What is a Faculty Learning Community?
In general, a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) is a group of faculty and/or professional staff—from any category or level of experience—who gather regularly over the course of a semester or year to engage in discussion, project development, peer support, and reflection around a common issue or opportunity related to teaching and learning.
FLCs support faculty in multiple ways. In addition to fostering conversation and community around shared interests in teaching, FLCs encourage—and provide a safe space for—experimentation and growth in teaching and learning practices. Because of their focus and extended timeline, FLCs can also be designed to engage participants throughout a cycle of professional development, from inquiry and discussion through planning and implementation to feedback, assessment, and readjustments.
FLCs can form around specific practices (collaborative student projects, mindfulness in the classroom, online learning, teaching large STEM classes) or common faculty experiences (teaching as a non-tenure-track faculty member, supervising clinical or experiential student learning, exploring the opportunities of mid-career faculty). All of these FLC groups are often more structured, outcomes-focused, and/or continuous than other types of faculty development support opportunities such as workshops, “brown bag” series, or reading groups.
FLCs at Mason usually
- Include 8-12 members
- Include faculty from several disciplines and/or backgrounds
- Meet 4-6 times a semester, usually for at least two semesters
- Focus on a project or line of inquiry related to teaching and learning
- Create space for discussion of, experimentation with, and/or reflection on complex questions
- Establish individual and/or community goals for each semester
- Designate one or two FLC Facilitators to organize and guide the meetings and support an active learning environment for all participants
- Enable all participants to contribute to the group via reading, inquiry, sharing of models, and/or other peer support
- Actively promote collegiality and community development
How does Stearns Center support FLCs?
For any FLCs, we can provide guidance and support during the initial organization of the group: topic selection, participant recruitment and publicity, and semester planning. We can also help schedule meeting rooms and identify materials to support FLC meetings. We recommend that first-time FLC facilitators meet with a Stearns Center team member or attend a workshop to discuss opportunities, best practices, and goals. We list active and previous FLCs on our website, and provide formal letters documenting participants’ involvement. Finally, we can follow up with participants of an FLC to find out how the experience has affected their teaching and their students’ learning.
When Sponsored FLC opportunities are available, Stearns Center can provide some additional resources:
- A stipend for any group facilitator(s), up to $1000 per person or $2500 total annually, who participate in FLC leadership training and complete their group’s progress reports
- A budget for materials or supplies for the group or its members (not including food), up to $1000 annually
What is a Sponsored Faculty Learning Community?
Sponsored FLCs work on the principles outlined above, and focus on in-depth or longer-term faculty development in one or more of the following ways:
- They establish at least a two-semester plan for engaging participants in individual and/or collaborative development projects
- They support participants in creating a formal resource or collection of resources that can be shared with a larger audience of Mason faculty, and/or in creating a professional publication or presentation
- They provide expert guidance as well as peer support to enable faculty to gain, apply, and assess a new teaching-related skill set related to Mason’s strategic plan or transformative learning experiences
- They acquire funding to support faculty work (e.g. travel grants, stipends, graduate student support) from an on-campus or external source, in addition to their Stearns Center funding
- They provide a one-page written report to document their activities at the end of each semester
In recent years, Stearns Center has sponsored and funded Sponsored FLCs on topics such as teaching neurodiverse students, mindful teaching, open educational resources, team-based learning, critical thinking, a scholarship of self-study, and social justice.
Stearns Center is not currently posting an open call for Sponsored FLCs. If you have a question about FLC opportunities, please email us at [email protected].
