Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Stereotype Threat And Ten Things We Can Do To Remove The Threat In The Air, Franklin A. Tuitt, Lois Reddick

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of the literature related to stereotype threat in an effort to provide faculty members and instructional developers with a better understanding of what the phenomenon is and what can be done about it in college classroom settings. To this end, we reviewed several of the major studies published on the subject between 1995 and 2005 and compiled a list of strategies that reflected both the major empirical findings on stereotype threat and our own research and experiences with faculty and students in college settings. Given the enormity of the subject, …

Faculty Development At Small And Liberal Arts Colleges, Kim M. Mooney, Michael Reder

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The notable growth of faculty development programs and centers at small institutions warrants attention before their next stages of growth. We aim to capture and convey the central issues coalescing around the professionalization of teaching and learning activities and the work of faculty developers at small colleges. While this descriptive review draws direct comparisons to other types of institutions, particularly large research and comprehensive universities that serve as the norm for our profession’s faculty development practices, its main purpose is to address the distinctive characteristics of professional development at small colleges in general and liberal arts colleges in particular. Toward …

Credibility And Effectiveness In Context: An Exploration Of The Importance Of Faculty Status For Faculty Developers, Bonnie B. Mullinix

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This study documents an emerging profile of the faculty status of faculty developers as solicited, compiled, and interactively interpreted with faculty developer practitioners. It used integrated (mixed) methodology and participatory research strategies to gather data and it shares descriptive statistical information on the various positions held by faculty developer respondents; qualitatively analyzed impressions of the importance of faculty status to their credibility and effectiveness as faculty developers; and information regarding respondents’ institutional contexts. Findings are further disaggregated across institutional contexts and sex to explore trends, differential perceptions, and other emergent issues as identified by participant researchers.

Team Mentoring: An Alternative Way To Mentor New Faculty, Tara Gray, A. Jane Birch

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Traditional mentoring programs usually have no mechanism for Protégés to learn from each other, and they often match protégés with mentors sight unseen. Team mentoring is a less hierarchical program in which protégés mentor each other in a group while searching for more permanent and personal mentors. In this program, protégés and mentors are arguably better matched because mentors are chosen by the Protégé. In addition, Protégés benefit by tapping into the wisdom of their peers. As a result, team mentoring is a viable alternative to traditional mentoring programs.

A Research–Based Rubric For Developing Statements Of Teaching Philosophy, Matthew Kaplan, Deborah S. Meizlish, Christopher O'Neal, Mary C. Wright

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Despite its ubiquity as the way that instructors represent their views on teaching and learning, the statement of teaching philosophy can be a frustrating document to write and the results are often uneven. This chapter describes a rubric created at the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching to help faculty and graduate students craft teaching statements. We describe the research that informed the creation of the rubric, talk about how we use the rubric in our consultations and workshops, and present an assessment that validates the use of the rubric to improve instructors’ teaching statements.

Meeting The Challenges Of Integrative Learning: The Nexia Concept, Jane Love

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Integrative learning challenges faculty developers to facilitate integrative and connective experiences not only for students, but for faculty as well. For many faculty, curricular requirements impede connective teaching, and the widespread assumption that connectivity must be taught on the course level also limits their ability to enrich students’ learning through diverse perspectives and interactions. Nexia is an approach to this problem based on the concept of ad hoc connectivity, or small-scale, focused, short-term connections that allow students from two or more courses to interact around points of interest to both classes. By releasing connective teaching from expensive curricular constraints, the …

The Teaching Resource Portfolio: A Tool Kit For Future Professoriate And A Resource Guide For Current Teachers, Dieter J. Schönwetter

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Extensive annotated bibliographies have guided academic researchers over several years and in various disciplines, providing key resources to assist in the development of new ideas. However, less common are published annotated bibliographies on effective teaching resources, both general to teaching across various disciplines as well as specific to each discipline, that guide the academic in the teaching enterprise. This chapter focuses on a tool, the teaching resource portfolio, that helps the graduate student preparing for an academic career including teaching, the new faculty member desiring additional teaching resources, the academic wishing to have resources that support discipline-specific scholarship of teaching …

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.

Investigating Community Factors As Predictors Of Rural 11th-Grade Agricultural Science Students’ Choice Of Careers In Agriculture, Omolola A. Adedokun, Mark Balschweid

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

This study investigates the links between community contexts/factors and rural 11th-grade agricultural science students’ choice of careers in agriculture. A logistic regression model was developed and tested to examine the extent to which nine measures of community contexts (i.e., membership in FFA, membership in 4-H, community attachment, community satisfaction, length of residency in the community, positive perception of local community, preference for residing close to nature, and participation in volunteer activities) influence the odds of a student choosing a career in agriculture. The results show that the major community factors influencing the choice of agriculture related careers are membership in …

Transforming Higher Education Through Part-Time Faculty Professional Development That Fosters Flourishing: A Dissertation, Janet Lynn Thompson

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study investigates the professional development experiences part-time faculty identify as positive. The purpose is to examine how positive professional development experiences inform part-time faculty's subsequent teaching, and what relational qualities if any are present in those positive experiences. Nine part-time faculty - five women and four men - ages 27 to 64, with teaching experience ranging from 3 to 20 years, responded to questions designed from Cooperrider's Appreciative Inquiry model. Conceptual frameworks include the adult development/adult learning interface and relational theory and its application in psychological and educational settings. Participants' positive experiences and how these experiences inform their …

Podcasting’S Possibilities, Mimi Leonard

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

In 2005, Wytheville Community College developed a Quality Enhancement Plan to emphasize student speaking and listening competencies. This article suggests that podcasting is a promising instructional technique to build oral skills and to enliven teaching and learning.

