A Modern Teaching Salon
CRTLE Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are inspired by the
intellectual tradition of the Salons of Paris—regular
gatherings where thinkers, creators, and practitioners came together to exchange
ideas, dialogue, explore emerging questions, and learn through conversation.
This is not a class or a workshop!
Like those salons, CRTLE PLCs are designed as
intellectual commons for teaching across departments and colleges:
spaces where faculty engage in dialogue, experimentation, and collective
sense鈥憁aking around pedagogy.
Rather than one鈥憈ime workshops, PLCs function as sustained, faculty鈥慸riven
communities that emphasize:
-
Knowledge sharing
across disciplines and teaching contexts to circulate ideas
-
Pedagogical innovation
grounded in real classroom practice
-
Think鈥憈ank–style discussion
of emerging challenges and opportunities as well as cross鈥憄ollination of ideas across units
-
Crowdsourcing and piloting new ideas
in courses, with space to reflect on what works—and what doesn’t
-
Exploratory Talk and Ideas鈥慽n鈥慞rogress:
Each meeting will start with:
“What’s one teaching question you’re sitting with right now?” and
“What did you try since last time—successful or not?”
Faculty are encouraged to bring 飞辞谤办蝉鈥慽苍鈥憄谤辞驳谤别蝉蝉 into the PLC: teaching ideas, assignments, questions, experiments, and even uncertainties. Through regular meetings, guest speakers, and shared reflection, participants collectively surface patterns, refine practices, and contribute to broader campus conversations and problem-solving about teaching and learning.
Across the academic year, PLC participants:
- Engage in structured discussion and peer鈥憀ed knowledge sharing about applications to teaching and learning.
- Learn from occasional guest speakers and campus partners about trends and issues relating to the PLC topic.
- Pilot new pedagogical approaches in their own courses, whether face-to-face, hybrid, or online modalities.
- Develop their professional knowledge and skills around evidence-based and high-impact teaching innovations and seek feedback from students.
- Create microcontent (e.g., short reflections, examples, templates, or teaching tips) to share insights with the wider faculty community. Microcontent summarizes key ideas for other faculty.
- Participate in the April CRTLE Faculty Showcase in Spring 2027, sharing lessons learned and ideas in progress.
Participation in each PLC is intentionally capped (approximately 12 faculty) to preserve the conversational, collegial nature of the group and to support meaningful dialogue—mirroring the salon鈥憇tyle environment that inspires this work. We will have waiting list.
