Education Commons^™

Section Ii: Faculty Development

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The five articles focused on faculty development in this issue use assessment and surveys to bring us information on the state of our faculty.

Through The Lens Of Learning: How Experiencing Difficult Learning Challenges And Changes Assumptions About Teaching, Stephen Brookfield

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The author challenges faculty to cast themselves in the role of learners for tasks or subjects which, unlike their areas of expertise, do NOT come easily to them. The purpose is to better understand what it is to experience the struggle shared by many students to grasp new material. The author recounts his own efforts to master a daunting new skill and the many lessons he learned about teaching and learning in the process.

On Student Development In College: Evidence From The National Study Of Student Learning, Ernest T. Pascarella

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This paper summarizes some of the major findings of the National Study of Student Learning, a longitudinal investigation of the factors influencing student intellectual development at 23 diverse colleges and universities in 16 states. Findings from the following analyses are presented: effects of perceived teacher behaviors on general cognitive skills and internal locus of attribution; influences on critical thinking; cognitive effects of two- and four-year colleges; cognitive effects of historically Black and predominantly White colleges; and cognitive effects of Greek affiliation.

Section Iii: Organizational Development

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This section, in which the authors discuss institutional programs or approaches to teaching change, has three parts.

Partners In Pedagogy: Faculty Development Through The Scholarship Of Teaching, Gabriele B. Sweidel

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The Partners in Pedagogy project uses a three-pronged plan of action to address faculty development through the scholarship of teaching: a) the formation of faculty pairs to conduct classroom observations of each other's teaching, b) interviews with three of each other's students, and c) collegial discussion, both between faculty pairs and cross-discipline at monthly meetings. The combination of monthly meetings to discuss pedagogy, feedback from peers concerning teaching methods and techniques unrelated to evaluations, student interviews, and cross-discipline participation contribute to the powerfulness of this campus-wide program.

Computer-Mediated Communication In The Classroom: Models For Enhancing Student Learning, Karin L. Sandell, Robert K. Stewart, Candace K. Stewart

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The introduction of computer-mediated communication into the college classroom has been a subject of concern to faculty interested both in exploring means of enhancing communication with their students and in facilitating students' learning about the technological revolution occurring in the business and professional worlds. The tools available to faculty include electronic mail (e-mail), bulletin boards, electronic conferencing, and electronic searching (or surfing) for information, via the Internet. This paper reviews the findings from different measures taken during a campus-wide project to test computer- mediated communication, in order to provide some suggestions about ways of enhancing the teaching-learning connection through classroom …

Professors As Clients For Instructional Development, Ronald A. Smith, George L. Geis

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Although there is a large amount of activity and a sizeable literature in the area of instructional development, there has been relatively little research on faculty members, the clientele for improvement efforts. This paper highlights some characteristics of professors that are relevant to improvement activities. Professors are interested in, value, and work on their teaching; they think they teach rather well. However, they demonstrate a lack of sophistication in talking about teaching and the development of instruction. They focus primarily upon content rather than design or methodology. Teachers' views of what should be done to enhance instruction are discussed and …

A Department-Based Approach To Developing Teaching Portfolios: Perspectives For Faculty Developers, Milton D. Cox

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The Department-Based Teaching Portfolio Project, now in its third year at Miami University, provides departments the flexibility to design and implement teaching development processes that honor the diversity of disciplines, departmental cultures, and leadership styles of department project coordinators. This approach has generated an interesting variety of departmental processes and results, for example, in the use of off-campus consultants and in the manner in which teaching portfolios are developed. Based upon the outcomes of the Project, 20 recommendations inform faculty developers in their roles as department developers.

Transforming Faculty Into An Agile Workforce, Robert Dove, Dina Wills

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Some institutions of higher education have begun to implement agile operational strategies as they work to take advantage of new technologies and respond to new demands made from their various constituencies. Key to the success of these agile strategies is the ability of the faculty to create an agile learning environment. This paper focuses on the role of the faculty developer in creating that agile environment. It presents concrete programming suggestions and a model for faculty developers to follow as they assume the role of helping faculty become agile.

Making The Transition From Soft To Hard Funding: The Politics Of Institutionalizing Instructional Development Programs, Mary L. Everley, Jan Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The institutionalization of grant-funded instructional development programs is a political process. This paper reviews the experiences of programs that have both failed and succeeded to cross the hard-to-soft-money divide and the literature on planning and change in higher education, and offers strategies that will encourage institutionalization. Changing institutional culture, building a strong advocacy group, and gaining the support of key administrators are essential to program continuance.

