any distinguished leaders and innovators in higher education who are calling for curricular reform in order to increase student engagement and retention cite learning communities as a powerful model for change. In this article, the term “learning communities” refers to “the purposeful restructuring of the curriculum by linking or clustering courses that enroll a common cohort of students. This represents an intentional restructuring of students’ time, credit, and learning experiences to build community and foster more explicit connections among students, faculty and disciplines” (Gabelnick et al., 1990).

At the 1998 National Conference on Higher Education in her speech, “What Do We Know about Students’ Learning and How Do We Know It,” Patricia Cross spoke about the shifts that have taken place in our understanding of how students learn. Cross noted that many researchers believe that “knowledge is constructed by humans through social interaction. Education, therefore, should be based in learning communities where teachers and students act interdependently to construct meaning and understanding” (Cross, 1998). The best learning communities are classrooms where students are connected through meaningful conversations in cooperative groups with each other and with teachers.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities’ 2002 report, “Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College,” calls on the academic community to provide opportunities for students to use their “intellectual skills within rich disciplinary and multidisciplinary contexts” (2002). The report identifies integrated and linked learning communities, diverse forms of experiential learning, and collaborative research projects as powerful and effective strategies for deepening student preparation for a knowledge-intensive society and increasing the ability to persist and succeed at higher levels of achievement.

In an American Association of Community College’s issue paper, “Fulfilling the Promise of Access and Opportunity: Collaborative Community Colleges for the 21st Century,” Laura Rendon notes the need for community colleges to become more collaborative and responsive to students who have not traditionally had college opportunities. Rendon recommends that “community colleges should design validating teaching and learning environments that are relationship-centered, connecting faculty and students” (Rendon, 2002). She goes on to describe learning communities as an example of validating, democratic classrooms in action. Learning environments such as these can “transform nontraditional students into powerful learners and persisters” (Rendon, 2002).

In Honored But Invisible, W. Norton Grubb and colleagues note, “One common benefit of LC’s [learning communities] is that they create communities among students. Students report that they come to know their fellow students better and are able to work with them more both in and out of class—in contrast to conventional practice in community colleges, where students typically find a new group in virtually every class they take” (Grubb, 1999). Students care about making friends and feeling connected to the college. Helping to create quality relationships is particularly challenging at commuter campuses, and the large majority of community colleges are commuter campuses.

Learning communities are built on the premise that learning is a social endeavor and that quality learning is enhanced by quality relationships. One learning community at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona combined first-year composition, film and literature, and computer information systems courses under the theme, “Creating Community in a Changing World.” Student Bob Karp explained the impact the experience had on him, “The learning community was like an extended family, and the friends that I made here became the most important reason for me to come to class and to continue with my college education” (Hesse and Mason, 2003).

Students benefit when faculty intentionally structure classwork and assignments whereby students actively work together rather than independently. “Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one’s own ideas and responding to others’ reactions sharpens thinking and deepens understanding” (Chickering and Gamson, 1987). Learning communities create learning environments where students are not expected to be passive listeners, taking notes and memorizing facts, but instead are expected to work together, reading, writing, talking, and relating their learning to their daily lives.

One of the curricular benefits is that students are provided with opportunities to see differing perspectives on topics, readings, or issues. Learning communities operate around a theme or particular topic which is explored from several different angles. Team-taught courses can provide students with other benefits as well. Students are likely to see connections between various disciplines and thus are provided with a more realistic view of problem-solving. In team-taught learning communities “faculty from several different disciplines are in the room, providing different perspectives, so students get a real range of response from the different discipline areas” (Grubb, 1999).

Learning communities also offer more coherent curricular opportunities. In addressing general education curriculum, skill classes can combine with “content” classes for a meaningful context. There is an opportunity for teaching critical reading, analytical writing, persuasive speaking, and computer literacy in the context of a discipline. For example, at Paradise Valley Community College in Arizona, “The Literate Scientist” combines organic chemistry and technical writing with an emphasis on using library resources for the science major. Collin County Community College in Texas offers several learning communities as part of its civic engagement initiative, one of which pairs history with English under the theme “Rhetoric and the Republic.”

Learning communities offer special opportunities for studies in a professional or major track to be offered in concert with other portions of the curriculum. Lane Community College in Oregon offers learning communities for both health occupations and culinary arts. “Bio-Bonds: Blocks for Your Body” combines chemistry and cell biology, while “Food for Thought” links culinary arts, basic math applications, and English as away to examine the influential role of food. Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, offers a team-taught “Forensic Science” learning community pairing chemistry and criminal justice courses.

