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Higher Education and Teaching Commons™
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- Faculty development (44)
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Articles 61 - 90 of 500
Full-Text Articles in Higher Education and Teaching
Assessment Literacy In College Teaching: Empirical Evidence On The Role And Effectiveness Of A Faculty Training Course, Kyle D. Massey, Christopher Deluca, Danielle Lapointe-Mcewan
Assessment Literacy In College Teaching: Empirical Evidence On The Role And Effectiveness Of A Faculty Training Course, Kyle D. Massey, Christopher Deluca, Danielle Lapointe-Mcewan
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This research explores how faculty members’ conceptions of assessment and confidence in assessment change as a result of an instructor training course. Based on a sample of 27 faculty members enrolled in a semester-long instructional development course, this survey-based study provides initial evidence that faculty members can develop confidence in assessment while adopting increasingly complex conceptions of assessment. Based on this study’s findings, we argue that instructional development programs for college faculty have a critical role to play in stimulating faculty learning about assessment of student learning and are an important component in promoting a positive assessment culture.
Cultivating And Sustaining A Faculty Culture Of Data-Driven Teaching And Learning: A Systems Approach, Marsha Lovett, Chad Hershock
Cultivating And Sustaining A Faculty Culture Of Data-Driven Teaching And Learning: A Systems Approach, Marsha Lovett, Chad Hershock
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
A prominent goal of colleges and universities today is to enact data-driven teaching and learning. Faculty clearly play a key role, and yet they tend to have limited time, a lack of training in assessment or education research, and few incentives for engaging in this work. We describe a framework designed to address the practical and cultural aspects of these challenges via a cycle of educational development and support: motivate, educate, facilitate, disseminate. We illustrate this systems approach with concrete examples and conclude with lessons learned from our experiences that should translate to a variety of institutional contexts.
Motivated Reasoning And Persuading Faculty Change In Teaching, Gary A. Smith
Motivated Reasoning And Persuading Faculty Change In Teaching, Gary A. Smith
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Many faculty members demonstrate unwavering resistance to adopting research-based instructional strategies. This phenomenon commonly fits with motivated reasoning, whereby a person feels threatened by persuasion to change, leading to overtly defensive and sometimes disruptive behaviors and refusal. Changing away from established practices may challenge one’s self-identity and values as an effective teacher and triggers arguments intended to invalidate research-based alternatives. Faculty who are motivated to reject consensus best practices may impede the implementation of these practices across entire departments or institutions. Motivated reasoning and its underlying cognitive processes are explained by self-determination theory, which leads to predictions of faculty behaviors …
Motivations And Obstacles Influencing Faculty Engagement In Adopting Teaching Innovations, Wayne Jacobson, Renee Cole
Motivations And Obstacles Influencing Faculty Engagement In Adopting Teaching Innovations, Wayne Jacobson, Renee Cole
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Significant progress has been made in understanding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and ways it can be improved, but propagation of change remains a challenge. This study presents an analysis of STEM faculty responses to open-text survey questions that asked them to identify motivations and obstacles to making changes in their teaching. Responses reveal wide variability among faculty perceptions, conceptualizations of change, and understandings of evidence. These findings suggest reasons faculty are not uniformly receptive to calls for change and challenge educational developers and advocates of STEM education reform to be explicit about their own understandings of meaningful …
A Framework For The Strategic Leveraging Of Outside Resources To Enhance Ctl Effectiveness, Thomas M. Brinthaupt, Laura Cruz, Sheila Otto, Mike Pinter
A Framework For The Strategic Leveraging Of Outside Resources To Enhance Ctl Effectiveness, Thomas M. Brinthaupt, Laura Cruz, Sheila Otto, Mike Pinter
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Many centers for teaching and learning (CTL) are challenged with developing new programs and services that are constrained by limited staff and resources. Tapping into on- and off-campus expertise is one way for CTL to expand their range of options for faculty development. In this paper, we present a framework that describes how CTL can assess the likely impact, value, and range of prospective leveraging opportunities when deciding whether to pursue on- and off- campus partnerships. We then discuss applying the framework as an analytical tool, developing leveraging strategies, and creating a strategic leveraging plan. Throughout this discussion, we provide …
The Sotl Scaffold: Supporting Evidence-Based Teaching Practice In Educational Development, Laura Cruz, Kathryn Cunningham, Brian Smentkowski, Hillary Steiner
The Sotl Scaffold: Supporting Evidence-Based Teaching Practice In Educational Development, Laura Cruz, Kathryn Cunningham, Brian Smentkowski, Hillary Steiner
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This article presents a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) scaffold, a conceptual model designed for educational developers (and others) who support the values, practices, and production of the SoTL, both on their campuses and beyond. The SoTL scaffold explicates distinct support levels, ranging from spark to lead, each of which call for differentiated strategies and programs to be used by Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) and similar units.
