Education Commons^™

Adopting Active Learning Classroom (Alc) Technology And Overcoming Barriers: A Faculty Development Intervention Model For Technology-Enhanced Learning Spaces, Bradford D. Wheeler

Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this study was to understand how instructors use technology, and what challenges they face, but also to increase the participants’ understanding of Active Learning Classroom (ALCs) technologies as it applies to their teaching by applying action research methodologies. This study also seeks to lay a foundation for additional research on ALCs, education technology, and the needs of instructors in terms of faculty development in technology. This study investigates a group of 13 faculty members in multiple disciplines teaching in ALCs. Thus far, research on the impact of technology-enriched learning environments like Active Learning Classrooms has typically centered …

The Impact Of Professional Development Grounded In Social Learning On Community College Faculty Efficacy, Shanika Shantell Strickland-Davis

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Community college faculty have experienced a shift in focus from access to access and student success. Given this shift in responsibility for student learning, community college faculty should be sufficiently prepared to teach a diverse student body and subsequently uphold beliefs regarding their ability to bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning. Given preparedness is a measure of self-efficacy, professional development for community college faculty is a critical investment in the support and development of teacher efficacy and faculty skill.

Social learning theory specifically speaks to a means of increasing self-efficacy. As a professional development practice, social learning …

Faculty Development Initiatives: A Prerequisite For Capacity Building And Enhanced Productivity In A Medical Institution, Rehana Rehman, Hassan Mehmood, Syeda Fatima, Irfanullah Baig, Zohaib Rana, Mohammad Iqbal

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

Objective: To determine the contribution of teaching, learning and assessment forum's initiatives on professional development of faculty and staff.
Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, from July to December 2016, and comprised teaching, learning and assessment activities carried out from 2012 to 2015. The responses acquired from feedback evaluation were recorded at the end of activity on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1-5. Positive responses were presented for each variable with respective activity type across the study years. The association of the effectiveness of teaching, learning …

The Librarians’ Guide To The Information Literacy Galaxy: Leading Campus Conversations, Sarah Richardson, Heather K. Beirne, Ashley J. Cole, Trenia Napier

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Sarah Richardson (Business Library Team Leader), Heather Beirne (Reference and Instruction Librarian), Ashley Cole (Reference and Instruction Librarian) and Trenia Napier (Associate Director, Programs & Outreach - Noel Studio for Academic Creativity) @ Eastern Kentucky University Situating librarians as information literacy experts and leaders in pedagogical best practices, presenters led a professional learning community (PLC) to create purposeful campus-wide conversations centered around the ACRL Framework and its place in teaching and learning. PLC faculty participants from across campus partnered with liaison librarians to create new and innovative approaches to developing discipline-specific information …

Semester In The Parks: Engaging Students With Common Intellectual Experiences, Jacqualine B. Grant, John S. Maclean

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

High-impact educational practices (HIP) such as Common Intellectual Experiences (CIE) enhance student engagement and positively affect student learning. At Southern Utah University we created a new HIP-focused program to enrich our students and faculty: Semester in the Parks (SIP). Students lived outside of Bryce Canyon National Park in the gateway community of Bryce Canyon City while they worked for Ruby’s Inn Resort and learned about the national parks. Faculty commuted to this off campus venue and redesigned their courses to incorporate national parks thinking and experiential learning opportunities. The CIE of a national parks-focused semester enhanced student engagement and developed …

New Adjunct Faculty Outreach: Making A Connection, Cristina Cottom, Angela Atwell, Sara Ombres

Publications

All areas of education, faculty development included, are required to demonstrate their impact on learning. The Rothwell Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence-Worldwide (CTLE-W) provides resources to support new faculty; however, participation and utilization of these resources varies. This causal-comparative study sought to determine if targeted communication from CTLE-W to adjunct faculty during their first term teaching would increase utilization of CTLE-W resources. Results from this study showed that new adjunct faculty are more likely to continue seeking assistance from CTLE-W to ensure they are providing the best learning experience possible if they are contacted during their first term.

An Assessment Of The Financial Literacy Of Undergraduates At One Community College In Texas, Melissa J. Weathersby

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At a Texas community college, stakeholders wanted to strengthen the financial literacy module offered in the student development course for undergraduates. The problem was that no formative data existed on students' financial literacy, and it was not known if knowledge of financial literacy for students who participated in a prior financial literacy class in high school differed from students who had not. The purpose of this study was to obtain formative data regarding students' needs for financial literacy education and to examine whether the knowledge of financial literacy for college students who participated in a prior financial literacy class in …

Seven Voices, Seven Developers, Seven One Things That Guide Our Practice, Frances Kalu, Patti Dyjur, Carol Berenson, Kimberley A. Grant, Cheryl Jeffs, Natasha Kenny, Robin Mueller

