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MCC Daily Tribune

TCC: HIPs Institute Follow up Interview with Catharine Ganze-Smith (ENG)

Catharine Ganze-Smith (ENG) participated in the Learning Communities strand of 2016 High Impact Practices Summer Institute for Faculty: Growing a High Impact Culture through Course Redesign.  Here are her reflections 9 months after the Institute.

How have you implemented what you learned about Learning Communities at the HIPs Institute?

This fall, I taught a learning community with Meghan Glaser from ESOL/TRS.  Students in the learning community took REA 100: Reading and Thinking in the Disciplines and ENG 101: College Composition.  At the HIPs Institute we discussed metacognitive and affective learning outcomes.  Our goal was to get our students to be more reflective, to think about their thinking and learn about their learning.  In our learning community, we asked students to think about how external definitions affect their sense of identity and how reading and writing are essential tools that enable them to define themselves and become the person they would like to be. 

What were some highlights from your class last fall? 

Learning communities really help students succeed.  The students who were enrolled in my learning community entered with low scores in reading on the placement test and, for this reason, were statistically at a higher risk of failing English 101. Because I taught three sections of English 101 last fall, but only one section was part of a learning community, I had the opportunity to do a little compare and contrast.  I paid attention to how the learning community section did compared to my other two sections.  It was wonderful to watch their progress as the course went on.  The first paper learning community students scored, on average, about three points lower than the students in the other two classes.  The second essay they scored about the same.  On the third essay, and this was what really impressed me, they scored, on average, five points higher than one of my sections and seven points higher than the other.  This was a small sample, of course, and not a scientific study, but it was enough to convince me that learning communities really work.    

What impact have you seen on your students?

The students truly became a community.  This happened naturally just because they all had two courses together, but we also created assignments to purposefully encourage community building. Things that good students might do instinctually, like forming study groups, we made part of the assigned work. Students had to form portfolio groups, working together outside of class.    They learned that classmates can be resources and that by helping others you can strengthen your own skills.  They also had to attend on-campus events together.  This community building gave students a sense of belonging, something that we know contributes to student persistence.  

What are some challenges that you needed to overcome?

The hardest part is getting students to register.  Logistically, learning communities make scheduling a little more complicated, and I don’t know if students understand that they are worth the extra trouble.  At the institute, Meghan and I planned to teach two sections each, but in September we had to collapse those two sections into one.  Luckily, our department chairs supported the idea of having an REA/ENG learning community and did everything they could to increase our enrollment.  As a college, we need to build awareness about how well learning communities work. 

Eugenia Merliss
Teaching and Creativity Center
05/05/2017