A thematic approach that asks students to work toward answering a larger question or solving a problem allows faculty to move away from a more simplistic “skill and drill” approach where the emphasis is on covering the textbook. The use of themes can make courses more enticing to students and thus help them become more motivated to pursue and complete the courses. At Skagit Valley Community College in Washington one learning community that paired a sociology course with a nutrition course was called “Culture, Poverty and Diet.” At LaGuardia Community College in New York, the “Moral Thinking” cluster students focus on ethical dilemmas raised by the World Trade Center disaster in their English, philosophy, and film courses. Students in these learning communities have more time on task to explore, read, and write about socially relevant topics.

In addition to interesting themes, sometimes learning communities are offered in “block” scheduling whereby courses are offered back-to-back ensuring students an attractive class schedule. Students have the perception that their time is well spent taking one learning community rather than taking two or three separate courses. By having various assignments relate to the same theme, students have a sense that they are using their time more efficiently and that the curriculum is more integrated and less disjointed.

Block scheduling is an attractive alternative as it allows time for different types of activities such as field trips, labs, and special events. Discussions and activities that often seem rushed in a 50-minute or one-hour class can be extended for longer periods of time to encourage deeper thinking and more thoughtful analysis of issues. And when faculty spend more time with their students, they gain a deeper understanding of their goals, their learning styles, and their needs.

Learning communities promote student interaction with their instructors. Pat Cross notes that “when faculty show an interest in students, get to know them through informal as well as formal channels, engage in conversations with them, show interest in their intellectual development, then students respond with enthusiasm and engagement” (Cross, 1998). In “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” the authors explain, “Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students’ intellectual commitment and encourages them to thinking about their own values and future plans” (Chickering and Gamson, 1987).

Community colleges across the nation are becoming more diverse, and learning communities are addressing diversity issues on several fronts. First, they are attempting to increase the success rate for under-represented students. Second, they are addressing special populations of at- risk students whose ranks often comprise primarily under-represented students. Third, learning communities are providing an avenue for students to work with people different from themselves across lines of culture, race, religion, age, sexual orientation, and other differences.

While many colleges have students attending for varied reasons and representing different generations and ethnic groups, most do not do enough to help students learn how to work well within an increasingly diverse campus population. In 2001, Time magazine hailed Seattle Central Community College for helping diverse students learn to work together in small teams (Goldstein, 2001). One of the college’s thematically linked learning communities is called “Our Ways of Knowing: The African-American Experience and Social Change,” which combines sociology, political science, art, and English courses. Activities include small group and whole class discussions, seminars, group projects, field trips, guest speakers, and film analysis.

Learning communities are often developed to address the special needs of particular groups of students. California’s DeAnza College has designed several learning communities to serve under-prepared and under-represented students. For example, their “Summer Express” program combines pre-college reading and writing with a college orientation course and is offered over the summer to prepare students for successful entry into college in the fall.

At Jackson Community College in Michigan, learning communities were developed to address the needs of at-risk students and they had impressive results for the students and for the college. The “retention rate for all students enrolled in learning communities topped 93 percent—30 percent higher than our regular rate. Of the at-risk students enrolled in learning communities, 92 percent of them re-enrolled in the winter semester. Furthermore, on a four-point scale, the at-risk students enrolled in learning communities had a four-point average of 2.41 compared with a GPA of 1.68 for other at-risk students at me college. They completed 92 percent of the classes they enrolled in. And at the end of the first semester, 30 percent were on academic probation compared with 41 percent for other at-risk students” (Howser, 1998).

Multiple studies document increased student retention and persistence, as well as increased student learning and achievement. “Long-term studies at various community colleges, including Community College of Denver, North Seattle Community College, and the QUANTA program at Daytona Beach Community College in Florida, suggest that students in learning communities have significantly higher retention, persistence, and graduation rates than students in traditional courses. Other studies have also demonstrated significant gains in persistence for learning community students (Tinto et al., 1994) as well as higher leve1of academic achievement than students in stand-alone courses (Tokuno, 1993)” (Fogarty & Dunlap, 2003).

Innovative faculty further develop their teaching methodologies in learning communities that invite an array of pedagogical approaches, such as cooperative and collaborative learning, service learning, experiential learning, problem-based learning, writing and speaking across the curriculum, and innovative uses of technology.

