Collaborative Learning Community (CLC)

What is the CLC?

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.

Under the leadership of the i2a team, each CLC cohort met monthly over two years in order to actively engage in learning and applying the i2a critical thinking concepts and tools in order to design, implement and assess an original critical thinking integration project in their home unit. The projects became a permanent part of each department, thereby supporting the ongoing development of current and future staff and students who work for, and come into contact with, the participating departments and their programs.

CLC Cohort II: 2010-2012

This cohort brought together 12 staff members drawn from The Division of Student Affairs, Office of Diversity, University Libraries, Student Services, Information Technology, and Division of Undergraduate Affairs.

The CLC sessions were held monthly during the 10-11 and 11-12 academic years and gave the staff an opportunity to explore and apply i2a concepts to their own work in diverse student learning contexts and share strategies, ideas and lessons learned. Each staff member created a project in which they can promote and assess the critical thinking skills of their students using the i2a framework. These projects were showcased at the 2012 i2a Institute. Learn more about their individual projects.

CLC Cohort I: 2008-2010

During the 08-09 and 09-10 academic years, a cohort of 11 professional staff met monthly as part of the original CLC, modeled after the i2a Faculty Learning Community program. 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. Learn more about the cohort members and their projects.