Broaching Threshold Concepts: The Trouble With “Skills” Language In Defining Student Learning Goals, Angela J. Zito
Broaching Threshold Concepts: The Trouble With “Skills” Language In Defining Student Learning Goals, Angela J. Zito
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This essay argues that description of student learning goals as various “skills” presents a conceptual threshold lying between and connecting routinely dichotomized characterizations of student learning—most notably, “concrete” versus “abstract.” Qualitative analysis of instructor interviews shows that “skills” language tends to conceal abstract (that is, affective) learning goals behind more concrete (that is, cognitive) ones. Ultimately, this essay proposes that cognitive and affective student learning goals might be more clearly articulated using threshold concepts within and across disciplines, and that the recognition of “skills” as both affective and cognitive is itself a threshold concept in educational development.
Wiser Together: Sustaining Teaching Excellence With A Self-Study/Critical Friend, Tracy W. Smith, Leslie U. Bradbury
Wiser Together: Sustaining Teaching Excellence With A Self-Study/Critical Friend, Tracy W. Smith, Leslie U. Bradbury
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This article examines the development of a self-study/critical friend (SSCF) model of educational development. The SSCF model provides benefits for the self-study teacher in the form of personalized, sustained support. The critical friend in the pairing described here also serves as an educational development fellow, so this study provided an experiential development opportunity for her to try a potential model of response, documentation, feedback, and support for a single faculty member. This article describes the rationale, process, and outcomes of a SSCF investigation, a promising model for providing support that is significant, sustained, and individualized to higher education teaching faculty.
Finding A Fulcrum: Positioning Ourselves To Leverage Change, Laurie L. Grupp, Deandra Little
Finding A Fulcrum: Positioning Ourselves To Leverage Change, Laurie L. Grupp, Deandra Little
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Educational developers are called to serve as thought leaders, change agents, and advocates while also working to fulfill the teaching and learning mission of their centers. Research on change leadership informs our understanding of the work, yet may not go far enough to describe the complex roles, responsibilities, and positions of educational developers. In this study, we analyze survey and interview data to explore the meta-competencies that guide the work of developers as they navigate a shifting landscape and serve as “levers” for change.
Impostor Phenomenon In Educational Developers, Kristin J. Rudenga, Emily O. Gravett
Impostor Phenomenon In Educational Developers, Kristin J. Rudenga, Emily O. Gravett
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
While impostor syndrome or impostor phenomenon (“IP”) is prevalent in higher education, with known negative effects, no study has yet investigated the experiences of IP among educational developers. After first reviewing prior research on the phenomenon, we use survey data to describe its frequency and manifestations within educational development. We identify factors and experiences that contribute to IP among educational developers, focusing on those that are distinct to the field. We conclude with suggestions for future research and broad recommendations for educational development as a field to tackle this problem.
The Fearless Teaching Framework: A Model To Synthesize Foundational Education Research For University Instructors, Alice E. Donlan, Sandra M. Loughlin, Virginia L. Byrne
The Fearless Teaching Framework: A Model To Synthesize Foundational Education Research For University Instructors, Alice E. Donlan, Sandra M. Loughlin, Virginia L. Byrne
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
There is often a disconnect between the unit of analysis in rigorous education research, and the types of recommendations that instructors find the most useful to improve their teaching. Research often focuses on narrow slices of the student experience, and university instructors often require broad recommendations. We present the Fearless Teaching Framework to address this gap between research and practice. In this framework, we define four pieces of effective teaching: classroom climate, course content, teaching practices, and assessment strategies. We argue that these are appropriate areas of focus for instructor growth, based on their relations to student engagement.
