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Building Communities of Active Learners
Southwest Regional Learning Communities Conference
February
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COMBINED SESSION:
FACILITATOR: Osaro Ighodaro, Arizona State University
Purdue University Main Campus
Kim Wilson, Marne Helgesen, Matt Small
We expect the graduates of the Landscape Architecture Program to possess highly effective skills in communicating, collaborating, critical thinking, and design and technical skills specific to the profession. The fifth-year urban design studio is designed to facilitate the learning of these valued skills through a complex service learning project, where teams engage in critical thinking. In the fall semester the class worked on a two-mile portion of Chicago's Michigan Avenue. Ignored by the city and described by most professionals as a difficult physical problem, seven teams engaged in a process to understand, develop alternatives, and present their solutions to Central Michigan Avenue Association. Our presentation will focus on the following aspects of complex service learning teams: how student demographics impact team composition and selection of the service learning project; how to create and support learning teams by forming teams based on learning style assessment, skill assessment, and preferences; and supporting teams by building team awareness skills, developing team contracts, team impact/feedback, and on-going counseling; how selection and design of a service learning project assures critical thinking; and best versus re-thinkable practices on teams, assignment, process, and assessment.
contact information:wilson@hort.purdue.edu NOTE: this session is combined with the following session
James Madison University
Ronald J. Cereola, Kenneth R. Wright, Tim Ball
The goal of the panel presentation will be to share with the other conference attendees how James Madison University is utilizing interdisciplinary methodologies to provide an environment that is designed to enhance the critical thinking, writing, communication, and technology skills of our students while at the same time building upon the students' commitment to serving the community. All of this will be accomplished with the support structure of a learning community comprised of approximately 20 first-year students. A graduate student will be the hall director of the dormitory where the learning community will be housed and will serve as the liaison between the teaching team and the students. We believe that faculty and staff from other colleges and universities that have either learning communities or service-learning experiences built into the curriculum (or both) will benefit from a discussion of how three faculty members from different university colleges and departments brought this model into being with the help of staff members from the Center for Leadership, Service, and Transitions and the Office of Residence Life. Our hope is that we may inspire colleagues at other colleges and universities to experiment with a similar model at their home institutions.
contact information:cereolrj@jmu.edu
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