2003 AAHE Summer Academy

PROJECT PLAN AND ACTION ITEMS

COPPER: Communities of Practice: Pooling Educational Resources to Foster Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Background

The model of ongoing involvement in a community of practice is well suited to colleges where the dilemma is not teaching vs. research but teaching too much.  In many higher education institutions across the country faculty are committed to teaching but due to large course loads have little time for the type of reflective practice (Brookfield, 1995; Schon, 1995) that sustains and energizes daily work. The typical course load at community colleges is five courses; many four-year teaching colleges require a four course workload each semester. Professors who value teaching want to study their practice but often do not have the time or a collegial community to support this interest.  In addition, in academic settings with a focus on teaching, the benefits of peer review are often misunderstood and can seem burdensome instead of beneficial. 

Professors teaching several courses each semester are excellent candidates for implementing the scholarship of teaching and learning. The deliberate process of going public, opening our work to critical review, and sharing our ideas sets the stage for more thoughtful approaches to teaching and learning. The focus on assessment central to SoTL can help faculty appreciate assessment as part of a thoughtful inquiry into student learning as opposed to an administrative mandate.  Such changes in individual faculty who teach multiple courses can have profound effects on the learning of many students, and changes in a large group of faculty can create an institution that is truly centered on student learning.

Colleges typically have faculty development programs to help professors learn new approaches and stay current, but there are few settings where a group of faculty can join in a community to study their craft in a collaborative way over time.  Since the fall of 1998 faculty at Middlesex Community College (MA) have sustained an effective, evolving, cross-disciplinary community of practice in which participants have shared teaching and learning experiences in the context of relevant teaching and learning literature.  Participants have completed projects that exemplify the scholarship of teaching and learning, continue to use the SoTL lens in preparing and teaching their multiple courses, and persist in exploring unifying themes for group study and workable ways to implement peer review.  Participants have also had the opportunity to make their work public through presentations at local, state, and national conferences as well as through a joint publication.  This aspect of “going public” with results is critical for faculty to be a part of the larger higher education community, but it is often one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish when teaching loads are demanding.

In recognition of the value that is gained through collaboration and shared practices, the new cluster group, COPPER, will expand this SoTL initiative to an additional six diverse institutions of higher education representing associate, baccalaureate and graduate level education. By traversing the boundaries that are perceived to exist between different levels of higher education, we seek to focus on the common mission of student learning.  The COPPER initiative is consistent with the recommendations of the Association of American Colleges and Universities National Panel Report, Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College as well as with the missions of the member Colleges.

Genesis

Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder (2002) suggest that “because communities of practice are organic designing them is more a matter of shepherding their evolution than creating them from scratch” (p.51). During our time at the Summer Academy members who had not previously known each other developed a synergy forming the foundation for a community of practice that will evolve over the next three years.

The cluster’s name, COPPER, emerged from our group work this week and recognizes our commitment to collaborate.  Through discussions about impediments and enablers, we recognized the rich array of resources that each of our institutions brings to the work of SoTL.  Member institutions have committed to establishing internal and cluster-wide support networks including communities of practices. 

Description

Seven diverse institutions have partnered to create an evolving, interdisciplinary community of practice around the SoTL.  Middlesex Community College (MA) serves as leader and collaborates with Holyoke Community College (MA), Iowa Western Community College (IA), Northern Essex Community College (MA), Pine Manor College (MA), Salem State College (MA) and Valencia Community College (FL).

Vision

A culture that values collaboration and reflection around teaching and learning.

Mission

To create communities of practice that are vital, collaborative, connective, and communicative within and across institutions.

Goals

·        To support the engagement of faculty in the practice of teaching and learning.

·        To aid faculty in becoming adept at demonstrating evidence of student learning.

·        To collect and analyze evidence of learning within and across institutions.

·        To design means by which institutions can collaborate to enhance work in SoTL.

·        To establish a coordinating service for faculty engaged in similar or complementary research or practice.

Key Impediments and Enablers to the Project’s Success

The Cluster identifies five impediments to our success. 

1. Because of the cluster’s geographic diversity and also many campus’ decentralized, multi-campus locations, communication will be a challenge.
2. In a climate of competing demands on limited resources, sufficient allocation of funding and course release time may be difficult to achieve.
3. The time for SoTL practice and reflection can be considered our most valuable resource but this, as well, is limited when the day-to-day demands of faculty workload are considered.
4. How can we obtain quantitative measures for what are, essentially, qualitative changes in faculty behaviors?
5. The distinction between “professional development” and “performance evaluation” must be clearly understood and observed.

In order to overcome those impediments the Cluster has identified the following enablers to facilitate the success of our project:

1.      Communication: We will develop multiple means to communicate, including but not limited to the following: to a project newsletter, brown-bag lunch conversations, home campus professional days, use of the Web Center to showcase accomplishments of each of our campuses, a publication showcasing faculty accomplishments, a “yellow pages-style” directory of faculty expertise, an expertise/knowledge matrix; support for faculty to give presentations of their work, funding incentives for those who present, e-mail and other electronic communication tools, inclusion of cluster work in national publications.

2.      Resources: The diversity of experience at the member colleges will serve as a rich resource for best practices that can be disseminated through the AAHE Web Center.  Resources of the professional disciplinary organizations will help to give the Communities of Practice increased visibility and credibility.  The inherent intellectual curiosity of the teaching community and its focus on learning is an invaluable resource.  We will also seek grant funding for cluster work dissemination, faculty showcases and publications.                                                                        

3.      Time: We will develop recommendations for the ways campuses can make use of “reassigned time” as well as a system of faculty stipends.  Other examples of potential support include sending faculty to CASTL colloquium for professional networking, allowing for “banked” overload, and considering SoTL as “college service” or potential sabbatical research.