Toward Learning And Justice, Through Love, Isis Artze-Vega
Toward Learning And Justice, Through Love, Isis Artze-Vega
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This chapter responds to the call for educational developers to isolate the one perspective that guides our work. It retraces the author’s career steps, seeking the origin of love as a guiding principle, and describes its evolution and application during her career. To do so, the piece includes a theoretical perspective on love and argues that its utility as a characterizing perspective for our profession stems from its significance to learning and justice. It suggests the timeliness and urgency of elevating the role of love in our field, notes associated risks and rewards, and suggests resources for doing so.
The Idea Of Educational Development: An Historical Perspective, Laura Cruz
The Idea Of Educational Development: An Historical Perspective, Laura Cruz
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This essay examines the idea of educational development, inspired both in content and approach by John Henry Newman’s influential 19th century work on the idea of a university.
Changing The Lens: The Role Of Reframing In Educational Development, Donna E. Ellis
Changing The Lens: The Role Of Reframing In Educational Development, Donna E. Ellis
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
One core concept in educational development is reframing, which involves new labels, new perspectives, and the examination of assumptions. In this reflective article, I explore the use of reframing at different levels of educational development work via the 4M framework (micro, meso, macro, and mega) in an effort to assess the utility of this concept to practitioners. I conclude that reframing has utility at all levels and posit why it may assist with change management. Connections to educational developer identity are also explored.
From The Editors: The One Thing: A Pluralistic Approach To Research And Practice, Gary Hawkins, Brian Smentkowski
From The Editors: The One Thing: A Pluralistic Approach To Research And Practice, Gary Hawkins, Brian Smentkowski
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
From the editors of volume 37, issue 1 of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development (2018), Gary Hawkins of Hampshire College and Brian Smentkowski of the University of Idaho.
Equity-Minded Faculty Development, Aeron Haynie
Equity-Minded Faculty Development, Aeron Haynie
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
A governing principle of equity-minded faculty development is a commitment to supporting marginalized populations who may feel unwelcome in academia: from minority college students to first-generation graduate students to faculty of color. Faculty development should encourage faculty to notice inequities and not dismiss them as student’s individual failures; to examine institutional data on student, graduate student, and faculty achievement patterns; and to collaborate with other campus partners on interventions. As we work with faculty to develop strategies to ensure all students can succeed, we must also enact the same empowering, strengths- based practices we promote.
Seeking And Doing Justice Through Educational Development, Wayne Jacobson
Seeking And Doing Justice Through Educational Development, Wayne Jacobson
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
One thing that has shaped my understanding of educational development more than anything else is a commitment to seeking and doing justice. I see this commitment as the animating force that breathes life into the best of what educational developers do and the core value that continually challenges us to do better. In the many contexts in which we work, the one thing that defines the role of educational development is the recognition that we need to continually examine and improve how well our institutional systems are doing justice to the communities that we are trusting them to serve.
“Once A Scientist…”: Disciplinary Approaches And Intellectual Dexterity In Educational Development, Katherine Kearns, Molly Hatcher, Mara Bollard, Michele Dipietro, Devon Donohue-Bergeler, Leslie E. Drane, Elizabeth Luoma, Andrew E. Phuong, Laura Thain, Mary C. Wright
“Once A Scientist…”: Disciplinary Approaches And Intellectual Dexterity In Educational Development, Katherine Kearns, Molly Hatcher, Mara Bollard, Michele Dipietro, Devon Donohue-Bergeler, Leslie E. Drane, Elizabeth Luoma, Andrew E. Phuong, Laura Thain, Mary C. Wright
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
The authors claim that disciplinary epistemologies—disciplinary habits of mind and ways of thinking—offer productive lenses for observing teaching practices. Furthermore, they argue that educational developers who draw from multiple epistemologies in combination provide rich evidence with regard to teaching and learning and can speak to academic colleagues from an array of disciplines. Clarity is provided for career paths in educational development for colleagues from academic disciplines who are contemplating part- or full-time work in a teaching center. The authors hope that this opening collection develops into a toolkit and area of inquiry about disciplinary approaches to the practice of educational …
Good To Great In Educational Development, Bruce Kelley
Good To Great In Educational Development, Bruce Kelley
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
We have been asked to describe One Thing that guides us as educational developers. For me, this is the strategic planning process described in Jim Collins’ Good to Great (2001). Collins provides a model that helps leaders navigate through change to build effective and influential centers. This framework has allowed me to develop a successful center despite periods of transition and uncertainty. Much of what I experience in my professional life is good. The challenge is to take it to the next level—to turn good into great. Collins’ strategic model provides a roadmap for how this might be accomplished.
