Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Triangulating Faculty Needs For The Assessment Of Student Learning, D. Lynn Sorenson, Timothy W. Bothell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

To enhance assessment of student learning, the Brigham Young University (BYU) Faculty Center undertook a needs assessment to guide new initiatives. Researchers reviewed results from the National Survey of Student Engagement and an earlier BYU faculty survey. In addition, they conducted a qualitative study with faculty and administrators. The qualitative study can serve as a model for other faculty developers considering new initiatives. The findings raised thought-provoking issues for faculty development, particularly faculty readiness. As a result of this research, the center bolstered current services and developed new ones to support the assessment of student learning.

Evaluating The Return On Investment Of Faculty Development, Timothy W. Bothell, Tom Henderson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

How can the return on investment of faculty development be determined? One way to do this is through the application of a highly replicated and reported return on investment (ROI) process. This chapter reviews briefly an ROI process used by organizations throughout the world, a process that has been the basis for over 100 published studies and is the most validated and reported ROI process used for determining the monetary impact of learning. The process utilizes a five-level framework and a step-by-step ROI process model. These components are reviewed in this chapter and an example of return on investment based …

Playing Well With Others: Academic Development As A Team Sport, Nancy Van Note Chism

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

An important first step to attacking significant institutional problems is working across the organizational silos that encompass campus units. This chapter draws upon an experience in collaboration through which an academic development center chose to partner with a variety of campus units to address a vexing problem facing many campuses: unacceptable rates of first-year student retention. The chapter then goes beyond the case to identify the kinds of collaborations that can be created to treat other pressing academic issues and highlight characteristics of successful collaborations that academic development centers can initiate or join.

Beyond Bean Counting: Making Faculty Development Needs Assessment More Meaningful, Pamela M. Milloy, Corly Brooke

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty development centers face many challenges including shrinking resources while providing an increasing array of programs and services to enhance learning. Needs assessment can be seen as a valuable tool to help centers focus efforts to meet the most salient needs relevant to the institutional mission. This chapter describes a faculty development needs assessment project that was implemented at a large public institution. Data collected was used to focus programming and guide decision-making. Based upon a presentation at the 2002 POD conference, selected needs assessment findings and their programmatic implications for the center are presented.

Approaching Faculty Development Support From The Grassroots: Establishment Of An Innovative, Formal, Untenured Faculty Organization, Ellen N. Junn, Ellen Kottler, Jacqueline K. Coffman, Pamella H. Oliver, Fred Ramirez

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter describes an innovative faculty support program designed for untenured faculty and full-time lecturers. Working closely with members of the administration, untenured faculty and full-time lecturers established and created a voluntary, formal, cross-departmental faculty organization called the ULO (Untenured Faculty and Full-Time Lecturer Organization). The ULO has formal bylaws, elected officers and a mission that initiated activities all designed to support junior faculty and full-time lecturers within the college. Even within its initial year, this organization offered a significant variety of meaningful support activities with positive outcomes. The activities include formation of a Research Writing Workgroup, workshops on the …

The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning: Past Lessons, Current Challenges, And Future Visions, Kathleen Mckinney

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter reviews the complex history of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) including SoTL as a social movement and various conceptualizations of the term. Based on extant work, I also discuss past lessons, current challenges, and future directions for SoTL. Additional theorizing and research are needed in many areas. Suggestions related to faculty and organizational development and change are imbedded in this discussion.

Is The Thrill Gone? An Investigation Of Faculty Vitality Within The Context Of The Community College, Cathie J. Peterson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This single institutional case study investigated faculty vitality within the context of the community college by answering the following research questions: What are the characteristics of vital faculty within the community college? What effect does the environment have on faculty vitality? What do the vital faculty do to maintain their vitality? Qualitative research methods were employed to study the lives of the faculty within their naturalistic setting, thereby giving voice to the vital community college faculty.

A Faculty Development Program To Promote Engaged Classroom Dialogue: The Oral Communication Institute, Kim M. Mooney, Traci Fordham, Valerie D. Lehr

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The St. Lawrence University faculty development program in oral communication promotes and enhances teaching strategies and philosophies for productive and civil classroom discourse. Started in January 2002, the Oral Communication Institute (OCI) provides a sustained forum in which faculty explore the relationship among oral communication, critical thinking, and deep learning. In addition to creating discourse communities, the OCI affords participants opportunities to develop strategies for interactive, reflective student learning. This chapter addresses the essential components for developing an oral communication institute: clear teaching and learning goals, a deliberate format and curriculum, experiential pedagogy, and opportunities for faculty dialogue and reflection.

