{"id":68161,"date":"2025-08-13T11:26:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T17:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/ctl\/?p=68161"},"modified":"2025-08-07T11:30:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T17:30:56","slug":"classroom-community-of-inquiry-fostering-student-success-engagement-and-motivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/ctl\/blog\/2025\/08\/13\/classroom-community-of-inquiry-fostering-student-success-engagement-and-motivation\/","title":{"rendered":"Classroom Community of Inquiry: Fostering Student Success, Engagement, and Motivation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Establishing a classroom community in which all students are able to contribute and create connections supports students\u2019 feelings of belonging, retention, and academic motivation (Bentrim &amp; Henning, 2022; Freeman, Anderman, &amp; Jensen, 2007). Intentional community building is thus a key aspect of impactful student engagement and performance in class and much research has been focused on the concept and practice of classroom community. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, 2009; Garrison et al., 2010), for example, addresses the importance of three community elements, which are critical for fostering a community of actively engaged learners:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Social presence: Students\u2019 ability to interact with others and be their authentic\/real self\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cognitive presence: Students\u2019 ability to construct knowledge through reflection and critical thinking processes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teaching presence: Instructor\u2019s ability to purposefully design, facilitate, and direct learning opportunities and processes\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It is particularly important to foster classroom community from the start and to continue to do so throughout the semester. \u201cEarly and often\u201d is our motto when it comes to classroom connections. However, no group of students is the same and some community-building activities might be more applicable in one course context than others. What can this look like in practice? To help you get envision or re-envision your current practices, we collected some practical CoI examples that you may not have tried yet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-creating-social-presence\">Creating Social Presence:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Incorporate social learning activities like discussions or group work<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Invite students to share their personal and professional experiences<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Offer a variety of ways through which students can express themselves and their knowledge by mixing up your <a href=\"https:\/\/cetl.uconn.edu\/resources\/design-your-course\/teaching-and-learning-techniques\/active-learning\/\">instructional practices<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niu.edu\/citl\/resources\/guides\/instructional-guide\/formative-and-summative-assessment.shtml\">assessments<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use <a href=\"https:\/\/sapro.moderncampus.com\/blog\/60-awesome-icebreakers-for-orientation-and-beyond\">icebreaker activities<\/a> that foster trust and give students an opportunity to meet their peers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-creating-cognitive-presence-nbsp\">Creating Cognitive Presence:&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Offer frequent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.edu\/teaching\/assessment\/assesslearning\/CATs.html\">formative learning assessment<\/a> and regular feedback<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Include different resources and material modalities to help students with diverse learning preferences learn key concepts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provide ongoing opportunities for active <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/ctl\/blog\/2024\/11\/12\/powerful-teaching-retrieval-practice-as-a-teaching-strategy\/\">content retrieval<\/a> and skill practice\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identify big ideas and concepts and guide students to make connections<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Let students reflect on their prior experiences\/knowledge and new learning<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facultyfocus.com\/articles\/course-design-ideas\/scaffolding-as-a-roadmap-guiding-and-supporting-student-learning\/\">Apply scaffolding<\/a> to move students from lower-order to higher-order thinking and learning<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Include activities that prompt learners to reflect individually and share with a group<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-creating-teaching-presence\">Creating Teaching Presence:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Show effective communication and interaction skills: Collaborate with students to establish engagement norms, demonstrate excitement for the course and subject<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bring a welcoming attitude from the beginning to the end of the course<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provide timely and supportive feedback<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Be transparent about expectations and evaluation criteria<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Encourage a positive and collaborative learning environment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Interact with students regularly and show interest in their learning<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Model learning and subject matter skills and strategies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Include peer-feedback opportunities in assignments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to get started? We suggest that you pick one to two strategies that you want to focus on implementing this semester. Make sure to reflect on your progress and lessons learned along the way. Questions? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/ctl\/consultations\/\">Schedule a consultation<\/a> with a CTL consultant.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Author: Sarah Lausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-references\">References:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Bentrim, E.M. &amp; Henning, G.W. (2022). The impact of a sense of belonging in college: Implications for student persistence, retention, and success. Stylus Publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freeman, T.M., Anderman, L.H., &amp; Jensen, J.M. (2007). Sense of belonging in college freshman at the classroom and campus levels. Journal of Experimental Education, 75(3), 203-220.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garrison, D. R. (2009). Communities of inquiry in online learning. In Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, 2nd Edition (pp. 352-355). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., &amp; Archer, W. (2010). The first decade of the community of inquiry framework: A retrospective. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(1-2), 5-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>University at Buffalo Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation. (n.d.). Community of inquiry learning environments. Retrieved July 22, 2025, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buffalo.edu\/catt\/teach\/develop\/teach\/learning-environments\/community-of-inquiry.html\">https:\/\/www.buffalo.edu\/catt\/teach\/develop\/teach\/learning-environments\/community-of-inquiry.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Establishing a classroom community in which all students are able to contribute and create connections&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,112,3078],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-ebips","category-learner-centered-teaching"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Classroom Community of Inquiry: Fostering Student Success, Engagement, and Motivation - CTL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/ctl\/blog\/2025\/08\/13\/classroom-community-of-inquiry-fostering-student-success-engagement-and-motivation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Classroom Community of Inquiry: Fostering Student Success, Engagement, and Motivation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Establishing a classroom community in which all students are able to contribute and create connections...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/ctl\/blog\/2025\/08\/13\/classroom-community-of-inquiry-fostering-student-success-engagement-and-motivation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CTL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-13T17:26:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sarahlausch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sarahlausch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Classroom Community of Inquiry: Fostering Student Success, Engagement, and Motivation - 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