General Education Learning Communities
Developing a Sense of Belonging for First-Year Students
The goal of the General Education (GE) Learning Communities is two-fold: to help new first-year students develop deep connections with one another and their professors, as well as engage them in relevant themes and contemporary questions from different disciplinary perspectives.
To achieve this, students enrolled in the GE Learning Communities take two courses in a paired cohort during their first semester, with each cohort sharing a theme that ties their classes together and creates an Integrated Learning Experience. GE Learning Community courses are taught by two different instructors who co-plan their syllabi and experiential activities around the same theme, infusing both on-campus experiences and off-campus excursions into their curriculum to further enhance students' learning. Themes include Migration, Civic Engagement, Sustainability, Wellness, and Urban Education.
This Fall, half of all new incoming freshmen at Kean are enrolled in these paired, theme-based 1000-level GE Learning Community courses, with 50 faculty members representing four Colleges (COE, Hennings, CLA, CBPM) and the Division of General Education and Interdisciplinary Studies teaching them. To prepare for their GE Learning Community courses this semester, participating faculty attended a two-day workshop in the Course Design Institute, where they collaborated with their fellow paired course instructors to design syllabi and practice active teaching strategies.
Research continues to show that undergraduates engaged in high-impact practices like the GE Learning Communities are more likely to develop essential skills, engage more deeply in coursework, be retained, and have a greater sense of belonging than their peers.
The GE Learning Communities continue to build upon the success of their pilot semester in hopes of making this high-impact practice a reality for all first-year students soon. Currently, GE Learning Community courses are open to first-year students studying certain majors within the following Colleges, as well as those still Undecided: the College of Business & Public Management, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Dorothy and George Hennings College of Science, Mathematics and Technology.
What Students are Saying
Ease of Transition:
- “This program makes the transition from high school to Kean less abrupt.”
Sense of Belonging and Community:
- "..being in a learning community allows people to be more social with each other since we're working in groups, with discussions, allowing me to hear everyone's opinions and views.”
Collaborative Learning:
-
“Having a steady theme in my classes makes them more interesting and easy to interact with the lesson.”