Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

Reflecting And Writing About Our Teaching, Mark Weisberg

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Reflecting on what we are doing can help us become better teachers and better people; yet in our increasingly busy and stressful lives, how can we find the space and time? This chapter describes and exemplifies two strategies that can help us and our colleagues become more reflective about our teaching and about our vocation: the Teachers’ Reading Circle, meeting for regular discussions of provocative texts about teaching and learning, and the Teachers’ Writing Circle, using prompts and examples of colleagues’ writing to set participants on an extended course of writing about their own teaching.

Breaking Down Barriers To The Use Of Technology For Teaching In Higher Education, Erping Zhu

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter examines the most common technologies used for teaching on college campuses and the most common barriers to advanced uses of technology tools. Survey results consistently show that the major barriers to incorporating technology into higher education are lack of faculty time, faculty doubts about the relevancy of technology to disciplinary learning, and inadequate technical support for faculty projects and technology uses. This chapter, then, proposes several approaches developed and assessed by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan for removing those barriers to technology uses in higher education. Although providing flexible technology …

Bibliography, Volume 26 (2008)

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Bibliography for volume 26 (2008) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development.

Supporting The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning At Liberal Arts Colleges, Dolores Peters, David Schodt, Mary Walczak

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Although the liberal arts college, with its traditional focus on teaching, may seem like a natural environment for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), few such institutions participate in national SoTL initiatives. Our associates’ experience since 2001 suggests a model for supporting SoTL in teaching-intensive contexts based on faculty ownership, a focus on general education, and some emerging rules of engagement. Because faculty reward systems must validate SoTL if it is to become part of the institutional culture, we also describe one department’s efforts to reform its review criteria in order to define scholarly activity broadly.

Grounded Theory Research In Faculty Development: The Basics, A Live Example, And Practical Tips For Faculty Developers, Michael Sweet, Rochelle Roberts, Joshua Walker, Stephen Walls, John Kuscera, Shana Shaw, Janet Riekenberg, Marilla Svinicki

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

While autobiographical narratives and case study reflections remain vital to faculty development research, we must also make substantive efforts to build theory in our field. Researchers making claims about collective meanings of observed behaviors and the mechanisms that underlie them (i.e., theoretical claims about social behavior) must be disciplined in how they identify and organize the evidence they use to support those claims. Such systematic, inductive theory-building in the social sciences is called “grounded theory” research. This chapter presents the basics of grounded theory research, describes a grounded theory research program currently being executed by faculty developers, and offers practical …

Student Performance With And Attitudes Toward Electronic Distributed Assessment In First-Year Composition Classes, Annette Arrigucci

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In Fall 2008, UTEP's composition department implemented a pilot program to test a redesign of English 1312, their second-semester freshman composition course. In addition to a redesigned curriculum, a system of electronic distributed assessment was implemented in ten sections of English 1312. Instead of the traditional format of a class where instructors grade all student assignments, a group of teaching assistants graded student writing anonymously using standardized grading rubrics. The system, which has been used at Texas Tech University since 2002, was put in place at UTEP in order to enhance efficiency and consistency in the teaching of this course. …

In The Name Of Educational Research, Shafqat Hussain

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Developing Research And Scholarship At Aku-Ied: Possibilities And Challenges, Anjum Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 18, Number 2, Fall 2007, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Exchange

Contents

Message from the President - Judy Miller, Clark University

From the editors - Tom Thibodeau, New England Institute of Technology, and Jeanne Albert, Castleton State College

NEFDC Fall Conference, Friday, November 9, 2007, Worcester, Massachusetts; theme: Engaged Learning: Fostering Student Success; keynote speaker: George Kuh, Indiana University

Engaged Learning: The Foundation for Student Success, Note from our Fall Conference Keynote Speaker - George Kuh, Indiana University

Fall Conference Agenda

Learning Through Community Engagement - Kevin R. Kearney, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Reciprocal Mentoring - Mathew L. Ouellett and Susan E. McKenna, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Helpful …

Continuing Teacher Professional Development In Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, Rahat Joldoshalieva

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

After the collapse of the USSR, Kyrgyzstan became an independent Central Asian state in 1991. Since its independence, there have been enormous changes in the political, social and economic life of the young state, which strives to become a democratic and aspiring market-oriented economy. Its education system has also begun experiencing changes. However, most of the reforms brought in this area continue to be short-term and ever-changing. Economic hardship does not allow the continuation of the previously state-funded teacher retraining system, which further creates deteriorating quality education in the schools. On one hand, the country continues to follow the Soviet …

