Education Commons^™

''When We Speak Faculty Listen:'' Exploring Potential Spaces For Students To Support Lecturer Academic Development, Rebecca Turner, Lucy Spowart, Harriet C. Dismore, E. A. Beckmann, Rachael A. J. Carkett, Tashmin Khamis

Office of the Provost

Lecturers’ engagement in professional development activities to enhance their academic practice is firmly embedded within the landscape of higher education. Although enhancing the student learning experience underpins teaching-related continuing professional development (CPD), interestingly the role of students in supporting such activities has been underexplored. Drawing on data captured from eight student representatives interviewed in the context of an international impact evaluation, we examine student awareness of, and attitudes towards, lecturers’ CPD. Participants recognised the value of lecturers engaging in CPD but believed it to be an activity they were removed from, and had little opportunity to engage with. We consider …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring The Meaning Of First-Generation Students And Adjunct Faculty Relationships In Higher Education, Melissa Greenlee-Rasnake

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how the first-generation student describes the meaning of developing a relationship with adjunct instructors at a community college and how this relationship influences their academic development and institutional sense of belonging. For the purpose of this study, the first-generation student and adjunct faculty relationship was defined as the formal and informal contact between the student and the faculty member. The theory guiding this study was that of proximal process and campus ecology developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979) as it explores the importance of how the student’s environment and relationships influence their …

Building Undergraduate Research In A Fully Online Engineering Program, Robert Deters, Brent Terwilliger, Emily Faulconer, Kelly A. George

Publications

This paper describes the creation and implementation of the support network of the Research Scholars Program at the Worldwide campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Funded by an NSF IUSE grant, the purpose of this new program is to increase the opportunity for online engineering and engineering technology students to participate in undergraduate research. Studies have shown that participation in research can have an important impact on students, though online students are likely underrepresented in undergraduate research. The Research Scholars Program uses existing support systems of the campus while also building new components. These new components developed for this project are …

A Study Of The Purple Star School Designation Program: Summary Report, Center For Public Research And Leadership, Military Child Education Coalition (Mcec)

Center for Public Research and Leadership

Military-connected (MC) families are tough and agile. Moving three times more often, on average, than their civilian counterparts, parents and students quickly learn to become fierce advocates for themselves, lobbying schools to provide the basic educational services and social-emotional supports to which all American children are entitled. But this advocacy becomes exhausting and draws time away from the other pressing demands of relocation and family life. What relief might parents feel if they did not have to constantly put on their armor to fight these battles? And what more could students accomplish if they did not have to settle for …

The Diffusion Of Faculty Development: A Faculty Fellows Program, Tracy W. Smith, Sara J. Greenwald, Lillian Y. Nave, Victor N. Mansure, Michael L. Howell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This critical retrospective review describes the ideation, creation, and implementation of a faculty development fellows program at a regional comprehensive university. The authors share their perspectives as fellows regarding primary considerations for designing the program, including attention to the fellows selection process, required multilevel support, cultivation of communication and relationships, professional development of the fellows, development of unit programming, and lessons learned. Each section of the article concludes with critical questions institutions might consider when conceiving a faculty development fellows program.

Structured Professional Development For Academic Developers: A Collaborative Approach, Fiona O'Riordan, Íde O'Sullivan, Mary Fitzpatrick, Margaret Keane, Claire Mcavinia, Angelica Risquez

Articles

This paper shares the experience of a group of academic developers’ engagement in collaboratively working towards the completion of an online open-access professional development (PD) course designed to support higher education teachers to engage with a new professional development framework. Committee members of the Educational Developers in Ireland Network set out to complete the course as a demonstration of their commitment to their own PD and to experience the process with a view to becoming facilitators of the course. An auto-ethnographic approach was used to capture this experience, and findings demonstrate an inspiring alternative to PD that supports academic developers …

Developing All Learners Through Analytics: A Collaborative Consultative Approach To Professional Development And Support, Pauline Rooney, Geraldine Gray, Lee O'Farrell, K.C. O'Rourke

Conference papers

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to: -explore the potential value of learning analytics for creating a supportive educational experience for students and for increasing students’ feelings of ownership, agency and self-regulation. -examine the role of professional development resources and support in increasing staff and student digital proficiencies in using learning data and in facilitating greater evidence-based decision-making in HE. -identify how we can collaborate with our institutional colleagues and our students in the design and provision of professional development resources and support in relation to the analysis and interpretation of learning data to support student …

Academic Twitter And Professional Learning: Myths And Realities, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

Social networking sites provide opportunities for informal and social learning of academic practices in higher education, yet not all academics engage in these spaces. This qualitative study suggests that while Twitter offers informal opportunities for academi development, inhibiting factors prevent staff from establishing their social presence and participating in conversations on academic Twitter.

