Building a Faculty Learning Community at a Research University.

Transformation of the undergraduate learning experience through evidence-based, student-centered teaching practices remains a consistent challenge for faculty and departments at large research universities with competing priorities. This paper presents a self-study of the first formalized Faculty Learning Community (FLC) at the University of California, San Diego, which united a cross-disciplinary faculty who specialize in education (at the rank of Lecturer with (Potential) Security of Employment, as part of the LSOE series) to focus on issues of student learning in large university classes. Participants in this year-long faculty development initiative gained: (1) knowledge of the norms and expectations for conducting educational research in the classroom; (2) increased awareness of curricular and pedagogical interventions to enhance student learning in large classes and greater confidence in implementing them; and (3) heightened regard for the collaborative potential of teaching assistants (TAs) in improving teaching and learning. As a result, members of this new community of teacher-scholars are better poised to serve as agents of change within their own academic units and across the campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]