Experiences and Research on Enhanced Professional Development Through Faculty Learning Communities: (Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development)

Faculty learning communities are a fairly new ideology that is gaining traction among educators and institutions. These communities have numerous benefits on professional development such as enhancing educator preparedness and learning. The possibilities of these communities are endless; however, further study is required to understand how these learning communities work and the best practices and challenges they face. Experiences and Research on Enhanced Professional Development Through Faculty Learning Communities shares the experiences and research related to the enhanced professional development received by university faculty and staff participating in a series of collaborative faculty learning communities. The book, using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies, considers educator experiences as participants in the faculty learning communities, what they learned, and how they applied and implemented best practices in their courses. Covering topics such as curricula, course design, and rubrics, this reference book is ideal for administrators, higher education professionals, program developers, program directors, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

About the Author :
Dr. Rebecca J. Blankenship is an Associate Professor and Director of TESOL programs in the Elementary Education Department at Florida A&M University’s College of Education. Dr. Blankenship has over 16 years of public school teaching experience in both the states of Tennessee and Florida. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida in Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Technology (SLA/IT) with an emphasis on teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and virtual/simulated professional development for pre-service teacher candidates. She holds a Master of Science in Secondary Education and Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Tennessee, where she also completed her undergraduate degree with a double major in Pre-Law and Spanish. She was a member of the Inaugural Provost's Digital Learning Initiative in 2017 and currently serves as a DLI Ambassador. She also serves as an Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) Clinical Educator Fellow. Dr. Blankenship holds two national teaching credentials from the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) in Effective College Instruction (Advanced). She is also the recipient of the FAMU 2022 Senior Level Teaching Innovation Award as well s the United States Distance Learning Association 2021 Impact Award and 2022 Quality Research Award - Gold Level. Dr. Blankenship’s research interests include the development of virtual training environments for pre-service teacher candidates, the digital agency and literacy development of pre-service teachers and university faculty, and the effects of politics and social media on the teaching profession. She has committed herself through her university teaching, supervision of interns, and faculty service to provide the most salient experiences for pre-service teacher candidates, particularly those representing marginalized populations, to ensure they are well prepared to enter the teaching profession. Her list of accomplishments and publications in addition to her university, state, national, and international service demonstrates her ongoing commitment to the preparation of this nation's future minority teaching corps. Cheree Y. Wiltsher has extensive experience, training, and leadership in promoting student success with research interests in minority and first-generation student persistence, and health disparities relative to under-served populations. As founding Director of the Division of Health Science, Dr. Wiltsher designed and implemented a new degree curriculum which included the development of fifteen additional courses. The new Division has sustained a steady increase in both student enrollment and a two-year graduation rate increase of eighty-nine percent. Dr. Wiltsher serves as FAMU campus lead for the Association of College and University Educator's (ACUE) Effective Teaching Practices Faculty Fellows initiative. Her research publications and presentations have been in line with her interests in the scholarship of teaching, and effective online learning design; employing digital tools toward optimizing student engagement, and modeling collaborative approaches towards improving faculty research and publication output. She also serves as an On-Site Accreditation Reviewer for the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy.