greater understanding of the courses, as well as learning about group dynamics and the learning process. The sociology instructor, Dana Mahew, reports that: "The common roster between the reading and sociology classes allow the students to get to know each other better, thus enhancing the sense of community. The students actually bond to the point where they are assisting each other beyond the confines of the classroom, and are engaging on a social level. The reading and sociology classes also engage in joint assignments, furthering the connnection between the two subjects. For example, students utilize sociological concepts as the vocabulary words in the reading class. This, in turn, aids with the understanding and recognition of those terms in the sociological class. The withdrawal percentage in the sociology learning community classes is much lower than in the standard introductory sections. There has also been a drop in the number of failing grades. Overall, the experience with this type of learning community has been valuable, academically and personally". Beth Whitehead the reading instructor is also enthusiastic in reporting the results of her experience. She says that: “There are certain predictable challenges in the process of enhancing reading comprehension for college students. Linking a reading course to a content course, specifically Introduction to Sociology, has allowed both instructor and students to meet these challenges more fully". The arrangement, she points out greatly enhances vocabulary development, and "the process of moving from literal to critical thinking. By exploring the sociology text as a reading tool, students are exposed to the concept that there may be more than one correct answer". She also points out that “the ultimate aim of a college reading course is the transfer of skill from isolated practice to other academic situations". This learning community makes this connection explicit to the students. She concludes that: "the aims of this learning community have been realized. Students involved have earned higher grades and testing scores than students in unlinked classes. Retention has been better...Students have achieved a level of social cohesion which is often unavailable in a commuter school. The whole is apparently greater than the whole. The outcomes continue to gratify, surprise and motivate all involved". --submitted by Ron Weisberger, LAANE President

Learning Communities Conference

Matt Scales — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 14:22:51 GMT

Thanks to Judith Kamber from NECC for passing along information regarding the following opportunity for those of you interested in developing and sustaining learning communities. "The Atlantic Center for Learning Communities plans retreats for faculty teams that anticipate working together in a variety of learning communities-from coordinated studies programs, to clustered courses, to linked or paired classes." Their upcoming conference/retreat on Thursday & Friday October 21-22 in Holyoke, Massachusetts has September 22 as an early bird registration deadline. Information about the conference can be accessed at http://www.wagner.edu/aclc