Graduate Student Mentors: Meeting The Challenges Of The Ongoing Development Of Graduate Student Instructors, Chris O'Neal, Jennifer Karlin

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Training and mentoring Graduate Student Instructors (GS Instructors) at large institutions presents three challenges to instructional developers: 1) training numerous GS Instructors from multiple departments, 2) the vast array of duties GS Instructors need training in, and 3) the continual sophistication of GS Instructors. Here we describe how the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan has met these challenges through the use of Graduate Student Mentors (GS Mentors). GS Mentors are experienced GS Instructors who are trained to mentor and advise their peers. We discuss how the GS Mentors are selected, trained, and supervised, and how they have …

Engaging Students In The Agricultural Education Model: Factors Affecting Student Participation In The National Ffa Organization, B. Allen Talbert, Mark Balschweid

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of engagement of agricultural education students in the FFA, their agricultural education courses, their high school courses, and agriculture. This descriptive study using self-administered mailed questionnaires had a 52% useable response rate from FFA members and a 63% useable response rate from nonmembers. Members of the National FFA Organization more than non-members had a higher percentage that were current or former 4-H members, a higher percentage that had parents or siblings who were in agricultural education or 4-H, and a higher percentage self-reported that they lived on a farm. A …

Critical Geography And The Real World In First-Year Writing Classrooms, Matthew I. Feinberg

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

By helping students confront the ideologies that shape their physical and cultural experiences, critical geography in first year writing classrooms may be one means of collapsing the perceived distance between the classroom and the "real world."

Analyzing Dominant Cultural Narratives Of Religious Pluralism: A Study Of Oprah.Com, Patricia Webb, Zach Waggoner

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This essay analyzes Oprah.com, the website for multimedia mogul Oprah Winfrey, to examine the tensions between dominate religious ideologies and pluralism in America.

Connecting, Helen Walker, Joanne Katzmarek, Steven L. Vanderstaay, Irwin Ramirez Leopando, Christopher Sweet, Howard Wolf

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

JoAnne Katzmarek—Thoughts Like Flying Grouse

Steven L. VanderStaay—I'm With You, Huck

Irwin Ramirez Leopando—A Moment of Connections

Christopher Sweet—The Brightening Glance

Howard Wolf—Personal Teaching

Jaepl, Vol. 10, Winter 2004-2005, Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Linda T. Calendrillo

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Essays

Lynn Z. Bloom. The Seven Deadly Virtues.

The university stifles most creative writers except the most intrepid—even reckless, the good along with the bad—in the process of teaching them to write according to the conventions of the academy in general, and their specific disciplines in particular.

David L. Wallace. Shallow Literacy, Timid Teaching, and Cultural Impotence.

Any attempt to move to a deeper notion of literacy in our theory and pedagogy must—among other things—involve us facing our own self interest and expecting disruption in our own classrooms, departments, and universities.

Roben Torosyan. Listening: Beyond Telling to 'Being' …

The Seven Deadly Virtues, Lynn Z. Bloom

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The university stifles most creative writers except the most intrepid—even reckless, the good along with the bad—in the process of teaching them to write according to the conventions of the academy in general, and their specific disciplines in particular.

Listening: Beyond Telling To “Being” What We Want To Teach, Roben Torosyan

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

In response to a culture of polarized argument, this paper shows a way to provide people with practice at deep listening and understanding. The author examines ways in which self-disclosure about problems of dialog may be an ideal means for teachers or leaders to show people alternate ways of being in the world of meaning making.

Image Into Word: Glimpses Of Mental Images In Writers Writing, Hildy Miller

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This essay uses thought samples and interviews to show ways writers use mental imagery in non-creative writing task.

Front Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editors' Message

At Risk: Teaching and Writing Outside the Safety Zone

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released its damning indictment of American education. In the opening sentence of the report, the authors announce: "Our Nation is at risk." National prosperity, security, and civility are being "eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity" resulting from the failures of our schools and colleges.

Within this context "risk," defined by Webster's as "the possibility of suffering loss," is something to be avoided, or, if that is not possible, something to be managed. Thus, children struggling for success in school …

Critical Thinking Skills And Emotional-Response Discourse: Merging The Affective And Cognitive In Student-Authored Texts Through Taxonomy Usage, Ed Comber

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This essay discusses a taxonomy designed to help students identify emotive-response discourse in their evolving texts, a process that joins emotion and cognitive to foster critical thinking.

