Each semester, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning hosts multiple semester-long interdisciplinary cohorts designed to help innovate or refine teaching techniques and learning activities. Cohorts typically meet four to six times per semester. Some cohorts may meet in person, while others may meet virtually. In all cases, the participants serve as a learning community for one another.
Faculty Learning Communities
Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) are simply groups of faculty who meet several times over the course of a semester around a single theme. FLCs will often take the form of learning and investigating at first and will then attempt implementation in the classroom and share results.
Our Spring 2026 FLC is “Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks”
Meeting times are Thursdays, 1:00-3:00pm on 1/15, 1/29, 2/19, 3/12, 4/9, and 4/23
We will meet in Classroom Building One, Room 205 or via Zoom
Bringing the “Writing Your Journal Article” cohort back! With all that has been going on, I’m sure that there are more faculty like me – drafted articles that have been sitting on the shelves or backburner for far too long. The purpose of this cohort is to create a community to help us get the article done together. For the faculty members interested, we will work over the course of 12 weeks during the spring semester to revise a work-in-progress, to identify your publishing venue and to submit your article by the end of the semester. This space is intended to offer accountability partners and trusted sounding boards as you work towards publication.
Participants should be prepared to attend all six meetings, either in person or on Zoom, to have regular online “check ins” with the workshop group, and, most importantly, to talk about their work with colleagues. Each participant will be provided a copy of the Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks book prior to the beginning of the workshop.
To register for the Spring 2026 program, please complete this survey before 11:59 pm on Tuesday, Jan 13: https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Y8dkUUpkuNnKbs
Book Clubs
Our first spring ’26 book selection will revisit Neil Postman’s classic The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995). Postman challenges us to consider not just how we educate, but why. He argues that our institutions cannot thrive on technical innovations or economic utility alone; they need compelling narratives and shared purposes that make learning meaningful. At a time when higher education faces pressures from political polarization, declining trust, the rise of AI-driven knowledge systems, and shifting expectations of students, Postman’s call to ground education in purpose rather than mere performance feels especially urgent. This book invites us to reflect on the stories we tell about what higher learning is for and how those stories shape our teaching and our students.
Our meetings will be weekly via Zoom on Tuesdays, 3:00-4:30 pm, from January 27th through April 7th. The first 20 faculty members who register will receive the book free.
To register, please complete this form by 11:59 pm on January 23rd:
https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3E4LaGNUf4g1Jjg
Our second spring ’26 book club will read Joshua Eyler’s Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It (2024). Drawing from research in learning science, engagement, and motivation, Eyler challenges the assumption that grades accurately measure learning, and he invites us to imagine assessment practices that foster curiosity, resilience, and genuine intellectual growth. In a moment when students report rising anxiety, disengagement, and pressure to “perform,” this conversation encourages us to reflect on how our own grading practices can either reinforce or transform these patterns. In our meetings, we will explore alternative approaches that center student learning, belonging, and agency in the college classroom.
Meetings will be weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 3:00-4:30 pm, from January 28th through April 8th. The first 20 faculty members who register will receive the book free.
To register, please complete this form by 11:59 pm on January 23rd:
https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cMWNOonUu5nyEfk