4.      Assessment:  We will encourage campuses to create a culture in which faculty engage in assessment because it informs their teaching. Sharing what has been done rather than “reinventing the wheel” will be an important part of our work. We will encourage campuses to make a clear distinction between assessment for learning and program evaluation by making clear who and what is being assessed.

5.      Professional development/performance evaluation: Our cluster will help clarify the distinction between professional development and performance evaluation. We will advocate that SoTL should be recognized as the highest form of faculty development.

Project Performance Measures, Action Items and Responsible Party

Project Performance Measure 1:  Identify our institutions’ baseline data elements on student outcomes and faculty development by establishing a cluster database.

Student Outcomes

·        Retention data

·        Graduation rates

·        Alumni surveys (transfer GPA, employment)

·        Students surveys

·        Measures of student learning outcomes

Faculty Development Outcomes

·        Publications

·        Presentations

·        Awards

·        Activities and professional societies

·        Workshops and conferences attended

Institutional Support Outcomes

·        Training (teaching center)

·        Faculty development days

·        Stipends, reassigned time, sabbaticals

·        Staff development committee

·        Assessment of attitudes regarding faculty development

Responsible Party: Iowa Western Community College by 10/15/03

Project Performance Measure 2:  Establish internal and cluster-wide networks, including communities of practice.

Each core member institution will develop a community of practice around SoTL

·        Members of those campus communities of practice will be introduced to the AAHE Web Center

Responsible Party: All Core members

 The COPPER Steering Committee (AAHE Summer Academy Cluster Team) will continue to function as a cluster-wide community of practice.

·        The COPPER Steering Committee will publish a newsletter during the fall, spring, and summer academic terms.

·        The COPPER Steering Committee will conduct monthly conference calls to sustain the project and continue to build community.

·        The COPPER Steering Committee will establish and maintain a directory of cluster-wide faculty willing to share their expertise within and among institutions.

Responsible Party: Middlesex Community College

Project Performance Measure 3:  Design and implement programs to support faculty in SoTL.

We will measure the success of the COPPER project by assessing the programs designed to support SOTL faculty in the following ways:

·        Evaluate three Summer Institutes

·        Establish cross-institutional peer-review processes

·        Inventory SoTL resources and disseminate across the cluster using the Web, newsletter, etc. Identify and disseminate a common core of readings

·        Identify and coordinate visiting scholars from member campuses willing to conduct workshops, attend meetings, and consult with faculty at member institutions

Responsible Party: Middlesex Community College

·        Inventory and share resources/opportunities for “going public,” e.g., publication resources and presentation venues.

·        Provide opportunities for policy makers from across cluster campuses to discuss and review cluster activities.

Responsible Parties: Northern Essex Community College and Holyoke Community College

Project Performance Measure 4: Establish a benchmark for types of faculty conversations with regard to SoTL.

·        Develop a SoTL typology (e.g., context and content) to analyze faculty conversations at the AAHE Web Center and at member campuses.)

Responsible Parties: Pine Manor College, Holyoke Community College and Salem State College by 12/30/03

Implications for Cluster Member Campuses

Holyoke Community College

Holyoke Community College is committed to faculty development as a means of improving student success and will support professional development of faculty and staff through the Scholarship of Learning in the following four college-wide learning initiatives:

• General education reform
• Interdisciplinary learning communities

·        Workshops on Creating Inclusive Classrooms

• Improvement of developmental education

Iowa Western Community College

The participation of Iowa Western Community College in the Communities of Practice SoTL cluster will contribute to the role and visibility of the Learning Styles Research Center at the college. Participation will enhance the image of the college as an innovator and contributor in the scholarship of teaching. It will provide a forum or setting for faculty to exchange their ideas in the ever evolving craft of teaching.

Northern Essex Community College

Participation in “Communities of Practice” (a cluster of AAHE/Carnegie) will help NECC build on the continued efforts of our Teaching & Learning Center to create and sustain collegial faculty communities that focus on teaching and learning.  SoTL will provide us with national resources and support us as we engage in more in-depth work in the scholarship of examining student learning.

Pine Manor College

As a result of our participation in COPPER Pine Manor College (PMC) will be a leader in best practices of teaching and learning by demonstrating the effectiveness of these techniques and publicly sharing these practices.  PMC, under the auspices of its Center for Inclusive Leadership and Social Responsibility, will develop an active community of practice.  Consistent with our mission to “prepare women for inclusive leadership and social responsibility in their workplaces, families and communities,” PMC will make SoTL a priority by involving faculty and staff in the process of reflecting on effective teaching and learning techniques.  Initially SoTL projects are likely to focus on assessing community established learning outcomes.

Salem State College

Through the Communities of Practice initiative, Salem State College will build on the successful efforts of the College’s Council on Teaching and Learning to foster faculty discourse on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.  In our College mission statement, we describe Salem State as a “community of learners which, in light of its commitment to teaching, research, and scholarship, fosters the intellectual, aesthetic, and personal development of its members.”  Through our work participation in this Community of Practice, we will be extending our community of learners to include our faculty.

Valencia Community College

After working in this cluster team (now called COPPER) at AAHE, Valencia Community College has a direction for creating communities of practice within SoTL.  The Valencia AAHE Summer Academy team will propose utilizing Valencia’s summer professional development program, Destinations, to establish a formal internal community of practice that will connect within the COPPER network.  Destinations participants will have a mechanism to share pedagogical strategies and action research projects that focus on SoTL.

Cluster members: COPPER Steering Committee