Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

A Brief History Of Educational Development: Implications For Teachers And Developers, Richard G. Tiberius

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

An historical review of the practice of educational development identified four belief systems about teaching and learning that shape the practice. Each system is characterized by an assumption about the teacher’s role: content expert; performer, who makes learning happen; facilitator, who encourages learning through interaction; and helper, whose relationship with learners is a vehicle for learning. The good news is that even teachers who are limited to only one of these belief systems can be successful. On the other hand, developers must have an appreciation for more than one belief system if they are to be successful at helping teachers.

Linking Change Initiatives: The Carnegie Academy For The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning In The Company Of Other National Projects, Barbara Cambridge

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The scholarship of teaching and learning provides an overarching framework for progress on a number of important educational issues today. The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning encourages connections with other national projects that deal with issues such as defining student learning outcomes, building an infrastructure of support, and establishing evidence for purposes of accountability in mutually supportive ways. Connecting such efforts honors faculty time in the midst of multiple demands and raises the likelihood of significant, lasting impact on the quality of teaching and learning.

Research On Faculty As Teaching Mentors: Lessons Learned From A Study Of Participants In Uc Berkeley's Seminar For Faculty Who Teach With Graduate Student Instructors, Linda Von Hoene, Jacqueline Mintz

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter describes the results of a research study of University of California, Berkeley’s annual seminar for faculty teaching with Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs). It demonstrates that such a faculty development activity can have a significant impact not only on faculty mentoring of GSIs but also on faculty teaching, attitudes, and behaviors vis-à-vis teaching and learning in higher education. The chapter presents an overview of the seminar, a description of the format and methodology of the research project, and qualitative and quantitative outcomes.

Evaluating Teaching Workshops: Beyond The Satisfaction Survey, David G. Way, Virleen M. Carlson, Susan C. Piliero

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Workshops are a prevalent approach to fostering instructional development for both teaching assistants (TAs) and faculty. Frequently we evaluate workshops by asking participants to fill out a satisfaction-oriented survey at the end. To what degree do such surveys evaluate adequately the workshop’s long-term effect on participants’ learning? The authors explicate earlier investigative work on transfer of training, and present the results of a follow-up survey to two groups of TA workshop participants designed to assess the degree to which conditions theoretically conducive to the transfer of training exist at their institution.

Operational Diversity: Saying What We Mean, Doing What We Say, Wayne Jacobson, Jim Borgford-Parnell, Katherine Frank, Michael Peck, Lois Reddick

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Diversity issues, ranging from individual learning styles to institutional equity, are central to teaching and learning, but identifying and addressing these issues is a formidable task. At the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR), our staff is gaining ground on this work through the Inclusive Practices Portfolio, a collaborative forum for documenting, sharing, and supporting our individual and organizational diversity initiatives. The process of developing the center’s portfolio and the portfolio itself are mechanisms for change within the center and a model far change at our institution and beyond.

Instructional Development: Relationships To Teaching And Learning In Higher Education, Kathleen Mckinney

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The purpose of this chapter is to review recent literature on instructional development in higher education. More specifically, it defines and illustrates instructional development as a major component of faculty development. Next, it reviews research on how development activities are associated with teaching and learning. Finally, it argues there is a critical need for additional research and offers suggestions for accomplishing that research agenda.

Teaching Through Discussion As The Exercise Of Disciplinary Power, Stephen D. Brookfield

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The French philosopher Michel Foucault spent much of his lifetime analyzing the way in which power flows through all human interactions, including those of discussion groups within higher education. His analysis of disciplinary power and surveillance is directly applicable to the practice of discussion-based teaching.

Volume 14, Number 01, G. William Hill Editor

Reaching Through Teaching

Full text of Volume 14, Number 01 of Reaching Through Teaching.

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 12, Number 2, Fall 2001, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Exchange

Contents

Message from the President - Jeff Halprin, Nichols College

Teaching Through Disaster - Matt Ouellett, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

From the Editor - Sue Barrett, Boston College

Connecticut College Responds to September 11 - Michael Reder, Connecticut College

Annual NEFDC Fall 2001 Conference; theme: Higher Education After Technology: Faculty Work In a Wired World; keynote speaker: Randy Bass, Georgetown University; Friday, November 16th, 2001, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts

Spirit of Teaching - Bill Searle, Asnuntuck Community College

The Hope Photographs -Sue Barrett, Boston College

Board of Directors

Introduction, Volume 19 (2001), Devorah Lieberman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Introduction to volume 19 (2001) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, written by Devorah Lieberman of Portland State University.

Ethical Guidelines For Educational Developers

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Ethical guidelinesfor educational developers prepared by Mintz, Smith, and Warren, January 1999, revised March 1999, September 1999, and March 2000.

