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Tracy Calley, Ph. D. Chelsie Hawkinson, M.A. Felicia Dziadek, M.A.

Transformative Learning Among College Freshmen: Where is their Voice? Citizenship, Democracy, and Difference. Tracy Calley, Ph. D. Chelsie Hawkinson, M.A. Felicia Dziadek, M.A. Defining Learning Communities.

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Tracy Calley, Ph. D. Chelsie Hawkinson, M.A. Felicia Dziadek, M.A.

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  1. Transformative Learning Among College Freshmen: Where is their Voice? Citizenship, Democracy, and Difference. Tracy Calley, Ph. D. Chelsie Hawkinson, M.A. Felicia Dziadek, M.A.

  2. Defining Learning Communities • Learning Communities are classes or approaches that are linked or clustered during an academic semester (most likely the first semester in college), often around an interdisciplinary theme that enrolls a common cohort of students. This represents an intellectual restructuring of students’ time, credit and learning experiences to foster more explicit intellectual connections between students, among students and faculty, and between disciplines (MacGregor, 2000; Ramirez, 2002 ).

  3. Transformative Learning • “How [students] learn to think for themselves rather than act upon the assimilated beliefs, values, feelings and judgments of others” (Mezirow, 2003). • Student experiences are an intricate aspect of their learning process. • Students are challenged to learn & think on higher levels with complex assignments.

  4. Learning Community Team Organization • (Witherspoon, 2006)

  5. Our Learning Community • Theme: Citizenship, Democracy & Difference: Your Power to Make Change Happen

  6. Composition & Rhetoric/Seminar Myths: The Unmasking of America Citizenship, Democracy & Difference: Your Power to Make Change Happen Portfolio One: Democracy: The Service of Knowledge Portfolio Two: Difference: The Service of Voice Portfolio Three: Citizenship: The Service of Commitment • Portfolio One • The Myth of the Model Family: Argument of Fact • Portfolio Two: • The Myth of the Melting Pot: Persuasive Argument • Portfolio Three: • The Myth of Freedom: Argument of Evaluation

  7. Film Your Issue • Goals: • Make integrated connections between Triad courses • Visual Rhetoric (Composition) • Teach students about a new type of technology writing (Composition) • Writing Process in a new Genre (Composition) • Personal Values, Goals & Strengths (Seminar) • Civic Engagement (Seminar) • Connect to a Political Topic (Political Science)

  8. Our Students Amazing Work • On Homelessness • On Space Exploration • On ROTC

  9. First Year Research Conference • 32 students presented from our Learning Community

  10. Student Feedback • “This semester has been so enjoyable because of my Triad’s ability to communicate with each other.” –Anonymous Female Student • “I think it is very appropriate that [the assignments] are all focused on America today. In Composition, we learn about the societal myths that exist in today's society; in Political Science we learn about the government itself and why things are the way they are; and in Seminar we learn about what we can do to make a difference in society. It all connects perfectly, and makes you think about the connections you can make between the 3 [courses].” –Anonymous Male Student

  11. Dilemmas with “Film Your Issue” • Students had difficulties uploading videos to YouTube. • Student Group Dynamics • 50% of grade came from group members (Webb). • Encouraging diversity of students’ issue choices.

  12. References • MacGregor, J., (2000). Restructuring Large Classes to Create Communities of Learners. New Directions of Teaching and Learning, 81,47-61. • Mezirow, J., (2001). Epistemology Transformative Learning. Retrieved from transformative learning.org. • Ramirez, G. (2002). Learning Communities In Action: A Case Study of the Programmatic Experiences of Faculty and Students in the First Year Program at Texas A& University- Corpus Christi. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University, 2002). • Webb, A. (2008). Personal Communication.

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