In 2008, the Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) was created in order to identify key areas for strategic collaboration between the work of i2a and the staff in units serving students, primarily those working in student affairs, academic affairs, and student services. The goal is to support the shared transformation of the curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular experience for undergraduate students by the infusion and assessment of critical thinking skills.

During the 2008-2009 academic year, a cohort of 13 professional staff met monthly as part of the CLC.  Monthly interactive sessions with the i2a staff focused on the exploration of core critical thinking concepts as part of the Paul-Elder framework and the application of the concepts to the participants’ professional learning contexts. Each CLC participant also completed a proposal and launched a plan for the design, implementation and assessment of a critical thinking “infusion” project within their department or existing programming.  Click here to see a listing of these projects. 

These projects will become the basis for the continuation of the CLC in 2009-2010.  Some of the CLC participants used these new partnerships to invite the i2a staff to help train their departmental colleagues and to develop and/or design a conference presentation to share their work within their respective professional fields.

Phase II: CLC 2009-2010

Professional staff participating in Phase II of the CLC will be part of a nine-month learning community that meets once a month to further develop, share, refine and assess critical thinking projects in their respective departments.   The learning community activities and the focus on individual projects will build upon and extend the learning activities that began in the 2008-2009 CLC program. Click here for a list of the 2009-2010 participants and their projects.

Each monthly CLC session will focus on examining one or two CLC participants’ department-based project in order to provide an in-depth look at a specific application of the critical thinking concepts.  This format will also allow for the exchange of peer feedback and refinement during the phases of development, implementation and assessment of the projects.  Staff participants will be largely derived from the CLC participants in 2009-2010, with the potential addition of new collaborators from current units represented.

The structure of the monthly sessions will also be determined by specific critical thinking and assessment readings and interactive activities based on the interests, questions and needs of the participants.  The goal of the CLC is to provide peer and expert advice to participants’ during the development and launch of their CLC projects in 09-10.