Communities

Much of CAT+FD's programming is organized into communities—sustained, collegial groups that bring faculty together around shared interests and shared work. Two forms anchor this approach: Communities of Learning and Communities of Practice. Both reflect the Center's conviction that faculty development is most meaningful when it happens with colleagues rather than being delivered to them, and both are grounded in a nonjudgmental, collaborative environment in which faculty can think, experiment, and grow.

A Community of Learning forms around a shared question or a body of knowledge that its members want to explore together. Participants may be new to the topic—an emerging pedagogy, a technology, a framework, a scholarly conversation—and they come together to build understanding side by side rather than alone. The orientation is exploratory and developmental: the community exists to help its members learn, make sense of new ideas in the context of their own teaching and scholarship, and carry that learning back into their work. Many of these communities are cohort-based and may run for a defined period, concluding when the shared inquiry has run its course or evolving into something more lasting.

A Community of Practice forms around a shared craft that its members already engage in and want to sustain and deepen over time. Here the members are practitioners—writers, mentors, course designers, teachers of a common discipline—and the community is the place where they refine their work, exchange the tacit knowledge that rarely makes it into formal training, and develop a collective expertise that no single member holds alone. The orientation is ongoing rather than time-bound: the value accrues precisely because the group persists, returning to the work again and again and getting better at it together.

The simplest way to tell them apart is by what draws members together. A Community of Learning is oriented toward acquiring something new—the emphasis is on the journey toward understanding. A Community of Practice is oriented toward sustaining and improving something members already do—the emphasis is on the craft itself and its continual refinement. The two are not rigidly separate; a Community of Learning often matures into a Community of Practice as exploration gives way to shared, ongoing work.

Communities of Practice

• Faculty Portfolio Working Group: Develop a portfolio as a scholarly project that provides documented evidence of teaching from a variety of sources.
• Mindful Community
• P-MAX (Preparing Mentors and Advisors at Xavier): P-MAX is a training program that is designed to provide participating faculty with the knowledge and skills needed to mentor and advise undergraduate students, especially those engaged in research.
• Part-time Faculty Support: Links and resources for new and returning part-time faculty members.
• Walking Club
• Xavier Faculty Writing Group: Each semester, the Xavier Faculty Writing Group provides a supportive community for teacher-scholars to further their academic writing.

Communities of Learning

• #LearnEverywhereXULA Advanced Certification
• Science Education Research Group (SERG)
• First-Year Faculty Cohort
• Second-Year Faculty Cohort
• Prompt & Response: AI discussion groups
• Fall Faculty Book Club: During the fall semester CAT sponsors a book club for Xavier faculty.