Richie Gebauer (Cabrini University) and Jen Whetham (Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges)
Sem II-B 2109
Learning communities (LC’s) serve as a pedagogical approach that offers students a distinct learning environment, atypical of the traditional college experience. To design well and with intention, it is critical that LC faculty and staff speak the same language, understand the “why” behind offering LCs, are aware of LC’s learning outcomes, and effectively communicate and collaborate to offer curriculum and co-curriculum that is purposeful in achieving programmatic learning outcomes. Whether faculty and staff are joining professional learning communities (PLCs) or preparing to lead LC’s for undergraduate students, this workshop will discuss establishing a culture of assessment focused around student learning—one that both cultivates meaningful faculty learning and serves as the framework for onboarding new learning community faculty and staff. Regardless of the onboarding strategy(s), open spaces for faculty and staff to become active participants in the onboarding process—a process that embraces a shared, collaborative act of dialoguing (Boix-Mansilla, 2008) around the common purpose of learning community work—are central to inform student learning and curriculum development.
Handouts