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Faculty Learning Communities Purpose & Description
The work of Alexander Meiklejohn and John Dewey in the 1920s and '30s gave
rise to the concept of a learning community. Increasing specialization and
fragmentation in higher education caused Meiklejohn to call for a community
of study and a unity and coherence of curriculum across disciplines. Dewey
advocated learning that was active, student centered, and involved shared
inquiry. A combination of these approaches in the late 1970s and '80s produced
a pedagogy and structure that has led, among other things, to students' increased
grade point averages, retention, and intellectual development. The term learning
communities traditionally has been applied to programs that involve first-
and second-year undergraduates, along with faculty who design the curriculum
and teach the courses.
A faculty learning community is a cross-disciplinary
faculty group of 5 or more members engaging in a program with a curriculum
about enhancing teaching and learning and with frequent seminars and activities
that provide learning, development, and community building opportunities.
In the literature about student learning communities, the word student
usually can be replaced by faculty and still make the same point. For example, "Students
rise to the occasion of learning communities: They perform better, accomplish
more, drop out less."
There are two categories of faculty learning
communities: cohort-based and topic-based.
- Cohort-focused learning communities
address the teaching, learning, and developmental needs of an important
cohort of faculty that has been particularly affected by the isolation,
fragmentation, or chilly climate in the academy. The curriculum of such
a community is shaped by the participants to include a broad range of teaching
and learning areas and topics of interest to them. These communities will
make a positive impact on the culture of the institution over the years
if given multi-year support. There are no cohort groups this year.
- Each topic-based learning community works to address a special campus
teaching and learning issue, for example, diversity, technology, or cooperative
learning. These communities offer membership to and provide opportunities
for learning across all faculty ranks and cohorts, but with a focus on
a particular theme. Two examples of issue-focused communities might be
a Faculty Community Using Team Teaching to Enhance Learning or a Community
Using Problem-Based Learning to Enhance Teaching.
The long-term goals of faculty learning communities for the University are
to
- build University-wide community through teaching and
learning: create a learning organization
- strengthen faculty interest in undergraduate teaching
and learning
- investigate and incorporate ways that difference can
enhance teaching and learning
- nourish scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching
and its application to student learning
- broaden the evaluation of teaching and the assessment
of learning
- increase faculty collaboration across disciplines
- encourage reflection about education and coherence
of learning across disciplines
- increase the rewards for and prestige of excellent
teaching
- increase financial support for teaching and learning
initiatives
- create an awareness of the complexity of teaching and
learning
Each faculty learning community has its own specific goals and objectives,
which are articulated in their respective sections that follow.
Each year the activities for these communities vary somewhat but are likely
to include the following:
- Seminars on teaching and learning. Topics might include
assessment of student learning, enhancing the teaching/learning
experience through awareness of students' intellectual
development, sharing student and faculty views of teaching
and learning, and topics selected from articles or books
that participants of the communities select to read.
Seminars might be led by guest faculty; others conducted
by the participants themselves.
- Retreats. An opening/closing retreat is held in May,
with the "graduating" community sharing information
with the new participants on various aspects of the program,
such as seminar topics, student associate selection,
and teaching projects.
- Teaching projects. Community members pursue self-designed
learning programs, including an individual teaching project,
for which they receive financial support. Past projects
have included developing expertise and courseware for
computer-assisted instruction; redesigning an ongoing
course; and investigating, learning, and trying a new
teaching method. These projects are shared with the faculty
at a campus-wide seminar.
- National conferences. Each group has the option to
attend a national conference on higher education, such
as the Lilly Conference on Teaching and Learning, American
Association of Colleges and Universities, or the Wakonse
Conference on Teaching and Learning. Members are encouraged
to make presentations at the conference.
- Course mini-portfolio. Each participant selects a focus
course in which to try innovations and prepares a course
mini-portfolio that analyzes and provides evidence of
student learning.
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