The Teaching & Learning Center

Professional Learning Communities

Faculty learning communities (FLCs) provide a space for educators to engage with an interdisciplinary group of peers over an extended period. They provide a platform for meaningful collaboration, peer learning, and support for enhancing teaching practice. FLCs meet regularly in a semester or year-long program to collaborate and engage in reflection on topics connected to teaching improvement. As a specific form of community of practices, these opportunities help educators connect to peers across disciplines, engage in scholarly dialogue on evidence-based pedagogy, and share feedback and support while exploring specific topics and projects.

Questions about FLCs may be directed to the Teaching and Learning Center at tlc@wcupa.edu. 

Teaching Circles

A teaching circle is a group of faculty who collectively explore a teaching topic of interest and work together to create a product reflecting their learning experience. Products can be research, teaching plans, workshops, presentations, or any other items. The group works together to determine what product or products they wish to create at the start of the process.

Two teaching circles are forming for Fall 2024:

1. Generative Artificial Intelligence: Possible areas of exploration include specific A.I. tools, teaching techniques, methods of assessment, sustainability considerations, ethical implications, and productivity methods. 
2. Science of Learning: Participants might explore the general concept, focus on a specific strategy, work on adding elements into activities or lessons, or prepare to conduct further research.  Possible areas of exploration include helping students make connections between concepts, strategies for embedding retrieval, interleaving and predicting practices, and applying the science of motivation.  

The time commitment is approximately 10 hours over the semester, split between four 1-hour gatherings and independent time for reading and product creation. Meeting times may be adjusted based on participant availability after the first meeting.

Faculty interested in participating in one of this Fall's teaching circles should complete the registration form by Monday, September 16, 2024. If you have any questions about the program, please contact the TLC at tlc@wcupa.edu.

Teaching Triangles

The Teaching Triangles program involves three faculty members in a triad who agree to visit each other’s classes over the semester and meet to discuss what they have learned about their own teaching from the observations. The process is non-evaluative and is based on reciprocity, shared responsibility, and mutual respect. Modeled after the program developed by Anne Wessely of St. Louis Community College, the focus is on self-reflection, rather than peer evaluation, critique, or providing feedback or advice about their teaching. Partners observe each other to gather ideas on different teaching approaches that might be used in their own classes. 
 
This is an opportunity for faculty members to learn from each other’s teaching practices in a respectful and supportive environment. As partners observe each other's teaching, they will reflect on and later dialog with each other on questions such as:

• Could I do something like that?
• Would that approach work with the content I teach?
• I might be able to use that, but what would I need to change so that it better fits with my teaching style?
• Are my students ready for a strategy like that?

The intent of the Teaching Squares program is to help you contemplate current teaching practices as you consider some potential alternatives. 

This opportunity is open to all faculty (including adjunct professors) at West Chester University; selection is based on teaching schedules. If you are interested in participating in this program in Spring 2025, please complete the Teaching Triangles registration form. You will be notified of your acceptance and triangle assignment in January.   
 
If you have any questions about the program, please contact the TLC at tlc@wcupa.edu.

Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Learning Community

Our campus reflects the diversity of our world. Students bring varied backgrounds, experiences, aspirations, and talents to our classrooms, along with differing needs for navigating academia and achieving success. 
 
As instructors, we can support this diversity by creating learning environments where every student thrives. Inclusive teaching is key to this goal. This approach recognizes our students' diverse needs, celebrates their unique identities and experiences, and focuses on reducing barriers while providing targeted support to enhance learning. 

The deadline for WCU faculty interested in participating in this FLC to submit applications is September 20, 2024.

General Education ePortfolio Faculty Learning Community

The General Education Council and CAPC Executive Committee, with support of the Provost’s Office, invite applications for faculty to participate in a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) centered on the Gen Ed Google Sites ePortfolio. This cohort of instructors will share experiences and provide feedback on e-portfolio artifacts, reflection prompts, and completed portfolios over the course of the fall semester.  
 
WCU has been participating in the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) 2023 Institute on e-Portfolios, with a 5 person team of faculty and staff members working closely with an AACU faculty advisor to learn and apply best practices regarding the use of e-portfolios in higher education. The design of this FLC is an outgrowth of the Institute team’s experiences.  
 
WCU uses Google Sites as its General Education e-Portfolio (GEP) platform. When fully implemented, students will be required to upload artifacts from each General Education course to their GEP and, during their capstone course, will review the collected artifacts in order to reflect and to make connections across the courses. In order to continue a successful roll-out of the GEP requirement across the curriculum, we seek instructors teaching one or more general education courses during the Fall 2023 semester to share assignments designed to meet targeted general education goals, to develop reflection prompts, and to provide feedback on their experience teaching with GEP. The cohort will meet 3 times, share examples of GEP artifacts, reflections, and in-process portfolios, work with WCU’s e-Portfolio team to develop a bank of model portfolios and related resources to assist with the GEP full-scale roll-out, and otherwise provide formal and informal feedback.  

The deadline for WCU faculty interested in participating in this FLC to submit applications was August 25, 2023.

Questions about this FLC or the application process should be directed to

Janneken Smucker, ePortfolio Director.

 

Pedagogical Innovations Faculty Learning Community

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) are pleased to announce a call for applications for faculty to participate in a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) to investigate the effectiveness of pedagogical innovations. Pedagogical innovations are intentional actions undertaken to improve students’ learning in a sustainable manner to address specific barriers or challenges to student success (Walder, 2014). The goal of this project is to scale up pedagogical innovations developed by WCU faculty to improve student engagement and retention in courses. Faculty selected to participate in the FLC will engage with an interdisciplinary group of faculty peers in this collaborative learning opportunity. The cohort of faculty will share resources, guidance, and support while carrying out research on the effectiveness and implementation of innovative teaching strategies on student engagement in the classroom. This project is funded through the Provost’s Enrollment Planning Investment (PEPI) grant initiative.

This project will run in a two-year cycle beginning Fall 2023 and ending in Spring 2025. During the project, participants will:

• Participate in a series of monthly meetings to discuss a range of topics related to scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), pedagogical innovation, and student engagement.
• Develop and pilot an innovative pedagogical strategy for increasing student engagement and retention.
• Design and conduct a research study to assess effectiveness and impact of your selected strategy on student engagement and retention.
• Share research findings at WCU and beyond.

The deadline for WCU faculty interested in participating in this FLC to submit applications was on July 31, 2023.

If you have any questions about this FLC, please contact the Teaching and Learning Center at tlc@wcupa.edu.