Faculty Cohorts
Professional Learning Cohorts
Sample questions for the start of discussion in a cohort.
Description
At Galloway faculty in Upper Learning (UL) meet in collaborative and interdisciplinary small learning communities. Faculty members are arranged each semester by a common planning period; cohorts ranged in size from six to ten people. Cohorts met for 30 minutes every other week for a total of fourteen sessions this year per group. Sometimes cohorts watched a video or read an article to prepare for their session's discussion. The cohorts have two goals: to enhance the faculty culture and community and to provide professional learning growth to faculty within the Galloway School context. During both 2015-16 and 2016-17 the cohorts have produced individual faculty digital professional portfolios.
The cohort sessions typically follow a protocol in order to ensure the goals of collaboration and professional growth are met in the timeframe:
At Galloway faculty in Upper Learning (UL) meet in collaborative and interdisciplinary small learning communities. Faculty members are arranged each semester by a common planning period; cohorts ranged in size from six to ten people. Cohorts met for 30 minutes every other week for a total of fourteen sessions this year per group. Sometimes cohorts watched a video or read an article to prepare for their session's discussion. The cohorts have two goals: to enhance the faculty culture and community and to provide professional learning growth to faculty within the Galloway School context. During both 2015-16 and 2016-17 the cohorts have produced individual faculty digital professional portfolios.
The cohort sessions typically follow a protocol in order to ensure the goals of collaboration and professional growth are met in the timeframe:
- First, cohort sessions begin with a set of small questions on what has been happening lately in their classrooms or in the greater culture (i.e. what are your plans for fall break) in order to garner professional community.
- Second, faculty review and reflect on the topic from the last session.
- Third, the cohort discusses the pre-selected topic of their choosing by utilizing suggested questions and exercises from the facilitator.
- Lastly, if the topic has concluded, then the cohort selects the next topic.
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Sample Topics from 2015-16 sessions:
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Instructional Artifact