Building Community

BUILDING COMMUNITY Also published by The Graduate School Press of Syracuse University Pedagogy, not Policing Positive Approaches to Academic Integrity at the University Interrupting Heteronormativity Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pedagogy and Responsible Teaching at Syracuse University Building Pedagogical Curb Cuts Incorporating Disability in the University Classroom and Curriculum Using Writing to Teach BUILDING COMMUNITY Stories and Strategies for Future Learning Community Faculty and Professionals Edited by Terra Peckskamp and Carrie McLaughlin Copyright © 2010 The Graduate School Press of Syracuse University Syracuse, New York 13244 All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Building community : stories and strategies for future learning community faculty and professionals / edited by Terra Peckskamp and Carrie McLaughlin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-9777847-3-8 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-9777847-3-8 (pbk.) 1. Group work in education--United States--Case studies. 2. College teaching--United States-- Case studies. 3. Professional learning communities--United States--Case studies. 4. Interdisciplinary approach in education--United States--Case studies. I. Peckskamp, Terra, 1971- II. McLaughlin, Carrie, 1971- LB1032.B82 2010 378.1'76--dc22 2010022815 For more information about this publication, please contact The Graduate School Press 220 Bowne Hall Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 13244 www.syr.edu/gradschool/gsprograms/resources/gradschoolpress.html Manufactured in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments vii Editors‘ Introduction Terra Peckskamp and Carrie McLaughlin 1 Introduction Sandra Hurd 4 PART ONE: HISTORY, STRUCTURE, AND ASSESSMENT Understanding the Evolution of Learning Community Concepts: A Historical Perspective Dianna Winslow 9 Learning Communities: A Structural Overview Heather Strine Patterson 18 Tips and Strategies for Assessing Learning Communities jared halter and Camila Lértora Nardozzi 26 Learning Communities Assessment: Challenges and Recommendations from Faculty and Staff Perspectives W. Leslie Burleson and Michele Tarnow 33 PART TWO: TEACHING AND LEARNING IN A LEARNING COMMUNITY The Arts Adventure LC: A Classroom-to-Community Cultural Connection Eileen Strempel 41 Creating a Unique Learning Community Through Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Eric M. Alderman 45 v vi | Contents Diversity and Citizenship Silvio Torres-Saillant and James Duah-Agyeman 55 Creating Change and Continuity in Your Learning Community Paul Buckley 59 Learning Community Encounters and Strategies for Effective Teaching Assistantship Jamie Kathleen Portillo 64 Bridging the Gap: Constructing Faculty–Student Relationships for Mutual Learning Braden Smith and Rachel Smith 70 The Higher Education Learning Community of Syracuse University: A Participant‘s Perspective Maria J. Lopez 75 Through the Looking Glass of Undergraduate Learning Communities (And What the Graduate Student Finds) Chris Calvert-Minor 80 The Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public and Community Service: Lessons Learned Elizabeth Occhino and Jennifer Kellington 87 Mentoring and the Gateway Learning Community: The Importance of Mentoring in Providing Access to Social Capital Larry Thomas and Nicole Zervas Adsitt 93 Institutional Pedagogies: Exploring Two Learning Community Programs Jennah K. Jones and Joshua D. Lawrie 99 Critical Learning Community Resources for Educating Campus Stakeholders Terra Peckskamp and Joshua G. McIntosh 109 Afterword Barry L. Wells 115 Contributors 117 Index 121 Acknowledgments WE are grateful for the opportunity provided by the Graduate School at Syracuse University to work on this project and gain valuable skills in serving as editors for this book. Thanks to Dr. Stacey Lane Tice and Sandra Hurd, past Interim Dean of the Graduate School, for their support of this project. We would like to thank Lori Foster, who served as our copy editor. She provided great insight and attention to detail in reviewing each chapter of this book. We would especially like to recognize Ken Sagendorf for his work in the Graduate School and in guiding the early stages of the project. Special thanks to Siera Miller, Carren Jao, and Chris Calvert-Minor for their work preparing the index. Most importantly, we would like to thank Glenn D. Wright, Assistant Director for Graduate School Programs in the Graduate School, for the time and energy he dedicated to keeping us on track and getting this book published. Our deepest thanks go to members of our advisory board—Alexei Abrahams, Cathy Engstrom, Sandra Hurd, Jennah Jones, Pat Rummel, Ken Sagendorf, Rachel Smith, Stacey Lane Tice, Vincent Tinto, Barry Wells, and Bobbi Yonai—for