Learning Communities and Historically Black Colleges

Learning Communities and
Historically Black Colleges

Howard University
Washington, D.C.
January 30-31, 2009

Phyllis Worthy Dawkins, Ph.D.
Dean and CAO, College of Professional Studies

Johnson C. Smith University

Resource Faculty
The Washington Center for the
Improvement of Undergraduate Studies

[email protected]

Outline

z 5 Minute Universe
z History
z Trends
z Benefits
z Program Models
z Integrated Assignment
z LCs and HBCUs

5 Minute Universe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4

Father Guido Sarducci

History

National Learning Communities
Project

z Began in the state of z Housed at Evergreen State
Washington in 1983 College through a public
service center, known as the
z Started with Evergreen Washington Center for the
College (4 yr) and Seattle Improvement of
Central Community College Undergraduate Education
(2 yr)
z Headquarter for the Learning
z Moved from a pedagogical Communities Project
innovation to a faculty
development effort z http://learningcommons.everg
reen.edu
z Created by Barbara Leigh
Smith and Jean MacGregor of z Currently Co-Directed by
Evergreen College Emily Lardner and Gillies
Malnarich

Johnson C. Smith University

z Historically, Black, private, undergraduate
institution

z Liberal Arts Institution
z Charlotte, North Carolina
z 103 full-time faculty
z Student Enrollment @1588
z 98% African American students
z Mobile University, Learning Communities, Learning

Across the Curriculum and Service Learning
z President, Dr. Ronald Carter

JCSU’s Mission

…The University endeavors to produce
graduates who are able to communicate

effectively, think critically, learn
independently as well as collaboratively,

and demonstrate competence in their
chosen fields…

Definition,Trends and
Structure

What are Learning Communities and
how are they structured?

Critical components of successful
LCs

Factors Negatively Associated with
Positive Student Outcomes

z Hours spent watching television
z Institutional size
z Use of teaching assistants
z Full-time employment
z Lack of community among students
z Living at home
z Participating in inter-collegiate athletics
z Peers oriented toward materialism

Astin, A. W. What Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited. 1993.

3

High Impact Activities

George Khuh & Associates, AAC&U Presentation, January 22, 2009

z First-Year Seminars and Experiences
z Common Intellectual Experiences
z Learning Communities
z Writing-Intensive Courses
z Collaborative Assignments and Projects

“Science as Science Is Done”;
z Undergraduate Research
z Diversity/Global Learning
z Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
z Internships
z Capstone Courses and Projects

4

Definition of Learning
Communities

z Consist of a variety of approaches that link or cluster classes during
a given term, often around an interdisciplinary theme or public issue,
that enroll a common cohort of students.

z This represents an intentional restructuring of students’ time, credit,
and learning experiences to build community and to foster more
explicit connections among students, among students and their
teachers, and among disciplines.

(Jean MacGregor and Barbara Leigh Smith)

z At the heart of all Learning Communities is an intentionally-designed
integrated assignment (Emily Lardner and Gillies Malnarich, 2007)

The Washington Center for the Quality of Undergraduate Studies

Situating LCs in
appropriate curricular arenas

1. Identify goals for a learning community initiative

• for students
• for faculty
• for the curriculum
• for the institution

2. Consider areas of need:
• first-term-in-college adjustment needs and

developmental opportunities
• high-risk courses
• gateway courses and pre-requisites
• critical distribution courses
• platform courses for specific majors
• courses that are or could be arenas for bridging skills/
content, theory/practice, liberal arts/professions
• across-curriculum initiatives

38

Situating LCs in appropriate
curricular arenas continued…

3. Consider building on existing nests of interest and
opportunity:

• areas of faculty interest, strength, innovation
• your college’s distinctive mission and location
• fit with and ability to enhance other initiatives already

underway on the campus

Learning Communities are
Found in:

z Developmental studies
z Freshmen/First Year initiatives
z Strategies for coherence in general education
z Writing programs: teaching writing in the context of a

subject or an interdisciplinary theme
z Study in a minor (Women’s Studies, Environmental

Studies)
z Study in the major
z Graduate school programs
z Honors Programs

11

Historically Black Colleges and
Universities with Learning Communities

z Johnson C. Smith University z St. Augustine’s College
z Tougaloo College z Bennett College
z Central State University z Bethune-Cookman College
z Winston Salem State z N. C. A&T State University
z Philander Smith College
University z Spelman College
z Xavier University z Talladega College
z University of Central z North Carolina Central

