Let’s Talk! Facilitating a Faculty Learning Community Using a Critical Friends Group Approach

Abstract

This article focuses on the complex process of facilitating a Critical Friends Group as a form of a professional learning community by teacher education faculty. During a three-year initiative, seven faculty members created a forum for collegial conversations regarding pedagogical dilemmas in efforts of improving teaching practice and student achievement. Critical Friends Groups use protocol guides to actively engage its members in learning, thinking, reading and discussing dilemmas from interdisciplinary perspectives. This article reviews the literature of Critical Friends Groups, the work of this particular Critical Friends Group and concludes by providing a rationale for sustainability of Critical Friends Groups in Institutions of Higher Education.

Keywords

• Higher education
• Critical Friends Groups
• faculty learning community