Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs)
Connect and Grow: Join a Faculty Learning Community
Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) are your space to connect with colleagues across campus and deepen your teaching practice. These vibrant groups provide a supportive environment to explore pedagogical challenges, experiment with new ideas, and enhance student learning.
Why Join an FLC?
- Collaborate with Peers: Engage with an interdisciplinary group of faculty to gain diverse perspectives and build your professional network.
- Explore Innovating Teaching: Investigate and implement evidence-based teaching strategies in a confidential, feedback-rich setting.
- Drive Your Own Learning: FLCs are member-driven. Your group will choose its own topic, set its own schedule, and define its own goals and projects.
Whether you want to solve a specific teaching problem, explore a new pedagogical theory, or simply connect with peers, an FLC provides the structure and community to help you achieve your goals.
Explore the Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) for Spring 2025 below.
Facilitators! Please review our Guidance for FLC Facilitators for helpful suggestions and tips to get the most out of your Faculty Learning Community!
Spring Topics
Topic 1: AI Integration Framework (Zoom)
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- Kaywin Cottle, Clinical Instructor of Teaching and Educational Studies; Ryan Randall, Instructional Designer, ITRC
- Are you interested in responsible ways to include generative AI in your workflows as a faculty member? This Faculty Learning Community will bring together faculty from across disciplines to explore practical applications, discuss implementation challenges, and refine best practices for AI integration. Through collaborative dialogue and hands-on activities, participants will develop strategies for leveraging generative AI in teaching, research, and service while maintaining academic integrity and addressing ethical concerns. (15 seats available)
- Kaywin Cottle, Clinical Instructor of Teaching and Educational Studies; Ryan Randall, Instructional Designer, ITRC
Topic 2: Bridging the Hidden Curriculum: Cultivating Care, Empathy, and Belonging for First-Generation Students, Scholars, and Professionals
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- Dr. James Pascali, TRIO/HEP Programs; Reinalyn Echon, Clinical Assistant Professor, Bengal Bridge Program
- Description: This workshop series invites faculty, staff, and administrators to explore how higher education can better serve and sustain first-generation students and professionals by confronting the hidden curriculum that shapes academic norms and workplace challenges/success. Through a series of readings, discussions, and collaborative projects, participants will examine how implicit rules, institutional cultures, and leadership practices can either exclude or empower those without inherited academic capital. The FLC combines theoretical insight, practical guidance, and leadership development to help participants create more transparent, caring, and empathetic academic environments.
- Description: This workshop series invites faculty, staff, and administrators to explore how higher education can better serve and sustain first-generation students and professionals by confronting the hidden curriculum that shapes academic norms and workplace challenges/success. Through a series of readings, discussions, and collaborative projects, participants will examine how implicit rules, institutional cultures, and leadership practices can either exclude or empower those without inherited academic capital. The FLC combines theoretical insight, practical guidance, and leadership development to help participants create more transparent, caring, and empathetic academic environments.
- Dr. James Pascali, TRIO/HEP Programs; Reinalyn Echon, Clinical Assistant Professor, Bengal Bridge Program
Topic 3: Language Ideologies & Heritage Speakers Pedagogies Learning Community
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- Dr. Maria Claudia Huerta Vera, Assistant Professor of Spanish, and Dr. Liz Redd, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of American Indian Studies
- Description: This is a reading group for all faculty interested in learning more about language ideologies and teaching languages to heritage speakers. As most faculty who have had heritage speakers in their classrooms know, the needs of students learning their heritage language are different from those of students learning a language with which they have no cultural or emotional connection. The group’s goal will be to read and discuss scholarship on language ideologies and pedagogies that we can directly apply in our classroom. Although this group would be of special interest for faculty who have students who are heritage speakers of Spanish, anyone can find it useful, as most of the texts discussed can be applied to all of us.
- Description: This is a reading group for all faculty interested in learning more about language ideologies and teaching languages to heritage speakers. As most faculty who have had heritage speakers in their classrooms know, the needs of students learning their heritage language are different from those of students learning a language with which they have no cultural or emotional connection. The group’s goal will be to read and discuss scholarship on language ideologies and pedagogies that we can directly apply in our classroom. Although this group would be of special interest for faculty who have students who are heritage speakers of Spanish, anyone can find it useful, as most of the texts discussed can be applied to all of us.
- Dr. Maria Claudia Huerta Vera, Assistant Professor of Spanish, and Dr. Liz Redd, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of American Indian Studies
Topic 4: Beyond the Grade: Rethinking Assessment for Learning and Well-Being
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- Dr. Ed Kammerer, Associate Professor of Political Science
- Description: This faculty learning group explores Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education by David Clark and Robert Talbert and its implications for teaching, learning, and assessment. Through guided discussion, participants will examine how growth-oriented grading practices can promote student learning, equity, and motivation while reducing stress for both students and instructors. Faculty will reflect on their own grading approaches, share experiences, and consider practical strategies for implementing growth-based assessment in their courses.
- Dr. Ed Kammerer, Associate Professor of Political Science
To join, please register using the link provided below.
- Registration Deadline: 5pm, Friday, January 23.
- Next Steps: After the deadline, your FLC facilitator will contact all members to establish a meeting schedule.