The Teaching Squares Program involves the formation of a three or four member group of educators from different departments or disciplines. The diversity in knowledge and experience helps to promote cross-disciplinary learning and professional growth among teachers. Once the group has been formed, the teachers select a class they will each teach…

The study aimed to assess the effects of year in college on students' perceptions of the cooperative learning process. Ninety-six college students completed 5 open-ended questions that asked students about their preferences for cooperative learning activities. Forty-nine first-year students and 47 second-year students participated in the study. A…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how science students described their experiences of collaboration in a virtual learning environment at a community college in the Midwestern United States between 2020 - 2022. The literature review indicated the need to understand how science students described their experience of…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how educators and students described the socio-cognitive aspects of collaborative learning in community colleges of Midwestern US. The theoretical framework of this study included the social cognitive theory which speculated three main elements of learning such as behavior,…

As students need to attain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to live and work in a diverse global society, they participate in study abroad opportunities offered by higher education institutions to assist them with intercultural learning. However, prior research shows that the level of intercultural learning in study abroad programs can vary…

This study developed a realistic, interactive English blockade-running game that integrates virtual environments and mobile devices to conduct a collaborative and competitive contest to promote English learning among technical college students. In addition, it also explored students' learning effectiveness, perception of peer collaboration, and…

Student engagement in a science classroom is challenging and most students perceive science courses as difficult. Gamification is an emerging strategy used by educators across various disciplines to increase student engagement and promote active learning. One known gamification technique is team Jeopardy, however, there is a gap in knowledge about…

Math courses serve as cornerstones to most, if not all, community college programs. Yet, these courses continue to be gatekeepers. Contextualization represents a promising venue through which instructors might break down math barriers for students. This study explores community college students' learning experiences in contextualized math classes,…

The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive scientific phenomenological study was to explore what it is like for a community college student to experience group dynamics in a team-based gamified learning environment in the Southwestern U.S. Although the student or "player" experience is at the center of a gamified curriculum, it is not…

Understanding students' participation in collaborative classroom settings is important in a variety of educational contexts, with implications for teaching, research, and equity. Using data from a group-centered developmental mathematics class, this research brief illustrates novel quantitative representations of students' group participation and…

Behavioral and Social Science (BSS) classes provide students with understandings of human behaviors, motivations, and actions that are crucial to confronting both social and personal problems. Moreover, most community college degrees require that students take at least one BSS class - anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and/or…

This quasi-experimental study compared various outcomes of team-based-learning (TBL) (n = 67) and more traditional lecture-based instruction (n = 66) in a community college introductory psychology course and found no differences in knowledge of course content, attendance, or course retention. However, student self-reports indicated that, compared…

Community college students come from a variety of backgrounds and have different levels of educational preparedness compared to undergraduates in 4-year undergraduate schools. Historically, retention rates of these students in human physiology courses have been low, often due to non-passing grades. Incorporation of additional active learning…

In 2016, the CCC Maker initiative provided the California Community Colleges with an influx of resources and energy designed to foster maker-centered learning (MCL). These hands-on practices have the potential to support the broader CCC mission by providing opportunities for engaged, empowering, and collaborative learning for the system's diverse…

Over the course of their work at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) the authors observed that their students had an especially hard time functioning well in groups, in the context of both video production and media studies classes. An example of the latter is Introduction to Contemporary Media (MES 152). This paper looks at…