It seems odd to get involved in a heated discussion of the nature of interdisciplinary learning in July, but such are the dreams of the everyday academic. Summer break is a great time to work on reinventing courses, but we've got to buckle down and work a little harder if we're going to implement this new model before classes begin.
And here I am talking about implementing new models in the middle of summer break--or actually, near the end of summer break, eek! But it's also kind of exciting to meet with colleagues to figure out a way to make a supersized Honors learning community work.
I've taught in various types of learning communities over many years, some more effective than others. For at least a decade I've taught my Honors Literature class as a learning community with the Honors section of the introductory first-year seminar course. Last year, for instance, I taught my usual Odysseys topic while the same students took a first-year seminar focusing on superheroes; both classes talked about the nature of heroic action and the consequences of decisions, and we designed a few assignments that required students to draw on material from both classes. We also shared some out-of-class activities, but only a few students engaged with activities outside the classroom so it was kind of an anemic learning community.
In addition to Honors Literature and the first-year seminar, these same students were enrolled in a section of the one-hour first-year class focusing on college transition skills like time management and community engagement; however, I've never managed to engage the instructors of the one-hour course with our learning community, possibly because their time is so limited and their curriculum is dictated from above. But this year, all that has changed. Yes: instead of an anemic two-class learning community, we are bringing together five different classes.
They're all Honors classes, and most of the Honors students live in the same section of student housing so they'll already be interacting with each other regularly. For this learning community, half of the Honors students will be enrolled in my Honors Lit course and the first-year seminar on a linked topic, while the other half will be enrolled in Honors Communication and the first-year seminar on a different linked topic, and both sets of students will be enrolled in the one-hour college skills seminar. That's four faculty members from various disciplines and a Student Life staff member, for a total of five instructors represening a variety of disciplines and ranging in age from twentysomething to seventysomething (and I'm not even the oldest in the group this time).
And here's the exciting part: we're not just planning to do a few field trips and a shared assignment; instead, we're working on an interdisciplinary group project that will engage students in group work and creative advocacy. Coordinating this project across five different syllabi--and finding an effective way to assess and grade the project--will be complicated, but if the discussions we've had so far are any indication, the results will be worth the effort.
This kind of project requires a great deal of flexibility, openness, and trust; yesterday, for instance, a colleague said, "You realize we'll have to be comfortable grading students on material from outside our own classroom." We all looked around the table in silence for a moment, and then "Sure," I said, "I can be comfortable with that. I trust you all." And that's how a learning community should work.
Looks good on paper! But how will it work in real life? Stay tuned for further bulletins.
No comments:
Post a Comment