Doctoral Cohorts≠

Learning Communities

Kathleen HaywoodUniversity of Missouri-St.

Louis

The Textbook Definitions

A cohort is “a number of persons all possessing a common characteristic” (Reber, 1995) In our context, a group with the same degree start

date and meeting schedule

A learning community is a group whose members seek and share learning and then act on what they learn (Astuto & colleagues, 1993; SEDL)

Our Program

We structured our program around thematic learning communities

Examples of themes are: education policy; character education; language, literacy, and culture; higher education student services

We scheduled our learning communities as cohorts, taking the same classes at the same time, progressing from start to finish together

In planning, it was easy to say “learning community” but in practice establishing a learning community takes more effort

Our ProgramWe probably treated our groups more like

doctoral cohorts than learning communities

We did not do anything at our orientation that specifically “built” each of the learning communities (other than allowing break-out time)

Some communities did activities that promoted “community” while others did not

Most of the communities have engaged in collective learning and collaborative work

The Dilemma: Would we make different decisions for a learning community as opposed to a cohort?

A student asks not to take a course with his group because he had a previous course on that topic

A students asks to skip a course with her group because of a heavy work schedule and promises to take it the following year

A student has taken a position out of town and would like to finish the last year independently

A student isn’t interested in the framework chosen by her group for the Dissertation in Practice and wants to do an individual DIP

What makes a learning community different?Supportive and shared leadership

Collective creativity

Shared values and vision

Supportive conditions, and

Shared personal practice

{Southwest Educational Developmental Laboratory. (1997). Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important? Issues . . About change, 6(1), 1-8.}

Group Work Phase IHow can a program build a learning

community?

What contextual activities, tasks, or projects might be done, and when?

Can activities, tasks, or projects be related to the program’s learning outcomes?

“I know it is a learning community if . . .” then backward design to an planned activity or step

Groups’ Input:

Group Work Phase II Identify program structures or practices that

would help maintain “community”

Consider some of questions posed earlier and what the response might be if a program was built around learning communities