Arkansas-Pine Bluff Universities
z Jackson State University z Fayetteville State Universities
z Voorhees College z Others…See Handout
z Winston-Salem State

Universities
z Howard University

Benefits to students,
university, community

Based on findings across the
country

Learning Communities
Address the Need for:

z Greater intellectual interaction

z student student

z student faculty

z faculty faculty

z Curricular coherence: reinforcement and/or
integration of ideas

z Understanding issues which cross subject matter
boundaries

z Ways to facilitate the move toward a richer, learning-
centered environment

z Active and collaborative learning

z Exploring and understanding diverse perspectives

z Student retention and progress toward degree

z Faculty development

z Low-cost methods for doing the above 9

Features of Effective
Learning Communities

Source: Involvement in Learning, 1984.

z They are usually smaller than most other units on campus.
z They have a sense of purpose.
z They help overcome the isolation of faculty members from one

another and from their students.
z 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.)
z They encourage continuity and integration in the curriculum.
z They help build a sense of group identity, cohesion, and
“specialness.”

8

Benefits:
Learning Communities

z Strengthen student z Create a sense of
retention community when it is
connected to co-
z Increase learning curricular activities

z Enhance recruitment z Create a sense of
efforts community when
connected to service
z Increase student learning experiences
satisfaction
z Provide an opportunity
z Deepen understanding for faculty and students
of content to bond in and out of
the classroom

Benefits continued…

z Make way for a smooth transition to college
z Provide opportunities to “learn by doing”
z Provide a supportive learning environment

Curricula Models

Three Basic Types
Freshman Interest Groups

Paired/Cluster Classes
Coordinated Studies (Team-Taught)

Choosing the appropriate
LC Model

What are student enrollment patterns?

• usual course loads (full-time, part-time)
• scheduling patterns, needs
• kinds of courses taken (general education, honors,
developmental, gateway courses into majors)

What are staff and faculty opportunities and constraints?

• usual teaching loads
• staffing patterns and sizes of key courses
• reward systems
• “riskiness”
• history of collaboration
• interest in deep collaboration
• history of academic/student affairs partnerships
• current advising and placement systems

Choosing the appropriate
LC Model continued…

What is your institutional milieu?

• history of conversations and initiatives
around
strengthening teaching and learning

• genuine interest in fostering institutional
commitment toward cross-disciplinary and
cross-unit collaboration

• willingness, flexibility and ability to support
change, especially to change planning
practices, and resource development

• commitment to focused arenas of change
• fit with other institutional priorities

From Courses
Usually, teachers teach separate courses to separate sets of
students

Teacher A

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3

and students experience their
separate courses in unrelated fragments

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

Teacher A Teacher B Teacher C Teacher D

Student 6

To Programs

By intentionally pairing or clustering courses into
programs, both teachers and students experience a more
coherent and enriched teaching and learning environment.

Teacher A Teacher B

Class 1 Class 2

7

Learning Communities
Can Be Structured As:

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. (e.g. FIG)

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 coho1r3t

“F.I.G.’s” Freshman Interest Groups

Goal: The creation of small effective academic learning
communities in a large college setting.

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 undergraduate who convenes the group weekly to form study groups, to
learn about campus resources, and to plan social gatherings.

Pre-Law American Government
F.I.G.
+

Intro. to Philosophy: Ethics

+

Fundamentals of
Public Speaking

+

F.I.G. Seminar

14

Examples of F.I.G.’s

THE AMERICAN STATE Introduction to Politics
Survey - U.S. History
Interdisciplinary Writing
F.I.G. Seminar

THE SPECTRUM OF Psychology as a Natural Science
BEHAVIOR Intro. to Anthropology
Composition: Social Issues
F.I.G. Seminar

PRE-ENGINEERING Psychology w/Analytic Geometry
General Chemistry
Composition: Exposition
Engineering Careers
F.I.G. Seminar

15

Linked or Paired Courses

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.

17

Examples of Paired Courses

Introduction to Public Speaking
American History
Beginning Calculus
College Physics

College Study Skills
Introductory Biology

Technical Writing
Intro. to Environmental Science

Women and Fiction
Philosophy: Ethics

18

Learning Clusters:

Goal: Coherence, thinking and writing skills in a
community setting

LaGuardia Community College

• All day-time enrolled students in Liberal Arts AA Programs take
one of these 12-credit clusters.