Making Use Of Bilingual Interview Data: Some Experiences From The Field, Nelofer Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper describes the challenges faced, and rules devised, while dealing with bilingual interview data as part of a life history study of a female science teacher’s conceptions of the nature of science while teaching in a school in Karachi. The interview data generated was both in Urdu and English, which underwent a number of processes (transcription, translation, and transliteration) to evolve into “interim texts,” to finally become a part of the data analysis process. I have called these translated materials “transmuted texts,” as they reflect the original, but have been recreated. This paper is significant because as globalization connects …

Faculty Influence On Fraternal Residential Learning Communities, Charles Eberly, Andrew Wall, Brian Warren

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

This paper described a survey of fraternity members' satisfaction with their experiences in a Residential Learning Community within Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. RLCs include a faculty member who has an office within the chapter facility, who teaches a course for credit within the chapter, and who supervises educational programming within the chapter. Chapters who attain RLC status must apply for re-accreditation as an RLC on a periodic basis.

Faculty Influence On Fraternal Residential Learning Communities, Charles G. Eberly, Andrew F. Wall, Brian Warren

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

This paper described a survey of fraternity members' satisfaction with their experiences in a Residential Learning Community within Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. RLCs include a faculty member who has an office within the chapter facility, who teaches a course for credit within the chapter, and who supervises educational programming within the chapter. Chapters who attain RLC status must apply for re-accreditation as an RLC on a periodic basis.

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 2007, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Exchange

Contents

Message from the President - Judith Kamber, Northern Essex Community College

From the editors -

Encounters With George: Information Literacy and Mathematics at Berkshire Community College - Karen Carreras-Hubbard and Annette Guertin, Berkshire Community College

Achieving Information Literacy Goals Through Collaboration - Pamela Bedore, University of Connecticut, Avery Point

Teaming Up! The Sociology/English Composition I /Librarian Embed Experience at Northern Essex Community College - Linda A. Desjardins, Northern Essex Community College

Common Learning Outcomes for First-Year Information Literacy - Mary Adams, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; Gabriela Adler, Bristol Community College; Susan Berteaux, Massachusetts Maritime Academy; Marcia Dinneen, Bridgewater State …

An Analysis Of Attendance At Major League Baseball Spring Training Games, Michael R. Donihue, David Findlay, Peter Newberry

Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines the determinants of game-day attendance during Major League Baseball’s 2002 spring training season in Florida. Our model of game-day attendance includes location, quality of game, and time and weather variables. A censored Tobit estimation procedure is used to estimate our model. Our results indicate that the quality of the game, average ticket price, and several location-specific factors affect attendance. Specifically, our results suggest that changes in income have no effect on attendance while increases in ticket prices cause reductions in attendance. Furthermore, the estimated price elasticity of demand for Major League Baseball during the spring training season …

Educational Development Projects At Ied: Towards School Improvement, Khalid Mahmood, Nilofar Vazir

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

The M.Ed. program at The Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) helps to develop Course Participants (CPs) as teacher educators/educational leaders. AKU-IED always welcomes innovations in its various programmes. The Educational Development Project (EDP) was conceived as an alternative to research to develop CPs’ knowledge and skills required for developmental work. The EDP is concerned with capacity building at classroom and school level depending on the needs of the relevant stakeholders. A contextually relevant model was adapted for EDP at AKU-IED. The purpose of the study was to investigate the course developed for EDP at AKUIED. For the …

Teacher Status : A Symposium, Anjum Halai

Books

No abstract provided.

Illinois Public Community College Department Chair Roles And Role Conflict, Kristine M. Young

Vice President for Academic Services Scholarship

This research had two purposes: to determine community college department chair roles and to determine whether role conflict exists for the status of Illinois public community college department chair. The research was divided into two phases. In Phase I, community college department chair role factors were determined. Using ratings of importance reported by a sample of Illinois public community college department chairs on a modified version of Carroll and Gmelch’s (1992) department chair duty questionnaire, principal components analysis was employed to determine an underlying factor structure. Five factors were determined and interpreted as department chair roles: Department Leader, Resource Manager, …

About The Authors, Volume 25 (2007)

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

About the editors and authors/contributors of volume 25 (2007) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development.