Using Analogies To Assess Student Learning, Callan Bentley

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

The author offers his experiences in using Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) in his geology courses to gauge his students’ grasp of course concepts.

Germanna’S Treasure Trove Of History: A Journey Of Discovery, Rob Sherwood

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

The author shares the rich historical setting of Germanna Community College’s Locust Grove Campus, as well as the classroom and college activities and events that have grown alongside his discoveries.

Back Matter

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Katherine Blair Yancey (right) created "Prime," the colored-pencil drawing on the front cover, while enrolled in "Drawing I" with Professor Beryl Solla (left) at Piedmont Community College.

Investigating Community Factors As Predictors Of Rural 11th-Grade Agricultural Science Students’ Choice Of Careers In Agriculture, Omolola A. Adedokun, Mark Balschweid

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

This study investigates the links between community contexts/factors and rural 11th-grade agricultural science students’ choice of careers in agriculture. A logistic regression model was developed and tested to examine the extent to which nine measures of community contexts (i.e., membership in FFA, membership in 4-H, community attachment, community satisfaction, length of residency in the community, positive perception of local community, preference for residing close to nature, and participation in volunteer activities) influence the odds of a student choosing a career in agriculture. The results show that the major community factors influencing the choice of agriculture related careers are membership in …

A Phase I Survey Of The Blue Licks Battlefield, Adrian Mandzy, Daniel Sivilich, Erik Hale, Joe Marin

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

In March and April 2008, faculty and students from students frorn Morehead State University's History prograrn, along with members of the Battlefield Restoration and Archeological Volunteer Organization (BRAVO) conducted a survey of the Blue Licks Battlefield. The Battle of Blue Licks is best known as the "Last Battle of the American Revolution" and was a rnajor defeat for the colonists. Previous studies of the battlefield suggested that the area had been adversely impacted by modern development and that little or no resources connected with the events of 1782 remain.

The resulting metal detecting survey identified remains frorn the Battle of …

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.

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 …

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.

Marketing Plans For Faculty Development: Student And Faculty Development Center Collaboration For Mutual Benefit, Victoria Mundy Bhavsar, Steven J. Skinner

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Our faculty development center engaged senior-level business students as consultants to help us inform instructors about our resources. The students argued that organizational and marketing tasks are critical to our pedagogical work as they create opportunities for the pedagogical work to occur. This chapter describes the collaboration, the students’ recommendations, and the center’s response. Engaging students, our ultimate clients, in setting priorities for our center was a powerful learning experience for both us and them. Other centers may wish to use our experiences as impetus to collaborate with students on their campuses.

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, …

Co-Teaching As A Faculty Development Model, Andrea L. Beach, Charles Henderson, Michael Famiano

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Co-teaching is a promising and cost-effective approach to promoting fundamental research-based instructional change. In this chapter, we discuss the theoretical underpinnings of co-teaching and describe our initial experience with it. A new instructor (MF) co-taught with an instructor experienced in physics education research-based reforms (CH). An outsider (AB) conducted separate interviews with each instructor and observed several class sessions. Results include immediate use of research-based instructional practices by the new instructor and a significant change in teaching beliefs over time. Recommendations are made for implementing co-teaching as part of a faculty development program.

Promoting Learning–Focused Teaching Through A Project–Based Faculty Development Program, Susanna Calkins, Greg Light

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter describes how we incorporated project-based learning into a yearlong faculty development program at a research-intensive private university located in the Midwest. This inquiry-based approach fosters critical reflection on teaching and promotes learner-focused teaching in a manner that encourages deeper student approaches to learning. We use case studies, drawn from critical accounts of faculty projects, to illustrate a model that depicts how faculty understand improvement in their teaching and to identify key program elements that facilitated the adoption of learning-focused teaching practices by our participants.

College Students’ Perceptions Of Their "Best" And "Worst" Courses And Instructors, Debra S. Emmelman, Michael Decesare

Sociology Faculty Publications

This paper presents results from a content analysis of college students' descriptions of their "best" and " worst " courses and instructors. We were interested primarily in two issues: how college students evaluate their courses , and the extent to which they emphasize various dimensions in their evaluations. We found that students evaluated their course experiences along seven interrelated dimensions: factors external to the course, level of tedium, classroom activities, classroom atmosphere, instructor's comportment, workload/assignments/grading issues, and acquisition of knowledge and skills. These dimensions were emphasized to different degrees and tended to vary in oppositional manners according to the type …

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 …

Expansion Of Experiential Learning Opportunities Through Medication Reconciliation Participation, Jane M. Gervasio, Julie M. Koehler, Kevin M. Tuohy, Julie L. Williams, Mary H. Andritz

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

Abstract from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, July 12-18, 2007.

The Importance Of Effective Instruction In Determining Student Success: Background For Defining The Role Of Faculty Development At Unm, Gary A. Smith

Office for Medical Educator Development (OMED)

The purpose of this briefing report is to summarize the research literature that documents the importance of effective instruction for student success as a premise for future planning, including but not limited to faculty development, that strives to improve UNM student success.

The key conclusions, based on this review, are:

1. Classroom instructional effectiveness is widely viewed as a core ingredient in planning for student success.

2. Faculty development is essential in order to improve instructional effectiveness.