Who benefits from Teaching Circles

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Teaching Circle Facilitator TrainingJune 29,
2007
Creating a Campus Culture for the New Century
Michele Neaton, Connie PoferlCTL Leaders
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Teaching Circles

• What are they?
• How did Century develop them?
• What is the impact of Teaching Circles?

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What is a Teaching Circle?

• A group of 6-10 faculty members working closely
  together for one semester.

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Characteristics of a Teaching Circle?

• Focus is on an issue(s) related to improving
  teaching and learning
• Interdepartmental
• Self-directed within guidelines of the program
• Intended to foster openness, trust, mutual
  support and discovery

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Teaching Circle Goals

• To improve teaching and learning
• To promote community among faculty

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Teaching Circle Topics focus on

• How to improve teaching
• How to enhance students learning

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Teaching Circle Topics

• Active Learning Strategies
• Teaching with Technology
• Effective/Fair Grading Assessment
• Changing the Classroom Environment from
  Competition to Collaboration
• First Year Experience
• Reflection in the Classroom

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Why How did Century Develop Teaching Circles?
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Since we started . . .

• 55 Teaching Circles
• 11 Semesters and 3 Summers
• Plus SEED
• Seeking Educational Equity Diversity
• Plus Formation
• Based on the writings of Parker Palmer

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Teaching Circle Participation

• Unduplicated headcount 205
• Total enrollments more than 700
• Nearly 60 of our current full-time faculty

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What is the impact of Teaching Circles?

• Students
• Faculty

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Improvements in teaching and learning

• New and improved ways to assess student learning
• New active learning assignments instead of
  lecture
• New ways to pace a class period or a course
• New uses of technology in the classroom
• New methods of incorporating research, ethics and
  diversity issues

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What faculty say about their teaching

• I have moved to more active learning and group
  learning experiences and smaller time periods of
  lecture.
• Before Teaching Circles I operated on some
  kind of instinctive levelnow I engineer
  outcomes!
• Teaching Circles have helped me to learn about
  learning styles, delivery methods and alternative
  assessment possibilities. My increased knowledge
  has helped me to better communicate with
  students.

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What about students learning?

• From evaluations, students say they have greater
  ownership of the class, feel that their input is
  important, and there is a real commitment to
  their learning and academic success. I find that
  there is a greater number of students who are
  engaged and who do better academically.
• Students dont talk to me about grades any more
  they talk to me about where, how, and when to
  apply what theyve learned.

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Beyond enhancements in the classroom, Teaching
Circles have led to

• Development of learning communities and paired
  courses
• Expanded tutoring
• Development of new/online courses
• Workshops for Student Success Day
• Planning for First Year Experience program
• NSF grant of nearly 600,000

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Building Community

• Teaching Circles began as
• mentoring for new faculty
• Teaching Circles now
• develop a unity of purpose

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What Faculty say about Building Community

• I thought this might make a nice want ad
  lonely east faculty member looking for bright
  young teaching circle to spend time with I
  really need a Teaching Circle.
• I have been helped in very important ways to be
  more effective as an instructor and it has helped
  me to share more with my peers, in essence to
  keep growing and to be creative.

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What Faculty say about Building Community

• Teaching circles have provided the opportunity
  for dialogue across disciplines about concerns
  common to all of us as educators. This helps
  foster a community of colleagues and lifelong
  learners among faculty, which is precisely what
  we want the community college experience to be
  for our students.

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What Faculty say about Building Community
(continued)

• Although I have not been able to participate
  in a teaching circle, my sense is that they have
  served as more of a bridge within the College
  than the physical bridge! Liberal arts and
  technical faculty have worked together toward
  common goals and in the process come to value the
  both more than previously.

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Who benefits from TeachingCircles?

• The students
• The faculty
• The institution

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Creating a Campus Culture for the New Century