CTLA to offer three Faculty Learning Communities during fall semester

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (CTLA) will offer three Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) this fall for instructors interested in exploring pedagogical wellness, the affective domain of Bloom’s Pedagogy, or building student engagement with peer feedback.

Cultivating Inclusive Wellness Pedagogies seeks to create a collaborative space for faculty members at Ohio University to explore the intersection of wellness and pedagogy through an inclusive lens. It will be led by Yogesh Sinha, assistant professor of instruction, Department of English, and Uzoma Miller, assistant professor of instruction, Department of African-American Studies.

The goal of the pedagogical wellness FLC is to empower faculty participants to integrate holistic wellness practices into their teaching methodologies, while simultaneously fostering inclusive learning environments that cater to diverse student needs. The format of the FLC will involve four regular in-person meetings over a semester allowing for sustained dialogue and reflection. Sessions will be interactive and participant-driven, encouraging active engagement and knowledge exchange among faculty members from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.

The Affective Domain Community of Practice (CoP) focuses on teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) associated with the Affective Domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The aim of the CoP is to bring together faculty from a variety of disciplines to collaborate on interdisciplinary affective TLA projects. For the purposes of this CoP, affective learning broadly refers to the relationship between learning and students’ interests, attitudes, emotions and motivations. Accordingly, the focus of the CoP is to conceptualize, describe and assess changes in students’ interest, attitudes, appreciations, values and/or emotions as outcomes of learning experiences. Ideally, participants will pursue projects for the purpose of contributing to the scholarship of teaching and learning or discipline-based educational research.

Full-time OHIO faculty with interest in the affective domain of learning are invited to apply. Participants are expected to already have some foundational knowledge and skills in affective-related teaching, learning and assessment. The CoP will be facilitated by Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Katie Hartman and CLTA staff.

College of Business Professor of Management Brian Hoyt, Lancaster campus, will facilitate an FLC focusing on use of peer review to support student learning and teaching effectiveness/efficiency. The FLC Collaborative Learning: Building Student Engagement with Peer Feedback will focus on how student engagement can be improved when individuals view work as meaningful.

Work is more meaningful when individuals have an opportunity to learn (i.e., content), improve (i.e., demonstrate mastery of models/theories in application) and contribute (peer interaction evaluation). Peer assessment is an active learning approach that impacts student learning and critical thinking. Through the practice of assessing their own work, students reflect on gaps in their understanding, a practice that makes them more resourceful, confident and, ultimately, better performers.

Applications for the communities are being accepted until Friday, Sept. 6.

• Apply for the Cultivating Inclusive Wellness Pedagogies FLC.
• Apply for the Affective Domain Community of Practice.
• Apply for the Collaborative Learning: Building Student Engagement with Peer Feedback FLC.