Key Information
Student Learning Communities, Faculty Learning Communities, & Faculty Development, Edited by Nancy Simpson & Jean Layne
2007 [ISBN: 1-58107-124-8; 154 pages; 5 ½ x 8 ½ inch; soft cover] $18.95
The title of this volume, Student Learning Communities, Faculty Learning Communities, and Faculty Development, suggests key phenomenon that are discussed and connected in a variety of ways in the multi-authored chapters contained within it.
- Learning—What is it? How does it happen? How can we increase its quantity and quality for all people in our academic institutions?
- Community—What is it? Why is it important? What role does it play in learning?
- Faculty development—What is it? What does it have to do with learning? How is it connected to community?
These are overlapping, interconnected phenomena, integral to the higher education enterprise. This work is, by intention, descriptive and practical in nature. The Editors’ intent is to illustrate the way in which faculty in a variety of institutional contexts, and for an array of purposes, have—sometimes intentionally and explicitly, sometimes not—applied the ideas described in the book. Their hope is that you will find here inspiration and encouragement as well as concrete ideas that you may adapt to your own context.
The Contents
Introduction to Volume
The Chapters:
- First Year Learning Communities: From Inspiration to Reality in Three Months Marty Loudder & J. Martyn Gunn
- Developing a Graduate Learning Community Through The Application of Adult Learning Principles Tim O. Peterson & Claudette M. Peterson
- Faculty Learning Communities and Inquiry-guided Learning at North Carolina State Virginia S. Lee
- Expanding the Community of Learners Through an On-Campus Learning Communities Institute Shari Ellertson & Corly Brooke
- Faculty Development Opportunities and Learning Communities Phyllis Worthy Dawkins
- Faculty Learning Communities: Engaging Faculty on the Topic of Learning Jean Layne & Jeff Froyd
- Participant Perspectives on the Faculty Learning Communities Experience Anne Shordike, Kendra Stewart & Sarah Tsiang
- Changing Faculty through Learning Communities: A Gender Equity Project Kim CovingtonThe Editors
The Editors
Nancy Simpson is Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M University and has over fifteen years of experience in working with faculty on teaching and learning issues and as well as in teaching college mathematics. She has worked with national faculty development initiatives including the Wakonse Foundation’s Conference on College Teaching and the Pew-Funded Peer Review of Teaching Project. Dr. Simpson has authored several journal articles and book chapters and is currently the PI on an NSF-funded project, Writing for Assessment and Learning in the Natural and Mathematical Sciences. She can be reached at n-simpson@tamu.edu.
Jean Layne is a Program Coordinator and Instructional Consultant for the Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M University and has more than ten years experience in the field of faculty development. Her teaching experience is in the area of study skills – both in the traditional classroom setting and via distance education. Part of the team that initiated faculty learning communities at TAMU, she has co-authored articles and chapters on faculty learning communities, the teaching portfolio, and other faculty development topics. She has also been a part of the leadership and research team for the NSF funded project, Writing for Assessment and Learning in the Natural and Mathematical Sciences. She can be reached at j-layne@tamu.edu.