• Introduction
• Definitions and Models
• The Five Models
• Currents and Causes
• Creating Learning Communities at GMU: Institutional Climate
• The Precursors
• Two Early LC Versions: BA/SIC and Core
• The Mason Topics Program
• New Century College: Coordinated Studies Model
• The Upper Levels
• Faculty Challenges: The Need for Faculty Development
• Outcomes and Benefits: Students
• Outcomes and Benefits: Faculty and the Scholarship of Pedagogy
• Conclusion
• Endnotes and References
• Printable Text of Article

© Copyright 2000 by Ashley Williams. The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.

Creating Learning Communities at GMU: Institutional Climate

Along with concerns which helped spark the creation of LCs elsewhere, three local factors seem to have contributed significantly to curricular and pedagogical innovation at George Mason, each of them related in some way to the University's relative youth. The first factor is an institutional culture fostering interdisciplinarity. This climate has existed here in large measure because of:

• he need to avoid duplicating programs offered by older public colleges and universities in Virginia
• an administrative vision of the importance of working across disciplinary boundaries in the Information Age.

A second influential factor was the nature of funding — i.e., funding for special initiatives — in a young institution with limited resources. A third factor has been commitment to creativity and innovation in teaching and learning on the part of a number of faculty.

Perhaps the most influential of these factors has been the University's focus on interdisciplinarity and collaborative work — "both for faculty and for students," says Paula Lewis (Foreign Languages), a former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Lewis points to the tradition of interdisciplinary programs in the College as spaces where faculty and students "approach the (post) modern world in a complex and multi-faceted manner" (personal communication).

Currents and Causes

The Precursors