Learning Communities

This Learning Community, lead by Dr. Angela Falter Thomas, will provide leadership, resources, modeling, and support to assist our faculty with engaging, inclusive student-centered pedagogy. It will help faculty align multi-faceted assessments for accurate measures of teaching and student learning. These strategies and accompanying assessment practices will be applicable for multiple settings: face-to-face and online settings, as well as for mid-sized and large-sized classes. Creating a respectful classroom environment and establishing classroom norms (not to be confused with old-school rules) sets the tone of a class, provides clear guidelines,and decreases instances of incivility. It enables all students and teachers alike to feel safe expressing their ideas and points of view. This helps students feel safe and seen. Then they can feel comfortable and open their minds to learning.

Participation:

• Limited to 10 people
• First come, first serve registration basis 
• Open to all members of the BGSU Teaching Community

Length: Fall Semester 2022

Supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students is of critical need at BGSU. Data presented by Provost Whitehead recently shows an 11% disparity between retention rates of the majority white students and students of color at our institution, and a nearly 25% disparity in graduation rates. As inclusive faculty focused on creating equitable access to education, we must change something about what we are doing with students to address the root cause of those achievement gaps.

Participants in this learning community should already have a foundational understanding of the ways in which systemic racism have shaped the experiences of BIPOC students in higher education, and are now prepared to take active steps towards racial justice. As a group, the learning community will work through a guided audit of each member’s pedagogy during the Fall term and identify places to adapt teaching praxis to create more equity. Members will then support one another through implementation of these changes during the Spring term. Opportunities for scholarship on teaching and learning will be presented to the group.

Meetings are tentatively scheduled once per month on Wednesdays from 1:00-3:00pm; there will be two 90-minute sessions in September to get things started. This schedule is subject to change.

Participation:

• Limited to 10 people
• First come, first serve registration basis 
• Open to all members of the BGSU Teaching Community

Length: Academic Year (Fall/Spring)

This CFE Learning Community aims to (1) advance mid-career faculty members’ careers, teaching, and research productivity through the strategic use of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity’s (NCFDD) resources, (2) cultivate a supportive community of mid-career colleagues from different disciplines who are interested in faculty development, diversity, and inclusion, and (3) share best practices and resources related to faculty development and diversity at BGSU.

Guided by a curated curriculum to support BGSU faculty members’ research productivity, teaching excellence, and career advancement, the learning community will meet twice a month. Typically, the first meeting will feature the streaming of an NCFDD webinar on the month’s topic (which can be done in-person and/or via Zoom), followed by a facilitated discussion session among members where colleagues can discuss key takeaways from the webinar and how they will apply key recommendations from the webinar to advance their teaching and/or research. The second meeting of each month will invite members to apply concepts from the webinar and produce a corresponding deliverable (e.g., in September, members will draft/finalize their strategic research plans; in November, members will complete a peer teaching observation of each other).

Participation:

• Limited to 10 people
• First come, first serve registration basis 
• BGSU full-time qualified rank faculty (QRF) and tenure-track faculty (TTF) who are at the rank of associate teaching professor, associate professor, full teaching professor, or full professor

Length: Academic Year (Fall/Spring)

The New Faculty Institute (NFI) is a learning community focused on creating a space for new BGSU faculty to connect and engage in discussions about their teaching, scholarship, career plans, and general experiences as faculty. Institute gatherings will be held twice a month with asynchronous activities between sessions. The first gathering each month will be a chance to have informal discussions and collaborate on creating an action plan to set you up for success. The second gathering each month will involve discussions and activities related to a topic in the book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Throughout the program, faculty at various career stages will be invited to join gatherings to share their knowledge, experiences, and advice with NFI members.

Throughout NFI, members will:

1. Develop a Core Action Plan aligned with their department's reappointment, promotion, and tenure (RPT) policies.
2. Implement three high-impact teaching strategies with corresponding reflections.
   

Participation:

• Limited to 10 people
• First come, first serve registration basis 
• New Full-Time BGSU Faculty - Qualified Rank Faculty (QRF) and Tenure-Track Faculty (TTF) 

Length: Fall 2022