A community of practice is an opportunity to build community and engage at the edge of your teaching and learning potential. If you have a passion for what you do and want to interact regularly with a team of colleagues around a common interest, then this is for you.
Current Communities of Practice
All of our current CoPs are led by Camosun peer faculty members. To find out more, or to talk about forming a new CoP, please contact Martha McAlister at mcalisterm@camosun.ca.
Accessible Education
Monthly on Teams
Join us to talk about practical approaches for increasing our collective capacity to deliver accessible learning opportunities for persons with disabilities. Together we will explore the intersectionality of accommodations, accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in post-secondary education. We seek to enhance the experience of all students by identifying and learning more about where accessibility-related barriers occur in our teaching and learning practices, and sharing ideas and expertise for removing barriers to learning.
Chair Share
Every 2 weeks on Teams
All chairs and program leaders are welcome! Feeling isolated in your role? You are not alone! Meet with other chairs and program leaders from across the college to discuss whatever is on your mind. Topics are emergent, so come with your ideas and leave feeling more energized and connected.
*NEW! Conversation for Practice, Clinical, and Community-Based Course Instructors
Monthly on Teams
Do you teach a practice, clinical, or community-based course? Would you like to connect with colleagues from across the college who are doing similar work? Please join us for this open conversation designed to give both new and experienced faculty the chance to share ideas and strategies for supporting students in what is often a student’s most important and challenging course. The facilitators will bring a theme and some suggestions, but the conversation will be based on whatever participants are most interested in talking about. This is our time to connect with each other and get and give peer support. Topics may include encouraging peer support and collaboration, working with the external agency, effective assessment and tracking student progress, and providing effective feedback.
Flexible Learning Conversation Group
Monthly In-Person or on Teams
Are you interested in exploring flexible learning modalities, sometimes known as: multi-access, multi-modal, hybrid, or HyFlex? Join this informal conversation group—open to all employees—to explore definitions, options, and technologies, to discuss research and related provincial/national/international initiatives, and to share our goals for how we can create more flexible learning opportunities for students at Camosun.
Indigenous Education
Monthly on Teams
This CoP is for all employees who are curious about Indigenous education and Indigenization. This is a great place to continue your learning journey alongside other opportunities such as Pulling Together or TELŦIN TŦE WILNEW-Understanding Indigenous Peoples. Each month we bring a theme forward in order to help build confidence, enable connection, and spark inspiration. Last year topics included the W̱SÁNEĆ seasonal round, authentic Indigenous voices, Indigenous veterans, and an in-person ethnobotany walk at PKOLS. Please drop-in as we explore current themes related to Indigenous education and find support and encouragement by spending time learning together.
*NEW! Interdisciplinary Education (IDE)
Monthly on Teams
The IDE CoP is a place for interested educators to gather and discuss the intersections and connections between disciplines which can enhance our disciplinary perspectives, and our teaching and learning practices and bring new and transformative insights to the problems of our time. Join us to explore the possibilities of IDE. Check out Interdisciplinary Education (IDE).
Mindfulness in Education
Currently on hold
Take a break, and support each other in a collegial environment. During this stressful time of uncertainty, it seems more important than ever to stay connected in community, and practice our mindfulness using guided meditation.
*NEW! Open Education/Zero Textbook Cost
Monthly on Teams
Looking for ideas to move to Open Textbooks or revising your course/program to be Zero Textbook Cost for students? Wanting to develop non-disposable assignments and open student work to the world? Searching for like-minded instructors and supports at Camosun who do this work? Yearning for a space in which to share your own Open Education experiences to support fellow faculty? Or just interested in learning more about what Open Education and Zero Textbook Cost is and who is doing what at Camosun? This CoP is open to all who want to share ideas, challenges, and work towards solutions to provide savings to students and flexibility to faculty
Student Support Staff Exchange
Monthly on Teams
This CoP brings together staff in student support positions from around the college in a peer-led space to explore matters uniquely related to these roles. Discussions will emerge from the interests and needs of the group in a confidential and collaborative forum with opportunities to connect with various college services. Topics may include: current practices, challenges and successes, student-centred strategies, work-related questions, and college supports. Come be a part of a college-wide group to learn with and from each other.
Teaching and Learning Strategies
Monthly on Teams
This is a time to meet as an inter-disciplinary group of faculty with common challenges and passions for teaching and learning. We can learn so much from each other! Come and share ideas and inspiration around effective classroom strategies, assessment, marking, rubrics, engaged learning, supporting students with different learning needs, and any other topics that arise through collegial conversation.
Writing/Research Peer Support Group
Bi-weekly in-person or on Teams
All writers and researchers welcome! Are you working on a grad degree or a research project? Undertaking academic projects while working can be enriching, but also isolating and sometimes overwhelming. This support group provides a space where colleagues can get together on a regular basis to discuss their projects, set goals and deadlines, and hold each other accountable.
What is a Community of Practice?
Groups of people who share a concern or a passion
Community of practice is a term coined by Etienne Wenger (1998) to define groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and want to interact regularly to learn how to do it better. These professional learning communities have been a popular approach to teacher development, involving educators in collaborative, caring, inclusive, critical reflection on practice (Stoll & Seashore Louis, 2007). They have been shown to have positive effects on teaching practice and student learning (MacDonald, 2001).
Key principles in effective communities of practice
Some of the key principles in effective communities of practice include deep mutual respect, collective responsibility, a culture of openness, an inquiring mindset, trust and shared purpose (Stoll & Seashore Louis, 2007). Some of the broad expectations are that it is voluntary, structured, goal-oriented, interdisciplinary, safe and supportive (Furco & Moely, 2012). The premise is that innovation can be nurtured through exposure to multiple perspectives in dialogue, and through putting aside previously held assumptions.
Build community and promote scholarship
A community of practice is an opportunity to build community and promote the scholarship of teaching and learning (Cox & Richlin, 2004); it is a chance to actively negotiate the meaning of teaching and participate in revising the tools we use (Tagg, 2003); it is a team of colleagues engaged in conversations that have the potential to transform education (Palmer & Zajonc, 2010). In their book The Heart of Higher Education, Parker and Zajonc call on faculty to engage in dialogue about the deeper meaning and purpose of education as a way to awaken our individual and collective capabilities.
Camosun faculty discuss what excites them about communities of practice
Questions?
Contact Martha McAlister at mcalisterm@camosun.ca