By Mike Stasio, Gonzaga University, Masters Program in Communication and Leadership Studies

2009-04-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

A sense of possibility—that is what Dr. Edwina Stoll brings to her community. A sense that it is both necessary and possible to transform education from the frame of students as silent passive recipients of knowledge to a frame where students join together in a vital community as co-partners in learning.

Dr. Stoll is quick to acknowledge the connection and close partnership she has with her colleagues in the Speech Communication Department at De Anza Community College where she has been teaching for twenty-three years. When I asked Professor Stoll to describe her role in community as it relates to communication, she offered this perspective—

We are community as a group of communication instructors at De Anza dedicated to students through innovative pedagogy. I use and design collaborative learning methodology activities with colleagues who also enjoy creating interdisciplinary learning communities around themes. My primary role is as a peer/participator in the speech department where each faculty member has individual strengths and interests. Our relations are quite unique for academic departments, as we have always supported one another without judging or imposing on each other. I don’t believe that anyone looking at our department from the outside, could put a single label on us—each of us brings a unique focus and piece of the puzzle to our collective strength.

(Pictured from left to right: Matt Abrahams, Edwina Stoll, Elaine Lee, Donna Stasio, John Swensson, and Kim Pearce. Photo courtesy of Rob Dewis)
Edwina beams with great pride when she tells about the Model Teaching Award presented to her and her Speech Communication Department colleagues at the 2005 Western States Communication Association’s annual conference.
(Photo courtesy of Rob Dewis)

During the 1990s, a core group of educator’s lead by Dr. Stoll developed an innovative program that promotes learning in communities across disciplines with a particular concentration on success for developmental college students. Dr. Stoll is the founding visionary of Learning in Communities (LinC) at De Anza College. She understood twenty years ago the need for professors as guides or facilitators on the sidelines, instead of as sages on the stage. Dr. Stoll’s vision was for students to develop and find their true voices in a supportive team-learning environment.

What exactly is a classroom learning community? The program enables students to interact with two or three instructors and with classmates in a dialogic collaborative learning space that links two or more traditional and/or developmental classes both in terms of content and materials with a common theme. For example, Mind Control: Persuasion and Propaganda combines the concepts covered in psychology and speech by focusing on the topic of persuasion, social influence, and generative cultural ideology. Linking courses to themes allows students to see subject matter in broader terms rather than as a stand-alone, and embraces the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Also, every LinC course has a dedicated academic counselor who visits the class several times and has block appointment times specifically for students. This means no waiting in line to see a counselor, and a comfortable setting with a familiar face to discuss life goals and aspirations. Since De Anza College added a counselor to each LinC class, student assessment surveys highlight a twenty-five percent increase on a ten-point scale for the following statement, “I have seen the counselor and know how to contact her.” Since eighty percent of LinC courses are developmental, these students typically need more attention in order to advance into general education course work, and to transfer to four-year universities.

Edwina with co-teachers Sally Wood (Developmental English) and Kristin Skager (Developmental Reading) who are collaboratively teaching a LinC course titled Looking In, Speaking Out: Our Interest in Fashion and Consumerism which ran in 2002.

What do students say about Dr. Stoll’s LinC Program?

• "I felt closer to the teachers and especially the students. I've never had this much interaction with my classmates before!"

• "I felt in a group not just of teachers and classmates, but of supporters and friends."

• "In our learning community, we had more interaction between teacher-teacher, teacher-classmate, and classmate-classmate. Not only were we a class group, we were also an excellent team of friends!"

Edwina, Sally and Kristins' LinC class end of quarter 2002.

De Anza College is one of only 20 colleges or universities in the country to be selected for a national learning communities study conducted by Syracuse University and funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education. The first part of the project included a survey of 500 De Anza students. In all, some 50,000 students will be surveyed throughout the country. The second part involves a long-term, in-depth case study. Researchers selected De Anza as one of only five schools in this second phase. Dr. Stoll reported, “About 50 of our students agreed to participate in the project through personal interviews or by sitting in a focus group. They’ll now be in touch with the researchers for four years and will continue to share their stories with them as they progress in their education.” She explained that the study is expected to reshape current policy debates about developmental education programs in higher education. Research from the longitudinal study will focus on how under-prepared college students make meaning of their experiences in developmental education learning communities and how learning community experiences affect students who succeed and persist in college. “The goal of the study is to tell the story of today’s college students,” Stoll added.

De Anza also received national recognition in a scholarly book published by the National Learning Communities Project made available in late February 2004. The LinC Program was one of only five programs highlighted in a section called “Learning Community Snapshots.” Professor Stoll said, “I had no idea we would be featured in this way.”

LinC celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006 and continues to gain national attention for its exemplary work on behalf of students in learning communities. Dr. Stoll is considered a cultural icon in community based learning by fellow colleagues, and in regional and national education circles. In addition to 2004 program highlights above, LinC was recognized in several ways at the national level: (1) LinC students and faculty members were chosen to participate in a national research project titled “Pathways to College Success,” (2) the program was thoroughly discussed in a published document, The Pedagogy of Possibilities: Developmental Education, College-Level Studies, and Learning Communities, and (3) De Anza’s experts in learning communities continue to share their knowledge regionally, throughout California, and the nation.

Lastly, Dr. Stoll reported that Learning in Community faculty continue to participate in conferences, workshops and training. She highlighted the influence of Distinguished University Professor and author Vincent Tinto from Syracuse University. In February 2004, Dr. Stoll and Marcos Cicerone, a Spanish instructor and director of Staff and Organizational Development at De Anza, attended a national conference in Washington, D.C. to share their learning community experiences. The conference was co-sponsored by NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) and the Pew Charitable Trust Hispanic Segment. They talked about how under-prepared and underrepresented students benefit from learning communities and what it has been like for them to be part of this national educational reform movement. Dr. Stoll is a tireless stalwart in her community and continues to support students and colleagues at De Anza and communication stakeholders nationwide. She has given our nation a sense of possibility, by bringing faculty and faculty, faculty and administrators, educators and community, students and faculty, and students and students together as co-partners in learning.

Dr. Edwina Stoll, Dr. Vincent Tinto, and Marcos Cicerone at Mission College in Santa Clara, CA for the event Students Stick Around, March 11, 2005. Photo courtesy of Rob Dewis.

Interview with Dr. Stoll

Learning in Communities with Dr. Edwina Stoll

By Mike Stasio, Gonzaga University, Masters Program in Communication and Leadership Studies