Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Western Guide To Mentorship In Academia, Donald Gordon Cartwright

Purple Guides

This guide addresses the importance of mentoring for new faculty members, describes the pros and cons of various mentorship models, and offers advice for mentors and mentees.

Collaboration Or Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based Assignments Clearly, Tuesday Cooper

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Much has been written about the use of collaborative learning as a pedagogical tool to enhance student learning. Collaborative learning, or group work as it is commonly known, can be defined as a structured process where students are required to work in groups to complete a common task or assignment for a particular course. It has been identified as one of the most effective ways for students to become actively engaged in classroom activities (Davis, 1993; McKeachie, 1999; Nilson, 1998).

Although there are many positive aspects of group work, there are negatives as well. One particular problem occurs when students …

Developing The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning Using Faculty Learning Communities, Milton D. Cox

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) have proven successful in producing teaching projects, as evidenced by a survey of institutions with FLCs. It follows that these groups should provide ideal conditions for a subsequent development of those projects into peerreviewed publications and presentations, or the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This essay offers faculty practical advice for producing such SoTL products based on what started as a teaching project in an FLC. My advice is based on work with FLCs for 28 years on my campus and others (Cox, 2003).

The Right Start: Reflections On A Departmentally Based Graduate Course On Teaching, Craig E. Nelson

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Full credit courses on teaching offered by academic departments for their own graduate students and postdocs have many advantages. Many students come to graduate school because they want teaching to be an important part of their future professional life. Most who are hired in academia will go to jobs where teaching is important. Indiana University’s Graduate School noted that 95% of its PhDs who landed tenure-track positions found those positions at liberal arts colleges, smaller comprehensive universities, and urban institutions. They noted that their teaching experience at Bloomington did not necessarily prepare them fully for these jobs.

I offered a …

The Useful, Sensible, No-Frills Departmental Assessment Plan, Barbara E. Walvoord

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Academic departments from physics to philosophy to physical therapy face new demands for “assessment of student learning.” It’s hard to argue against the basic idea of assessment: when a department invests time and resources trying to nurture student learning, it should ask itself: Are they learning? Yet departments may also fear that assessment will require them to dumb-down their teaching; use standardized tests; teach alike; or compromise academic freedom. Every department wonders how it will find the time and resources for one more thing.

This essay suggests a simple, sustainable, and useful departmental assessment plan that capitalizes on what departments …

Academic Leadership On Faculty Performance, Stephanos Gialamas

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

In this article, we will provide a comprehensive approach for a yearly faculty performance evaluation report which includes the following components: (1) establishing a Yearly Faculty Performance Evaluation Plan (FPEP); (2) conducting a mid-year faculty self progress report; (3) creating a mid-year faculty progress evaluation report; (4) making a mid-year adjustment of the performance evaluation plan; (5) creating an end of the year faculty self-evaluation report; (6) conducting an end of the year faculty performance evaluation report.

Authentic Performance Assessment: Informing Candidates, Faculty And Programs, Debbie Mercer

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

In our quest for authentic performance assessment of our teacher education candidates, our institution embarked on a journey to develop effective tools. This article highlights the portfolio segment of our trip. While not a straight path, we have reflected and learned with each turn. We have arrived at a place that we feel provides our education unit with rich data regarding the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of our candidates.

Can Business Leaders Learn From Leaders Of Today’S Megachurches?, Peter A. Maresco

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

In 2005, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best selling books, The Turning Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Little, Brown & Company, 2000) and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Little, Brown & Company, 2005), wrote an article titled The Cellular Church that appeared in The New Yorker Magazine (9/12/05). The article retells the story of the beginnings and the growth of Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church located in the Saddleback Valley of Orange County, California. In re-reading the article I found an interesting quote attributed to Jack Welch, the former chairman of General Electric and …

Development Of Future Leaders: A Case Study On The Bank Of Thailand (Bot), Adisak Chandprapalert, Suda Suwannapirom

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

In the chaotic, volatile and complex business environment at the present time, an organization must be able to learn from and adapt to changes in order to enhance competitive advantage. As a result, leaders who make strategic decisions must adopt a new mind-set as new realities emerge and encourage strategic flexibility across and within their organizations (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2005). There are two significant factors to be strategically flexible on a continuing basis including leaders must develop an organization vision with a corresponding strategic plan and have the ability to manage changes (Zaccaro & Banks, 2004). Vision and leadership …

Exploring The Relationship Between Avid Professional Development And Teacher Leadership, Jeffrey Huerta, Karen Watt, Ersan Alkan

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Classroom teachers receive various forms of professional development throughout their careers with the intent of improving their teaching practices and ultimately, student performance. However, professional development can also have an impact on teacher leadership activities outside of the classroom as well. The purpose of this study is to assess whether professional development received from the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program has an effect on AVID elective teachers’ level of teacher leadership within their schools. Teachers from middle schools and high schools implementing, or planning to implement, AVID were examined in order to answer the following research questions: 1) Is …

