CTL
Learning Communities
Traditionally, the term learning communities, was applied to programs that involved first and second-year undergraduates with similar interests or similar academic backgrounds, along with faculty who designed the curriculum and taught the courses, for the purpose of fostering student success. More recently, however, the concept of learning communities has been extended to faculty intent on enhancing teaching and learning. Faculty learning communities allow faculty to investigate, attempt, assess, and adopt different teaching methods with the goal of improving student learning. A group of 8 to 12 faculty collaborate in a sense of shared inquiry into the scholarship of teaching and learning. Faculty learning communities consist of two types: cohort-based or topic-based. A topic-based community addresses a special teaching and learning need, issue, or opportunity, while a cohort-based community addresses the teaching, learning, and developmental needs of a group of faculty, often from the same discipline.
The Center for Teaching and Learning has already offered two topic-based learning
communities: CAT’s , Classroom Assessment Techniques and Information
Literacy. We are adding three topic-based learning communities: CQI, Continuous
Quality Improvement, West Campus Faculty Inquiry Group, and English Faculty
Inquiry Group.
Additional faculty learning communities may be formed by interested faculty
as either topic or cohort-based.
CAT’s
Dr. Joan E. Brookshire, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, has facilitated CAT’s at both the West and Central Campuses and will continue to do so. Based on the work of Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, this learning community is founded on the premise that faculty are the closest observers of learning as it takes place in the classroom. They have the opportunity to be the most effective assessors and improvers of their own teaching. First, however, they need to know what is working in their teaching and what isn’t. They need more systematic tools to understand what learning is occurring in their classrooms and the impact of their teaching.
Information Literacy
The goal of this seminar, which will meet three times during the fall semester at Central Campus, will be the creation or modification of an existing course syllabus along with the development or modification of existing assignments to incorporate information literacy skills and concepts. Faculty will be introduced to the principles and concepts of information literacy and work to integrate these skills with the learning outcomes and curriculum of a course they will teach in the spring semester. Faculty will also have the opportunity to update their research skills using our online catalog, databases, and the Internet.
West Campus Faculty Inquiry Group
Over its ten plus years, the West Campus has developed into a strong community
of teachers/scholars dedicated to providing affordable and accessible education
to the Pottstown community. Partly because of the proximity of their offices,
faculty from diverse disciplines have developed working relationships that
promote collaboration.
This leaning community or faculty inquiry group offers an opportunity for faculty
to continue what they are already doing, but in a more formal, scholarly context.
Faculty can analyze issues/concerns relative to the West Campus that extend
beyond disciplines.
CQI: Continuous Quality Improvement
Faculty who have been trained in the techniques of CQI will develop individual or group projects under the facilitation of Dr. Joan E. Brookshire that apply what they have learned to their courses and/or their programs.
English Faculty Inquiry Group
English faculty concerned about learning more about the scholarship of teaching English, whether in a writing course, a developmental course, or a literature course may participate in this learning community. Faculty may, for example, present a “tried and true” technique to colleagues, suggest an article from a professional journal for discussion, investigate an innovative technique that fosters improvement in student learning.