Designing, Implementing And Assessing A University Technology-Pedagogy Institute, Devorah A. Lieberman, John Reuter

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article describes two models for designing and implementing technology-pedagogy institutes as part of university wide faculty development. Each model contains similar learning objectives for Institute participants, yet describes different institute designs. The authors describe the strengths and weaknesses of each model as learned through assessment evidence gathered during institutes on their campus. Assessment of student learning in relation to technology introduced within the class is discussed. Suggestions for more effective Institutes and assessment tools are addressed.

Experiences Of Newly Hired Faculty, Robert J. Menges

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty experiences during the first three years in a new job were investigated by following new hires at five colleges and universities. Their initial years are characterized by stress, dilemmas about how to allocate time to competing responsibilities, uncertainty about what is expected of them, and dissatisfaction with feedback about their progress. Faculty development offices can promote more enlightened policies and practices to help ease faculty transition into a new job.

Monitoring The Pulse Of The Faculty: Needs Assessment In Faculty Development Programs, Jon E. Travis, Dan Hursh, Gentry Lankewicz, Li Tang

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Although needs assessment is a common and necessary element of faculty development programs, the process never seems to be as easy or as effective as we might like it to be. Sadly, the literature is relatively weak in this all-important area of responsibility. Such a problem, no doubt, is due in part to the individual environment of each institution. Based on a presentation at the 1995 POD Conference, this article reviews a number of institutional approaches to gathering data from faculty, which may suggest some options for the reader.

Dan Tries Problem-Based Learning: A Case Study, Harold B. White Iii

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Problem-based learning approaches to education often generate justifiable enthusiasm among faculty who have become frustrated with the limitations of traditional lecture-based education. However, faculty contemplating a change to a problem-based format rarely anticipate the many practical difficulties that can destroy one's enthusiasm and create chaos in the classroom. This case study, about the trials and tribulations of a fictional anthropology professor, attempts to alert faculty who are interested in trying the method to some of the unexpected challenges they might encounter.

Moving Toward A University Environment Which Rewards Teaching: The Faculty Developer's Role, Delivee L. Wright

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article describes the role of the faculty developer in a departmentally-focused, campus-wide program to revise the rewards system in an AAU-Land Grant University. This process took into account the local values and attitudes of a department as well as the broader mission and values of the institution. It emphasizes a sense of faculty ownership of decisions combined with the collaborative efforts of academic administrators, faculty, and faculty developers.

Editorial Matter 1996

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Ordering Information

Permission to Copy

Instructions to Contributors for the 1996 Volume

Reviewers for the 1996 Volume

Foreword, by Laurie Richlin

Mission Statement

Membership, Conference and Programs Information

Contents

Establishing A Community Of Conversation: Creating A Context For Self-Reflection Among Teacher Scholars, Victoria Harper

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This paper will discuss how the Teacher Scholars Project was created to encourage thoughtful conversations about teaching at the university, how portfolio activities such as videotape sessions and the sharing of narratives about teaching were integrated into project activities, and how faculty were encouraged to seriously look at their own practice and to reflect on it in conversations with a group of peers over the course of an entire academic year. It concludes by considering the importance of the creation of a community of conversation across disciplines in establishing conditions for more meaningful discussion and self-reflection on campus.

Section 1: Instructional Development

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

There are two parts to instructional development: student learning and techniques to improve teaching.

Who Uses Faculty Development Services?, Nancy Van Note Chism, Borbala Szabo

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Information about who uses faculty development services exists more in the oral tradition than in the literature. This study sought to explore the question systematically, based on a review of the literature and the conducting of a descriptive survey of faculty development programs. The findings of the study show that most programs collect information on their users, that this information is usually not shared publicly, and that aggregate usage is broad-based, rather than concentrated within particular types of faculty. These findings contradict some popular claims and support others. Recommendations suggest that information be collected systematically and that claims about users …

Innovative Teaching And Teaching Improvement, Joyce Povlacs Lunde, Myra S. Wilhite

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

To discover who innovative teachers are, their practices, and how they might have impact on the improvement of teaching on campus, the authors surveyed 310 faculty on our campus, including recipients of Distinguished Teaching Awards, non-recipients of awards, and newer faculty. Items included sources of ideas, teaching strategies, relating to students, and persistence in making successful changes in teaching. A focus group was selected from those displaying persistence. We believe that innovative teachers are passionate about teaching, persist in its improvement, listen to their students, use active learning adapted to the context, are risk takers, and keep themselves vital. The …

What Every Faculty Developer Needs To Know About Learning Groups, Larry K. Michaelsen, L. Dee Fink, Robert H. Black

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article advances two related propositions. One is that virtually all of the commonly reported "problems" with learning groups, such as less content coverage, free-riders, and students' feeling that instructors are not teaching unless they are talking, are a natural consequence of they way the groups are being used. The other is that the vast majority of the problems can be prevented by avoiding group assignments that retard the development of effective learning teams and limit student learning. This article will a) examine the underlying causes of the most commonly reported problems with learning groups, b) outline some simple, but …