What Students Need, What Students Say They Want: Student Perspectives on the Promise of Smaller Learning Communities

Creating a Family-Like Ninth-Grade Environment Through Interdisciplinary Teaming

“…Students at all three schools did not recognize being organized into ninth-grade interdisciplinary teams at all; they only recognized a select group of teachers who supported them during their ninth-grade year. This finding echoes research conducted by Armstead, Bessell, Sembiante, and Pacheco Plaza (2010) who found that ninth-grade students who were a part of a freshman academy were completely unaware of belonging to a SLC, freshman academy, or a team due to poor implementation. In this current investigation, personnel attributed the inability to recognize being teamed to inadequate scheduling of pure student–teacher teams.…”

Small-Class Teaching: Integrated Learning and Teacher Leadership

“…United States: Robertson and Kagan (1996) argue that an activity-based approach in small cooperative learning groups is a simple and effective IL approach. According to Armstead et al (2010) Furthermore, Leung (2009Leung ( , 2011Leung ( , and 2012 argues that teachers face challenges in LS curriculum integration in Hong Kong; nevertheless, students continue to benefit from a cooperative learning group, which is adopted for IL, to a certain extent. He also indicates that LS teachers strongly desire professional development in elaboration learning and teaching strategies.…”

The Effect of Small Learning Communities on the High School Experience for At-risk Students

“…There is an extensive body of research around small learning communities and at-risk students. However, as identified by Armstead, Bessell, Sembiante, and Plaza (2010) and Smerdon and Cohen (2009), there is a dearth of student voices expressing their perspective on the effectiveness of small learning communities. Additionally, this study will engage students who have participated in an SLC for 3 semesters, providing them with a more developed perspective on the effectiveness of the structure than previous studies have presented.…”

“…Armstead et. al looked at the formation of a 9th grade academy program and quantified student perceptions of their sense of belonging through photo language methodology (Armstead, Bessell, Sembiante & Plaza, 2010). Larger scale studies, such as Felner, Seitsinger, Brand, Burns, and Bolton's meta analysis concluded that the implementation of SLCs can be correlated to a 40-50% decline in drop out rates (Felner, Seitsinger, Brand, Burns & Bolton, 2007).…”

“…Research tends to support this thinking. Armstead's research provides a strong counterexample including student voicestudents enrolled in a 9th grade academy expressed that the program was ineffective due to large class size (Armstead, 2010). A useful definition of conditions can be found in Felner's research, which defines opportunities to learn (OTL) and opportunities to teach (OTT), both of which are maximized in SLCs (Felner, 2007).…”