The Four Rs: Guiding Ctls With Responsiveness, Relationships, Resources, And Research, Mary C. Wright, Debra Rudder Lohe, Tershia Pinder-Grover, Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens
The Four Rs: Guiding Ctls With Responsiveness, Relationships, Resources, And Research, Mary C. Wright, Debra Rudder Lohe, Tershia Pinder-Grover, Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
We offer a framework for guiding an effective Center for Teaching and Learning: Responsiveness, Relationships, Resources, and Research. Our intention is to fill a gap in the literature on guidance for CTL leadership. These four principles are grounded in both scholarly and experiential evidence, drawing from multiple CTL directors with a range of experience levels at different center and institutional types.
Mentoring Graduate Student Staff In A Center For Teaching And Learning: Goals And Aligned Practices, Kristin Rudenga, Joseph Lambert
Mentoring Graduate Student Staff In A Center For Teaching And Learning: Goals And Aligned Practices, Kristin Rudenga, Joseph Lambert
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Graduate student staff (GSS) positions, commonly used in centers for teaching and learning (CTL) to expand capacity and extend disciplinary connections on campus, also offer the potential for a meaningful developmental experience for the students who fill them. Drawing on the literature on graduate student mentorship, we lay out goals and aligned practices to inform the mentoring of GSS in CTL aimed at advancing their pedagogical, professional, and personal development. Such deliberate attention to mentoring in a CTL context can enhance the experience and development of the GSS themselves, as well as improve the work of the CTL.
Measuring Transparency: A Learning-Focused Assignment Rubric, Michael S. Palmer, Emily O. Gravett, Jennifer Lafleur
Measuring Transparency: A Learning-Focused Assignment Rubric, Michael S. Palmer, Emily O. Gravett, Jennifer Lafleur
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
By combining recommendations for effective assignment design with principles of transparency and the value-expectancy theory of achievement motivation, we developed a rubric capable of for assessing the quality and guiding the design of assignment descriptions. This rubric defines criteria characteristic of well-designed assignments; breaks the criteria down into concrete, measurable components; and suggests what evidence for each component might look like. While the full rubric is valid for major, signature assignments, it can accommodate a diverse range. It can also provide summative, quantitative information to educational developers for research and formative, qualitative feedback to instructors for gauging the quality of …
A Minimalist Model Of New Faculty Mentoring: Why Asking For Less Gives More, Heather Lobban Viravong, Mark Schneider
A Minimalist Model Of New Faculty Mentoring: Why Asking For Less Gives More, Heather Lobban Viravong, Mark Schneider
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
We describe a research-based mentoring program for new full-time faculty at a small residential college, which emphasizes the empowerment of the new faculty themselves to identify and obtain the resources they need for success. In our model, the mentor takes on a role of primarily providing accountability, easing the burden on mentors, thereby making for a more sustainable program. Our mixed methods assessment of the program suggests that, paradoxically, these lessened expectations foster closer personal relationships between mentor and protégé than might have occurred if that were a programmatic expectation.
