[{"jcr:title":"Insper presents work on faculty development at education conference in Lisbon","cq:tags_0":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/ensino","cq:tags_1":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/internacional","cq:tags_2":"area-de-conhecimento:políticas-públicas/educação"},{"richText":"Beatriz Carvalho dos Santos, Senior Analyst in Teaching and Learning Development (DEA), shared the school’s experience with learning communities","authorDate":"14/04/2026 20h22","madeBy":"Por","tag":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/ensino","title":"Insper presents work on faculty development at education conference in Lisbon","variant":"imagecolor"},{"jcr:title":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"themeName":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"text":"Between March 20 and 22, Insper participated in the 9th International Academic Conference on Education, Teaching, and Learning (IACETL), held in Lisbon, Portugal. As part of the official program, Beatriz Carvalho dos Santos, Senior Analyst in Teaching and Learning Development (DEA), presented the paper Sustaining Uncertainty Through Collective Practice: Learning Communities as an Institutional Strategy for Faculty Development, developed in collaboration with Fabiana Paixão, also a Senior Analyst in the DEA. The participation brought Insper into an international space for discussion on teaching, learning, and faculty development. According to Beatriz, it was the school’s first participation in the event, which had been selected through a mapping of international opportunities. Beyond the topics discussed, the conference stood out for its format, which encouraged interaction and exchange among participants. In smaller groups, researchers attended one another’s presentations throughout the day, making the discussions more connected. “It was very different from any other conference I’ve attended because of that,” says Beatriz. It was in this context that she presented Insper’s experience with learning communities as an institutional strategy for faculty development. The work discusses a shift in approach: instead of concentrating faculty development in courses or occasional interventions led by the department, the model focuses on ongoing spaces for exchange among professors, facilitated by the DEA but driven by faculty themselves. At Insper, the initiative began in 2024 with the AI Learning Community and was later expanded to the Business Administration area. Today, the AI community has already held 28 meetings, with monthly sessions and different formats, including experience-sharing, group discussions, and workshops. In this model, the DEA acts as a facilitator: organizing mediation, curating materials, and supporting the process, while the themes emerge from the questions, challenges, and practices shared by professors. The communities also function as an institutional thermometer. By following discussions and feedback generated during the meetings, the DEA can identify recurring dilemmas, emerging needs, and opportunities for support more closely aligned with the reality of each program. The next step is to expand the model to Law and Engineering, respecting the specificities of each area. In Lisbon, Beatriz observed that the topic resonated with international debates. There were reports of experiences similar to so-called communities of practice, but according to her, the distinguishing feature of Insper’s work lies in treating the learning community as a continuous strategy for faculty development, rather than as a temporary initiative tied to a specific project. This framing attracted interest because it presented a structured model integrated into academic routines. The first developments resulting from participation in the event have already begun to emerge. During the conference, Beatriz connected with Carly O’Neill-Barrett, a researcher at the University of Leeds, in England, whose work focuses on authentic assessment — a concept related to rethinking traditional assessment models in favor of more contextualized approaches aligned with student learning processes. The topic connects directly with discussions Insper has already been promoting on teaching and artificial intelligence. As a result, the researcher was invited to lead an activity for Insper’s AI Learning Community in May, in a workshop-style format. For Beatriz, the conference also reinforced the importance of maintaining dialogue with international institutions working in support of faculty development. More than presenting an experience currently being developed at Insper, participation in the 9th IACETL in Lisbon made it possible to deepen exchanges with researchers from other institutions and bring new references to the work carried out by the school in this field.  "}]