Open AccessLearning Communities for First‐Year Faculty: Transition, Acculturation, and Transformation
Author(s) -
Fayne Harriet,
OrtquistAhrens Leslie
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
to improve the academy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-4822
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-4822.2006.tb00464.x
Subject(s) - scholarship , acculturation , institution , learning community , pedagogy , medical education , faculty development , scholarship of teaching and learning , focus group , teaching and learning center , sociology , mathematics education , psychology , teaching method , political science , professional development , medicine , ethnic group , social science , anthropology , law
To enhance new faculty members' chances for teaching and career success, Otterbein College piloted a yearlong learning community program and encouraged first‐year faculty to participate. Four new faculty members took part in opportunities designed to enhance their teaching, to orient them more fully to a new institution and student body, to foster collegial community, to encourage reflective practice, and to introduce them to the scholarship of teaching and learning. This qualitative case study tracks their developmental trajectory, which led them from an initial concern with self and survival to an eventual focus on student learning.