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Educational development philosophy statements provide a framework to communicate the values and beliefs that guide the practices and approaches of individual educational developers across various career stages. This paper presents narratives to illustrate how seven educational developers conceptualize the one thing that guides our work through the process of reflecting on the beliefs that we articulate through our educational development philosophy statements. Although each narrative illustrates our diverse backgrounds and philosophies, common themes are revealed relating to reflective practice, scholarly approaches, and facilitating change, which lead to improvements in student learning. This exploration suggests further opportunity to conduct research on …

Invitations And Expeditions, But Hardly Ever Destinations, Tracy W. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay characterizes educational development as an invitation. The author provides a rationale for using Invitational Theory (IT) to guide educational development programming and practice. The five assumptions of IT are included and linked to scholarly literature that grounds educational development. Examples of invitational educational development initiatives or programs are provided for each assumption.

Workshopping A Workshop: Collaborative Design In Educational Development, Eleanor V. H. Vandegrift, Amy B. Mulnix, Jennifer R. Yates, S. Raj Chaudhury

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Working remotely and collaboratively, our interdisciplinary team created an educational development workshop, Thinking Skills for the 21st Century: Teaching for Transfer, in which participants not only experience, apply, and reflect on teaching across educational settings but also connect this work to principles that have been demonstrated by learning science to support the transfer of knowledge. We used backward design to develop the workshop and evidence-based pedagogies in its implementation. We facilitated the workshop at two different national meetings for distinct audiences and also as part of an on-campus faculty development program. Here, we report on the workshop development and revision, …

Publish & Flourish: Helping Scholars Become Better, More Prolific Writers, Tara Gray, Laura Madson, Michelle Jackson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Some scholars want help from educational developers to become better, more prolific writers. This study examines one such program, Publish & Flourish, that holds participants accountable for writing daily and for receiving weekly feedback from peers on drafts of writing. In this mixed methods study, 95% of participants (N = 93) reported that they improved their writing by making it more organized and reader centered. Participants also reported that they increased their extrapolated average of submissions of scholarly manuscripts per year from about two to almost six. We then compared Publish & Flourish to several other studies of scholarly writing …

Toward Learning And Justice, Through Love, Isis Artze-Vega

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter responds to the call for educational developers to isolate the one perspective that guides our work. It retraces the author’s career steps, seeking the origin of love as a guiding principle, and describes its evolution and application during her career. To do so, the piece includes a theoretical perspective on love and argues that its utility as a characterizing perspective for our profession stems from its significance to learning and justice. It suggests the timeliness and urgency of elevating the role of love in our field, notes associated risks and rewards, and suggests resources for doing so.

Equity-Minded Faculty Development, Aeron Haynie

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A governing principle of equity-minded faculty development is a commitment to supporting marginalized populations who may feel unwelcome in academia: from minority college students to first-generation graduate students to faculty of color. Faculty development should encourage faculty to notice inequities and not dismiss them as student’s individual failures; to examine institutional data on student, graduate student, and faculty achievement patterns; and to collaborate with other campus partners on interventions. As we work with faculty to develop strategies to ensure all students can succeed, we must also enact the same empowering, strengths- based practices we promote.

The Idea Of Educational Development: An Historical Perspective, Laura Cruz

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay examines the idea of educational development, inspired both in content and approach by John Henry Newman’s influential 19th century work on the idea of a university.

A Minimalist Model Of New Faculty Mentoring: Why Asking For Less Gives More, Heather Lobban Viravong, Mark Schneider

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We describe a research-based mentoring program for new full-time faculty at a small residential college, which emphasizes the empowerment of the new faculty themselves to identify and obtain the resources they need for success. In our model, the mentor takes on a role of primarily providing accountability, easing the burden on mentors, thereby making for a more sustainable program. Our mixed methods assessment of the program suggests that, paradoxically, these lessened expectations foster closer personal relationships between mentor and protégé than might have occurred if that were a programmatic expectation.

Changing The Lens: The Role Of Reframing In Educational Development, Donna E. Ellis

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

One core concept in educational development is reframing, which involves new labels, new perspectives, and the examination of assumptions. In this reflective article, I explore the use of reframing at different levels of educational development work via the 4M framework (micro, meso, macro, and mega) in an effort to assess the utility of this concept to practitioners. I conclude that reframing has utility at all levels and posit why it may assist with change management. Connections to educational developer identity are also explored.

Is Sotl A Signature Pedagogy Of Educational Development?, Peter Felten, Nancy Chick

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this article, we focus on questions that come into view when we look at educational development through the lenses of signature pedagogies and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We offer this as a thought experiment in which we consider if SoTL is a signature pedagogy of educational development, simultaneously enacting and revealing the practices, values, and assumptions that underpin the diverse work of our field. By envisioning SoTL in this way, we may more clearly see the purposes and practices that unite—and that ought to guide—educational developers and educational development.