Set the Stage for Success: Psychology and EAP 1620 at IAC
A Look at a New Learning Community from Two Sides
By Miriam Frances Abety and Cynthia M. Schuemann
Part II: A Pscyhology Perspective:
(To refer to Part I from the Fall, 2006 issue of Connections, please click here.)
"Integrated Learning
Communities...
are intentional curriculum
restructuring efforts that thematically link or cluster during a given term
and enroll a cohort of students. Learning Communities aim to provide
students with greater curricular coherence, and to provide both students and
faculty an opportunity for increased intellectual interaction and shared
inquiry."
-- Washington Center News, Spring 1995
Abety: It was serendipity that Dr. Schuemann and I were office mates for the first two years of our learning community. We had the advantage of seeing each other on a daily basis to discuss, plan and review our courses, to explore venues for teaching strategies with our students as well as for evaluating our students’ progress in each course. Since our initial learning community almost three years ago, we have been able to tweak our courses for a “custom fit”. In the last edition of this electronic publication we shared some background information and ESL connections. This section of our paper provides a perspective from Miriam Frances Abety, and her CLP 1006 course (Psychology of Personal Effectiveness).
Learning communities are advantageous not only to students but to faculty members as well. According to The Learning Communities National Resource Center, learning communities help expand the faculty member’s repertoire of teaching approaches as well as, helping them to revise their course content. Also, faculty members may acquire new scholarly interests. The authors also mention that learning community faculty members may build: “Mentoring relationships with each other and are more frequently engaging with beginning students and general education offerings.”
When exploring an integrated learning community, an approach that is more relevant to the real world assists in learning. According to Rasmussen and Skinner (2002), “Critical thinking is strengthened as students are exposed to multiple, and sometimes conflicting, perspectives on the same issues.” Through this concept, students are able to explore, analyze and discuss topics by utilizing critical thinking skills.
When we initially started our learning
community of ESL and the Psychology of Personal Effectiveness courses, we
had a vision of what we expected from our courses and our students. First,
we wanted to expose our students to a regular college course with
English-speaking students. We wanted them to experience “en vivo” how
college students in the United States are engaged in the classroom. Second,
we wanted students to infuse their knowledge gained from the ESL classes
into their present psychology course. Third, we wanted to ensure that
students would be successful in both courses. Finally, we wanted to create a
safe environment for our students to promote their English language skills.
A brief discussion of each of these goals will follow.
Goal 1: Expose our students to a regular college course with English-speaking students.
When taking my CLP 1006 course, the student must engage in several assignments in order to pass the course. Students initially were unfamiliar with the expectations of a college student. As an EAP student, daily assignments, instant feedback and an informal atmosphere may exist. I believe students initially felt the pressures of the course content as discussed earlier by Schuemann. Some students who felt overwhelmed attempted to resolve their conflict by turning to Schuemann to see if she could “mediate” the assignments. During our discussions, I felt she may have concurred with the students that it was “too much” for them. However, I insisted that they get the normal coursework of other students, and knew they would perform at the same, if not at a higher, level. Others attempted to negotiate with me the terms of the assignments—to no avail. Although I empathized with their struggles, I felt it would be both unfair to the ESL student as well as to my students not involved in the learning community.
I found it interesting that some students
complained of too much work, visited me in my office often and were slightly
resistant to the amount of work. However, when they actually observed their
work as a finished product, they were proud of themselves. They felt they
had made an easy transition into college coursework and even displayed an
“attitude of gratitude” that they were successful. According to Abascal,
Brucato, Stephenson and Brucato (2006) an attitude of gratitude involves:
“Noticing, appreciating, and being thankful for the people, events, and even
the small benefits of your life” (p. 44). In our class, the students have
expressed an appreciation for the knowledge they have gained about
themselves, as well as about others in their personal and interpersonal
lives.
