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Faculty Learning Communities are cross-disciplinary groups of 8 to 12 members who share ideas, engage in a curriculum of discovery and inquiry focused on teaching and learning, and who participate in activities designed to foster social, intellectual, and reflective discussion. FLCs have been used successfully in post-secondary institutions to catalyze deep and sustaining institutional and cultural change. Where used, they have resulted in developing a corps of actively engaged scholars and leaders devoted to educational quality improvement and to collaborative, democratic processes and practices. FLCs may be cohort-based or issues-based. Cohort-based communities typically address teaching and learning needs of a cohort of faculty that share a common bond, for example, faculty new to an institution may work together to explore the challenge of teaching and support each other as they develop their own teaching projects in their classes. Issues-based communities come together around key topics of interest to them, often connected to campus priorities, seeking innovative outcomes and directions, and engaging in scholarly work together. Issues-based communities that have emerged through SCOPE OHIO include critical thinking, studying and learning Appalachia, the freshman year experience, and service learning research. |
