COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: SUPPORTING FACULTY LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT THROUGH ORGANIC, DECENTRALIZED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT KRISTA HISER & CHARLES SASAKI KAPI’OLANI COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The Card Deck Choose a facilitator to use the first technique in your card deck. Please discuss some of the problems with professional development on your campus. You have 5 minutes.

Problems with Professional Development  Limited impact  Lack of follow through on new ideas  Not enough time  Low participation, esp. from seasoned faculty  Expensive  Who chooses topics?

Models of Adult Professional Learning  Based on social science & adult learning theories:  Professional Learning Communities  Communities of Practice  Apprenticeship  Andragogy

Communities of Practice  “Self organized and selected groups of people who share a common sense of purpose and a desire to learn and know what each other knows” (Lave & Wenger, 1991)  Organic, sense of agency, self- motivating

Andragogy  Self concept  Ability to self-direct  Experience as a reservoir of knowledge, readiness to learn as tied to social roles,  Problem- centered orientation to learning  Internal motivation to learn (Knowles,1984)

C4ward Collaborative Circles for Creative Change = C4ward

The Irony  “Professional learning communities are postmodern organizational forms struggling to survive in a modernistic, micromanaged, and politicized educational world” (Giles and Hargreaves, 2006)  How to institutionalize while keeping the organic quality

How is a c4ward not a committee?  Has an organic beginning and ending  Members decide how long the commitment will be  Members determine the goal of the group  Two goals: learning, while achieving a task  C4wards have members, a concierge, and a host

The Host  The host is a campus leader, enthusiast, or expert in the topic of the C4ward.  Provides expertise  Understands campus history & direction  Enthusiastic “driver” & “mover” & “shaker” for the topic

The Concierge  A trained facilitator who uses techniques to neutrally guide the goals of the group:  Scheduling  Summarizing meetings  Reframing issues  Inviting guests  Communication on behalf of the group  Connecting to campus resources  Concierge is committed but unattached  Facilitative leadership experience

Lifecycle of a C4ward  Determine a schedule and timeframe  Discuss technology (meeting online, use of , Laulima, etc.)  Create a goal  Learn from & encourage each other  Assess and share  Renew or disband

Current C4wards  Hawaiian Pedagogy  Social Networking in the classroom  PBL & S-L  Health & Meditation  Developmental Ed  CCSSE measures  iPad power users  Parents of small children  Tenure & promotion  ePortfolio end users  Social networking  Sustainability Across the Curriculum  Gaming & Play  New Faculty  Lecturers  Academic Writers Groups  New STEM faculty  Gatekeeper courses (Vanguard)

The Vanguard Faculty Initiative  Data on Gatekeepers were released in 2008 and success rates announced as an institutional priority  Funds were available for “gatekeeper” course redesign but some eligible faculty felt singled out and stigmatized. There were only two takers – both were relatively new faculty  Vanguard was an effort to recognize and reward those faculty willing to innovate and take risks

How did it work?  35 applications were received from those seeking designation as Vanguard Faculty  Proposed interventions needed to be data-informed and directly tied to student success – 18 Vanguard Faculty were selected  Vanguard Faculty were provided release time to redesign their classes  Dean leveraged four funding sources to cover costs  FT and associate faculty are all eligible

Vanguard Faculty Initiative  Faculty could redesign courses as they saw fit  Project focus is internal and focused on faculty behaviors  Interventions included:  Collaborative study  Peer-Assessed homework  Capstone project  International Café  Accelerated Courses  Problem-Based Learning  By design, everyone was doing something different!

Vanguard C4ward  C4ward clusters (time, discipline, method)  C4ward shapes faculty’s release time: supportive, productive, & accountable  All Vanguard faculty participated in a c4ward except one

Culture of Inquiry  “Create an environment in which faculty and staff come together and speak from their hearts about issues of substance: student learning, new roles, and new learning strategies. These conversations of consequence can be part of a general culture of inquiry and quality…” (Mellow, Minding the Dream, p. 132).