Teaching and Learning Academy

Mission: The Teaching and Learning Academy (TLA) supports the mission, vision and values of Cascadia Community College by providing a dynamic environment for the development of a vibrant community of learners. The TLA is dedicated to Cascadia's mission of "enriching the community of learners who are pioneering innovative pathways" to successful student-centered education.

Activities and Events: The scholarship of teaching is a perspective based on the idea that teaching and learning are not static, but must be continually re-conceptualized. The TLA will assist in re-visioning teaching and learning by sponsoring activities and events that traverse boundaries of current educational practice and thought. While activities will vary over time, the current activities offered are:

• Faculty Orientation: The TLA provides orientation and ongoing mentoring to new faculty to the College and to faculty in new roles.
• On the Road Again: The TLA will plan and host quarterly forums for the Cascadia Team to support the sharing of conference and workshop experiences with one another.
• Love your Problems: The TLA will host faculty gatherings in regularly scheduled seminars to discuss and learn about various topics central to their teaching roles. The specific goal for these conversations is to support a transformation from problems in teaching and learning as negative conditions to be identified and remediated, to problems as the springboard for research and understanding on a level beyond the individual.
• Good Talk about Good Teaching: Monthly meetings around a theme such as "Building Intentional Community: Creating Campus Culture." These meetings are designed to tackle the bigger more abstract issues of teaching and learning and involve the broader community. They will involve in-house facilitators and discussion leaders, presenters from outside the campus and collaboration with UWB and other community colleges.
• Personal Professional Development: The TLA Steering Committee will provide individual and group mentoring opportunities for faculty. In addition, trained facilitators will carry out Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) sessions on request by a faculty member. A course in Teaching and Learning at Cascadia Community College will be offered every quarter for faculty.
• Community Connections: The Steering Committee will include representatives from the University of Washington, Bothell to support collaboration between the two institutions. In addition, opportunities will be sought to connect with our district and other community colleges and other Faculty Development groups.

These events will be created in order to spur debate, critical inquiry, and intellectual discourse in support of scholarship about teaching and learning, social responsibility, and global thinking. In addition, the events will further Cascadia's Core values of community, diversity, access, success, learning, innovation and environmental stewardship.

TLA Membership: In support of their central role in maintaining and expanding the acquisition of new knowledge and abilities in a learning college, all fulltime and associate faculty at Cascadia and all teaching librarians are members of the Teaching and Learning Academy. All members of the Cascadia Team and the University of Washington, Bothell are invited and encouraged to participate in TLA events in order to create a culture of scholarship.

Steering Committee: The Steering Committee is comprised of members of the Cascadia Community College fulltime and associate faculty, the Vice President for Student Learning, two Cascadia students recommended by the Cascadia Student Government, at least one librarian, and at least one representative of the University of Washington, Bothell. The director of the TLA will attempt to ensure a balanced membership on the Steering Committee so that it represents the faculty by LOTs and discipline clusters. The TLA Steering Committee will consult with the faculty in order to organize and coordinate frequent events of interest and importance to the community. In addition, it will periodically review its size, composition and effectiveness in fulfilling the TLA's mission.

Director: One Cascadia faculty member will serve for a two-year term as the director of the TLA. By the end of winter quarter, the Faculty Assembly will recommend to the Vice President for Student Learning the appointment of one currently active member of the steering committee to serve as the TLA director beginning in the fall of the ensuing academic year for a term of two years. The new director will be appointed by the Vice President by the second week of spring quarter. A minimum of one-third (.33 IFTEF) release time per quarter will be assigned to the director to ensure the success of the TLA. The director will be responsible for convening and chairing the steering committee, acting as liaison to the Faculty Development Committee, providing support for the Faculty Assembly's scholarship and learning activities, and working with faculty and administration to ensure optimal faculty growth and development.

Budget: The initial budget of $10,000 will be reviewed annually by the Executive Team (the President and the three Vice Presidents). The steering committee will propose a detailed budget for approval by the Vice President for Student Learning, who will have budget authority over the TLA.

Meeting Space: Office and meeting space has been created in the Library Annex in support of the TLA. Other campus spaces and classrooms will be used as appropriate.

Communication: The frequent events sponsored by the TLA will be announced on the TLA pages of the Cascadia Intranet, the college calendar and via email to the Cascadia Team. Every attempt will be made to provide a quarterly calendar of events at the beginning of each quarter. These events will be created in order to spur debate, critical inquiry, and intellectual discourse in support of scholarship about teaching and learning, social responsibility, and global thinking.

The Web Site will also include the Faculty Handbook, links to faculty web pages, information about teaching and learning, and links to related sites.

View these and other exciting initiatives by clicking on the options to the left.