Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*

3-6 July, 2002
The University of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia

Abstract

Designing and implementing staff Learning communities: An effective approach to educational development

Milton Cox, Miami University, USA

Miami University's Staff Learning Communities Program (SLCP), developed over a 22-year period, adapts the well-known student learning community approach to staff development. Each Miami University staff learning community (SLC) is a cross-disciplinary group of 8-10 staff engaged in an active, collaborative, year-long curriculum focused on enhancing and assessing learning with activities that promote learning, development, scholarship of teaching and learning, interdisciplinarity, and community. A staff participant in any of the year's six SLCs selects a focus course to try out innovations, assess resulting student learning, and prepare a course mini-portfolio; engages in biweekly seminars; works with student associates; and presents project results to the campus and national conferences. Evidence shows that SLCs increase staff interest in teaching and learning and provide safety and support for staff to investigate, attempt, assess, and adopt new (to them) methods such as using appropriate technology, problem-based learning, team teaching, active learning, inclusive classrooms, ethics across the curriculum, and student-centered learning. Evidence indicates that the type and degree of student learning is enhanced greatly in SLC participants' courses. Over 5% of Miami's staff participates in a learning community each year. Grants from the Ohio Board of Regents (the state governing board) and Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) now support Miami's mentoring of other institutions in the SLCP approach.

In this session, the program director will present the SLC concept and evidence of its staff development and student learning outcomes. He will consult with those interested in investigating, designing, and implementing SLCs at their institutions.

Key words:
Development; Community; Scholarship of teaching

Objectives, outcomes and activities:
After participating in the workshop, you will be able to:

1. Describe for your institution* the definition, models, benefits and outcomes of a staff learning community.
2. Describe cohort-based and topic-based staff learning communities and describe detailed examples of both types.
3. Describe the aspects, activities, and components that you will recommend to include in your program.
4. Identify possible people you will meet with and involve in designing and implementing a staff learning community at your institution.
5. Determine and describe your role(s) in the process of designing and implementing a staff learning community at your institution (director, cheerleader, consultant, fund raiser, etc.).
6. Identify and describe the key roles for those involved in your learning community: person to whom you report, director, staff participants, staff partners, student associates, advisory committee.
7. Describe possible goals and learning objectives for your staff learning community
8. Describe and advocate for the format, procedures, activities, and timeline you would like to put in place for the various components of your institution's staff learning community.
9. Identify and describe the connections that your staff learning community can make to student learning.
10. Describe how staff learning communities are connected to and produce the scholarship of teaching.
11. Describe to your campus your proposed criteria for selecting your staff learning community members.
12. Describe the evidence supporting SLC staff development and student learning outcomes

After an introduction and overview of staff learning communities and question and answers, the leader will form small focus groups for discussion of particular components or types of SLCs, for example, the scholarship of teaching or the involvement of student associates; or SLCs for junior staff or on problem-based learning. Finally, the participants will take the "Getting Started Back on Campus: Planning Checklist 'Take-Home Final,'" with consultation and discussion to follow.

Milton D. Cox is University Director for Teaching Effectiveness Programs at Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA, where he founded and directs the annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching. He also is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. He directs the 1994 Hesburgh Award-winning Teaching Scholars Community for Junior Staff and oversees the other five staff learning communities at Miami. He incorporates the use of student learning portfolios and Howard Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences in his mathematics classes.

Contact: Milton Cox, email: coxmd@muohio.edu