Productive Collaborative Learning in a Life Sciences Living-Learning Program

• In Event: Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Learning Environments: Collaboration and Living-Learning Communities

Abstract

In response to recent research and reports in undergraduate education reform, a large mid-Atlantic public university established a life sciences living-learning program to implement transformed undergraduate life sciences education within the context of a living community. We report here on research focused on the program’s efforts to engage students in collaborative learning. There is ample research on the benefits of living-learning programs and collaborative learning in undergraduate education. However, there is little research regarding how students interact socially in a life sciences living-learning program that encourages collaborative learning. This study proposes a framework for understanding opportunities and challenges in these living-learning communities, and begins to describe what productive collaborative learning might look like in this context.

Authors

• Hannah Elizabeth Jardine, University of Maryland - College Park

• Daniel M. Levin, University of Maryland - College Park

• Byrn Booth Quimby

• Nicole Frances Horvath

• Todd J. Cooke, University of Maryland - College Park