Learning Communities | Patrick Blessinger

The inquiry-based approach to higher ed that could prevent college students from dropping out

The inquiry-based approach to higher ed that could prevent college students from dropping out Patrick Blessinger St John’s University, New York City, USA There may be a more democratic way of learning than declaring a traditional college major. A growing body of research-based evidence shows that student learning communities (SLCs) can provide an effective path to increased academic achievement as well as student engagement and retention. Student learning communities are curricular programs designed by faculty and instructional design staff working together with a group of students. These students (known as “the cohort”) take a shared set of courses that are usually connected by a common theme or overarching set of questions or learning outcomes – a key feature of inquiry-based learning. Any educational institution such as a school or college or university is, by definition, a learning community. However, in a traditional program of study, the courses students take often seem not to [...]

Patrick Blessinger2018-11-25T12:47:16+00:00November 25, 2018|Tags: Hechinger Report, Inquiry-Based Learning, Learning Communities, Patrick Blessinger, V5A10|

Reaching hard to reach students through student learning communities

Reaching hard to reach students through student learning communities Patrick Blessinger St John’s University, New York City Introduction A student learning community (SLC) is a curricular-based program and learning-centered social network that moves learning beyond the confines of the classroom. In a SLC, a cohort of students is enrolled in a common set of courses which they take together as a group. Most SLCs are tailored for first-year college students but SLCs may be created for any grade level. SLC courses are integrated and linked in some meaningful way in order to give students a common curricular experience and allow them to make more effective curricular connections across those courses. A core purpose of SLCs is to make learning more personally meaningful by addressing not just the intellectual needs of students but also their emotional and social needs. As such, the core aims of SLCs may provide an effective mechanism [...]

Patrick Blessinger2017-09-21T15:19:42+00:00September 21, 2017|Tags: Learning Communities, Patrick Blessinger, Student Engagement, V4A9|

A collective way for faculty to transform education

A collective way for faculty to transform education Patrick Blessinger, Barbara Cozza, and Milton Cox St. John's University (NYC), USA and Miami University, USA A faculty learning community, or FLC, is a group of faculty members who share a common desire to improve teaching and learning outcomes. To this end, faculty meet on a regular basis (say once or twice a month) to collaborate and share their knowledge and practices on how to become better teachers and how to produce better learning outcomes for students. The FLC concept, pioneered by Milton Cox and Laurie Richlin, has evolved over the past few decades into a template for faculty-led groups to transform teaching and learning processes and practices. FLCs are grounded in the ideas of John Dewey and Alexander Meiklejohn, among others, who advocated for active, inquiry-based, student-focused teaching and learning. The FLC model is now used by many educational institutions around [...]