Faculty Online Learning Communities to support physics teaching

Abstract

In conjunction with the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshops (NFW), we are investigating mechanisms to further support faculty to improve their teaching. Previous work indicates that many faculty return from the NFW eager to integrate new ideas in their classrooms, but many struggle due to lack of ongoing support, and subsequently revert back to traditional instruction. We are investigating ways to provide such support by offering Faculty Online Learning Communities (FOLCs) to a subset of the NFW participants. The goal of the FOLC is to develop a community of self-reflective teachers who can support each other’s long-term growth as educators. We base the design of the FOLC on a set of principles that emerge from several areas of literature, and we use these principles as a framework to understand the experience of the participants of the pilot FOLC.