ABSTRACT
Recent concern about fostering academic success in underprepared college students has generated interest in the concept of learning communities in which students enroll in linked or “paired” courses. Often, as Boylan (2002) notes, a typical model consists of a discipline-based course that is paired with a skill-based course, such as a writing class, the idea being that students will be able to use disciplinary content material as a subject for writing, and that the act of writing about that material will enhance student learning. However, although there are many benefits to such a design, administrative issues may sometimes interfere, particularly at large public institutions, which many underprepared students attend. Moreover, the concept of “disciplinary” writing raises a number of theoretical issues that are important to address when considering community-based learning. This chapter discusses the administrative and theoretical issues that can arise in attempts to link or pair courses and suggest that some of these difficulties can be overcome by focusing on the generic concept of problematization.