• Cluster enrollment is limited to 30 students. Students travel
from class to class as a self-contained group.

English 101 (3 credits)

+

Writing the Research Paper (2 credits)

+

Integrated Hour (1 credit)

“Work, Labor and Business in

“Freedom and Seeing” OR American Life”

Intro. to Philosophy (3 credits) Intro. to Social Sci. (3 credits)

+ +

Intro. to Art (3 credits) Work, Labor & Business in American
b
Lit. (3 credits) 20

A Learning Cluster Schedule:

Work, Labor and Business in American Society

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

9:20-11:50

10:40-11:50 Work, Labor & 10:40-11:50 9:40-11:50

Research Paper Business in Research PaperWork, Labor &

Amer. Lit. Business in

Amer. Lit.

12:00-1:10 12:00-1:10 12:00-1:10

Composition Integrated Composition

Hour

1:20-2:30 1:20-2:30 1:20-2:30

Intro. to Intro. to Intro. to

Social Science Social Science Social Science

21

Coordinated Study Model

Evergreen College

The learning community is engaged “full-time” (15-18 credits) in
interdisciplinary, active learning around themes. Faculty
development occurs through co-planning and team-teaching across
disciplinary boundaries.

z Faculty teams of 3-4 co-plan the coordinated study around an
over-arching theme, or around related content/skills subjects

z Generally, faculty members teach only in the coordinated study,
and students register for it as their entire “course load”

z Therefore, scheduling of class time becomes quite flexible:
opportunities for BLOCKS of time for lectures, discussions, field
trips, workshops

z Frequent use of “book seminars,” collaborative learning, and
student projects

32

Team-Taught Course Pairs
(Coordinated Studies)

“Chemath” Intro. Chemistry
Intermediate Algebra
“Politics & the
Internet” +

“Mexico: Facts Computer Science
& Fiction” Political Science

+

History of Mexico
Cinema

29

Team-Taught Triads of Courses

The Quanta Program at
Daytona Beach Community College

A year-long program involving 3 courses (9 credits) each semester.

Fall Spring

“The Quest for Identity: the Search for “Threshold to the Millennium:
Identity and Intimacy” Towards a Better World”

English 1 (Composition) English 2 (Literature)

+ +

Psychology of Adjustment General Psychology

+ +

Humanities 1 Humanities 2

30

Coordinated Study Model

Typical Schedules

Problems Without Solutions?

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9-10:30 9-10:30 9-10:30
Lecture Faculty 8-1:00 Lecture Prep
Seminar Day
11-12:30 11-12:30 Literacies 11-12:30
Book Lecture Workshop Book

Seminar • writing Seminar
• quantitative

reasoning

• photography

1:30-3:30 2:30-4:00 1:30-3:30

Film/Video Topical In
Workshops Conversation

Week in
Review

34

JCSU Model

JCSU Model: Learning

Communities (Cluster Model)

z 21 Linked LC Blocks (all freshmen)
z Each LC Block has:

z 30 (maximum) students in a cohort per block
z 4-5 five full-time faculty teaching in each block
z Team Leader
z Cluster Leader (serves 4 blocks)
z Case manager for each block
z Orientation leaders for each block
z Peer Active Learning Mentors (PALMs)
z Student Engagement Active Learner (SEAL) Trainers
z 15-16 credit hour loads per block

z Every block has a Math, English and Orientation Course

z Tutors

JCSU Per Block (20)
Organization

Team Leader

3-5 Full-time Faculty Case Manager
SEAL PALM

30 Students

Enrolled in 15-16 credit hours of pure GE courses-
Math, English and Orientation in every block

Core Practices at JCSU
Across All LC Blocks

Integrated assignment
Co-curricular activities
Service learning
Active and Engaged Learning

Designing an Integrated
Assignment

Bloom’s This pyramid depicts the different levels of thinking we use when learning.
Notice how each level builds on the foundation that precedes it. It is

required that we learn the lower levels before we can effectively use the
skills above.

Taxonomy Evaluation Making decisions and Graduate School
supporting views;

requires

Combining information to Synthesis understanding of
form a unique product; values.
requires creativity and

originality.

Identifying

Analysis components; Undergraduate
determining
arrangement, logic,

Using information to solve and semantics.

problems; transferring

abstract or theoretical ideas Application
to practical situations.

