Faculty Perspectives

One of the primary facets of the BASICS project is to build strategic capacity for institutional transformation by changing the attitudes and perspectives of individuals and groups of faculty toward transdisciplinary teaching, learning, and collaborative curriculum development. The mechanism used to achieve this goal is the development of multidisciplinary communities of practice called "Local Learning Communities" (LLCs). LLCs are groups of faculty members interested in developing, implementing, assessing, and refining transdisciplinary curriculum modules addressing the multi-faceted nature of sustainability challenges.

Read more about lessons learned from the LLC approach, or explore the specific ways that LLCs functioned at the BASICS institutions.

Jump down to: Approaches | Motivations | Challenges | Outcomes

Local Learning Communities

Learn more about each institution's LLC and their specific goals, motivations, approaches, challenges, and outcomes.

Bentley UniversityNIU - Coming Soon!Wittenberg University

Instructor Stories

Hear directly from BASICs faculty about how they integrated the BASICS modules into their courses, what they learned, and what they would do differently.

Read instructor stories from BASICS faculty »

Approaches

The BASICS project made use of LLCs at each of the three project institutions to engage faculty in the development and implementation of the transdisciplinary curriculum modules. Two cohorts of faculty from each of the LLCs collaboratively designed exercises that allow students to engage with wicked problems such as water quality in the Mississippi River watershed and creating a sustainable circular economy. Faculty in each cohort piloted the "common exercise" to frame the problem in their courses, alongside discipline-specific exercises.

In addition to building and piloting the modules, faculty participants in the LLCs at each institution connected over the course of the two (2) two-year curriculum development and implementation cycles to build communities of practice that transcend disciplinary silos. Project leaders facilitated professional development activities, group discussions, and assignments. Many of the LLC meetings focused on sharing experiences and best practices around deployment of the transdisciplinary curriculum modules. Faculty participants were encouraged to communicate outside the LLC meetings to further discipline-crossing transfer.

The LLCs also functioned to orient the faculty relative to the larger BASICS project objectives, expectations, and timelines. Some meetings had specific goals such as tracking progress, troubleshooting difficulties with the curriculum, and celebrating milestones. The LLCs acted as hubs connected to the project PI team and the project-wide community of practice.

Motivations

Each faculty member involved in BASICS had their own individual motivations for participating in the project. However, part of what drew the faculty to the project and entrenched them in the BASICS community of practice were shared motivations (both within and between LLCs) and goals for the work. Stated motivations include:

  • exposure to and collaboration with faculty outside of disciplinary and departmental silos;
  • shared interest in sustainability and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals;
  • grassroots (faculty-driven) development of curricula;
  • development of sustainable integrations of humanities and science disciplines within a business-focused curriculum;
  • opportunities to share classroom experiences, successes, challenges, and troubleshooting;
  • dedication to improving teaching practices and pedagogy;
  • desire to create a curriculum that benefits students; and
  • financial compensation for time spent on project activities (particularly summer workshops and effort).

Challenges

Faculty encountered a variety of challenges associated with teaching the transdisciplinary curricula, incorporating the curricula into their existing courses, and developing new cross-disciplinary connections with other faculty. The LLCs operated as settings where faculty could discuss and troubleshoot these challenges. At the same time, participating in an LLC included its own challenges. For example:

  • finding time and managing increased workloads;
  • tensions around cross-disciplinary communications, particularly discipline-related norms, language and practices;
  • teaching content outside of one's discipline, including comfort with the topics and departmental expectations;
  • alignment (or lack thereof) of the BASICS module and existing course content; and
  • the virtual environment brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

LLCs used a number of strategies to overcome these challenges. For example, one LLC took advantage of online platforms (Zoom) to provide flexibility and efficiency in meeting with other BASICS faculty. In another example, cross-disciplinary collaboration was incentivized by creating more opportunities for scholarship (multidisciplinary teams publishing manuscripts in disciplinary or interdisciplinary teaching journals). Frequent LLC meetings and professional development during meeting times provided opportunities for faculty to develop discipline-spanning language and norms, in addition to increasing content familiarity.

Outcomes

Impacts from the LLCs can be seen at the individual faculty, community, department, and institutional levels. Faculty share that participation in the project has increased their confidence working with content outside their disciplines. Faculty also report that they now frame more classroom discussions as wicked problems and using systems thinking approaches. Interpersonal and community impacts are evident from relationships developed through the summer workshops, LLC meetings, and hallway conversations related to teaching the modules. At the department scale, one program is discussing remodeling a classroom to better facilitate group work--an outgrowth of the emphasis on collaborative student work in the BASICS module. At one institution, enthusiasm for the project has spread beyond those already involved in the LLC, as the network continues to add members despite being past the curriculum development and piloting phase of the project.


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