Learning Communities
Fire science student Chris talks about his Chemeketa experience.
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Student: The Learning Communities helped my confidence in a lot of different ways. It's just it's made me want to learn; it's, it's opened my mind up to different ways of learning and how I can learn to understand reading and writing, cause I'm not very good at it and it opened up my mind to everything—even to watching movies now. I look at the whole picture instead of just like what really goes on.
Student: If I were telling another student about a learning community, I would want them to know how it reinforces your confidence in yourself as a student. Coming back to school was a "if you want to break out of this, this is the only way to do it kinda deal." I was just taking the minimum number of classes to get a better job. I wanna take more classes. I wanna be here now and actually think about doing something different than I initially wanted to do, so it's really broadened my horizons.
Student: Participating in a learning community and continuing in school has built my confidence tremendously. I'm not afraid to walk into a class anymore and, you know, sit down next to someone and start a conversation. I'm not afraid to ask questions if I have them, which I would never ask questions. I would just do it and if I got it wrong, I got it wrong.
Student: I was barely coming out of High School and so I was really scared about college, especially in those two subjects since I'm bilingual. Reading and writing has never been my best subjects and having the classes linked together helped me a lot because we read about the same material and wrote about the same material. So it was nice.
Student: I got to, um, know more…like I could understand the reading and writing because they connected with each other and it was easier for me to understand writing and reading.
Student: Watching the two of them work together and how they feed off of each other and bounce ideas off of each other, it really helped me understand how to interact a little better.
Student: I mean it made it exciting; it made it worth wanting to go to class. I look forward to it.
Student: I mean I went back into that room committed. I really think there needs to be more.
Student: I think it's great because I am coming from kind of being a recluse and coming to school, and all of a sudden I have friends. We have made some good friendships; we study together, and I enjoy the way that Ava and Robin interact with each other too and encouraging us to interact with each other.
Teacher: I have been personally, incredibly rewarded by the personal communications coming from our students, telling me that this is the first successful time, maybe out of multiple times that they have been successful really learning in math because they have this intense confidence. That kind of communication has come across several times, and as the instructor, that is certainly the most important part.
Teacher: One of my students came back to the following class and came into my office and she said, "I walked on the campus today and realized that if I went to class, I wasn't going to meet anybody in any of my classes and I almost went home."
Teacher: We have a wide variety, a very large range of ages, of background, of diversity within our classrooms, and these folks have supported each other, have become close and have interacted with each other. I've definitely seen, I believe, more different types of interaction across different types of diverse students than any other class I have ever known.
Teacher: I guess one thing that surprised me is how much the students felt like that, that I, their instructor, was part of their community and part of their group and how protective they became of us. You couldn't ask a question in the wrong way or there were students who would say, "you know what?" so that was pretty surprising.
Teacher: I think primarily what surprised me the most was often when you are in classes teaching a novel, and you start raising ideas about a novel, a student would say, "I see that or I don't get that." The student felt comfortable enough in the class to say that I think you are wrong, your story is about this. Actually, to have a student challenge me like that was wonderful, it was fun. It took me back for a second.
Do you want to have fun learning about a subject?
Make friends?
Develop an in-depth knowledge about a subject?
Learn about how different fields of study in a college relate to each other?
Enhance your thinking and communication skills?
Improve your GPA?
If so....
Consider Taking Learning Community Courses
Also known as "block classes" or "linked courses," Learning Communities are an educational format that "weaves together the learning, skills, and assignments of two or more classes into a unified mosaic of educational objectives by blending the instruction of logically related disciplines" (Dodge and Kendall, 2004). Basically, learning communities draw connections between academic disciplines and "real" world experiences to foster a more complex way of learning about a topic and to add depth to the educational skills needed to communicate about and understand the topic. Learning communities are communities; this means that in most cases, students co-enroll together (a cohort) in all courses that make up the learning community and this fosters friendships as well as strong academic discussions. Learning communities are a fun and supportive way to add depth to your knowledge of a subject, hone your academic skills, and meet lasting friends.
Learning communities have many proven benefits:
- Success: Student course success tends to be significantly higher for students participating in learning community courses than in tradition courses, meaning that fewer students drop out of the course at mid-term and more pass the course with a C or above (Dodge & Kendall, 2004; Hesse & Mason, 2005; Price, 2005).
- Satisfaction: Students tend to express greater satisfaction with their course experience in Learning Communities classes than in the same traditionally taught classes (Dodge & Kendall, 2004; Hesse & Mason, 2005; Price, 2005).
- Authority & Knowledge: Many studies find that students participating in LC courses tend to demonstrate more complex knowledge over their subjects and a greater sense of authority in discussing the subjects than students in the same or similar traditionally taught courses because students approach their topics from interdisciplinary perspectives and because Learning Community courses often share a theme that's discussed in all of the joined courses. Moreover, courses are generally linked based upon complimentary skills requirements, so students receive more instruction and assistance in developing those skills (Dodge & Kendall, 2004; Hesse & Mason, 2005; Price, 2005).
- Transferable College to Work Skills: Students in learning Communities tend to see more connections between their academic learning experiences and their work related experiences because the collaborative model behind Learning communities is directly related to skills needed in most employment environments (Price, 2005).
- Friendships & Peer Support: Students in Learning Community courses form closer study groups and lasting friendships because they have more opportunity to get know each other by taking two or more classes together. Studies find that students are less likely to feel isolated and more likely to form peer relationships as well as improve their social skills through their participation in Learning Communities (Dodge & Kendall, 2004; Hesse & Mason, 2005; Price, 2005).
- Support & Encouragement: Most Learning Communities offer a skills support course or component to help students more individually strengthen their academic skills.
Updated November 26, 2008 by Web Services.