Creating Teaching and Learning Communities in the USAF's Leadership and Innovation Institute
Air University Public Affairs
Video by Michael Tate
Dec. 7, 2023 | 54:00
In 2017, Air University (AU) developed a conceptual Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to demonstrate “ongoing improvement of its programs/services and….how well it fulfills its stated mission”. The Leadership and Innovation Institute (LII) oversees the QEP and created a framework of strategic ethical leadership to enhance and reinvigorate the development of leaders. This QEP framework created deliberate and comprehensive leader development and innovation programs based on the substantive collection of assessment data from 13 targeted courses across 5 AU programs, including over 1,800 indirect assessments of student learning and over 2318 direct assessments of student work. The LII team is also responsible to “develop and deliver a continuum of leadership education, research and outreach for the Air Force” (LII website) as “the premier source for exemplary leadership development” that includes strengthening the three competencies that define an Ethical-Strategic Air Force Leader: Ethical Decision-Making, Empathy, and Fostering Innovation. While the QEP assessment strategy has collected valuable data related to student outcomes, faculty development, and improving ethical leadership, the more interesting discovery has been how LII has gone about their efforts that manifested in their programs being called “the best course in my military career” and “AU’s flagship course” along with other accolades of LII’s efforts relating to ethics, empathy, mental health, innovation, and leadership. The LII team sought to answer the research question “How did LII create a teaching/learning community?” Using document analysis and interviews, the cumulative coding process revealed that the LII teaching/learning community was created using four constructs: mindset, collaboration, connections, and experience, which adds a new framework to the literature. The six-person panel will share insights in three ways: their teaching/learning community, the four constructs, and highlight the cumulative outcomes relating to innovation, faculty development, empathy, ethics, mixed reality, and mental health. More