Annette Taylor <[email protected]>
>I call on your collective experiences for some input. Our university is moving
to LLCs (living, learning communities).
I spent 8 years teaching what we called Learning Communities. One of the
problems with this type of course is that there is no one way that it is done,
so I can only tell you about ours. Our community was made up of 45
students who met for 3 hours twice a week. It was taught by 3 faculty - 1
English, 1 humanities and one social science - (although I believe the model
has been changed a bit since I left). The three faculty were all in the room
for
the entire time, even when they were not responsible for a presentation. The
courses consisted of the first course in writing and introduction to humanities
the first semester and speech and introduction to social sciences in the
second semester. I loved teaching in the program and the students obviously
loved it too (for the most part).
Our retention rate from first to second semester averaged 85% and from first
semester to graduation approximately 70%. That was considerably higher
than the first year to graduation rate of students who did not participate in
the program.
I think some faculty are opposed to this kind of program because they feel
uncomfortable being in the classroom with two other faculty for a total of 180
hours over the academic year. In my groups over the years there were two of
us who were together for 8 years and she became known as my "other wife"
since we spent so much time together in teaching and planning. We had a
number of other faculty over the years, but had fun and a great success with
our students. One of the side benefits of this program is that there are many
people who we had in our communities with whom I still maintain contact on
a fairly regular basis. Having known these students from the time they were
18 until now when the first students are now in their late 20s, has been a
great personal experience. I have seen them go from beginning first year
students to professionals and parents. I consider myself to have a very large
family.
.
Robert W. Wildblood, PhD
Adjunct Psychology Faculty
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