Introduction To Codebusters, Richard Archer

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Spelling is an ignored wound in American education. It is so ignored that university teacher-preparation programs do not even include a single course on how to teach spelling. Lacking professional guidance, teachers concoct a variety of approaches. Some present a list of words and tell their students to memorize them for Friday’s test. Others have their students finger-paint the words. Others dwell on complex rules, such as: “In monosyllabic words ending in a terminal consonant, double the terminal consonant before adding –ed or -ing.” Spelling is so ignored that California’s entire content standards for eighth grade spelling instruction is four …

Leaders And Leadership Roles In Relation To Effective Management Of The Human Resources, John Inyang

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

The term leader is defined as a person initiating interaction with other members of a group, a person who moves the group towards group goal. The dictionary definition of a leader is ‘one who leads or goes first’. In other words one who first perceives the group’s needs far ahead of others and therefore plans and enlists the cooperation of others in its implementation. A person is a leader in any social situation in which his ideas and actions influence the thoughts and behaviours of others. The concept of a ‘leader’ therefore implies role-playing for some time. To be called …

Profile Of Online Programs In Private Colleges: From College To University With A Click, Michael Miller, Adam Morris

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Private higher education institutions have traditionally relied heavily on tuition revenues for their operation. Historically, these colleges have realized 80-90% of their operating revenue through tuition funding, making them reliant on their ability to attract and retain tuition-paying students (Gansemer-Topf & Schuh, 2006). This means that they are not only more tuition dependent than their public university counterparts (Summers, 2004), but that they must forecast expenditures and revenues with tremendous accuracy.

Reputation Management In Educational Organizations: Suggestion Of A New Model, Turgut Karak

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Reputation management strategy is a professional service which is more recent than other service sectors and it helps, supports organizations. Interest in reputation management first increased in 1990 in USA. With subsequent “Most Admired Corporations” research done by Fortune Magazine, reputation management started drawing attention in global market (Deephouse 2002).

The Blogging College And University President: Academic Leadership In The Age Of Web 2.0, David Wyld

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Blogs are certainly at the forefront of the Web 2.0 movement. Blogging has been alternatively categorized as both “the next big thing” (Gallo, 2004) and an “Internet Wasteland” (Anonymous, 2003). In a nutshell, a blog can be differentiated from a website in that it is an easier to create and update web vehicle, usually simply by typing into a preprogrammed interface. From a definitional perspective, a blog refers to an online journal that can be updated regularly, with entries typically displayed in chronological order. While blogs now encompass not only text, but video and audio as well, it is generally …

Circumventing The “Wow Factor”: Pitfalls And Recommendations When Infusing New Technologies, Derrick Davis

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

With the advent of emerging technologies in the educational arena, decision makers, at times, feel compelled to “jump on board” or get left behind the technology train. Clearly, the pressure is on with colleges now being ranked for its use of technology as in “America’s Top Wired Colleges” (Burnett 2003) and more and more students refusing to leave their technological wits at the schoolyard doors. Naysayers to the technology movement in education liken it to trends similar to the new math of the 60’s, the open classrooms of the 70’s, or the Charter schools of today. Over the last three …

Competitive Marketing And Planning Strategy In Higher Education, Darrell Burrell, Brian Grizzell

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

With growing business markets, an increasingly large pool of nontraditional students, company implemented diversity initiatives, and a dire need for a well-trained workforce; American institutions of higher learning are facing a huge challenge. When it comes to the nuances of sales and marketing, most people do not consider the relevance to colleges and universities. Many colleges and universities are facing some daunting financial challenges. These schools are facing some tremendous perplexities in attracting new students because they tend to cost more than state colleges and university. Liberal arts colleges charge tuitions that range from $15,000 to $25,000, which is lower …

Identifying And Developing Scientific And Performance Standards For Educational Administrators Of Tehran’S High Schools And Providing An Appropriate Model, Hosseein Khanifar, Gholamreza Jandaghi

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Nowadays, the necessity of continuous and permanent attendance of standard is felt in various fields of human life in general and in training and education field in particular because that standard is a ground for similar performance and an indicator for identifying the rate of individuals’ success in designated works. (Nilly Ahamad Abadi, 2003). Generally, one can study human resource standards in three aspects of knowledge, function and behavior. Knowledge standards consist of the knowledge expected to be possessed by the individuals. In fact, they define scientific issues that should be learned by individuals. Performance standards consist of a qualitative …