Transitions And Transformations: The Making Of Department Chairs, Irene W. D. Hecht

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

When we talk about a need for leadership in higher education, we are in fact demanding that chairs be leaders. Is there then another level of transition that is required today of those who become chairs? Is task mastery a guarantee of being a leader? If there are other adaptations needed, what might they be? That is the focus of this exploration. This chapter examines the theory behind leadership and applies to it models that are aligned with the leadership skills needed for successful chair leadership. This article specifically addresses the role of faculty developers in supporting department chairs in …

Education For Responsible Citizenship: A Challenge For Faculty Developers, Thomas Ehrlich

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Higher education professionals need clearer, stronger frameworks for the integration of both civic and moral learning and the more common cognitive learning that occurs in traditional classrooms. This article addresses when and why this author chose to focus on community service-learning as a way to reengage in direct work with students and other civic responsibilities. His discussion focuses on student acquisition of academic knowledge and skills through service-learning and the study of ethical dilemmas facing professionals in different fields. He proffers in-depth discussion on service-learning programs championed by the Carnegie Foundation and addresses how these programs working with faculty across …

A Prophet In Your Own Land? Using Faculty And Student Focus Groups To Address Issues Of Race, Ethnicity, And Gender In The Classroom, James Francisco Bonnilla, Patricia R. Palmerton

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this study, six focus groups of faculty and students addressed issues of how race, ethnicity, and gender affected their classroom experiences. Consistent themes emerged across all groups, including feeling unsafe and vulnerable, concerns about equity, power, and role modeling. As importantly, the research process itself became a vehicle for growth and change in the community at large, both inside and outside the classroom. Six recommendations are offered for those who seek innovative approaches to addressing race and gender in the classroom.

Faculty Learning Communities: Change Agents For Transforming Institutions Into Learning Organizations, Milton D. Cox

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In my 20 years of faculty development, I have found faculty learning communities to be the most effective programs for achieving faculty learning and development. In addition, these communities build communication across disciplines, increase faculty interest in teaching and learning, initiate excursions into the scholarship of teaching, and foster civic responsibility. They provide a multifaceted, flexible, and holistic approach to faculty development. They change individuals, and, over time, they change institutional culture. Faculty learning communities and their “graduates” are change agents who can enable an institution to become a learning organization. In this article I introduce faculty learning communities and …

Doing Faculty Development As If We Value Learning Most: Transformative Guidelines From Research To Practice, Thomas Anthony Angelo

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

If producing high-quality student learning is American higher education’s defining goal, how can faculty development best contribute to its realization? In response to that question, this essay synthesizes theories, findings, and strategies from a variety of literatures into seven transformative ideas which, taken together, have the potential to make our mental models of and approaches to faculty development more effective. It also offers seven guidelines based on these ideas, as well as related, practical strategies for doing faculty development as if student learning matters most.

Clarity In Teaching In Higher Education: Dimensions And Classroom Strategies, Nira Hativa

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay presents research knowledge regarding the main dimensions of effective teaching in higher education, concentrating on clarity in teaching and its components—classroom behaviors and strategies that promote clear teaching. On this basis, I suggest arranging all dimensions and classroom strategies of effective teaching within a logical structure of interconnected teaching behaviors whose contribution to student learning is based on theory and research. The model organizes all dimensions and strategies of effective teaching in three hierarchical levels and is illustrated by successively breaking down clarity in teaching into intermediate dimensions and classroom behaviors and strategies. The model may help faculty …

Preparing Today's Faculty For Tomorrow's Students: One College's Faculty Development Solution, Patrick Nellis, Helen Clarke, Jacalyn Dimartino, David K. Hosman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida, has created a faculty development program underwritten for the past five years by a US Department of Education Title III Strengthening Institutions Grant. Our program rose from a deliberate desire to build active, collaborative faculty teams that would, in turn, build active, collaborative classrooms; our results demonstrate that faculty development programs based on observable and measurable outcomes can positively affect student academic performance and persistence. This essay details this faculty development project.

The Role Of A Teaching Center In Curricular Reform, Constance Ewing Cook

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Instructional consultants can play a crucial role in curricular reform. They gather evaluation and assessment data about the current curriculum so that faculty decisions about improvements are based on empirical evidence. They organize and facilitate meetings and retreats at which faculty make curricular decisions, and they provide pedagogical expertise and resources to help with course design and enhancement. They also provide ongoing data for formative evaluation of the new curriculum. Examples from the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching illustrate instructional consultants’ contributions to the curricular reform process.

Technology And The Culture Of Teaching And Learning, Sean Courtney

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty development professionals in postsecondary institutions face many challenges helping faculty adapt to the new forms of information technology. Chief among them is understanding how technology is forcing us to rethink current classroom practices. To aid this effort, this essay identifies and analyzes six key dimensions of traditional cultures of teaching and learning and attempts to show how technology, particularly computer-mediated forms, is transforming their meaning and potential impact.

