Chapter 3: Interest-Based, Interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Communities in Teacher Education: Discovering Common Professional Interests to Enhance Higher Education Student Support

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) have shown promise to improve collaboration, teaching, and student learning among higher education faculty. Additionally, research shows that the professional learning process of Japanese Lesson Study (LS) can promote reflective teaching and collaboration among colleagues. This chapter shares the experiences of a group of teacher educators who engaged in a Faculty Learning Community with an embedded focus on the process of LS as a way to boost interdepartmental collaboration and professional learning. Through the process of creating, and the study of engaging in, a semester-long LS focused FLC experience with interdepartmental higher education faculty, researchers discovered benefits to grouping faculty based on shared professional interests, and then using those shared interests as a lens through which to view the lesson under investigation. This chapter shares facilitation methods for, and insight into, four lessons learned from the facilitation of Faculty Learning Communities. These four lessons include: (a) FLCs in higher education may come with challenges for implementation and fidelity to the LS process, (b) Interdepartmental, interest-based FLCs reduced feelings of isolation in higher education faculty and increased collegiality, (c) Anchoring FLC goals on program mission statement provided a shared foundation and direction, and (d) FLC interest-based grouping provided an entry point for student and instructor feedback. The chapter culminates by sharing challenges, opportunities, and potential for future research related to the use of faculty learning communities for improving higher education.