Ram Opportunity, The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute At Virginia Commonwealth University, Jaycee Dempsey, Kathy Gabriel, Sara Kohout, Joshua Mathews-Ailsworth, Ben Plache, Sally Santen, Devanand Sarkar

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

RAM Opportunity is a self-sustaining mentoring and experiential learning program designed to serve high school students in the local community through programs led by graduate student mentors. RAM Opportunity operates using a plug-and-play structure that can be implemented in the arts, business, education, humanities, sciences, or any other discipline. Partnerships will be formed with local high schools and their guidance counseling services to develop a pipeline for potential students to participate in the program. The program benefits VCU by enhancing engagement with the local community, generating interest in high school students pursuing post-secondary education at VCU, and developing graduate students …

Educational Development Between Faculty And Administration, Andreas Broscheid

Department of Political Science - Faculty Scholarship

This essay employs Identity Theory to explore the professional identities of educational developers, arguing that it is important to pay attention to the different saliences, or weights, that developers attach to the faculty and administrative sides of their identities.

Re-Integrating Academic Development And Academic Language And Learning: A Call To Reason, Alisa Percy

Alisa Percy, PhD

This paper argues for the re-integration of academic development (AD) and a academic language and learning (ALL) practitioners in Australian higher education. This argument is made as universities aim to develop internationally recognised, inter-disciplinary and standards-based curricula against the backdrop of international comparative education (e.g., Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), the Australian Qualifications Framework and a quality emphasis on English language standards (e.g., Tertiary Education Quality and Assessment Agency). Drawing on Rowland's argument that professional life in the academy has become fragmented across five fault lines ([2002]. Overcoming fragmentation in professional life: The challenge for academic development. Higher Education …

Supporting Professionalism In Educational Development In Irish Higher Education, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

Higher education, in Ireland and globally, is undergoing profound change influenced by a variety of factors. In conjunction with these changes many initiatives to improve teaching and learning and the quality of graduates in higher education have been introduced in recent years. The changes and expansions in the sector has enabled growth of new roles in higher education described as ‘third space’ professionals by Whitchurch (2008).

This paper describes the struggle of those in third space professions, such as academic development, to establish a professional identity in higher education. The benefits of these contemporary roles to higher education are …

Authenticity In Academic Development: The Myth Of Neutrality, Gail Rathbun, Nancy Turner

Gail A. Rathbun

Academic developers are often positioned as intermediaries who wield value-neutral tools—language, models, and techniques—in service of decidedly non-neutral institutional goals. We challenge the value of perpetuating the ideal of the neutrality of academic developers and their tools by examining the ways in which our resources and approaches produce imbalances of control, power, and authority in a consulting relationship. We suggest that the values embedded within the practices of academic development lead developers, and the people they help, to act inauthentically. By recognizing the improbability of neutrality in academic development work, the authors seek to open the way to constructive reflection, …

Forging Partnerships That Support Curriculum Renewal, Gail Wilson, Sandii Chan, Michael Brogan

Associate Professor Gail Wilson

There are a series of challenges facing academic developers in forging relationships with academic staff engaged in curriculum renewal. During 2003 and 2004 the School of Law at the University of Western Sydney engaged in a curriculum renewal project in partnership with the University’s Educational Development Centre. The challenges identified as a result of working on this project illustrate levels of engagement within relationship development, and provide substance for further exploration. This paper argues that awareness of these challenges is a significant factor in enhancing engagement and building productive relationships between academic developers and academic staff.

How Service Learning Addresses The Mental Health Needs Of Students In Urban School, Felicia Wilczenski, Amy Cook

Counseling and School Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Service learning promotes social-emotional and academic development through active engagement in community activities. It empowers students to think beyond themselves and to develop a commitment to serve others. In so doing, service learning builds connections with school and community that are critically important in urban settings. This paper links key components of effective mental health programs in urban schools with service learning.

International Collaboration In Blended Problem-Based Learning, Roisin Donnelly

Conference papers

European education today is characterized by two dominant trends. First, e-learning has made impressive advances in the past five years. Second, European higher education has become increasingly internationalized. Within this, there has been an obvious shift towards more social, collaborative and communal perspectives of learning reported in recent educational research. Various forms of collaborative and inquiry-based learning include the idea that learning should be understood as a combination of participation, knowledge creation and internal processes. This paper discusses the blending of e-learning and problem-based learning (PBL), based on these observations and as a comprehensive approach encompassing the learning environment, curriculum, …

In Search Of A Sustainable Model Of Academic Development: Combining E-Learning And Problem-Based Learning, Roisin Donnelly

Other resources

The context of this study is in teaching in higher education and in teaching about teaching. At its essence is an exploration of an emerging model of academic development grounded in practice. In the 21st. century, how do you create a sustainable learning environment in the context of academic development in higher education with new tools and pedagogies emerging and becoming available for use?

It Takes A Village: How Can The Library Support The Academic Development Of Your Students?, Sonya Shepherd

Sonya S. Gaither

No abstract provided.