Faculty Learning Communities

The College of Science and Mathematics (CSM), in collaboration with the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), offers cohort-based support for CSM instructional innovation through its FLC's. Participating in CSM's FLCs is an opportunity for faculty to become involved in the design and implementation of instructional innovations that actively engage students in meaningful science and mathematics learning.

The target courses vary for each FLC cohort, but all FLCs address the following goals:

• implement research-based pedagogical practices known to foster inclusive learning environments and increase student success in STEM;
• create a culture of interdisciplinarity in all of our courses by fostering collaboration and instructional innovation among CSM faculty; and
• restructure our courses and laboratory experiences around student engagement with the material and discovery.

FLC participants work on collaborative teams to develop and implement innovative ways to foster student success in one of the target courses. The entire FLC cohort participates in workshops throughout the calendar year and collaborative teams meet regularly to plan for and implement their instructional innovation. Some collaborative teams join the FLC with an innovation idea in mind while others develop their ideas throughout the FLC experience.

In addition to developing and implementing their innovation, FLC participants share their learnings, materials, and resources with other CSM faculty interested in implementing instructional innovations (a) via CSM’s intranet FLC Instructional Resources (e.g., sample materials, outline of course activities, webinars, good problems, annotated notes, reflection blog) and/or (b) through sharing sessions (e.g., brownbag lunches, seminars, departmental talks/presentations).