Communities of Practice to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
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 other teaching colleges require four to five courses each semester. Professors who value teaching want to study their practice but often do not have the time or a community to support this action. In addition, in academic settings with a focus on teaching, the culture of peer review is not as well established and often can seem burdensome instead of beneficial. In our community of practice group we have tried to design strategies that will accommodate the “teaching too much” dilemma while creating a setting that supports inquiry and peer review.
Professors teaching several courses each semester are excellent candidates for implementing the scholarship of teaching and learning. The deliberate process of being public, open to critical review, and presenting ideas in a form others can build on sets the stage for more mindful approaches that can be adapted and revised in ongoing practice. The focus on assessment of student learning that is central to SoTL can help faculty to appreciate assessment as an integral part of all courses and not view it as a mandate coming from external sources. Such changes in individual faculty who teach multiple courses can have profound effects on the learning of many students. Such 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 we at Middlesex Community College 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.
Tentative Timeline
We will use the developmental model of communities of practice (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002) to frame our work and to deepen our own practices on campus. We plan to accomplish three objectives: (1) connect with others to establish a learning community that will improve our collective communities of practice, (2) generate a thematic focus to facilitate growth and continuance of this community, and (3) implement and disseminate activities and materials about the thematic focus.
Fall 2004- Spring 2005
Fall 2005- Spring 2006
Core Members Requirements
Ideally, we would like to have the Summer Institute be a source of connections to other institutions so that we can have a cohort of interested colleagues for ongoing collaboration. Following the Institute we could set up electronic communication for participants so that professors at different institutions can continue their conversations and share strategies from different settings. The local Core Members could participate in community of practice projects; more distant members could connect electronically, at conferences, or at joint seminars during the year. Faculty teaching multiple courses have marked limitations in the amount of time they can be away from classes so one of our objectives in working with other Core Members will be to design practical ways to keep participants involved.
Contact Information:
Donna Killian Duffy, Professor of Psychology (duffyd@middlesex.cc.ma.us)
Mary Jane McCarthy, Academic Vice President (mccarthym@middlesex.cc.ma.us)
Kathleen Jennings Sweeney, Department Chairperson and Associate Professor
of Dental Hygiene (sweeneyk@middlesex.cc.ma.us)
Further Information:
MCC Cluster Leader Application 2003
Carnegie/AAHE Core Member Application 2003 or (Application copy)