Developing New Faculty: An Evolving Program, Gloria Pierce

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay describes the evolution of a program for the development of new faculty at a public teaching university. The year-long process of orienting the newest professors to the campus and assisting them with their scholarship and teaching results in additional (albeit unplanned and unexpected) benefits, such as professional renewal of senior faculty who serve as advisors and enhanced functioning of the university itself. Vital to the program’s success is the productive involvement of key campus constituencies and responsiveness to feedback.

Strengthening Collegiality To Enhance Teaching, Research, And Scholarly Practice: An Untapped Resource For Faculty Development, Gerlese S. Åkerlind, Kathleen M. Quinlan

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Collegiality lies at the intersection of various aspects of academic practice, including teaching as well as research. As such, assisting junior faculty in learning to build their collegial networks becomes a powerful point of intervention for faculty developers, even for those who focus on teaching development. Data from interviews with faculty engaged in both teaching and research, plus our experiences in conducting a series of career building initiatives are analyzed to identify junior faculty perceptions of the role of collegiality and barriers to establishing collegial ties. Two main barriers are identified: 1) knowing that collegiality and networking is important, and …

Faculty Quality Of Life, Sally S. Atkins, Kathleen T. Brinko, Jeffrey A. Butts, Charles S. Claxton, Glenda T. Hubbard

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

An interdisciplinary research team conducted a formal assessment of campus culture and faculty quality of life at Appalachian State University. Interviews with a stratified random sample of full-time, tenure-track faculty revealed five themes: 1) the importance of human relationships, 2) the deep commitment of faculty to student learning, 3)general satisfaction with academic life, 4) the personal sacrifice of faculty members for their work, and 5) perceptions of incongruence between institutional rhetoric and action. Recommendations are offered for readers to apply to their own universities to help faculty, staff, students, and administrators work together toward becoming an institution that is a …

Scholarship Unbound: Assessing Service As Scholarship In Promotion And Tenure Decisions, Kerryann O’Meara

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Scholars of higher education have long recognized that existing reward systems and structures in academic communities do not weight faculty professional service as they do teaching and research. This paper examines how four colleges and universities with exemplary programs for assessing service as scholarship implemented these policies within colleges of education. Case studies suggest that policies to assess service as scholarship can increase consistency among an institution’s service mission, faculty workload, and reward system; expand faculty’s views of scholarship; boost faculty satisfaction; and strengthen the quality of an institution’s service culture.

Preface, Volume 19 (2001), Devorah Lieberman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Preface to volume 19 (2001) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, written by Devorah Lieberman of Portland State University.

Fostering The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning: Communities Of Practice, Barbara L. Cambridge

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

September 1999, and March 2000.

Higher–Level Learning: The First Step Toward More Significant Learning, L. Dee Fink

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In order to design significant learning experiences far students, teachers first need to be able to formulate powerful and challenging goals for their courses. This essay describes a taxonomy of higher-level learning that consists of six kinds of learning: foundational knowledge, application, integration, the human dimension, motivation, and learning how to learn. The argument is made that this taxonomy goes beyond the familiar taxonomy of Benjamin Bloom and encompasses a wide range of goals that are currently advocated by many national organizations and scholars in higher education. The taxonomy can be used to design better courses, choose among alternative teaching …

Faculty Development That Transforms The Undergraduate Experience At A Research University, Kathleen S. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Rethinking the undergraduate experience at research universities is a necessary goal for the new millennium according to the Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates (1998). Faculty development efforts provide a starting place for a transformation of the traditional teaching-learning model. This essay describes the faculty development support structure included in a FIPSE sponsored program to promote learning by inquiry. The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) at the University of Georgia meshes teaching and research so that undergraduate students become participants in the strengths of a research university by becoming part of a community of learners.

The Case For Sophisticated Course Syllabi, Michael J. Strada

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Just as the last thing a fish would notice is water, academics tend to overlook the value of a comprehensive course syllabus. It seems too prosaic for some instructors to take seriously. Despite operating largely in obscurity, a nascent body of literature appreciative of the syllabus’ latent potential is emerging. The distinguishing features of model syllabi are traced here, and their respective benefits analyzed. First and foremost, good syllabi enhance student learning by improving the way courses are taught. But the potential of syllabi can also be tapped by using them more prominently in the faculty evaluation process. Much slower …

Designing Teaching Portfolios Based On A Formal Model Of The Scholarship Of Teaching, Carolin Kreber

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Many universities now encourage, and some even require, faculty to submit a teaching portfolio as part of their tenure application package. How to evaluate these portfolios, however, remains an unresolved issue, particularly if the task is to make a judgment about whether what is demonstrated in the portfolio reflects engagement in the scholarship of teaching. The thesis of this chapter is that judgments regarding the validity and truthfulness of a teaching portfolio can be made by assessing the extent to which the author has attended to an agreed-upon process of knowledge construction and validation in teaching. A model of the …