Goal 2: Infuse their knowledge gained from the ESL classes and translate this information into their present psychology course:
I am sure that as with any new venture in life, stress is a factor that can mitigate motivation. Students in our psychology course had several factors to address in order to adjust to the course. First, they may be accustomed to EAP professors trained to speak more slowly, with careful enunciation and pronunciation of their words. However, when entering my course, students will hear a psychology professor speak, without any delivery modification for English as a second language learners. During the first learning community, I found myself speaking in my normal tone of voice, going over the lectures at my regular pace and honestly, forgetting that students may not have been “infused” as yet with coursework taught completely in English.
By the second learning community semester, I developed other strategies to help the student become as involved in the course discussions as other students. On the first day of class, I explain to all students that this is a learning community. I describe the challenges facing our students in the class and I ask all of them to demonstrate tolerance and respect: tolerance for the explanations of colloquial words they may hear for the first time and that I want to ensure they understand, as well as tolerance for a student’s pauses when speaking in English. Finally, tolerance is asked of the EAP students when I speak too fast or assume they understand every word. I invite the students to please raise their hands, and to stop and ask me for an explanation of the phrase or word they have not heard before.
I ask for respect from all students and explain that they can expect it from me as well. For example, due to our population, some students may form subgroups within the class and speak to each other, not understanding that the student (or professor) has something to say. They may ask each other to translate a word or phrase they don’t understand because they don’t want to disrupt the classroom flow. I have expressed to them, however, to please ask me.
Because I speak Spanish, I have also found that students would address me in Spanish, or expect me to explain concepts to them in Spanish. Early on I explain to them that this class is conducted in English. When I come into the classroom and it is not time yet, I give them the opportunity to speak to each other in Spanish. However, once the class officially starts, they understand that even if they are speaking to each other, they must speak in English.
Although I got some negative feedback
from students initially, they have since understood the importance of their
practicing English at all times.
Goal 3: Ensure that students are successful in both (now in three) courses:
When Schuemann and I began our learning community, I think we each “did our own thing”, and students were taking two or three courses labeled a learning community because they were involved in each of the classes. This is a counter-productive strategy as we later learned. When engaging in a learning community, both courses should integrate the curriculum in order to maximize the opportunity that students have at becoming successful in both courses.
Whenever I give students a major assignment such as a paper on effectiveness and a group presentation on an effective person, Schuemann and Dominicis (teaching the library research component) are informed of:
· Assignment specifics
· Benchmarks and deadlines
· Grade rubric for the assignment
· Samples of assignment as demonstrated on WebCT
As we now work collaboratively and with a common theme, students are getting the same information, but from two and, now three, different perspectives. From the EAP perspective, they are getting the communications component. They are learning to write research papers, using the appropriate style for each assignment and have been exposed to “Turn-it-In” to help deal with the “copying and pasting” as I call their plagiarism. From the library component, students are learning how to conduct an effective search, what to look out for when doing research (beware of Wikipedia!) and how to log onto our LINCC system to search for academic articles.
Students are gaining life-long learning
from this experience, and they are able to learn about each process involved
in doing academic research. Students are also learning socialization skills
through a group power-point presentation. This is the first semester in
which students will serve as the Manager, Researcher, Reporter and /or
Artist of the group. This component is adapted from a Virtual College course
I took in which I participated in a group project. This allows the professor
to grade each individual as well as the group as a whole. Each role has
certain responsibilities the student must meet in order to be successful in
the presentation. Again, grade rubrics are afforded to the students so they
know exactly what they need to do in order to achieve the grade for which
they are striving.
Goal 4: Create a safe environment for our students to promote their English language skills:
Students will rise to your expectations. I have seen this in each of our learning community experiences. If you promote a climate of learning, students will follow. In my CLP courses, I have learned that the more you engage the student, the more you motivate your students to speak in class; the more accepting you are of their accents, and slips, the more they will participate.
