Read All about It: Faculty Book Clubs in Action to Support Student Engagement

Faculty book clubs are one way to engage in discussion and promote action with colleagues around topics that impact our classrooms. One of the many benefits of book clubs is that the format and process can be altered to fit the needs of the intended audience. This paper describes one faculty group's use of three different models of a book club process, which all capitalize on the utility of book clubs to both identify and implement practical strategies for student engagement. The book club resulted from an interdisciplinary college-wide initiative focused on increasing student engagement within a College of Education and Human Services in a large midwestern public university in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to provide a model for book clubs to be used as a professional development opportunity for faculty. Concrete ideas for implementing similar efforts in the university or college setting are shared.