Building Community: Stories and Strategies for Future Learning Community Faculty and Professionals (review)

With more institutions creating, sustaining, deepening, and broadening their learning community efforts, Building Community seeks to share stories of success and challenge that will assist colleges and universities create a learning community program that “has positive impacts on students, engages faculty, and is well coordinated” (p. 2). Editors Terra Peckskamp and Carrie McLaughlin from Syracuse University utilize local contributors for their stories. Certainly Syracuse has a strong history of learning communities, consistently ranked as one of the top learning community schools by US News and World Report.

The book is separated into two major sections: the first provides a foundation of the history, structure and assessment of learning communities; the second is a series of 12 essays by Syracuse University graduate students, staff and a sprinkling of faculty about their experiences teaching and learning in a learning community.

The text begins with a brief and recent history of learning community concepts by Dianna Winslow. Heather Strine Patton follows with a primer on the variety in structural configurations of learning communities. The next two chapters focus on qualitative assessment of learning communities, with jared halter and Camila Lertora Nardozzi providing tips and strategies for qualitative learning community assessment, and W. Leslie Burleson and Michele Tarnow revealing challenges and recommendations from faculty and staff involved in learning communities.

The second section of the book includes a dozen reflective essays about Syracuse University learning communities. Eileen Strempel describes her experience integrating her art course with a writing course. Based on his experience in the Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship learning community, Eric M. Alderman provides a how-to guide on creating a new learning community. Silvio Torres-Saillant and James Duah-Agyeman share their knowledge about a Multicultural Living Learning Community. Paul Buckley wrestles with the difficulties of rebuilding an existing but floundering learning community, while at the same time establishing structures that ensure continuity in the program. In her essay, Jamie Kathleen Portillo relays effective teaching strategies and classroom management techniques for teaching assistants assigned to courses embedded within learning communities. Braden Smith and Rachel Smith make separate cases that teaching assistants are the lynchpin in effective learning communities.

Maria J. Lopez describes a nonresidential learning community for graduate students participating in a Higher Education Learning Community. Continuing in the graduate student vein, Chris Calvert-Martin examines successful elements of undergraduate learning communities that could contribute to more successful graduate learning communities. Elizabeth Occhino and Jennifer Kellington share their lessons learned specific to service learning and community service learning communities. For students who are high achieving, but come from underrepresented and marginalized groups, Larry Thomas and Nicole Zervas Adsitt describe a learning community for these students who plan to enter medical school and pre-health careers. Jennah K. Jones and Joshua Lawrie draw upon their separate learning community experiences to make recommendations for good practice that align with Chickering and Gamson’s (1994)Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Lastly, Terra Peckskamp documents the resources critical for educating campus stakeholders involved in learning communities.

Staying true to their intended purpose, the editors provided descriptive stories filled with tips to assist and pitfalls to avoid, based on the authors’ Syracuse University learning community experiences. For those just entering the world of learning communities, Building Community provides a solid primer filled with creative ideas from one institution.

Reflections on learning community experiences have appeared in About Campus, including Robert A. Rhoads (2009) contemplative essay on his 9-year faculty in residence position and Thomas Klein’s (2000) article on his transition from teaching in the classroom to teaching in a learning community, among others. Other anecdotal narratives from Syracuse University appeared in Building and Sustaining Learning Communities (Hurd & Federman, 2004). Most previous works on learning communities are research-based, not story-based. For those interested in scholarly works on learning communities, more academic pieces have been written on how to engage faculty in learning...