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This study explored how the interdisciplinary nature of a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) promoted the professional development ofparticipants' teaching. Participants reported gaining new insights into implementing active learning and mitigating student resistance to learning (the FLC topic). FLC members experienced a connection and affinity with instructors outside their discipline due to the interdisciplinary nature of the FLC. The confidential and collaborative environment of the FLC was promoted by the absence of hierarchy across participants. Key roles that facilitated and leveraged the faculty development within the FLC are discussed.
Introduction
EACHING HAS LONG BEEN recognized as a solitary (Shulman, 1993) or private (Seldin, 2006) activity. In this isolated role, instructors tend to make decisions about teaching and learning based on their "taken for granted beliefs" gained through their own experiences as learners in their discipline (Brookfield, 2017, p. 5). Instructors commonly assume the teaching approaches that sparked their passion and curiosity for the discipline when they were undergraduates are effective with their present-day students. University instruction is provided by subject matter experts who have rarely been systematically inducted into the practice of teaching adult learners to the extent that many of our academic colleagues do not see themselves as educators. As such, each academic must develop a teaching practice on their own by trial and error (Zimmerman, 2020) with occasional advice from trusted colleagues or guidance from educational experts at teaching centers who translate adult learning principles and strategies to their specific disciplinary teaching and learning needs.
Disciplinary Silos
University instructors inherit teaching and learning traditions and beliefs as part of their own socialization into subject matter expertise (Zimmerman, 2020). Each discipline tends to have "their own codes of conduct, sets of values and distinctive intellectual tasks" (Becher, 1981, p. 109), which shape the academic identity and social networks of its members (Malcolm & Zukas, 2009). Research over the past 30 years into these "academic tribes and territories" (Becher & Trowler, 2001) has established the impact of the discipline on the instructor's approaches and attitudes towards teaching (Hativah & Marincovich, 1995; Lindblom-Ylänne et al., 2006; Neumann, 2001). For instance, some disciplines use the chalkboard or white board frequently, while others use case studies, reflection, or discussion groups as part of teaching and learning. However, disciplines,...