The Need for Connection: Instructional Staff Experiences with Cohort Groups

Abstract

The concept of community is viewed as essential in supporting collaboration and promoting learning (Rausch & Crawford, 2012). However, research has focused on student perspectives of learning communities, with little understanding of the perspectives of instructional staff members (Hickson, 2015). This paper addresses the perspectives of a group of instructors who work with a student cohort learning community and identifies the need for instructional staff to: develop the potential of the cohort; recognize the instructional staff as a cohort; and provide platforms for communication between instructional staff to share information on cohort matters.