Community Learning Spaces

Yesterday, I was pleased to accompany my college, Dr. Jinai Sun, and a group of students from North Central College to visit the Ray Chinese School.  The school is a vibrant community.  Between two local sites, they serve approximately 1,400 people.  The school is a weekend school that provides language instruction in Chinese and English, academic enrichment programming, and cultural arts education.  During our tour, we learned that the school opened 20 years ago with just 12 families.  While the school pays their teachers, most of the work of administering the program is done through volunteer efforts.  Classes and workshops are offered for parents at the same time as the children so whole families can attend at the same time.  We also observed other parents and grandparents interacting in the halls, playing with younger children, or completing their own work. 

The Ray Chinese School is a wonderful example of a learning space that has evolved to meet the needs of a community.  Also, the community is highly invested in the experience and appears to take on a sense of group ownership to make sure that the children are receiving high quality educational experiences.  We visited one classroom and saw a very energetic adolescent who volunteers in the class to mentor the younger learners.  This was yet another example of the collaboration that appeared to define this school.

After our tour of the school, we extended our cultural excursion with a lunch at a local Chinese restaurant.  We sampled so many different dishes and all discovered something delicious.

Educational programs created from within the group seem to have a unique way of meeting the needs of their community.  Programming that allows parents and children to simultaneously engage in their own process and an overall commitment of adolescent and adult members of the community to teach and guide younger children is consistent with Vygotskian ideas of socio-cultural learning.  The community defines the content and the path of learning experiences. 

First Year Experiences in Higher Education

Last week, I was fortunate to attend and speak at the Midwest FYE Conference at Northern Illinois University.  The keynote speaker, Dr. Vasti Torres from Indiana University, delivered a strong address that highlighted the current status of higher education.  The current climate of higher education includes a more diverse student population, students who are less prepared as evidenced by more remedial education experiences, higher public accountability for degree completion, and less funding available to meet the growing expectations.  Dr. Torres went on to claim that there are more part-time college students and national studies indicate that 68% of part-time college students do not complete their degrees.

The current state of higher education is definitely fraught with challenge.  In order to meet these challenges, it’s crucial to understand who are students are and what are the available tools and resources available to support students.  Dr. Torres described one of her studies in which she examined how first generation Latino students engage in information seeking behaviors.  Her research found that students will typically seek out early support from trusted friends (whether those friends have good information or not).  After they face a larger challenge, they may eventually seek out institutional supports.  It is therefore important to create connections with students earlier and foster stronger connections with the institution through high impact practices.

Throughout the conference, many different institutions shared their examples of practices designed to support students including peer mentor programs, parent information programs for Spanish speaking parents, and collaboration between student and academic affairs.   My colleague from North Central College and I shared about a summer bridge program for students.  I completed an interview study with students who had participated with the program in 2010.  Interview data showed that the program helped students gain a more accurate schema of college life and helped to develop a connection to the campus community. 

College offers opportunities for the development of skills and knowledge needed for career development.  College also provides individuals will opportunities to stretch personally and develop life skills that will provide an important foundation for future life experiences.  College is also a rich and complicated experience that requires structured supports and developmental insights.

Midwest First Year Conference  http://www.mfyc.org