Preface, Volume 25 (2007), Douglas Reimondo Robertson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Preface to volume 25 (2007) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Douglas Reimondo Robertson of Highland Heights, Kentucky.

Introduction, Volume 25 (2007), Douglas Reimondo Robertson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Introduction to volume 25 (2007) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Douglas Reimondo Robertson of Highland Heights, Kentucky.

Ethical Guidelines For Educational Developers

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Ethical guidelines for educational developers brepared by Mintz, Smith, and Warren, January 1999. Revised March 1999, September 1999, and March 2000.

It All Started In The Sixties: Movements For Change Across The Decades—A Personal Journey, R. Eugene Rice

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A combination of memoir and social commentary, this chapter explores changes in higher education throughout five decades—1960s: utopian quest for learning communities; 1970s: faculty development movement; 1980s: focus on the academic workplace; 1990s: broadening the understanding of scholarship; and 2000s: new pathways and the engaged campus. This chapter provides a context for the careers and work of faculty, academic administrators, and faculty development specialists (both new and experienced) as well as for the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD).

Living Engagement, Bell Hooks, Douglas Reimondo Robertson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this “talking chapter” bell hooks reveals, through dialogue about her thoughts and experiences related to college teaching and learning, a profound and robust perspective on what could be called “deep” faculty development. Topics include engaged pedagogy, therapeutic conversations, spiritual practice, difference, conflict, and love.

Surviving To Tenure, James M. Lang

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

For most new faculty, anxiousness about the tenure application begins from the first day on the job. Surviving the six intervening years on the tenure track requires a range of time- and career-management skills that new faculty may only learn piecemeal along the way. New faculty need help in five specific areas in order to survive their path down the tenure track: 1) developing teaching strategies that will fit their personalities and reach as many students as possible, 2) managing their time to allow for research and publication, 3) determining what and how many service commitments to make, 4) existing …

The Abcs Of Fractal Thinking In Higher Education, Edward Nuhfer

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

All learning establishes and often stabilizes neural networks in the brain. These carry both cognitive and affective attributes and have fractal form. Fractal networks produce many actions and products that exhibit fractal qualities. Awareness of such qualities provides a unifying key to understanding and applying educational knowledge. It represents a marked shift in perception that differs from thinking customarily employed in considering information as a specialist. This alternate perspective helps professionals in higher education draw on diverse information from specialty research and apply it more effectively.

Toward A Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning In Educational Development, Peter Felten, Alan Kalish, Allison Pingree, Kathryn M. Plank

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Educational development traditionally has been a practice-based field. We propose that as a profession we adopt the methods of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), so often shared with our clients, in order to look through a scholarly lens at the outcomes of our own practice. Using SoTL approaches in our work would deepen the research literature in our field and improve the effectiveness of decisions we make about where to spend limited time and resources. In this chapter, we explore what it might mean for individual developers, and for our professional community, to apply SoTL methods to our …

Faculty Development Through Student Learning Initiatives: Lessons Learned, Nancy Simpson, Jean Layne, Adalet Baris Gunersel, Blake Godkin, Fred Froyd

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A project aimed at improving student learning while facilitating the professional development of faculty participants in the area of teaching has yielded a rich collection of data. In addition to providing critical information about how faculty members think, the project has broadened our thinking regarding the link between student learning initiatives and faculty development. The project has also increased our understanding of the interests of faculty members who are not typically clients of faculty development centers and motivated thinking on how to serve the professional development goals of this group.

Action Research For Instructional Improvement: Using Data To Enhance Student Learning At Your Institution, Constance E. Cook, Mary Wright, Christopher O'Neal

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Action research is a powerful tool that can be used by teaching centers to improve teaching and learning. This chapter describes an action research project conducted at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan. The project concerns retention and attrition in science gateway courses, with particular attention given to the role of the teaching assistant. This chapter concludes with a discussion of six principles for teaching center staff who wish to conduct their own action research projects.

Moving From The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning To Educational Research: An Example From Engineering, Ruth A. Streveler, Maura Borrego, Karl A. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In The Advancement of Learning , Huber and Hutchings (2005) state that the “scholarship of teaching and learning . . . is about producing knowledge that is available for others to use and build on” (p. 27). Can viewing the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as an educational research activity help make SoTL findings more available and easier to build on? This chapter describes a program that prepared engineering faculty to conduct rigorous research in engineering education. Project evaluation revealed that engineering faculty had difficulty making some of the paradigm shifts that were presented in the project.