Educational Journals | Teaching & Learning Centre. Tip Sheets | Teaching & Learning Centre. Center for Teaching: Achieving Teaching and Learning Excellence Through Faculty Learning Communities. Essays on Teaching Excellence Toward the Best in the Academy Vol. 14, No. 4, 2002-2003 Milton D. Cox, Miami University A faculty learning community (FLC) is a cross-disciplinary faculty group of 5 or more members (8 to 12 is the recommended size) engaging in an active, collaborative, yearlong program with a curriculum about enhancing teaching and learning and with frequent seminars and activities that provide learning, development, interdisciplinarity, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and community.
A faculty participant in an FLC selects a focus course to try out innovations, assess resulting student learning, and prepare a course mini-portfolio; engages in biweekly seminars; works with student associates; and presents project results to the campus and national conferences. Evidence shows that FLCs increase faculty interest in teaching and learning and provide safety and support for them to investigate, attempt, assess, and adopt new (to them) methods (Cox, 2001). Assessment. Introduction to faculty learning communities - IntroductionToFLCs.pdf. Faculty Learning Communities: Recommendations for Initiating and Implementing an FLC at Your Campus. Detailed recommendations for initiating and continuing faculty learning communities can be found in Cox (1995, 1997, 1999, 2003b, 2004).
We recommend the following practices for ensuring that such communities are effective. An institution's culture and key players affect the manner in which these suggestions should be employed. Initiation. The campus teaching center and/or faculty development office should develop one or two faculty learning communities at a time. In the FIPSE FLC projects, a majority of the institutions successfully implemented two the first year, four the second year, and six the third year. The type of initial cohort-based or topic-based community could be determined by a needs analysis. Initial Planning. Application. Selection. Prestige. Trust and Safety. Legacy. Activities. Scholarship of Teaching. Assessment. Sharing. Leadership. Stay flexible! The Role of FLC Program Director.
Compensation and Rewards. Overcoming Obstacles. Conclusion. Faculty Learning Communities. OSTEP - UCAT. The Ohio State Teaching Enhancement Programs (OSTEP) offer faculty, staff, and GTAs a year–long opportunity to focus on their teaching as part of a transdisciplinary community of peers, explore a variety of issues in university teaching, enhance their own teaching, and support the teaching of their colleagues. Community is one of the core principles guiding UCAT‘s mission. We believe that knowledge and expertise are socially constructed within a specific context and that a collaborative community provides the space for people to share ideas and learn from one another. We focus on creating and sustaining a climate that supports teaching; developing a community of peers at the local, national, and international levels; and fostering a culture that celebrates the practice of teaching, as well as research on university instruction.
A community consists of the selected fellows, plus a facilitator. Communities meet regularly throughout the academic year to discuss their projects.