Learning Community: Integration of Two Lifelong Learning Disciplines (REA 0003, SOP 2772)

TITLE:

Learning Community: Integration of Two Lifelong Learning Disciplines (REA 0003, SOP 2772)

GRANT RECIPIENTS:

Irene Lipof – Social Science – Wolfson Campus
ilipof@mdc.edu
Suzanne Pearl – College Prep – Wolfson Campus
spearl@mdc.edu

ABSTRACT:

This interdisciplinary project will help REA 0003 students (College Prep Reading) and SOP 2772 students (Human Sexuality) acquire reading and communication skills. This learning community will foster the development of various life skills as it promotes life-long learning, vocabulary development, and reading and critical thinking skills. These skills include decision making based on informative documentation, distinguishing facts from opinions, and determining and evaluating bias in what they read, especially human sexuality issues. The learning community will enable faculty and students to build “collaborative knowledge” with a set of common tasks (addressing the objectives of both courses) in order to promote a shared understanding within the classroom and the community at large.
Our purpose is to improve retention by allowing students to take a “regular” college credit course while completing their developmental studies. Keeping student interest high is a motivational factor in both retention and student performance. In addition to promoting interpersonal skills, knowledge of human sexuality and community resources will help students solve personal, family, and employment challenges throughout their lives.

PROJECT SUMMARY:

The project was completed as per our specifications in the grant. Mrs. Suzanne Pearl and Dr. Irene Lipof collaborated creating a learning community with REA 0003 and SOP 2772 students to facilitate the students acquiring reading and communication skills with a human sexuality course content. Additionally, this learning community fostered the development of life skills as it promoted life-long learning, vocabulary development, and reading and critical thinking skills. Furthermore, the students were able to learn decision making skills, learn to distinguish facts from opinions, and evaluated bias in what they read, especially human sexuality issues.

The group of students was able to build collaborative knowledge with a set of tasks, including the development of a one act play about sexually transmitted diseases which was presented in several Student Life Skills classes and an interactive condom education session presented on Valentine’s Day by the entire learning community to the general Wolfson student population.

An assessment tool was developed by Mrs. Pearl and Dr. Lipof and was executed at the end of the term; the results were stunningly positive. This Classroom Assessment Tool (CAT) allowed the students to express the powerful impact this learning community had on their educational experience at the college. Additionally, our final exams and exit grades demonstrated that thirteen out of fifteen students successfully completed both courses..

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PROJECT RESULTS:

The project results were successful, demonstrating that college prep students can complete a three-credit social psychology course when attempted with the developmental reading course in a learning community setting. Our syllabi included reading a novel with a sexuality and literacy theme and then writing two different types of book reviews as per the requirements of each course syllabi. A unique component of the learning community was a service learning requirement at an agency with a link to a human sexuality topic. One of the students was hired by Care Resource as a result of his voluntary service with that organization.

Included you will find the syllabi, photos from a field trip to the Holocaust Memorial, a receipt for the tickets purchased for the students to attend a showing of “Transamerica,” a video tape of the one act play written, produced and performed by the students, and copies of the student assessment.

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PLANS FOR DISSEMINATION:

We plan to share our project with the Task Force on Learning Communities at one of the monthly meetings. In addition, we are replicating our project Spring 2007 without the support of the Golden Apple Grant.

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