Preparing Faculty And Staff For Change, Susan Madsen

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Pursuing excellence in higher education requires constant and continuous change. In fact, throughout the past few decades the need for the effective change in higher education has not only increased but become more complex. New challenges have surfaced in today’s educational, economic, and political environments making it more difficult to strive for and obtain this true excellence. In his book Pursuing Excellence in Higher Education, Brent D. Ruben (2004) presents the eight fundamental challenges in higher education today: 1) broadening public appreciation for the work of the academy; 2) better understanding and addressing the needs of workplaces; 3) becoming more …

The External Shareholders’ Impressions Regarding Corporate Reputation In Educational Organizations, Turgut Karak

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

A good reputation can create barriers to competition and inhibit the mobility of rival companies, attract the best supply chain and business partners, create a premium value for a company’s products and services (Sherman 1999, 10). On the one hand, reputation is valuable; it has bottom-line effects on firms. On the other hand, reputation buffers firms from the immediate reaction of stakeholders in their environment when controversial events occur (Schultz et al 2000, 79).

Student Rating Of Instruction: A Survey Of Satisfaction And Uses, Rhonda Magel, Charles Mcintyre

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

This paper describes a study conducted at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in an effort to measure the level of satisfaction and uses of the student evaluation process, from now on referred to as the Student Rating of Instruction (SROI). This study consisted of the following five (5) phases: Phase I – Input from the Students Phase II – Input from Administrators Phase III – Input from Faculty Phase IV – Data Analysis and Evaluation Phase V – Recommendations and Conclusions

Editorial Board, About This Issue, Table Of Contents, Deirdre C. Greer

Perspectives In Learning

Editorial Board, About this Issue, Table of Contents

Mr. Bell, You Are Destroying Our Children!, David Rock

Perspectives In Learning

Is technology the wave of the future? Society says "YES" when it is convenient and educators respond with a multitude of answers. The use of technology in today's classroom has become a controversial curricular topic for those inside and outside the classroom. Why? I am sure that many of the same arguments used today against the use of technology in P-12 education are similar to those used during the past 100 years. Imagine the thousands of educators a hundred years ago that said, "The use of this new invention will destroy the writing ability of our children. There will be …

Introduction, Volume 26 (2008), Douglas Reimondo Robertson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Introduction to volume 26 (2008) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Douglas Reimondo Robertson of Northern Kentucky University.

Ethical Guidelines For Educational Developers

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

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

Evaluating Teaching: A New Approach To An Old Problem, L. Dee Fink

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The approach to evaluating the quality of teaching described in this chapter starts by developing a Model of Good Teaching. This model is then used to create a set of evaluation procedures based on four key dimensions of teaching: design of learning experiences, quality of teacher/student interactions, extent and quality of student learning, and teacher’s effort to improve over time. The challenges and benefits of using these procedures are discussed.

Investigating Indicators Of The Scholarship Of Teaching: Teaching Awards In Research Universities, Stacie Badran

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Results from a nationwide study of teaching awards programs in mathematics departments of U.S. research universities show that only a small percentage even offers such awards. Those that do either use ad hoc procedures and criteria for making awards or prioritize curricular contributions over instructional and pedagogical knowledge in selecting award winners. In addition, mathematics faculty reserve the term scholarship for research in the discipline rather than research on teaching of the discipline.

Points Without Limits: Individual Inquiry, Collaborative Investigation, And Collective Scholarship, Richard A. Gale

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter proposes that a scholarship of teaching and learning focused on collaborative and collective inquiry can be more effective and have greater impact on student learning and the advancement of knowledge than investigations accomplished by individual faculty and students working in isolation. This conclusion is arrived at as a result of examining the work of Carnegie Scholars and the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Campus Program participants since 1998.

Assessment Of A Faculty Learning Community Program: Do Faculty Members Really Change?, Susan Polich

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this study, participants in a faculty learning community (FLC) program were followed to see if they had really changed their epistemological beliefs and teaching methods. Of the 39 FLC participants, 87% reported a change in their epistemological beliefs and 79% reported a change in their teaching methods. Seven participants were followed in-depth to determine if their reported changes actually occurred. Observations suggest that none of the seven appeared to have changed epistemological beliefs although all changed teaching methods. More importantly, the participants adopted their new pedagogy only when the pedagogy was aligned with their beliefs.

Thawing The Chilly Climate: Inclusive Teaching Resources For Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math, Katherine A. Friederich, Sherill L. Sellers, Judith N. Burstyn

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Although universities are aware of the need to promote diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), this awareness has not translated into significant changes in classroom environments. Many STEM instructors would like to offer equal opportunities for success to all of their students, but they are not sure where to begin. We describe an effective group of teaching tools that can empower STEM faculty and graduate students to modify their courses to address diversity at their own pace. These resources extend from awareness exercises to recommendations for action and have been useful tools for course design, teaching assistant training, …