Faculty Learning Communities

2006 Institute and Conference

2006 Institute and Conference Home

Location and Lodging

Registration

New Developer's Institute

Welcome letter

Schedule Overview

Pre-Intstitute Assignments

Learning Objectives

Photos from the 2005 Institute

FLC Conference

Call for Proposals

Keynote Presenter

Conference Program (PDF file)

Directions and Latest Information

FLC Home

New FLC Developers' Institute, June 21-23, 2006

Designing, Implementing, and Leading Faculty Learning Communities

Pre-Institute Assignments

We will e-mail you a Pre-reading Survey, due back by June 7.  At the institute you will receive the FLC Program Director's and Facilitator's Handbook and the book, Building Faculty Learning Communites, with additional materials. To create a common framework from which we can begin our work on Wednesday evening, June 21, we ask you to complete the following:

1. Pre-Reading Survey: Please complete the survey before you read any of the material. Return the survey to us by email by June 7.  The information will be used to form groups during the Institute. Feel comfortable to write, “I don’t know,” if you are unaware of a concept.
2. Identify a course that you teach that will serve as your “focus course” in the institute. We will engage in some faculty learning community activities for this course.
3. For referral, bring a syllabus for your focus course.
4. Take the Teaching Goals Inventory on-line for your focus course, print out the results, and bring it to the institute. The URL is http://www.uiowa.edu/~centeach/tgi/.
5. Visit the following website and read the general information about faculty learning communities and specific details about various ones at Miami University and the FLC FIPSE Project Institutions: http://www.muohio.edu/flc/.
6. Please read the following 6 articles before the institute. These are listed in the order in which we will encounter discussion of the topics in the institute. We will send you information about how to obtain these articles.
   1. Cox, M. D. (2001). Faculty learning communities: Change agents for transforming institutions into learning organizations. To Improve the academy: Resources for faculty, instructional, and organizational development 19 (pp.69-93). Bolton, MA: Anker.
   2. Cox, M. D. (1995). The development of new and junior faculty. In W. A. Wright and Associates (Eds.), Teaching improvement practices: Successful strategies for higher education (pp. 283-310). Bolton, MA: Anker.
   3. Cerbin, W. (1994). The course portfolio as a tool for continuous improvement of teaching and learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 5(1), 95-105.
   4. Kloss, R. J. (1994). A nudge is best: Helping students through the Perry Scheme of intellectual development. College Teaching, 42 (4), 151-158.
   5. Thomas, T. (1992). Connected teaching: An exploration of the classroom enterprise. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 3, 101-119.
   6. Cox, M. D. (2003).  Proven faculty development tools that foster the scholarship of teaching in faculty learning communities. To Improve the Academy, 21, 109-142.
7. Materials to Bring to the Workshop: Please collect the following items and information and bring them with you to the workshop:
   1. A catalog from your institution
   2. Information about your institution’s faculty development/teaching center, and its faculty learning community efforts, including any brochures or other materials you may refer to or share at the workshop
   3. Demographic information from your institution including:
      1. Number of junior faculty (pre-tenure), tenured, and part-time faculty
      2. Anticipated faculty retirement numbers for the next five years
   4. Funding sources for faculty/teaching center development efforts within your institution
   5. Allies who would assist, cosponsor, or support the development of faculty learning communities at your institution
   6. Optional Book to Bring. If you or your library has the following book (and you have room in your luggage), bring:
      • Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

If you have any questions, requests, comments or concerns, please do feel free to contact us by email at the address below. We look forward to meeting you!

Milton D. Cox, Ph.D
Director, Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
FLC Program Director
Facilitator, Teaching Scholars FLC for Early Career Faculty
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Email: coxmd@muohio.edu
Web: http://www.muohio.edu/flc

Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, Ph.D
Director, Center for Teaching and Learning
Director, Professional Learning Communities Program
Otterbein College
Email: LOrtquist-Ahrens@Otterbein.edu
Web: http://www.otterbein.edu/academics/CTL/community.asp

This project has been supported in part by a grants from the US Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the Ohio Board of Regents.