COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE:
SUPPORTING FACULTY LEARNING AND
ENGAGEMENT THROUGH ORGANIC,
DECENTRALIZED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
KRISTA HISER & CHARLES SASAKI
KAPI’OLANI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
The Card Deck
Choose a facilitator to use the first
technique in your card deck.
Please discuss some of the problems
with professional development on
your campus. You have 5 minutes.
Problems with Professional Development
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Limited impact
Lack of follow through on new ideas
Not enough time
Low participation, esp. from seasoned faculty
Expensive
Who chooses topics?
Models of Adult Professional Learning
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Based on social science & adult learning theories:
Professional Learning Communities
Communities of Practice
Apprenticeship
Andragogy
Communities of Practice
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“Self organized and selected groups of people
who share a common sense of purpose and a
desire to learn and know what each other knows”
(Lave & Wenger, 1991)
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Organic, sense of
agency, selfmotivating
Andragogy
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Self concept
Ability to self-direct
Experience as a reservoir of knowledge,
readiness to learn as tied to social roles,
Problem- centered orientation to learning
Internal motivation to learn (Knowles,1984)
C4ward
Collaborative
Circles
for
Creative
Change =
C4ward
The Irony
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“Professional learning communities are postmodern
organizational forms struggling to survive in a
modernistic, micromanaged, and politicized
educational world” (Giles and Hargreaves, 2006)
How to institutionalize while keeping the organic
quality
How is a c4ward not a committee?
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Has an organic beginning and ending
Members decide how long the commitment will be
Members determine the goal of the group
Two goals: learning, while achieving a task
C4wards have members, a concierge, and a host
The Host
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The host is a campus
leader, enthusiast, or
expert in the topic of
the C4ward.
Provides expertise
Understands campus
history & direction
Enthusiastic “driver” &
“mover” & “shaker”
for the topic
The Concierge
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A trained facilitator who uses techniques to
neutrally guide the goals of the group:
 Scheduling
 Summarizing
meetings
 Reframing issues
 Inviting guests
 Communication on behalf of the group
 Connecting to campus resources
 Concierge is committed but unattached
 Facilitative leadership experience
Lifecycle of a C4ward
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Determine a schedule and timeframe
Discuss technology (meeting online, use of email,
Laulima, etc.)
Create a goal
Learn from & encourage
each other
Assess and share
Renew or disband
Current C4wards
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Hawaiian Pedagogy
Social Networking in the
classroom
PBL & S-L
Health & Meditation
Developmental Ed
CCSSE measures
iPad power users
Parents of small children
Tenure & promotion
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ePortfolio end users
Social networking
Sustainability Across the
Curriculum
Gaming & Play
New Faculty
Lecturers
Academic Writers Groups
New STEM faculty
Gatekeeper courses
(Vanguard)
The Vanguard Faculty Initiative
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Data on Gatekeepers were released in 2008 and
success rates announced as an institutional priority
Funds were available for “gatekeeper” course
redesign but some eligible faculty felt singled out
and stigmatized. There were only two takers – both
were relatively new faculty
Vanguard was an effort to recognize and reward
those faculty willing to innovate and take risks
How did it work?
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35 applications were received from those seeking
designation as Vanguard Faculty
Proposed interventions needed to be data-informed
and directly tied to student success – 18 Vanguard
Faculty were selected
Vanguard Faculty were provided release time to
redesign their classes
 Dean
leveraged four funding sources to cover costs
 FT and associate faculty are all eligible
Vanguard Faculty Initiative
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Faculty could redesign
courses as they saw fit
Project focus is internal
and focused on faculty
behaviors
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Interventions included:
 Collaborative
study
 Peer-Assessed homework
 Capstone project
 International Café
 Accelerated Courses
 Problem-Based Learning
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By design, everyone was
doing something different!
Vanguard C4ward
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C4ward clusters (time,
discipline, method)
C4ward shapes
faculty’s release time:
supportive, productive,
& accountable
All Vanguard faculty
participated in a
c4ward except one
Culture of Inquiry
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“Create an environment in
which faculty and staff come
together and speak from their
hearts about issues of
substance: student learning,
new roles, and new learning
strategies. These conversations
of consequence can be part of
a general culture of inquiry
and quality…” (Mellow,
Minding the Dream, p. 132).
http://tinyurl.com/kapiolanic4ward