Learning Community ModelsMay 2002

Jean MacGregor Co-Director National Learning Communities Project Washington Center for Undergraduate Education The Evergreen State College Olympia, WA 98505 macgjean@evergreen.edu

Barbara Leigh Smith Co-Director National Learning Communities Project Washington Center for Undergraduate Education The Evergreen State College Olympia, WA 98505 smithb@evergreen.edu

Roberta Matthews Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs Brooklyn College 2900 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11210 rsmatthews@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Faith Gabelnick President Pacific University 2043 College Way Forest Grove, OR 97166 president@pacificu.edu

National Learning Communities Project http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu

LearningCommunities

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 build community, and to foster more explicit connections among

students, among students and their teachers, and among disciplines.

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6

Teacher A

Class 1 Class 2

and students experience their separate courses in unrelated fragments

Teacher D Teacher CTeacher BTeacher A

Class 3

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

Student

Usually, teachers teach separate courses to separate sets of students

From Courses

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Learning Communities Invite an Array of Pedagogical Approaches:

Problem-Centered Learning

Discussion Groups & Seminars

Writing and Speaking Across-the-Curriculum

Ongoing Reflection, Metacognitive Activities, Self-evaluation

Peer Teaching

Lectures and Demonstrations

Experiential Learning

Labs and Field Trips

Collaborative/ Cooperative Learning

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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:

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Team-Taught Learning Communities

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

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The importance of context:Coordinated Studies Themes

“Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What to Believe”

History, Philosophy, Literature, Drama

“The Televised Mind”Mass Media, Sociology, Freshman Writing

“Problems Without Solutions?”Sociology, Economics, History, Politics, Religion

“Looking at the Renaissance: Power and the Person”

Music, History of Art, Drawing, Freshman Writing

“The Science of Mind”Neurobiology, Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy of Mind and Language

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Water Weekly schedule

Fall and Winter 2005

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Prep

Day

workshop Field Work

Data Collection

Water Quality Chem Lab

Prep Day

Seminar Fresh Water Ecology Workshop

Program Goals

• An understanding of the hydrological cycle

• An understanding of the nutrients and pollutants in local watersheds

• An understanding of the conflicts surrounding water in local, regional, and global settings

• An understanding of water quality, water purification, and drinking water

• An understanding of the impact of humans on hydrological systems

Program Goals (cont.)

• Basics of freshwater ecology

• Water sampling techniques

• Lab techniques in water quality monitoring

• Lab and field notebook writing techniques

• Field techniques for biological monitoring of water quality

• Experimental design and associated statistical methods

• Communication skills and collaborative learning

• Problem solving

• Analyzing complex situations that have no easy solutions

• Persuasive writing

Community Building Activites

• Challenge Course – first week• Week-long Field Trip• Weekly Field Work• Seminar Discussions• Potluck Meals• Small-group activities in workshops• Group Projects

Thematic Questions

• What are Some of the Local, Regional & Global Issues Surrounding Water?

• How Do We Identify Stake-Holder Positions in Water Conflicts?

• What Strategies Could Resolve These Conflicts?

• What is in Clean Water?• What Are the Problems With Our

Water?• How Do We Purify Our Water?• What Accumulates in Our Water?• What Have We Learned?

Case Study Seminars

• Truckee River • Klamath River • Fluorides in Drinking Water • Should I Eat Tuna? (Fish bioaccumulation

of toxins)• Should I Take The Pill? (Endocrine

disruptors in streamwater) • Should We Re-open the Aluminum

Smelters on the Columbia River?

• Student-generated → peer feedback → Not-A-Paper presentation

Laboratory & Field Work

• Macroinvertebrate monitoring (IBI and other diversity measures)

• Possible chemical measures– Temperature and pH– Nitrates and phosphates– DO and BOD– Fecal coliform– Alkalinity and hardness

Winter Quarter

• Seminars and Case Studies on Global Water Conflict

• Even More Freshwater Ecology• Lab and Field Project