Transforming The Classroom At Traditionally White Institutions To Make Black Lives Matter, Frank Truitt, Chayla Haynes, Saran Stewart
Transforming The Classroom At Traditionally White Institutions To Make Black Lives Matter, Frank Truitt, Chayla Haynes, Saran Stewart
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
In recent years, many college campuses across the United States witnessed a significant increase in campus activism regarding the range of experiences and conditions facing racially minoritized communities in higher education. As critical and inclusive pedagogues and scholars, we embrace the belief that a focus on making Black Lives Matter in the classrooms of traditionally White institutions (TWIs) provides educators with the best chance to improve the educational outcomes of all students. In this essay, we examine seven principles of critical and inclusive pedagogies that have the potential to make Black Lives Matter in TWI classrooms and identify several implications …
Workshopping A Workshop: Collaborative Design In Educational Development, Eleanor V. H. Vandegrift, Amy B. Mulnix, Jennifer R. Yates, S. Raj Chaudhury
Workshopping A Workshop: Collaborative Design In Educational Development, Eleanor V. H. Vandegrift, Amy B. Mulnix, Jennifer R. Yates, S. Raj Chaudhury
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Working remotely and collaboratively, our interdisciplinary team created an educational development workshop, Thinking Skills for the 21st Century: Teaching for Transfer, in which participants not only experience, apply, and reflect on teaching across educational settings but also connect this work to principles that have been demonstrated by learning science to support the transfer of knowledge. We used backward design to develop the workshop and evidence-based pedagogies in its implementation. We facilitated the workshop at two different national meetings for distinct audiences and also as part of an on-campus faculty development program. Here, we report on the workshop development and revision, …
Seven Voices, Seven Developers, Seven One Things That Guide Our Practice, Frances Kalu, Patti Dyjur, Carol Berenson, Kimberley A. Grant, Cheryl Jeffs, Natasha Kenny, Robin Mueller
Seven Voices, Seven Developers, Seven One Things That Guide Our Practice, Frances Kalu, Patti Dyjur, Carol Berenson, Kimberley A. Grant, Cheryl Jeffs, Natasha Kenny, Robin Mueller
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Educational development philosophy statements provide a framework to communicate the values and beliefs that guide the practices and approaches of individual educational developers across various career stages. This paper presents narratives to illustrate how seven educational developers conceptualize the one thing that guides our work through the process of reflecting on the beliefs that we articulate through our educational development philosophy statements. Although each narrative illustrates our diverse backgrounds and philosophies, common themes are revealed relating to reflective practice, scholarly approaches, and facilitating change, which lead to improvements in student learning. This exploration suggests further opportunity to conduct research on …
Publish & Flourish: Helping Scholars Become Better, More Prolific Writers, Tara Gray, Laura Madson, Michelle Jackson
Publish & Flourish: Helping Scholars Become Better, More Prolific Writers, Tara Gray, Laura Madson, Michelle Jackson
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
Some scholars want help from educational developers to become better, more prolific writers. This study examines one such program, Publish & Flourish, that holds participants accountable for writing daily and for receiving weekly feedback from peers on drafts of writing. In this mixed methods study, 95% of participants (N = 93) reported that they improved their writing by making it more organized and reader centered. Participants also reported that they increased their extrapolated average of submissions of scholarly manuscripts per year from about two to almost six. We then compared Publish & Flourish to several other studies of scholarly writing …
Invitations And Expeditions, But Hardly Ever Destinations, Tracy W. Smith
Invitations And Expeditions, But Hardly Ever Destinations, Tracy W. Smith
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This essay characterizes educational development as an invitation. The author provides a rationale for using Invitational Theory (IT) to guide educational development programming and practice. The five assumptions of IT are included and linked to scholarly literature that grounds educational development. Examples of invitational educational development initiatives or programs are provided for each assumption.
Is Sotl A Signature Pedagogy Of Educational Development?, Peter Felten, Nancy Chick
Is Sotl A Signature Pedagogy Of Educational Development?, Peter Felten, Nancy Chick
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
In this article, we focus on questions that come into view when we look at educational development through the lenses of signature pedagogies and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We offer this as a thought experiment in which we consider if SoTL is a signature pedagogy of educational development, simultaneously enacting and revealing the practices, values, and assumptions that underpin the diverse work of our field. By envisioning SoTL in this way, we may more clearly see the purposes and practices that unite—and that ought to guide—educational developers and educational development.
One Thing For All Learners, Linda B. Nilson
One Thing For All Learners, Linda B. Nilson
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development
This essay showcases cognitive psychology and neuroscience research as the “one thing” that guides my work. This research shows how to learn on one’s own, paves the way for student success, and fosters inclusive teaching. These principles have implications for concrete classroom and online instructional practices that are easy for both faculty and students to implement. Because students have to attend to and process their learning experiences, faculty must motivate them to do so. Psychology offers us some useful, albeit limited, tools, and more research on ways we can help students set goals can reduce the limits.