Century College, in White Bear Lake, has had great success for 10 years now with a collaborative faculty-development approach that they call Teaching Circles. (Milton Cox and his colleagues at Miami University of Ohio would say that these teaching circles--though not all--are fine examples of Faculty Learning Communities.
I had a chance last month to participate in the end-of-semester celebration of Century's spring Teaching Circles, and got just a sampling of the good conversation, presentations of actual work, enthusiasm and good food that constitute meetings of these faculty learning communities.
Century faculty members Michele Neaton and Connie Poferl act as facilitators and organizers for the Teaching Circles, and they had put together a great jigsaw activity for that afternoon. About 60 of us sat at tables that by design included some members from each of the teaching circles. Each faculty member shared an overview of their group's purpose as well as something they'd produced or learned in the circle.
I'm convinced that the immediate future of effective faculty development will lie in peer-based, ongoing, problem-focused activities like these circles. Anyone in the Minnesota system would be well-served to learn more about how it's done by talking to the smart folks at Century.
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