The Communication Studies Team – Initiating Self Directed Learning

A team of communications studies faculty has been inspired by conversations in the past year initiated by both campus trainers and through professional development sessions facilitated by their dean and department chair. Team members want to learn more, but feel that they have exhausted the campus resources available to them.

The team makes time in faculty meetings to explore the resources among them. They decide to take lead of their own learning and organize a reading group. In addition to inviting faculty from their program, they open the invitation to colleagues throughout liberal arts and form a community of practice made up of teaching faculty committed to critical pedagogy and diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in instruction.

Key Take-Aways
  • The Issue: Communications Studies faculty members are inspired by critical and inclusive pedagogy trainings – but find that they have exhausted the resources readily available from their administration and campus trainers.
  • The Deliberation: The faculty take time in their regularly scheduled meeting and determine the best and most sustainable course of action is to facilitate their own self-directed learning through the formation of a community of practice.
  • The Growth: The faculty team finds the intrinsic motivation and capacity to facilitate their own learning and professional development.