Education-Class

Faculty Learning Communities

A faculty learning community (FLC) meets regularly to explore a teaching topic that interests them.  This interdisciplinary group researches the topic, reads together, and supports each other in making positive changes in the classroom.  Since Fall 2013, members of the VU faculty have been involved in multiple FLCs each year.

Fall 2023

Teaching Underprepared Students

Facilitated by Tiffany Kolba (Math & Statistics) & Jenna Van Sickle (Lilly Fellows Program)

This FLC will focus on teaching underprepared students. Most of us have been increasingly encountering underprepared students in our courses. We will focus on addressing some of the main challenges, including meeting the needs of underprepared students while preparing them for future courses, teaching underprepared students alongside students who are ready for greater challenges, and helping students develop academically while managing significant faculty time constraints.

NOTE: This FLC is sponsored by an NSF grant and participation will be accompanied by a small stipend.

Fostering Community and Student Engagement

Facilitated by Natalie Krivas (Graduate Studies) & Stacy Hoult (World Languages & Cultures)

Participants in this FLC will experience the solutionary process of thinking and doing, while learning how to create spaces for students to become more actively involved in community. This solutions-oriented philosophy and methodology combines both pedagogy and praxis to elicit a transformational experience for both educator and learner. We will engage in mindful reflection and dialogue about the classroom experience, learn about challenging world issues through the systemic and regional lens, and develop our own curriculum and practical instructional methods applying a solutions-oriented process.