Learning Communities and Student Success

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In his study, Romero aimed to research the effects of community college students’ participation in learning communities and to explore the qualitative aspects of how such the mentioned partaking helps students to improve their grades. The rationale for choosing in favor of this particular subject of research, on the author’s part, had to do with the fact that, as practice indicates, students are often required to demonstrate the interdisciplinary understanding of the knowledge that they gain. The study’s main question Romero formulated as follows, “Is participation in a learning community a significant predictor of student success for community college students?” (2012, p. 37).

Methodologically speaking, Participation in learning communities as a predictor of student success at a community college is best defined as a cross-sectional qualitative study, concerned with testing the hypothesis that there is indeed a positive correlation between one’s academic successfulness, as a student, and his or her willingness to take an active part in the functioning of learning communities. The thesis’s preliminary validity is being illustrated, in regards to the provided review of the relevant literature, which does support the idea that the concerned activity is indeed beneficial to the affiliated students’ academic well-being.

The process of collecting the empirical data was concerned with: a) Identifying the qualified participants “students who were 18 years of age or older who were enrolled in at least one credit course at a community college in a suburban southern California neighborhood” (Romero, 2012, p. 39). b) Asking the selected 24,500 students to fill out the survey questionnaires, submitted to them via email (only 927 of them returned the completed surveys), c) Subjecting the received responses to quantification.

The data analysis was conducted with the mean of utilizing a multiple regression analysis, with the independent variable has been the extent of every participant’s affiliation with learning communities. The so-called Thriving Quotient tool was used to identify the ‘holistic’ effects of students’ prolonged association with the communal mode of learning. The study’s main finding is that “that student who participates in a learning community have higher academic goals than their counterparts (t(925)= 4.49, p <.000)” (Romero, 2012, p. 40). The author concluded that this should have a positive effect on the strength of educational commitment in students.

The reviewed literature’s foremost contribution to the study is that it shows that there are several fully objective preconditions for community college students to consider enrolling into learning communities. Probably the most important of them has to do with the fact that, as many of the mentioned authors (such as Dwyer, Millett & Payne (2006)) point to, today’s students are more than ever required to receive good grades, to be able to graduate. Participating in learning communities make it much more likely for students to succeed, in this respect.

I would use this literature to gain many additional insights into what accounts for the phenomenological essence of learning communities. In its turn, this would come in handy, within the context of how I may go about conceptualizing the future development of this educational format, as such that has been dialectically predetermined to emerge. In particular, the reviewed literature should help me to choose in favor of the proper methodological approach towards addressing the subject matter at stake.

In their study, So and Kim strived to explore the role of informal inquiry in the setting of a self-organized learning community in South Korea. The actual logic behind the authors’ focus of interest, in this respect, is that they expected the study’s findings to reflect upon the hidden set of motivations that prompt teachers to form learning communities, in the first place. The study aimed to address the following primary questions: What motivates teachers to participate in learning communities? What affects the perception of these communities’ discursive significance, on the part of teachers?

This particular study is best described in terms of descriptive-interpretative research, which is essentially concerned with reviewing discursively relevant literature and with using the obtained insights to interpret the significance of the empirically collected data. The best proof of the soundness of the provided classification of So and Kim’s study can serve the fact that the number of this study’s participants accounted for only three, and the fact that the element of interpretation played a substantial role, within the context of how the authors went about conducting the empirical phase of their research.

The data-collection procedure involved interviewing three fifth-grade teachers in South Korea (all female) on the subjects, closely related to the activity of participating in self-organized learning communities. The procedure’s integral part was concerned with observing the behavior of these teachers, during the meetings (in the format of a self-organized learning community), and taking notes on the qualitative characteristics of the affiliated learning process (such as the manner, in which teachers would interact with each other). In particular, the authors made a point in identifying the effects of informal inquiry on the measure of participating teachers’ professional enthusiasm.

To analyze the procured data, So and Kim resorted to the coding method of Strauss (1987), based on the assumption that it is possible to define the discursive characteristics in how the subjects of interpretative studies react to the externally applied stimuli. The study’s main finding is that the application of informal inquiry by teachers does contribute rather substantially towards ensuring the spatial integrity of self-organized learning communities, which in turn has a strongly positive effect on the extent of the concerned practitioners’ professional adequacy, “Informal inquiry enables teachers to increase their knowledge of teaching practice” (So & Kim, 2013, p. 113).

The scholarly literature, referenced in the article, does emphasize the importance of learning communities, as the instrument of helping teachers/students to make sure that they never cease expanding their intellectual horizons – something that should qualify them to be able to attain social prominence. What is particularly interesting, in this respect, is that many of the reviewed sources promote the idea that the emergence and the continual proliferation of learning communities are fully consistent with the discourse of post-modernity, which justifies the application of an interdisciplinary (not strictly educational) approach to tackling the subject matter at stake (Morrissey, 2000).

I would refer to the literature, reviewed in the study, as such that justifies the idea that when it comes to discussing the significance of learning communities, one must be able to do it from a highly systemic perspective. The reason for this is that just about every of the mentioned scholarly sources accentuates the importance of informational transactions/personal relationships, within the affiliated learning environment, which in turn implies that the growing popularity of the educational medium in question has been predetermined by the very laws of history (Westheimer, 1999).

References

Dwyer, C., Millett, C. & Payne, D. (2006). A culture of evidence: Postsecondary assessment and learning outcomes. Princeton: Educational Testing Service.

Morrissey, M. (2000). Professional learning communities: An ongoing exploration. Austin: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Romero, E. (2012). Participation in learning communities as a predictor of student success at a community college. Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, 20 (1), 36-43.

So, K. & Kim, J. (2013). Informal inquiry for professional development among teachers within a self-organized learning community: A case study from South Korea. International Education Studies, 6 (3), 105-115.

Strauss, A. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Westheimer, J. (1999). Communities and consequences: An inquiry into ideology and practice in teachers’ professional work. Educational Administration Quarterly, 35 (1), 71-105.

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Learning Communities and Student Success

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