Learning Communities: Factors Influencing Faculty Involvement

Abstract

The debate in higher education has inspired broad discussion about the quality of undergraduate education. Several of these criticisms have focused on a lack of curricular coherency, an emphasis on research versus teaching, and intellectual isolationism within the academic community. The debate has inspired broad discussion and questions the overall quality of undergraduate education in this country. One attempt by some institutions of higher education to counter these criticisms is through the development of various curricular structures referred to as learning communities. Learning communities represent a structural response to curricular fragmentation by promoting curricular coherence, intellectual and social community, and sense of common purpose within the academic environment. The research on learning communities as been limited in identifying factors which prompt faculty to become involved in this kind of teaching and learning structure. The purpose of this research study is to provide additional insights on variables that influence faculty involvement in learning communities. Three variable sets—faculty background, structural, and organization/environmental—frame the theoretical basis for the research study.