Identifying connections and

relationships and how they Restating in
apply. your own words;

Comprehension paraphrasing,
summarizing,

translating. High School

Memorizing verbatim

information. Being able to

remember, but not

necessarily fully Knowledge
understanding the

material.

Louisiana State University ‚ Center for Academic Success ‚ B-31 Coates Hall ‚ 225-578-2872 ‚
Sandra McGuire, www.cas.lsu.edu

Essential Learning Outcomes

Knowledge of human cultures and physical and
natural world

- focused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary

and enduring

Intellectual and practical skills

- practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in the context of

progressively more challenging problems, projects, and
standards of performance

Personal and social responsibility

- anchored through active involvement with diverse communities

and real-world challenges

Integrative learning

- demonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills, and

responsibilities to new settings and complex problems

From: AAC&U, LEAP Report, College Learning for the New Global Century, p.12

Is there a difference between
integrative and interdisciplinary
learning?

Working definition

Individuals demonstrate interdisciplinary understanding
when they integrate knowledge and modes of
thinking from two or more disciplines or established
fields of knowledge in order to create products, solve
problems, and offer explanations of the world around
them in ways that would not have been possible
through single disciplinary means.

Adapted from Boix Mansilla & Gardner, 2000

Interdisciplinary integrations

™ Integrating knowledge and modes of
thinking in two or more disciplines to
advance understanding

™ Integrating expert perspectives

(e.g. M. Gandhi, J. Sachs, Liberation Theology on
poverty)

™ Integrating artistic modalities

(e.g., history and sculpture in monument)

™ Integrating disciplines to understand
experience

(e.g., life-story placed in the larger sociological,
historical, economic context)

Washington Center’s Heuristic

Designing Purposeful & Integrative
Learning

What is the public issue or question?

Integrative
Learning

Disciplinary grounding Possibilities for
or areas of expertise connections

Developing an Integrated Assignment
– Think-Group-Share Activity

z At your seat, get into groups of 3 with faculty or staff
from different disciplines

z Get at least 3 sticky-notes from the pads on the table
(Each person pick up a different color)

z Think-In the context of your discipline, what do you
want students to learn most from your course? What
do you want them to know, do or perform as a result
of your course?

z Write each response (at least 3) on a separate
sticky note

z In your group, share, compare, and cluster sticky
notes by related concepts, content areas, or themes
on the table or on a flip chart paper

Integrated Assignment for
Interdisciplinary Understanding

(Adapted from Boix-Mansilla, Harvard University)

z What is a public issue, question or real world problem that
matters to students and has a sense of purpose?

z Create an integrative assignment that provides evidence of
learning to solve a public issue. What is the goal of the
assignment that cuts across disciplines

z Develop a sequence of assignments (sub- assignments in
the discipline course) for students to demonstrate
disciplinary understanding (concepts, theories, insights,
knowledge, methods, and language) and contributions to
the problem.

z What are students being asked to integrate to leverage
their understanding? i.e. appropriate disciplines combined
to solve the problem

Integrated Assignment Format

™ Purpose
™ Disciplinary Grounding
™ Leveraging Integration
™ Thoughtfulness

From “Assessing Student Work at Disciplinary Crossroads,” Veronica Boix-Mansilla

References

z AAC&U, LEAP Report, College Learning for the New Global
Century, p.12

z Astin, A. W. (1993 ). What Matters in College: Four Critical Years
Revisited.

z Boix-Mansilla, V. (2000). “Assessing Student Work at the
Disciplinary Crossroads,” Change 37 (1) January/February, 14-21

z Butler, K. & Dawkins, P.W. (2008). The Impact of a “Healthy
Youth” Learning Community on Student Learning Outcome
Measures. Journal of Negro Education, 77 (3), 264-270.

z Butler, K. & Dawkins, P.W. (2007). Developing learning
communities in health and human performance. American Journal
of Health Education,38 (4), 230-236

z Dawkins, P., Froneberger, B., Sutton-Haywood, M., Jeter, P.
(2007). Engaging faculty in a Freshman Academy Learning
Community. Journal of Learning Communities Research, 2 (1), pp.
1-19

z Dawkins, P. W. (2006). Faculty Development Opportunities and
Learning Communities. In N. Simpson and J. Layne (Eds.),
Student learning communities, faculty learning communities, &
faculty development (pp. 63-80). Stillwater, OK: New Forums
Press Inc.