their insight and support. Their knowledge of learning communities and experience in professional practice and graduate teaching helped us understand the needs of future practitioners and proved invaluable as we thought through the purpose and goals of this project. We hope that as you read this book you will discover ways in which your work with students can be enhanced by the experiences shared in these pages. It is a privilege to work with college students, and doing so in ways that serve them better makes our collective work that much stronger. It is our hope that this book will give you reason to engage thoughtfully and courageously in the learning community efforts on your campus. vii BUILDING COMMUNITY Editors‘ Introduction Terra Peckskamp and Carrie McLaughlin THE late 1990s were a time when faculty and staff at Syracuse University (SU) were examining ways to make a positive impact on student learning and satisfaction, and to create an SU ―Signature Experience.‖ In 1998 the Whitman School of Management, the Honors Program, and the Office of Residence Life conducted a small pilot project that placed 43 students in two learning communities (Management and Honors). ―Supported by experience and re- search,‖ wrote then–Vice President for Undergraduate Studies Ronald R. Cavanagh in a memo describing the effort, ―it is our assumption that students learn lessons faster and retain them longer when these lessons are reinforced by linked or networked learning environments cutting across the curricula and the co-curricula.‖ Nine years later, in the 2007–2008 academic year, there were over 1,600 students participating in 42 learning communities and lifestyle housing options. In addition, over 200 faculty members, staff, paraprofessional students, and administrators participate in the coordination of learning community programs. Learning communities are often used as one strategy in an institution‘s effort to improve undergraduate student success (Shapiro and Levine, 1999, p. 15). Learning communities can positively influence student intellectual and social development, leading to greater student satisfaction with their undergraduate experience, and, on a grander scale, they can even serve as a factor in the reinvention of undergraduate education (Shapiro and Levine, 1999, p. 171). As demonstrated through assessment projects, learning communities at SU help ease first-year student transitions by making a large campus more navigable, creating a more academically and socially supportive residential environment, and creating connections among and between students, faculty, and staff. Successful learning communities require the participation and support of many different campus stakeholders, including academic departments; the registrar; housing, residence life, and admissions offices; and others. Indeed, 1 2 | Building Community Cavanagh and his colleagues cited the benefits of such collaboration for the larger institutional culture when formally proposing the creation of a permanent learning communities program at SU: ―Collaboration and shared responsibility among faculty and professional staff in Academic and Student Affairs promotes a sharing of best practices, curricular coherence, and the integration of student developmental planning. Providing these opportunities for integration benefits everyone.‖1 But creating a learning community program that has a positive impact on students, engages faculty, and is well coordinated is no easy task, and there are many stories of challenges and success along the way. The purpose of this book is to share some of these stories. The book is divided into two sections. The first part, ―History, Structure, and Assessment,‖ provides an overview of learning communities. In the first chapter, ―Understanding the Evolution of Learning Community Concepts: A Historical Perspective,‖ Dianna Winslow presents a historical survey of learning communities, going back to John Dewey and Alexander Meiklejohn in the 1920s and the debates about general education. Various learning community structures and models are discussed by Heather Strine Patterson in ―Learning Communities: A Structural Overview.‖ jared halter and Camila Lértora Nardozzi address learning community assessment in their chapter, ―Tips and Strategies for Assessing Learning Communities.‖ Finally, W. Leslie Burleson and Michele Tarnow present stories gathered from a qualitative learning community assessment project at Syracuse University in ―Learning Communities Assessment: Challenges and Recommendations from Faculty and Staff Perspectives.‖ Part Two, ―Teaching and Learning in a Learning Community,‖ builds on the structural groundwork of the first section by presenting individual stories about learning community experiences, as students and faculty members share their insights

Load more