Whatever the mechanism, whether informal conversations or peer review or teaching portfolios or organized communities of inquiry, support for improving teaching is, at its heart, teachers talking to other teachers about teaching.7 Such conversations can take a wide variety of forms, from faculty learning communities to teaching squares to peer observations and review.8 Again and again, professors report that “communities of practice” and networks of support for teaching, tailored to address their specific teaching context, improve their own individual teaching efficacy.9
