Faculty (educational) development

Decoding the Disciplines has been used for faculty development from the very beginning. Often this takes the form of a faculty learning community (FLC), i.e. a group of teachers meeting regularly for some time in order to work collectively on a teaching related topic. The power of Decoding is that it privides a common language for such groups (e.g. to speak about bottlenecks and the epistemology of their fields) as well as a shareable methodology (e.g. to assess mental moves).<ref>Middendorf, J., & Shopkow, L. (2017). Overcoming student learning bottlenecks: Decode the critical thinking of your discipline. Stylus Publishing, LLC, p. 172.</ref> FLCs can also be viewed as a form of Step 7 Sharing as sharing encourages community.<ref>Middendorf, J., & Shopkow, L. (2017). Overcoming student learning bottlenecks: Decode the critical thinking of your discipline. Stylus Publishing, LLC, p. 163.</ref>

Forms of faculty development

The duration of faculty development related to Decoding varies from a couple of hours to a period of a semester or longer with regular meetings. The short time formats are more apt to participants working individually on their teaching challenges and typically focus on Steps 1 and 2 of the Decoding process. The longer time formats shift the focus on working in teams, community building and the full Decoding cycle. Usually they run under the headline "faculty learning community." The working field of FLCs can range from collectively working on the teaching of the individual participants up to curriculum development and program review. Joan Middendorf has listed conditions for sucess from her experience with setting up and facilitating FLCs on Decoding.<ref>Middendorf, J., & Shopkow, L. (2017). Overcoming student learning bottlenecks: Decode the critical thinking of your discipline. Stylus Publishing, LLC, pp. 172-176.</ref> Peter Riegler has analyzed the FLC at BayZiel with respect to success conditions discussed in the literature on FLCs.<ref>Riegler, P. (2022). Lehrendenlerngemeinschaften als Ort und Gegenstand von SoTL. In: Vöing, N., Reisas, S. & Arnold, M.(Hrsg.): Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - Eine forschungsgeleitete Fundierung und Weiterentwicklung hochschul(fach)didaktischen Handelns</ref> Faculty development related to Decoding can be classified with respect to the following attributes:<ref>Leslie Cameron, Jared McBrady, David Pace, Peter Riegler, and Michelle Yeo (2021). Creating Cultures of Collaborative and Innovative Scholarship: The Case of Decoding the Disciplines. Panel session at ISSOTL 2021</ref>

• Whether or not it is cross-disciplinary; while cross-disciplinarity helps to overcome expertise blindness, it is not a necessary condition.
• Whether or not it is cross-institutional; within cross-institutional settings it is more likely that a critical mass of interested participants will be reached.

The following table classifies exisiting or former FLCs on Decoding along these two atttributes:

	mono-disciplinary	cross-disciplinary
intra-institutional	History Learning Project at Indiana University<ref>Díaz, Arlene, Joan Middendorf, David Pace, and Leah Shopkow, “The History Learning Project: A Department “Decodes” Its Students,” Journal of American History, Vol. 94, No. 4 (March 2008), pp.1211-1224.</ref> FLC in law at University of the Free State<ref>Wilkinson, A. (2014). Decoding learning in law: collaborative action towards the reshaping of university teaching and learning. Educational Media International, 51(2), 124–134.</ref>	Freshman Learning Project at Indiana University<ref>Middendorf, Joan and David Pace, “Overcoming cultural obstacles to new ways of teaching: The Lilly Freshman Learning Project at Indiana University,” in D. Lieberman & C. Wehlburg (Eds.), To Improve the Academy, 20, 208-224. Bolton, MA: Anker, (2002), pp.208-224.</ref> Decoding the Disciplines Faculty Learnin Community at Mount Royal University<ref>Miller-Young, J., & Boman, J. (Eds.). (2017). Using the Decoding The Disciplines Framework for Learning Across the Disciplines: New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Number 150. John Wiley & Sons.</ref>
cross-institutional		Decoding working group at BayZiel<ref>Blotevogel, T. , Foltz, B., Mikhailova, I. , Riegler, P., Schreiber, S., Junker, E. & Kautz, C. (2020). The Decoding Working Group at DiZ. Didaktik-Nachrichten (Jul. 2020), pp. 48-49.</ref>

See also

• Decoding work on Faculty learning communities.

References

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