supported student success: communities of practice in higher education

Supported Student SuccessCommunities of Practice in Higher Education

Aimée deChambeauMay 15, 2014

Prescott College Symposium on Sustainability Education

Study focus and goals

• Focus• Graduate student success • Development from novice to experienced student

• Goals• Deepen the available research in the area of student

success at the graduate level• Formulate a theory of supported student success• Inform graduate program development• Contribute to paradigm shift for sustainable education

CoP? Practice?

CoP and the practice of being a successful student

• a set of relations among persons, activity, and world, over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice1

• intrinsic condition for the existence of knowledge… because it provides the interpretive support necessary for making sense of its heritage1

1 Lave & Wenger, 1991

Problem Statement

• CoPs develop spontaneously• Common activity or shared identity• Deal with complexity and continued learning

• Becoming an accomplished and successful student is non-trivial • Graduate student ≠ Expert student

• How might development of CoPs be fostered to support individuals in their practice of becoming successful students?

Assumptions

• Communication rhythms develop• Essential information is exchanged• Knowledge is co-created• Stories, advice, experiences are shared

Given a sufficiently strong and focused network of relationships and communication patterns, a CoP can develop that supports students in their practice of becoming and being successful students.

Asking the questions

Rationale and significance

• Student success at graduate level• 43-50% of graduate students do not finish• Success currently focused on big data type metrics

• This study provides additional data• Mentoring and advising• Curricular and administrative processes/procedures• Program environment

• Repeatable research design• Study different types of programs• Comparisons might lead to better insights

Rationale and significance

• Sustainable education• Contributes to epistemic learning necessary for

paradigm change in higher education (learning about learning about learning)• Reflects systems and ecological metaphors• CoP has potential to cut across disciplines and de-silo

programs in higher education

Research Approach

Grounded Theory

CoPs and graduate education

Published research falls into 5 categories:• CoP as a framework for analysis• CoP as a framework for reflection• CoP as a learning strategy• Development of a CoP• Within the context of multi-memberships

Roles of CoP in student success

Methodology

• Participants• Influences on design• Data collection methods• Data analysis

Participants44 individuals participated

Influences on design

• Qualitative, mixed methods approach• Community of practice theory• Whole systems thinking• Appreciative inquiry• Anecdote circles

Data collection

• Participant observation• Documents• Survey• Anecdote circles• Interviews

Data collection

Perceptual data

Data analysis

• Grounded theory methods• Coding • Preliminary and axial• Provisional and emergent

• Memos• Constant comparative analysis; iterative process• Themes and categories

Findings

• Student Characteristics• Digital Habitats• Preferred communication methods• Impact of social media on student communication

• CoP Characteristics• Meaning• Community• Learning

Student characteristics

• Diverse backgrounds• Little overlap among prior degrees• Little overlap in professional organizations

• Households• Half have life partners• Slightly less than half have dependents at home• Approximately ¼ are single female householders

Student success• Completion of their degree as a personal accomplishment as

well as an earned credential for further professional advancement

• Increased scholarly abilities, including deeper understanding of disciplinary content, improved academic skills, contributions to knowledge and the ability to put theory into practice

• Personal growth and transformational change, including confidence in their own voice, finding and maintaining balance during and after completing school, and unity between their avocation and personal lives

• Expansion of lifelong learning skills and tools, including the foundation of a network of like-minded colleagues with whom they can continue the conversations, scholarship, and work of sustainability education

Digital habitats

an experience of place enabled by technology2

2Wenger, White, & Smith, 2009

Men Women

Same cohort emailSkype

emailphone

Other cohort emailFacebook

emailFacebook

Small groups emailin person

emailphone conference

CoP characteristics

practice is about meaning as an experience of everyday life3

• Meaning• Negotiation of meaning• Participation• absorbing and being absorbed in the culture of practice1

• Informal participation is extremely important

• Reification• Making the abstract concrete

3Wenger, 19981Lave & Wenger, 1991

CoP characteristics

• Community• Mutual engagement• Collective work of members in negotiating meaning

• Joint enterprise• What the community does• Becoming and being successful students

• Shared repertoire• Resources for negotiating meaning

• Learning• Shared histories of learning

Answering questions

Answering questions

Conclusions

A theory of supported student success

• A CoP is possible and beneficial• Social microclimates are critical for development

of a CoP• Cross cohort microclimates are critical for

sustaining a CoP

But is it a theory?

Criteria for applicability of theory to phenomena:• Fit• Conclusions faithfully represent what the data

illustrate

• Understanding• Interrelated conclusions can be easily understood

• Generality• Interpretation is broad and conceptual

• Control• Can be used to guide future actions

Recommendations

• For institutions and faculty• Be aware and responsive• Facilitate and support, especially physical and virtual

events and spaces (digital habitats)• Help make connections• Never mandate or interfere

• For students• Be mindful of what’s happening• Engage in community maintenance• Initiate and sustain cross cohort connections• Remember this when you are faculty in a program…

RecommendationsFor sustainable education: Sterling’s Whole Systems Shift4

Sterling Prescott College CoPParadigm Reflects living systems or

ecological metaphorCoP reflects systems or ecological metaphor

Purpose Broader education; no longer simply preparation for economic life

CoP can facilitate trans- and inter-disciplinary thinking and problem solving; diversity helps de-silo

Policy Development of potential and capacity; continuous learning

Student definition of success reflects this; same group developed a supportive CoP

Practice Participative, active, social learning; situated learning

CoP is a social learning structure; epitomizes situated learning

4Sterling, 2004

Recommendations

• For further research• Continue to develop the concept of microclimates in

the context of educational delivery models• Explore the development of CoPs as a response to a

specific need, and use as program evaluation and improvement tool• Study cohort drift and its effect on cross cohort

communication• Dig into story content for insights into lived

experiences of graduate students• Continue to research CoP as framework for epistemic

learning (learning about learning about learning)

References1Lave, Jean & Wenger, Etienne. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

2Wenger, Etienne, White, Nancy, & Smith, John D. (2009). Digital habitats: Stewarding technology for communities. Portland, OR: CPsquare.

3Wenger, Etienne. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press.

4Sterling, Stephen. (2004). Higher education, sustainability, and the role of systemic learning. In In Peter B. Corcoran & Arjen Wals (Eds.) Higher education and the challenge of sustainability: Problematics, promise, and practice (pp. 49-70). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Contact

Aimée deChambeau

Email: aimee@uakron.eduPhone: 330.972.7488