Shallow Literacy, Timid Teaching, And Cultural Impotence, David L. Wallace

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Any attempt to move to a deeper notion of literacy in our theory and pedagogy must—among other things—involve us facing our own self interest and expecting disruption in our own classrooms, departments, and universities.

Reviews, W. Keith Duffy, Elizabeth Vander Lei, Marian Maccurdy

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Reviews

W. Keith Duffy. Memoirs of Soul: Writing your Spiritual Autobiography. (Nan Phifer, 2002).

Elizabeth Vander Lei. A Communion of Friendship: Literacy, Spiritual Practice, and Women in Recovery. (Beth Daniel, 2003).

Marian MacCurdy. Writing To Save Your Life. (Michele Weldon, 2001).

Back Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Determining Critical Subject Matter Content For A Safety Certification Program For Youth Employed In Agricultural Production, Robbie R. Ortega, Roger L. Tormoehlen, William E. Field, Mark Balschweid, Krisanna L. Machtmes

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

Purdue University is conducting research to evaluate the effectiveness of an interactive CD-ROM and Internet-based curriculum teaching teenaged youth critical production agricultural safety and health-related information required under the Federal Hazardous Occupations Order. Selected community-based teaching strategies were evaluated and compared for their effectiveness in developing knowledge, changing attitudes and behaviors and improving practices related to the safe operation of agricultural tractors and machinery. This paper summarizes the methodology and outcomes of research conducted to identify and validate the core safety-related competencies upon which the curriculum was based. A preliminary set of competencies was developed using mandated training requirements, past …

The Impact Of Raising And Exhibiting Selected 4-H Livestock Projects On The Development Of Life And Project Skills, Clinton P. Rusk, Jill M. Summerlot-Early, Krisanna L. Machtmes, B. Allen Talbert, Mark Balschweid

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to identify perceptions of Indiana 4-H livestock members enrolled in beef, sheep and swine projects regarding their ability to perform project skills and develop life skills. A questionnaire was mailed to a sample of 420 4-H beef, sheep, and swine members, with a response rate of 41.9%. Members were able to accomplish project skills in the areas of sportsmanship, safety, animal grooming, and animal selection. Respondents are not as confident in their abilities related to animal health care. Members who exhibited at the state fair have higher skill levels in the areas of animal …

Preface, Volume 21 (2002), Catherine M. Wehlburg

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Preface to volume 21 (2003) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Devorah Lieberman of Portland State University.

Introduction. Volume 21 (2003), Catherine M. Wehlburg

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Introduction to volume 21 (2003) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Devorah Lieberman of Portland State University.

September 11, 2001, As A Teachable Moment, Edward Zlotkowski

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The Opening Plenary at the 2001 POD Conference was given by Edward Zlotkowski. Using the reactions to the events of September 11, 2001, as an example, he urged those in higher education to search out opportunities for academically based civic engagement and to focus on Boyer’s concept of the scholarship of engagement.

The Day After: Faculty Behavior In Post–September 11, 2001, Classes, Michele Dipietro

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

What is the best thing to do in the classroom in the face of a tragedy like the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? What should instructors do to help students, if anything? This article describes the results ofa faculty survey at Carnegie Mellon University. Faculty reported what actions they took in the classroom to help their students (or their rationales for not mentioning the attacks), and their degree of confidence on the effectiveness of their behaviors. Statistical techniques are used to assess the significance of some trends, and implications for faculty developers are discussed in light of cognitive, motivational, …

Internationalizing American Higher Education: A Call To Thought And Action, Deborah Dezure

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In the wake of the World Trade Center disaster, many faculty developers are asking themselves what they do to promote international peace and understanding. But even before these events, there has been an indication that there was a pressing need to focus on global competencies as an important part of higher education for the 21st century. The purpose of this essay is threefold: 1) to summarize the research on the status of internationalization on American campuses, 2) to make the case for the active involvement of faculty developers in internationalizing higher education, and 3) to offer strategies with which we …

The Knowledge Survey: A Tool For All Reasons, Edward Nuhfer, Delores Knipp

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Knowledge surveys provide a means to assess changes in specific content learning and intellectual development. More important, they promote student learning by improving course organization and planning. For instructors, the tool establishes a high degree of instructional alignment, and, if properly used, can ensure employment of all seven best practices during the enactment of the course. Beyond increasing success of individual courses, knowledge surveys inform curriculum development to better achieve, improve, and document program success.