Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

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.

Understanding And Application Of Learning College Concepts Among Community College Support Staff Employees, Laura E. Weidner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research on the Learning College indicates that everyone in the college must support learning. There have not been previous studies that centered on whether or not support staff, a major constituency group in community colleges, participates in supporting learning. This adapted phenomenological study examined staff in a Learning College to determine their understanding and application of the Learning College concept. Three research questions addressed how these employees understand the concept, perceive their roles, and apply Learning College principles. The study was conducted in a theoretical framework combining Learning College, change, and organizational culture theories. Data were collected from a purposive …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

Structuring Complex Cooperative Learning Activities In 50–Minute Classes, Barbara J. Millis

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Given the power of learning-centered teaching, faculty can be coached to structure cooperative activities wisely and well, even within 50-minute class periods where there is a perception that complex group work is difficult. In addition to giving some basic advice on team formation and classroom management, this chapter provides examples of five complex cooperative learning structures—Jigsaw, Send-a-Problem, Cooperative Debates, Guided Reciprocal Peer Questioning, and Bingo—that can be conducted within 50-minute classes. The specific literature-based examples are complemented by examples in a variety of other disciplines, making them seem doable to more faculty.

How Do You Handle This Situation? Responses By Faculty In Great Britain And The United States To Workshops On The Ethics Of Teaching, Miriam Rosalyn Diamond

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty in the United States and Great Britain took part in workshops exploring educational ethics. Participants articulated concerns about balancing approachability with fairness, cross-cultural communication, conveying standards to students, and academic integrity. Responses to the session were positive, and both groups indicated an interest in continuing discourse on the topic. The groups differed on specific issues of interest, as well as feedback on the session. Some of these appear to be culturally influenced. Overall, this workshop presents a model for providing faculty with the opportunity to examine and formulate direction when dealing with ethical issues related to teaching.

Teaching Business By Doing Business: An Interdisciplinary Faculty–Friendly Approach, Larry K. Michaelson, Mary Mccord

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter describes the implementation of an interdisciplinary undergraduate curricular innovation in two different university settings. The Integrative Business Experience (IBE) requires students to enroll concurrently in three required core business courses and a practicum course in which they develop and operate a startup business (based on a real-money loan of up to $5,000) and carry out a hands-on community service project. This chapter also reports outcomes for students (including data from an assessment), examines the variables that minimize the difficulty of achieving cross-disciplinary integration in IBE, and suggests keys to enabling faculty-friendly integrative course designs in other settings.

The Scholarship Of Civic Engagement: Defining, Documenting, And Evaluating Faculty Work, Robert G. Bringle, Julie A. Hatcher, Patti H. Clayton

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Civic engagement, which is presented as teaching, research, and service in and with the community, presents new challenges for evaluating faculty work as part of the reappointment, promotion, and tenure process. The nature of service-learning, professional service, and participatory action research are examined as faculty work that can be scholarly (i.e., well informed) and the basis of scholarship (i.e., contributing to a knowledge base). As such, examples of evidence for documenting the work and issues associated with evaluating dossiers are presented.

Bibliography, Volume 25 (2007)

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Bibliography for volume 25 (2007) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development.

Preparing Future Faculty For Careers In Academic Librarianship: A Paradigm Shift For Collaboration In Higher Education, Sean Patrick Knowlton, Laura L. B. Border

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Nationwide, tire number of available faculty positions represents only a fraction of the master’s and doctoral degrees granted each year. Fortunately, faculty positions are available in academic librarianship, which is experiencing a decline in qualified applicants. A pioneering collaboration between a graduate student professional development program and an academic library has created a fellowship program that allows master’s and doctoral students to consider careers in academic librarianship through mentored fellowships. Initial results show that participants intend to pursue librarianship as an academic career in which to use and expand their advanced subject and/or language expertise.

How Post–Tenure Review Can Support The Teaching Development Of Senior Faculty, Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Mei-Yau Shih, Mathew L. Ouellett, Marjory Stewart

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A key question that campuses face as they develop and implement post-tenure review policies is how to blend the concepts of accountability and renewal. This chapter examines a faculty development initiative linked to a post-tenure review policy at a research-intensive university. It describes the goals, processes, and outcomes of a five-year study of the program, extending research on post-tenure review and its potential for positive faculty development.

A Critical Theory Perspective On Faculty Development, Stephen D. Brookfield

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter argues that critical theory implies a number of conceptions and practices of teaching, and it applies a critical theory perspective to conducting faculty development. It speculates on how faculty development might be organized according to some insights drawn from critical theory, and it reviews the chief reasons why teachers resist engaging with this perspective.