Madison Teaching Fellows

Program Description

Funded by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, this program offers JMU faculty a one-year experience in a Teaching Community where they can develop an interdisciplinary network of colleagues interested in a particular teaching-related issue or pedagogical approach. Madison Teaching Fellows (MTF) Madison Teaching Fellows (MTFs) are small groups of JMU faculty who explore a specific topic and together provide mutual support for learning and performance. Members self-organize into a functioning community with the general goal of supporting each other in their learning.

MTF groups are characterized by the following:

• A common focus and incentive to work together: MTFs share an interest, common goal, problem, or project. MTFs use their common purpose as a basis to create a truly dynamic faculty community. The end result is creativity and innovation.
• Distributed control: Nobody is in control, yet everybody is. Procedures for how the group will function (conventions, shared understandings, rules for settling disputes, and methods of communication are negotiated and agreed upon by the group as a whole). The group determines the learning goals and methods. If one member has a different vision for where the group should be going, this is presented to the group and discussed. The community is bigger than any single member, yet it encompasses the perspectives of all members.
• Commitment to the generation and sharing of new knowledge: Everybody learns. By sharing, listening, and engaging all members of the faculty community benefit. Each group will mutually identify a way they can contribute to the knowledge base at JMU. Even though individuals with greater expertise may play a critical role in helping and modeling, all will collaboratively learn, solve problems, and find answers.
• Flexible and negotiated learning activities: Each MTF group will identify specific learning goals and select activities. An agreed upon deliverable will be completed prior to the end of the year. In addition, MTFs will develop and present a workshop at the end of the year.
• Autonomous community members: MTFs direct their own activities and make decisions. There is room for variation and differences among community members.
• High levels of dialogue, interaction, and collaboration: High levels of connectivity and communication are essential for MTFs. Conversations cross traditional disciplinary and conceptual boundaries. MTFs appreciate diversity and multiple perspectives. Information is what drives the feedback loops that lead to new learning and change in the overall system.

Adapted from Dynamic Learning Communities: An Alternative to Designed Instructional Systems http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/dlc.html (Brent Wilson, University of Colorado at Denver , & Martin Ryder, Storage Technology Corporation)

Madison Teaching Fellows 2005-06 Focus Areas

Multicultural Teaching and Learning

Enhancing Instruction with Technology

Madison Teaching Fellows 2004-05 Focus Areas

Effective Teaching in Large Classes

Pictures of the Madison Teaching Fellows