Building Teaching and Learning Communities: Creating Shared Meaning and Purpose

"Teaching and learning communities are communities of practice in which a group of faculty and staff from across disciplines regularly meet to discuss topics of common interest and to learn together how to enhance teaching and learning. Since these teaching and learning communities can bring together members who might not have otherwise interacted, new ideas, practices, and synergies can arise. The role of librarians in teaching and learning has been reexamined and reinvigorated by the introduction of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, which offers a conceptual approach and theoretical foundations that are new and challenging. Building Teaching and Learning Communities: Creating Shared Meaning and Purpose goes beyond the library profession for inspiration and insights from leading experts in higher education pedagogy and educational development across North America to open a window on the wider world of teaching and learning, and includes discussion of pedagogical theories and practices including threshold concepts and stuck places; the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL); disciplinary approaches to pedagogy; the role of signature pedagogies; inclusion of student voices; metaliteracy; reflective practice; affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of learning; liminal spaces; and faculty as learners. This unique collection asks each of the authors to address this question: What do we as educators need to learn (or unlearn) and experience so we can create teaching and learning communities across disciplines and learning levels based on shared meaning and purpose? Six fascinating chapters explore this question in different ways ... Building Teaching and Learning Communities is an entry into some of the most interesting conversations in higher education and offers ways for librarians to socialize in learning theory and begin 'thinking together' with faculty. It proposes questions, challenges assumptions, provides examples to be used and adapted, and can help you better prepare as teachers and pursue the essential role of conversation and collaboration with faculty and students."--

Craig Gibson is professor and Professional Development Coordinator at The Ohio State University Libraries. He has also been Associate Director for Research and Education at Ohio State, with responsibilities for reference and research services, assessment, outreach and engagement, the libraries'; instruction program, and departmental libraries. He has served as a student mentor in Ohio State s nationally recognized Second-Year Transformational Experience Program and as a faculty mentor in OSU's University Institute for Teaching and Learning. Previously, he was Associate University Librarian for Research, Instruction, and Outreach at George Mason University Libraries; Head of Library User Education at Washington State University; and Reference/Instruction Librarian at Lewis-Clark State College. His current research interests focus on open educational practices, threshold concepts for information literacy, and models for collaboration between academic libraries and teaching and learning centers. Since 2000, he has taught in the ACRL Immersion Program, the signature professional development program for instruction librarians in the United States, and has consulted widely on the changing role of the subject librarian in academic libraries. He was editor of the ACRL Publications in Librarianship series from 2008 to 2013 and was cochair of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards Revision Task Force, a group that developed the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education in 2013 2015. He received the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award in 2008 and the ACRL President s Special Recognition Award for Immersion Faculty in 2009.

Sharon Mader is professor and dean emerita of the University of New Orleans Library. Following her retirement, she served as ACRL Visiting Program Officer for Information Literacy from 2015 to 2017, shepherding the launch and implementation of the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, including the development of the ACRL Framework Sandbox. Her teaching background includes service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia and as a founding faculty member of the ACRL Immersion program. She holds an MLS from Rosary College and an EdD in instructional technology and distance education from Nova Southeastern University. Her professional activities include leadership roles in state, national, and international library associations, including the ACRL Instruction Section and the IFLA Information Literacy Section. She received the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award in 2018 and the ACRL President's Special Recognition Award for Immersion Faculty in 2009. Her presentation and research interests include the role of threshold concepts in information literacy, professional development for librarians as educators and SoTL practitioners, and the role of teaching and learning in institutional change.