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Academic Classroom Community Project Results
Recent studies have offered interesting information about student and instructor beliefs regarding the importance of classroom community. Student data indicates that if they are motivated and find the course meaningful, they are more likely to experience feelings of community in a course that uses cooperative learning. Additionally, if students perceive their group as learning the material and working together effectively, they have much stronger feelings of community, but only in smaller classes.
Does this then mean that instructors of large courses have no chance of creating community in the classroom? Can classroom community occur without using cooperative learning techniques? After extensive interviews with several UT faculty, the answer to each question is no and yes, respectively. One faculty member we spoke to teaches a particularly large natural science class who still believes that there is community in his class. He defines it as a sense of belongingness, a sense of excitement, and student engagement throughout the class. Several other faculty we spoke to do not use cooperative learning in the traditional sense (group projects, etc.), but do use student interaction to develop a sense of classroom community.
All of the instructors we interviewed seemed to believe that classroom community is both the instructoręs and the studentęs responsibility, that it involves process and requires positive feelings (such as comfort, security, freedom to take risks) to occur. When asked what classroom community looks like, most instructors indicated that students tend to develop an affective or social connection with one another, that they were cognitively engaged during class, they developed skills and abilities they could use in later classes, and they had a positive attitude towards one another and the learning tasks.
In a recent presentation of our research at a national conference on faculty development, experts in faculty development suggested the following as additional indicators associated with classroom community:
- Knowing the students' names
- Engagement in discussion
- Arguing respectfully
- Mutual agreement of course goals
- Topics covered beyond the scopes of the course
- Students attend to one another
- Positive feelings for the instructor
- Shared leadership
- Emotional commitment
- High quality breath and depth of discussion
- Quality of feedback
- Continuity of topics beyond the classroom content
Our current research is now focused on continuing with our faculty interviews and adding students' perspectives to our understanding of classroom community.