The following is an article on Learning Communities, including an interview with Tracey McKenzie, 2010 U.S. Professor of the Year of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The questions were posed by her colleague at Collin College, George Jackson. Following the interview is more information on Learning Communities.
The article will also appear in the April issue of the TCCTA Messenger.
From Mr. Jackson: "Tracey McKenzie is a pillar of knowledge in the field of Learning Communities, having led the award-winning initiative at Collin College and serving as a resource to peer institutions. Other colleges have reported a lack of success. What is Collin doing differently? I sat down with Dr. McKenzie to find out."
Q: Dr. McKenzie, how do you define a Learning Community?
A: Collin College defines a learning community as the pairing of two classes around a central theme or question. Although two separate courses in two separate disciplines, these two classes are taught as one. They are fully integrated, and by that I mean everything is integrated. The two curricula are interwoven. Each assessment involves questions from both subjects. Although one professor may be the lead for a particular lecture, both professors participate in each class. Both contribute to student learning. The students earn one overall grade for the Learning Community, but it appears on their transcript as two separate courses, as if they earned the same grade in each.
Q: Collin College has been very successful with Learning Communities, while some other colleges have had little or no success. Why is that?
A: We have found that, to be successful, Learning Communities must be faculty driven, and they must be marketed to attract students.
It’s a faculty driven program. It won’t work if faculty are told what to teach or with whom to teach. You are creating a partnership with the other teacher. This must be someone you want to work with. Reconciling different teaching styles can be a challenge. You have to agree beforehand on the class policies. Students can play one teacher off the other, just like with parents. I once did a Learning Community with a teacher who wanted every detail of the class locked down, but I don’t like a lot of structure in my classes. That was quite a challenge.
Marketing of your Learning Community is a key to success. You have to market the central theme or question. “Let’s Talk about Sex – the Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Society” was a Learning Community combining sociology and government. It was sold out.
Here’s another: “OMG! Is This My Space or Your Space? IDK!” This was a Learning Community pairing an English class with a speech class. “Sensational Trials in History” combined a History class with a Criminal Justice class.
Marketing is essential to success. It is the central theme or question that makes the Learning Community relevant for today. The students see how two disciplines relate to each other, and how they combine to deal with real life issues. With proper marketing, the students see this and enroll in the Learning Community.
Q: It sounds like a lot of work for faculty.
A: It is. It is much easier to teach two standalone classes than one Learning Community. You really are teaching both classes. You are constantly jumping in to add something, even when the other teacher is lecturing. Students often forget who teaches what. It keeps you on the ball. You are accustomed to being the expert in the classroom, but your colleague is really the expert on half of your class. In that sense, it is great professional development. I learn as much about the other discipline as the students.
Learning Communities require a huge commitment on the part of faculty. There is a lot of advance planning that must be done in integrating the two courses. Faculty must be involved in marking the Learning Community. Until the students have had one, they don’t know what a Learning Community is all about. Once you explain to students what it is, they are interested, but getting the word out is difficult. Some of us do student orientation in order to talk about Learning Communities. Some of us do workshops with the advisors, and we provide them with fliers on each of the upcoming Learning Communities. Some of us visit other classes to talk about Learning Communities being offered the following semester. The face to face interaction seems to work best.
Q: How much does the college get involved in this?
A: Learning Communities require a large commitment from the college. One Learning Community counts as two classes when computing faculty load. You really are teaching both classes.
Because each teacher must be in the classroom for the full six hours each week, compensation for each teacher is six hours.
If the Learning Community doesn’t make, that’s two classes that didn’t make for each faculty member. That means I have to take two classes away from part-time faculty, and the other teacher has to do the same. That’s hard on our part-time faculty.
It also requires a higher commitment on the part of students. If they are absent from one class, they are really absent from both. They can’t register for one class without registering for the other. They can’t drop one class without dropping the other. Students are really making an investment in two classes for each Learning Community, but I have never had a problem with this. Your goal is to make them feel like this is one class, not two.
Students sometimes feel like they are doing a lot more work, but they are really not. If they took each class separately, they would be doing however many papers in each class and however many exams in each class. In Learning Communities, the papers are combined and the exams are combined. They are really doing less work, but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.
Q: Collin College chose Learning Communities as the focus of its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for SACS. Why?
A: Our Learning Communities are nationally recognized, and we think Learning Communities are of great benefit to our faculty and to our students, but we needed to find out how to increase the benefit and how to measure the benefit. We think students achieve higher quality learning in a Learning Community than they would in two standalone classes taught separately, but we needed a way to measure this. Students say they learn more. Students say they interact with faculty more. We needed to investigate this. We came up with a research design, and SACS seems pleased with it.
We can point to regular success rates, retention rates, and passing rates as evidence of success, but we also use student focus groups asking, “What is your perception of the experience?” This is where we always score the highest. Once students have taken a Learning Community, they seek them out. They want to take more. Why? They say they are fun.
One of our QEP goals is to have the entire core curriculum available in Learning Communities. We currently offer between 15 and 18 Learning Communities each semester. We’re trying to add some every year, especially in disciplines that are not represented or are under-represented.
The following passage was taken from Dr. McKenzie’s statement to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching:
“Collin College’s Learning Communities interdisciplinary, team-taught courses designed around a theme-have broadened my vision of teaching and learning. The goal of Learning Communities is to address what Ernest Boyer and other educational theorists have described as a ‘disconnect’ in education—a disconnect between disciplines, students and faculty. Building a community of learners, making crossdisciplinary connections and emphasizing active learning are a few of the many benefits of Learning Communities.”
Those interested in more information on Learning Communities are urged to visit the Web site of the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, at www.evergreen.edu/washcenter.
Below is a brief sample of sources from the Center:
Diversity, Educational Equity, and Learning Communities, Lardner, E., with others. 2005. Olympia, WA: The Evergreen State College.
The Pedagogy of Possibilities: Developmental Education, College-Level Studies, and Learning Communities. NLCP Monograph Series. Olympia, WA: The Evergreen State College.
Transforming the First Year of College for Students of Color. Rendon, L. I., M. Garcia, and D. Person (Eds.). 2004. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for The First Year Experience and Students in Transition.
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