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Wagner College
(Staten Island, NY)
Learning
by Doing
Summary
Wagner College uses a learning community (LC) approach to engage first
year students in one element of its academic curriculum: "learning
by doing." The learning community is a distinctive community as "text"
model, it includes two lecture courses from different disciplines approaching
a common theme; a relevant experiential component in the surrounding community
(e.g., community based research group projects, community service activities,
prescribed field trips); and a writing intensive, highly interactive third
course titled Reflective Tutorial. The Reflective Tutorial
provides the student with many opportunities to see and reflect upon the
connections between academic learning, the surrounding community, social
issues and individual experience. Wagner designed an on-line learning
outcomes assessment survey for this program.
The Practice
One of the 21 First-Year Program learning communities is called “Living
on Spaceship Earth: Environmental Issues and Their Literary Portrayals.”
This LC, designed for non-science majors, considers the major environmental
issues facing the present generation. It includes three courses coupled
with experiences in the community that are linked to the environmental
theme. The English course (Literature and the Environment) focuses
on essays, poetry, and works of fiction, drama, and cinema that centrally
feature the environment. The Biology course (Environmental Biology)
presents fundamental ecological concepts to show how nature works as a
web of interconnected factors. The third course (Reflective Tutorial)
is student interactive and allows for discussion and reflection, bringing
together the various parts of the LC.
As part of their community experiential component, the students focus
on the groundwater pollution problem in Toms River, New Jersey, and its
possible association with a childhood cancer cluster there. Students interview
community activists, corporate representatives, government scientists,
and state and federal public officials associated with this environmental/health
issue. They attend “town” meetings of the Citizens’
Action Committee on the Childhood Cancer Cluster, a venue that keeps Toms
River citizens informed regarding all aspects of the childhood cancer
cluster there and allows them to express their concerns to the appropriate
invited officials. Each student researches an environmental issue and
is required to include environmental policy related to that issue, as
well as personal recommendations for policy changes that enhance sustainability
and human health. From that major research paper, each student prepares
a carefully crafted letter to his/her representative senators and representatives,
then visits one of those politicians or the environmental expert on that
politician’s staff for a one-on-one discussion during a class trip
to Washington, DC. Near the end of the semester, each student receives
web design instruction, prepares his/her own research webpage, and gives
a presentation of his/her research findings to peers as well as the campus
and outside community. The latter component is part of the Reflective
Tutorial course.
Effectiveness
All aspects of the LC have been evaluated using a tailored, online assessment
survey called SALG (Student Assessment of Learning Gains). The students
self-report high marks regarding objectives of critical thinking, understanding
of scientific inquiry and reasoning, development of a basic scientific
knowledge base, conceptual learning, understanding the usefulness and
limits of science, and development of a sense of civic engagement. Results
from a learning community survey and an experiential learning survey developed
by the college show that the students find their community experience
makes the class material more meaningful, improves their problem-solving
ability, and improves their understanding of civic responsibility.
While the students did not physically “do” anything in Toms
River, they stand witness to a drama unfolding in Toms River and are transformed
by that process. Community leaders have told the LC instructors of the
importance to them of the presence of these students in focusing attention
on the environmental/human health issue before them, analogous to the
Quaker concept of bearing witness as a way to promote social change.
Resources
For a basic description of the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts,
the First-Year Program learning communities, and Guidelines for Experiential
Learning, please visit Wagner's website.
Student
website design pages
Online assessment survey called SALG (Student Assessment of Learning Gains)
(http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/salgains/instructor).
Contact Information
Julia Barchitta
Senior Dean
Center for Career Development and Experiential Learning
Wagner College
One Campus road
Staten Island, New York 10301
Phone: (718) 390-3443
Fax: (718) 420-4012
jbarchit@wagner.edu
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