Dissertation Defense

1
Dissertation Defense

• Susan J. Wolff
• September 7, 2001
• Dr. George H. Copa, Major Professor

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Dissertation Title

• Sustaining Systems of Relationships
• The Essence of the Physical
  Learning Environment that Supports and Enhances
  Collaborative, Project-based
  Learning at the Community College Level

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Table of Contents

• Chapter 1 .. Focus and
  Significance of the Study
• Chapter 2 .. Review of Related
  Literature
• Chapter 3 .. Design of the Study
• Chapter 4 .. Findings and
  Analysis of Phase I

4
Table of Contents

• Chapter 5 .. Findings and
  Analysis of Phase II
• Chapter 6 .. Findings and
  Analysis of Phase III
• Chapter 7 .. Understandings and Future
  Research
• Bibliography
• Appendices

5
Significance of the Study

• Roles and responsibilities of
• work, family, community, and
• personal life are changing in response to
• Globalization
• Transition from the industrial age
  to a knowledge age

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Significance of the Study

• Diverse and multi-cultural living and
  work environments
• Fast-paced, fragmented, and changing societal
  norms and structures

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Significance of the Study

• Need for continual learning of new skills
  and abilities to keep pace with the
  accelerated rate of change

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Sample of Learning Expectations

• That address changing roles and responsibilities
  
• Gathering, analyzing, and using information
• Anticipating and handling change

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Sample of Learning Expectations

• Working in high-performance teams
• Thinking in terms of systemic outcomes
• Using effective communication skills

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Sample of Learning Expectations

• Taking action to improve communities
• Managing resources
• Providing leadership

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Sample of Learning
Expectations

• Respecting others and valuing diversity
• Taking responsibility for ones own
  learning

12
Collaborative Learning Process

• Provides Learning of
• Content
• Critical thinking
• Problem solving
• Teamwork

13
Collaborative Learning Process

• Negotiating
• Reaching consensus
• Social and academic development
• Sense of community

14
Project-Based Learning

• Provides relevancy, value, and meaning
• Provides learning of
• Value of relationships and
• partnerships
• Communication skills

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Project-Based Learning

• Higher order thinking skills such as critical
  thinking and solving problems
• Use of technology and tools
• Importance of lifelong learning

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Focus of the Study

• Identify and describe the design features of the
  physical learning environment that support and
  enhance collaborative,
  project-based learning at the community college
  level

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Focus of the Study

• Gain an understanding of the rationale for
  the selection of the desired features of the
  physical learning environment of
  community colleges

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Why Look at Physical Environments ?

• Majority of community college facilities were
  built in the 1960s
• Billions of dollars are being spent for
  renovations and replacements

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Why Look at Physical Environments ?

• Availability of research regarding how
  design of college facilities supports desired
  learning expectations and processes is
  minimal and most of what is available
  addresses K-12 facilities

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Methodology

• Phenomenology to gain an
• understanding of recommended the
  design features and the purpose and
  rationale of the features.

21
Design of the Study
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Phase I of the Study

• Sources of data
• Site visits
• Internship
• Data gathering strategies
• Observation
• Participation
• Note taking
• Reflection

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Phase I of the Study

• Analysis process
• Text analysis

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Findings of Phase I

• 28 design features and their descriptions and
  purposes of the physical learning
  environment were identified

25
Findings of Phase I

• 4 preliminary categories of these design
  features were determined
• Learning group sizes
• Learning activities
• Adjacencies among the spaces
• Furnishings for the spaces

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Transition - Phase I to Phase II

• Phase I was introductory and exploratory
• Findings from Phase I indicated need for
• Gaining greater understanding of the two
  foci of the study

27
Transition - Phase I to Phase II

• Narrowing the focus to collaborative,
  project-based learning
• Concentrating the study at the community
  college level
• Increasing the pool of participants

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Phase II of the Study

• Sources of data
• National and International Conferences
• Data gathering strategies
• Observation
• Participation
• Note taking

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Phase II of the Study

• Data gathering strategies
• Audio and electronic mail interviews
• Reflection
• Analysis process
• Text and audio analysis

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Findings of Phase II

• 5 additional design features were identified
• 1 additional category of design feature was
  identified
• psychological and physiological support

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Findings of Phase II

• Renamed Learning Activities to
• Learning Activities/Learning
  Spaces
• Added depth and breadth to
  findings
• Data more specific to community colleges

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Transition - Phase II to Phase III

• Phase II began to concentrate on collaborative,
  project-based learning at the community
  college level however, the data collected
  continued to have some Pre-K-12 influence

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Transition - Phase II to Phase III

• The addition of personal interviews as a
  means of collecting data provided new
  perspectives to the foci of the study and
  the data

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Transition - Phase II to Phase III

• Phase III gave full attention to
• physical learning environments that
  support and enhance collaborative,
  project-based learning specifically at the
  community college level

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Transition - Phase II to Phase III

• Phase III added three additional methods for
  collecting data
• Phase III modeled collaborative, project-based
  learning

36
Phase III of the Study

• Source of data
• Two-day design studio
• Data gathering strategies
• Observation
• Note taking
• Audio and electronic mail interviews

37
Phase III of the Study

• Data gathering strategies
• Participant journals
• Participant materials and designs
• Reflection
• Analysis process
• Text, audio, and video analysis

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Findings from Phase III

• 11 additional design features were identified
  resulting in a total of 44 features being
  identified from the study that support and
  enhance collaborative, project-based
  learning

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Findings from Phase III

• 1 more category of design feature was added
• Structural aspects

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Level One Analysis of the
Findings

• Involved looking for commonalities of
  function and design across all 44
  features, resulting in the number of
  features being reduced to 32

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Level One Analysis of the
Findings

• Further analyzed the six preliminary categories
  of features for appropriateness, resulting
  in the renaming of one category
• learning activities/learning spaces
  became functional spaces for learning activities
  

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Level Two Analysis of the
Findings

• The design features were clustered into the
  following six categories
• Group size
• Functional spaces for learning activities
• Adjacencies

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Level Two Analysis of the
Findings

• Furnishings
• Psychological and physiological support
• Structural aspects

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Level Three Analysis of
the Findings

• Areas of further research
• What are the systems of relationships among
  people and spaces that support and
  enhance collaborative,
  project-based learning?

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Level Three Analysis of
the Findings

• Areas of further research
• What are the core or fixed
  elements of the design of the physical
  learning environment?

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Level Three Analysis of
the Findings

• Areas of further research
• How can we prepare community colleges to
  adopt collaborative, project-based
  learning approaches and assist in the
  design of physical learning environments that
  support this learning process?

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Alexander, C. (1979). The
Timeless Way of Building

• Evidently, then, a large part of the
  structure of a building consists of
  patterns of relationships the fact is
  the elements themselves are patterns of
  relationships that actually repeats itself
  and gives structure to a building.