2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This is a Work in Progress paper. The terms “professional learning community” and “community of practice” are often used interchangeably to define a group of faculty and/or staff committed to expanding their knowledge and engaging deeply in a topic, area of concern or systemic issue that creates barriers to success. Professional learning communities (PLC) also cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, where faculty feel valued and equipped to drive meaningful transformations in their teaching and student engagement. The PLC may or may not have an expectation of action, however, in either setting, the possibility to increase sense of agency to make individual and systems-level change lays the foundation for faculty to explore, reflect on and ultimately implement gained knowledge.
To build a growth and change culture, opportunities for faculty to organically come together and explore ideas and concepts related to student success are imperative. These communities, unique in selection, roles, intentions, and purpose, become and incubator for ideation. However, they often lack a driver of individual and collective action. As we launched two PLCs, one at a main campus and one at a regional campus, we asked ourselves two questions to gain a deeper understanding of the impact PLCs can have when we include the expectation of action, and ultimately, how faculty experience an increased sense of agency to affect change within their spheres of influence.
• Do learning communities increase sense of agency?
• Does an increased sense of agency as a result of participating in a learning community impact other aspects of a faculty role?
The PLCs chosen are similar in only one way – the participants are self-selected and not required to attend outside of their own intrinsic motivation to be there. One learning community is limited to the college of engineering on the large, main campus, while the other is interdisciplinary at a smaller, regional campus. We examined the personal and professional goals faculty hoped to achieve as a result of participating in the PLC as well as the perceived barriers to reaching their goals. This information informed the facilitators’ approaches to growth and to what extent faculty felt they were able to address the changes they hoped to make. We would prefer a Poster presentation.