Faculty Learning Community

A Faculty Learning Community is a group of 8-12 faculty members engaging in an active, collaborative, long-term (usually a year) facilitated program with the goal to reflect and enhance teaching and learning. The structure of a FLC can include seminars and activities of reflection that provide learning, development, transdisciplinarity, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), and community building.

• Build a community of faculty peers
• Foster reflective teaching
• Enhance effective pedagogical techniques
• Increase knowledge of inclusive teaching practices in STEM
• Provide opportunities for professional development and personal growth
• Improve the quality of higher education

Inclusive Teaching in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math)

The purpose of the FLC is to learn and reflect on best practices in inclusive teaching specific to the STEM fields. While engaging in rich dialogue with colleagues in other STEM disciplines, a community of practice aimed at understanding and implementing inclusive pedagogical practices is fostered.

This faculty learning community aims to create a dynamic and intellectually stimulating environment where faculty members can collaborate, learn, and innovate to enhance the educational experience for students and educators alike.

Specific goals of this FLC are to:

• Enhance Teaching Effectiveness
• Foster a Culture of Inclusiveness
• Build a Supportive Community
• Strengthen Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
• Encourage faculty and student success via inclusive practices
• Foster a community of STEM faculty
• Create tangible deliverable(s) highlighting inclusive practices

• Enroll in the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project MOOC and complete the requirements for a certificate (the Center for Faculty Excellence will pay for your certificate). MOOC will run from March 4 to April 26, 2024.
• Attend Zoom meetings.
• Generate an individual or group-based deliverable that demonstrates what you and your colleagues learned in the FLC about Inclusive Teaching by September 2024.
  • Examples of deliverables include peer-reviewed presentations, publications, syllabus revisions, assignment revisions, and initiatives to develop and promote inclusive teaching on campus via your class/department/college. This is not an exhaustive list and there are many other examples of deliverables that will satisfy this expectation. 

Spring 2024

• MOOC runs from March 4 to April 26, 2024
• There will be virtual meetings throughout February – May 2024
  • Tuesday morning (9 a.m. to 10 a.m.) virtual meetings
    • February 27
    • March 19
    • April 2
    • April 16
    • April 30

• Cox, M. D. (2004). Introduction to faculty learning communities. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. (97), 5-23.
• Dewsbury, B., & Brame, C. J. (2019). Inclusive teaching. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 18(2).
• Dewsbury, B. M. (2017). On faculty development of STEM inclusive teaching practices. FEMS microbiology letters, 364(18).
• Hirst, R., Anderson, K., Packard, B., Liotta, L., Bleakley, B., Lombardi, P., & Burkholder, K. (2021). Faculty Learning at the Individual and Group Level: A Multi-Year Analysis of an Interdisciplinary Science FLC Focused on Inclusive Teaching and Mentoring. Journal of college science teaching, 50(6).
• Magalhaes, R. M., & Hane, E. (2020). Building inclusive classroom practices: A curriculum for faculty learning communities based on metacognition. The Journal of Faculty Development, 34(3), 125-132.