Learning communities can also provide opportunities for increased faculty interaction with peers and ongoing faculty development. In explaining why his learning community experience had been so meaningful, one instructor states, “It’s very, very enriching to see other teachers work, teachers who are already quite adept, quite experienced, veteran teachers with enormous reserves of technique. … So there’s an enormous kind of fertilization, different sorts of ideas, and also you get a chance to run things up the flagpole, and so there’s that kind of enrichment that would never be possible in the normal traditional venue where you are going into the classroom every day by yourself” (Grubb, 1999).

In addition to creating a community for student learners, one of the benefits of participating in a learning community is that faculty often feel a renewed sense of collegiality and community. Jean MacGregor, co-director of the National Learning Communities Project, explains, “As they look back on their learning community teaching experiences, the faculty teams who feel the most engaged speak repeatedly about their own learning and their own sense of community, beyond what they created for and with their students. They speak of the intense stimulation of discovering each others’ disciplines and teaching practices, the affirmation of reflecting together on students they had in common, and the deep satisfaction of learning to collaboratively create a curriculum. They reflect on a newfound trust and respect for their colleagues” (MacGregor, 2000).

In addition, learning communities help to make the content that faculty love more interesting and relevant to students, while helping faculty to expand their understandings of other disciplines and interdisciplinary work.

Faculty are also attracted to programs where they see their students succeeding. Student success, as measured by increased retention and persistence to program completion, is as much a benefit to students as it is a boost to faculty morale.

Philosophically, learning communities are a good fit for community colleges, given their mission. The Commission on the Future of Community Colleges defined the term “community” “not only as a region to be served, but also as a climate to be created.” In Community College Review, Harlacher and Gollattscheck speak of the ultimate objective of community colleges as not just serving their communities, but developing community. “The ultimate objective of the learning community is the improvement of community life through the renewed ability of individual citizens to participate in the affairs of the community, to cope successfully with continuous social and cultural change, to contribute to the economic stability and well-being of the community as productive workers rather than liabilities, to partake of and contribute to our cultural heritage through worth- while use of leisure time, and to collectively strengthen the various institutions and organizations that make up the community” (Harlacher and Gollattscheck, 1992).

As more colleges are understanding the rationale for and the benefits of learning communities, they are moving closer to fulfilling their ultimate vision and mission. Explaining the impact of learning communities at his own institution, one administrator affirmed, “We are beginning to live up to our vision statement, which says Jackson Community College is a community of learning” (Howser, 1998).

References

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). 2002. Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. National Panel Report. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Chickering, A. W, and Z. F. Gamson. “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” AAHE Bulletin 39(7) (1987): 3-7.

Cross, K. P. 1998. “What Do We Know About Students’ Learning and How Do We Know It.” AAHE National Conference on Higher Education. Retrieved July 11, 2002, from www.aahe.org/nche/cross_lecture.htm.

Fogarty, J., L. Dunlap, and others. 2003. Learning Communities in Community Colleges. National Learning Communities Project Monograph Series. Olympia, WA: The Evergreen State College, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, in cooperation with the American Association for Higher Education and the American Association of Community Colleges.

Gabelnick, F., J. MacGregor, R. Matthews, and B. Smith. 1990. Learning Communities: Creating Connections among Students, Faculty and Disciplines. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goldstein, Andrew. “Seattle Central: This Community College Pushes Diverse Students to Work Together in Small Teams.” Time 158, no. 5 (September 10, 2001), http://www.time.comitime/archive/preview/0, 10987,1000725,00.html.

Grubb, W. N. and Associates. 1999. Honored But Invisible: An Inside Look at Teaching in Community Colleges. New York and London: Routledge.

Harlacher, E. L., and J. E. Gollattscheck. “Building Learning Communities.” Community College Review 20(3) (1992): 29-36.

Hesse, M., and M. Mason. 2003. “Teaching the Theme of Community.” In Integrating Learning Communities with Service-Learning, J. MacGregor, ed. National Learning Communities Project Monograph Series. Olympia, WA: The Evergreen State College, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, in cooperation with the American Association for Higher Education.

Howser, L. “Learning to Build Learning Communities.” Community College Week 10 (April 20) (1998):4-5.

MacGregor, J. “Teaching Communities within Learning Communities.” Washington Center News (Spring) (2000): 9.

Rendon, L. 2002. “Fulfilling the Promise of Access and Opportunity: Collaborative Community Colleges for the 21st Century.” American Association of Community Colleges Issue Paper. Retrieved 11 July 2002, from www.aacc.nche.edu.

Maria Hesse is the president of Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, Arizona.

Marybeth Mason is an English and Humanities faculty member at CGCC.