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Learning from Learning Community Assessment: Reflections on an Evolving Program.

Learning from Learning Community Assessment: Reflections on an Evolving Program. Megan France and Steve Grande James Madison University. An overview. Welcome Who are you? Learning Communities at JMU Our Assessment Plan Data Collection Results Q & A. Learning Communities.

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Learning from Learning Community Assessment: Reflections on an Evolving Program.

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  1. Learning from Learning Community Assessment: Reflections on an Evolving Program. Megan France and Steve Grande James Madison University

  2. An overview • Welcome • Who are you? • Learning Communities at JMU • Our Assessment Plan • Data Collection • Results • Q & A

  3. Learning Communities • Who has learning communities? • Who has assessed LC’s? • What would you like to learn from today’s session?

  4. James Madison University • Public; four-year • Liberal Arts core • Shenandoah Valley, Virginia • 4,000 first year students • Primarily residential • Center for Assessment and Research Studies

  5. JMU Learning Communities • Started in 2001 • Currently 6 residential, first-year communities • Approximately 20-25 students per community • Common course(s) • Linked to a major, honors or theme • One or two semesters • Faculty initiated • Assess all communities

  6. LC Assessment at JMU • Mis-steps • Objectives followed program implementation • Control group issues • Assessment was not part of a larger plan

  7. Feedback • What would you like your students get out of learning communities? • What would you like to know?

  8. Goals • Goal 1: Increase students’ intellectual engagement • Goal 2: Increase students’ academic success • Goal 3: Increase students’ civic responsibility • Goal 4: Foster students’ psychosocial development

  9. Objectives 2005-06 & 2006-07 • Goal 1: Intellectual Engagement • Mastery Approach • Meta-cognition • Goal 2: Academic Success • GPA • Retention • Goal 3: Civic Responsibility • Cohesion to JMU • Goal 4: Psychosocial Development • Did not assess

  10. Results 2005-06; 2006-07 • Consistent results from 2005-06 and 2006-07 • Investigated: • Mastery Approach • Encouraging findings • Meta-cognition • No significant difference between groups • Student belonging to JMU • No significant difference between groups, ceiling effect • GPA • Significant differences between groups even when controlling for SAT scores • Retention • No significant differences between groups due to JMU’s high retention rate

  11. Revisiting our findings • Not the whole picture • Meetings with Learning Community faculty • Revising our objectives

  12. Current Objectives • Goal 1:Intellectual Engagement • Objective 1: Achievement Goal Orientation • Learning Community students will increase in their mastery approach orientation and decrease in performance approach orientation after having lived in a learning community. • These changes will be greater than that shown by first-year students who were not members of a learning community but also lived in residence halls.

  13. Achievement Goal Orientation • Measures the different ways students approach, engage in, and respond to their achievement in academic situations • Mastery Approach • “Completely mastering the material is important to me this semester.” • Mastery Avoidance • “I worry that I may not learn all that I possibly could this semester.” • Performance Approach • “I want to do better than other students this semester.” • Performance Avoidance • “My goal this semester is to avoid performing poorly compared to other students.” • Work Avoidance • “I want to do as little work as possible this semester.”

  14. Current Objectives • Goal 1: Intellectual Engagement • Objective 2: Academic Motivation and Valuation • Learning Community students will increase in their academic valuation after having lived in a learning community. • These changes will be greater than that shown by first-year students who were not members of a learning community but also lived in residence halls.

  15. Academic Motivation Scale • Development of academic valuation on a continuum • Intrinsic Motivation to know • “Because my studies will allow me to continue to learn about many things that interest me” • Intrinsic motivation toward accomplishment • “For the satisfaction I feel when I am in the process of accomplishing difficult academic activities” • Intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation • “For the pleasure that I experience when I read interesting authors”

  16. Academic Motivation Scale • Extrinsic motivation identified • “Because I think that a college education will help me better prepare for the career I have chosen” • Extrinsic motivation introjected • “Because of the fact that when I succeed in school I feel important” • Extrinsic motivation external regulation • “In order to have a better salary later on” • Amotivation • “I can't see why I am going to college and frankly, I couldn't care less” • Did not use due to non-normal data

  17. Current Objectives • Goal 1: Intellectual Engagement • Objective 3: Help-seeking Strategies • Learning Community students will increase in adaptive help-seeking and decrease in maladaptive help-seeking after having lived in a learning community. • These changes will be greater than that shown by first-year students who were not members of a learning community but also lived in residence halls.

  18. Help-Seeking • Help-seeking has been defined as a social-cognitive achievement oriented behavior • Instrumental Help-seeking (adaptive) • “The purpose of seeking help would be just to get me started so that I could figure out the rest on my own.” • Expedient Help-seeking (maladaptive) • “Getting help in my courses would be a way of avoiding doing some of the work.” • Help-seeking Threat (maladaptive) • “I would feel like a failure if I need help in my courses.” • Help-seeking Avoidance (maladaptive) • “I would rather do worse on an assignment I couldn’t finish, than ask for help.” • Formal vs. Informal Help-seeking • “In my courses, my professors would be better to get help from than students.”

  19. Data Collection • Who? • Learning Community students • Control group: First-year residential students • Data collected at three time-points • Time 1: Assessment Day (August) • Time 2: End of Fall Semester (November) • Time 3: End of Spring Semester (April) • Why this Design? • To assess growth: Time 1 serves as a pre-test to Time 2 and 3 • Effects of learning communities may become more apparent over time

  20. Interaction graph

  21. Results2007-2008 • Tentative… • Currently only have Time 1 and 2 • Achievement Goal Orientation • 91 Learning Community students, 144 comparison students • Academic Motivation • 93 Learning Community students, 147 comparison students • Help-Seeking • 99 Learning Community students,160 comparison students • Analyses: 2X2 ANOVA • No significant interactions

  22. What’s next? • Time point 3 • Faculty discussion • Sharing data • Conversations • Triangulating the data • Student perceptions • Outside programming

  23. Questions and Reflections

  24. Thank you! • Please feel free to email us for more information • Megan France (francemk@jmu.edu) • Steve Grande (grandese@jmu.edu)

  25. Alpha: Achievement Goal Orientation

  26. Alpha: Academic Motivation

  27. Alpha: Help-Seeking

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