Of extreme importance is creating a safe environment for the student. Students are aware that they will be making a presentation in which their oral communication skills in English will be exposed. This is why I encourage them to speak often in class—it sets the stage for their successful presentation. I have never had a student make fun of another student, nor appear upset or frustrated because the student has not understood or is taking time away from the class. On the contrary, students assist each other in the process. When they struggle with a word and want to say it in Spanish, I encourage them to think it out in English, to use other words to approximate what they want to say.
Students are given several in-class group assignments. They may be given a story, a personal account from the textbook or an article to read and discuss in their groups. They are then asked to discuss certain components within their groups. This exposure assists the student to relate to other students in English, and to use the textbook vocabulary appropriately. They may switch to Spanish; however, I walk around the classroom and may gently remind them aloud to speak in “English, please.” Students have been so reinforced in this that they may serve as the professor when at times, they will state aloud, “English, please.”
Although not all students will take the risk, several of them do. They feel comfortable with their cohorts and know that if they are pronouncing a word wrong that they will receive clarification in a friendly and respectful manner. Students are also curious about phrases and their origins. They appear focused, interested and proactive in their school success.
CLP Course Enhancements:
Students taking my CLP course are registered in my WebCT component of the course. At this site, they have several resources to assist them in their learning.
As resources, they have a glossary of CLP terms that I developed (the textbook does not have a glossary). Students are invited to go to either Answers.com or to Dictionary.com to get the exact pronunciation of the word.
Students will also find samples of successful student presentations as well as a host of resources for the American Psychological Association’s writing style. Included in these resources are two sample papers using APA.
Another enhancement in WebCT is an audio tape of a radio talk show in which the theme is “self-esteem”. Students are asked to listen to the tape and to identify concepts from the textbook. Students are able to listen to the program and identify the words and phrases that they are learning in class. These associations help promote learning.
Another component of WebCT is the discussion postings. Students get to use their writing skills as well as critical thinking skills when they address topics such as self-esteem, self-worth and proactivity. It encourages them to form cohesive statements utilizing the course vocabulary.
Students can learn a lot about themselves when they explore the inventories and assessments of the textbook, as well as some of the resources available to them in WebCT. They can find out about their learning style, their interest profiler (for deciding upon a major and career) and other self-inventories to help them become more effective on an interpersonal, intrapersonal and occupational level.
Finally, students can explore successful
group presentations and papers written by their fellow students in previous
course sections. They can get an idea of what is expected and what
constitutes a successful and effective assignment.
Recommendations and Conclusions:
Learning communities work best when they are formulated collaboratively, when we set our expectations high, and when we afford the students the opportunity to learn and grow from their experiences. According to Alexander’s 1999 article entitled, Involvement in Learning Revisited, effective learning communities will:
· Have a sense of purpose
· Help faculty members to relate to each other
· Integrate continuity of the curriculum
· Help build a sense of group identity and cohesiveness
If you are considering a learning community it is recommended that you meet regularly with your fellow faculty members involved. Find common themes in your curriculum. Use approaches in which you can help students learn a topic from the perspective of your discipline. Allow your students to guide you through your learning process. And, remember what your goals are when you plan your learning community. It will help you keep your focus.
I think that although our learning community is still a work in progress and we have advanced with each course section that we have taught since our original pilot, we have truly engaged in an integrated learning community that enables our students to set the stage for success.
References:
Abascal, J., Brucato, D., Brucato,L., Stephenson, P. (2005) Essential
Elements for Effectiveness. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Alexander, A. Involvement in Learning Revisited: Lessons we have
learned. (Sept/Oct 1999). Retrieved March 2007 from:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3752/is_199909/ai_n8856623
Rasmussen, Geri and Skinner, E. Integrated Learning Communities.
(May, 1997). Retrieved January 2007 from:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ilc/monograph/ILC-Monograph.pdf
Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate
Education. Retrieved February 2007 from: http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/lcfaq.htm