A Reflective Essay on Creating a Community-of-Learning in a Large Lecture-Theatre Based University Course
- PDF / 608,711 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 76 Downloads / 154 Views
A Reflective Essay on Creating a Community‑of‑Learning in a Large Lecture‑Theatre Based University Course Huibert P. de Vries1 · Sanna Malinen1 Received: 24 September 2019 / Accepted: 11 April 2020 © New Zealand Association for Research in Education 2020
Abstract The benefits of creating learning communities have been clearly established in educational literature. However, the research on ‘community-of-learning’ has largely focused on intermediate and high-school contexts and on the benefits of co-facilitation in the classroom. In this paper, we contribute to educational research by describing an approach for a large (1000 + students/year), lecture-theatre based, university management course. This approach largely excludes co-facilitation, but offers a unified and integrated approach by staff to all other aspects of running the course. By applying an ethnographic methodology, our contribution to the ‘community-of-learning’ literature is a set of strategies that enable a sense of belonging and collective ownership amongst all participants in the course. We describe the experienced benefits, as well as challenges, of such teaching, as we outline the methods we use to enhance students’ perception of belonging to a community-of-learning. We conclude by making recommendations as to the requirements of adopting a community-of-learning teaching approach to tertiary education. Keywords Tertiary · Team teaching · Community-of-learning · Belonging · Lecturetheatre based
* Huibert P. de Vries [email protected] Sanna Malinen [email protected] 1
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies “Community” It’s everywhere! In thousands of geographical locations throughout the land people gather in small, medium, and large groups (or dispersed associations) for some common purpose. (Lenning and Ebbers 1999, p. 17)
Introduction ‘Community’ is a central concept in seminal works by Lave and Wenger (1991) on situated learning and Lenning and Ebbers’ (1999) paper on students’ learning experience. Lave and Wenger (1991) view social engagement and learning as inextricably linked, and refer to a social practice theory for effective learning. Lenning and Ebbers (1999) postulate that participants’ perceived belongingness to a classroom environment, and engagement with the learning experience, will increase success at the institutional, staff and student levels. They see a direct relationship between staff and students belonging to a learning community and the overall quality and quantity of student engagement. Indeed, the educational literature clearly points to the importance and powerful potential of ‘learning communities’ for student engagement and development, and the perception of belonging and success (Brooks et al. 2010; Lave and Wenger 1991; Lenning and Ebbers 1999; Shapiro and Levine 1999; Zhao and Kuh 2004). Evidence also highlights the positive impact that team-teaching can have on the creation of a community of engaged stud
Data Loading...
