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In the summer of 2003 Kim Chuppa-Cornell and Darby Heath attended the AAHE Summer Academy Annual conference in Utah. One of the missions of the Chandler-Gilbert Community Collge (CGCC) group (faculty, managers and administration) was to establish a means by which new residential faculty members could become enculturated into our innovative college campus and begin to identify leadership roles that were of interest to them. The breakout session, "Developing an Effective Teaching Scholars Program," facilitated by Dr. Greg Valde, provided a direction for developing our own campus model for creating a learning community among new faculty to our campus.
The pilot program, Network for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, began in the fall of 2003. We met the first week of accountability to introduce the program to the new faculty, to establish the monthly meeting schedule, and to determine the order in which our campus-wide initiatives would be explored. Each meeting followed the same format. We began with sharing the joys and concerns experienced in our classrooms, followed by a discussion of articles, textbook readings, and other materials related to the month's topic which included critical thinking, service learning, collaborative learning/active learning, learning communities, strategies for student motivation, writing across the curriculum, and classroom assessment techniques. At each meeting participants brought current materials they were implementing in their classrooms to share with the group so that an interdisciplinary forum evolved. The strength of this learning community was the chance to draw from each participant's area of expertise. In addition, well-established teaching materials from master teachers across CGCC were provided to create a resource notebook for the participants related to each month's topic and the campus initiatives.
At the end of the 2003-2004 year, we distributed an assessment of the pilot program. Participants' feedback was very positive with regard to the use of time, information gained and the increased level of camaraderie across the disciplines. The assessment also revealed the participants' continued interest in a second year experience to further develop instructional strategies and leadership positions, which was the original intent of this initiative. The pilot program was successful to the participants as well as to the campus in that the new faculty assumed important leadership roles in the 2004-2005 year in service learning, learning communities, civic engagement, community outreach, and the writing center.
This year's Network of Excellence for Teaching and Learning includes both a first-year and a second-year learning community. The first-year component essentially follows the pilot program described above with the addition of peer classroom visits. Each new residential faculty member will identify areas of interest with regard to campus initiatives and their teaching pedagogy and will be paired with established instructors to see how their colleagues implement these teaching strategies in their classrooms. The participants will share their insights at the next monthly meeting with other Network members.
Pam Davenport was asked to coordinate the second year of the program, known as Network II, starting fall semester 2004. The group, which includes second and third year faculty, met during the week of accountability and established a plan for the year. Everyone agreed that the focus would be on providing support for each other (the number one priority), working toward continuous improvement on implementing specific college initiatives, achieving individual teaching and learning goals, and peer classroom visits. The whole group meets one Thursday each month, and following the meeting goes out to dinner together at a local restaurant. As with Network I, each meeting begins with sharing of joys and concerns, and proceeds to discussions about articles on our initiatives and talking about our individual and group projects. The articles are on topics similar to those shared in Network I, but tend to be less pedagogical, focusing on larger issues related to teaching.
In the interim weeks between whole group gatherings, peer groups of two or three meet to plan lessons and activities together, visit each other's classes, and debrief after the visits. Each instructor has established his or her own major goals for the semester. They are trying to answer, with the help of their peers, questions such as how can I make the paper grading load more manageable, how can I help student groups working on major projects be more productive, how can I make students more responsible for their own learning, and how can I make sure my on-line instructions are clear to my students in my hybrid class? For the latter, two faculty members are participating in each other's classes on-line.
Participants are enthusiastic about the program. They appreciate knowing that they have a support group of teachers who are "in the same boat," as relatively new instructors, and also are connecting with faculty who have been at the college for some time. The second year component has been a welcome addition. As Heather Horn, English faculty, said, "Speaking as a member of the inaugural Network group, I am pleased that this initiative didn't stop after the first year for us. It is so valuable to be able to talk about teaching and learning issues with colleagues on a regular basis. And the more interactive piece, the class visits, is a definite plus for both Network I and II."
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