Learning Communities Focused On Student Learning and Teamwork Skills

Engineers are increasingly being valued as much for their ability to learn new things and operate as a member of a team as for their technical skills.For this reason, a significant goal of engineering education should be to help students become life-long learners and productive team members.For the last two years in the College of Engineering at Kansas State University, learning communities have been organized to help students become effective learners and team members.Engineering faculty volunteers recruited students and led their own learning communities.Communities were comprised of freshman chemical engineering students, Multicultural Engineering NACME scholars, students in the Engineering Student Council, students with an interest in international studies, and upper-classmen electrical and computer engineering students who serve as mentors to freshmen.Each learning community meets twice each month: one time as small learning communities and one time when all learning communities meet together in a session facilitated by Jan Wiersema from the College of Human Sciences at Iowa State University.At these interactive meetings, students engage with important concepts such as active listening, conflict resolution, team problem solving and learning theories.The large group meetings allowed students to discuss these topics, participate in an activity to reinforce the notions, and brainstorm how they can apply the concepts in their academic and professional lives.To assess what students are gaining from the learning communities, students completed a survey that targets student knowledge and practice before and after the experience.In addition to increased retention of minority students, results showed statistically significant increases in both student knowledge about learning and teamwork and how often students implemented this knowledge.Faculty benefited from the learning communities by gaining perspective on how students think about learning and teamwork and by developing a closer relationship with students in their learning communities.