The Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET) sponsors 5 "Faculty Learning Communities" in the Academic Year 2007-8. The purpose is to expand the existing expertise on campus in the Communities' areas:

• Community-Based and Service Learning
• Diversity and Multicultural Learning
• Learning Outcomes Assessment
• Peer Observation Program / Enhancing Classroom Teaching
• Scholarship of Teaching

The Faculty Learning Communities are facilitated by Faculty-In-Residence and Office of Faculty Development Staff.

Community-Based and Service Learning

Facilitator:

Mary D'Alleva, Director, Service Learning Program.

Purpose:

Collaborate to tell the story of community-based teaching and learning on our campus though an examination of pedagogy and student learning.

Activities:

• Engage in research or develop material on community-based teaching and learning
• Investigate and discuss publishing/presentation venues
• Support each other in a writers' workshop.

Outcomes:

• Complete material for publication or presentation rooted in teaching experiences
• Contribute to larger effort of Service Learning Program to chronicle student learning in and its impact on the community.

Pictured at right: (clockwise from left) Linda Ivey (Assistant Prof., History), Colleen Fong (Prof., Ethnic Studies), Silvina Ituarte (Associate Prof., Criminal Justice Administration), Michael Lee (Associate Prof., Geography & Environmental Studies), Dale Ireland (Lecturer, English), and Mary D'Alleva (Lecturer, English).

Diversity and Multicultural Learning

Facilitator:

Evaon Wong-Kim, Faculty-In-Residence for Diversity and Multicultural Learning.

Purpose:

• Create multicultural learning outcomes across disciplines
• Improve multicultural competence of faculty
• Promote and sustain creative and scholarly approaches to diversity and multicultural competence

Activities:

• Engage in focused inquiry about how cultural, racial, and gender diversity affects learning
• Apply different multicultural strategies in the classroom
• Share multicultural resources with campus community

Outcomes:

• Develop multicultural learning outcomes
• Incorporate multiculturalism into a course or program

Pictured at right: (standing, from left) Meiling Wu (Associate Prof., Modern Languages & Literatures), Kim Geron (Associate Prof., Political Science), Evaon Wong-Kim (Associate Prof., Social Work); (seated, from left) Eileen Barrett (Prof., English), Maliika Chambers (Assistant Prof., Teacher Education), and Stevina Evuleocha (Associate Prof., Marketing and Entrepreneurship).

Learning Outcomes Assessment

Facilitators:

Julia Norton and Jiansheng Guo, Faculty-In-Residence for Learning Outcomes Assessment.

Purpose:

• Understand principles and practice of assessment
• Evaluate effective approaches to programmatic or general education assessment
• Explore ways to develop and integrate meaningful student learning outcomes successfully into courses and programs

• Read and discuss articles about learning outcomes
• Analyze departmental, college, and CAPR learning outcomes documents
• Experiment with learning outcomes in a course or program

Outcome:

Rewrite learning outcomes for a course or program

Pictured at right: (from left, clockwise) Suzy Wear (Associate Prof., Art), Penny McCullagh (Prof., Kinesiology and Physical Education), Jiansheng Guo (Associate Prof., Human Development), Rolla Lewis (Associate Prof., Educational Psychology), Mayling Chu (Associate Prof., Social Work), Julia Norton (Prof., Statistics and Biostatistics), Farnaz Ganjeizadeh (Assistant Prof., Engineering), John Sepolen (Information and Technology Services), John Lovell (Prof., Psychology), Peggy Sue Wright (Assistant Prof., Nursing and Health Sciences).

Peer Observation Program / Enhancing Classroom Teaching

Facilitator:

Christina Chin-Newman, Faculty-In-Residence for Enhancing Classroom Teaching.

Purpose:

• Learn how to improve teaching from peer observers
• Experience the classroom and teaching of peers whom you observe
• Create a campus climate in which faculty observe and learn from one another's teaching

Activities:

• Identify area of classroom teaching to improve
• Develop questions for student feedback specific to the concerns of each faculty member
• Observe and be observed by a faculty partner
• Meet before and after each classroom observation for discussion of feedback from peer observer and students
• Keep a teaching journal
• Read and discuss articles about learning outcomes

Outcomes:

• Incorporate feedback from peer observer and students into classroom teaching
• Apply successful teaching strategies observed in faculty peers' classrooms
• Gain experience in observing and giving feedback on classroom teaching

Pictured at right: (clockwise from 8 o'clock) Julie Beck (Assistant Prof., Criminal Justice Administration), Michael Fanning (Assistant Prof., Educational Leadership), Maxine Craig (Associate Prof., Sociology and Social Services), Rita Liberti (Associate Prof., Kinesiology & Physical Education), Rafael Hernandez (Assistant Prof., Music), and Christina Chin-Newman (Assistant Prof., Human Development).

Scholarship of Teaching

Facilitators:

Jane Lopus and Mitchell Watnik, Faculty-In-Residence for Scholarship of Teaching.

Purpose:

• Bring together colleagues with an intellectual interest in pedagogy
• Foster researching and publishing in the scholarship of teaching

Activities:

• Share teaching strategies and narratives
• Design research projects and/or professional presentations about teaching
• Share and provide feedback on research and writing in progress
• Compose (and eventually publish) research on the scholarship of teaching.

Outcomes:

• Develop a personal plan for research in the scholarship of teaching,
• Promote and encourage publishing and conducting research on teaching and learning throughout the disciplines.

Pictured at right: (standing, from left) Mitchell Watnik (Assistant Prof., Statistics and Biostatistics), Leann Christenson (Prof., Computer Science), Nina Haft (Assistant Prof., Theater and Dance), James Zarrillo (Prof., Teacher Education); (seated, from left) Nidhi Mahendra (Assistant Prof., Communicative Sciences & Disorders), Caron Inouye (Associate Prof., Biology), Jane Lopus (Prof., Economics), Julie Glass (Prof., Mathematics).