Convergence in diversity: Evaluating faculty development across the globe (original) (raw)

Faculty Development Effectiveness: Insights from a Program Evaluation

Journal of Biomedical Education, 2014

Background.Faculty development programs are often time and resource intensive. In order to accommodate time constrained clinicians a limited time commitment faculty development program was developed and was shown to be effective in improving participant’s scholarly productivity.Objectives. The objective of this study was to assess participants’ perceptions of why the faculty development program was effective in promoting scholarship in education.Methods. In-depth semistructured interviews of course participants were conducted a year after completing a faculty development program. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The transcriptions were coded independently by the investigators for dominant themes. The investigators held coding meetings to further refine the themes and discrepancies were handled by referring to the transcripts and reaching consensus.Results. The participants’ satisfaction with the course as described in the interviews correlated with the early ...

Collaboration between academic institutions towards faculty development for educators

Education for health (Abingdon, England), 2008

Faculty development encompasses a broad range of activities that assist faculty in their roles as teachers, researchers, and administrators. Successful faculty development programs can improve teaching skills and student learning outcomes (Steinert et al., 2006). While faculty development encourages and rewards excellence in teaching, faculty in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to few incountry and affordable faculty development programs (Burdick et al., 2007). Therefore, describing successful efforts will provide guidance to others considering similar efforts. In 2004, Tanzania's

Faculty development: A step towards quality and excellence

2009

Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan was established in 2002 to restructure the higher education system. Faculty development was identified as a critical element which led to emergence of the Learning Innovation Division in 2003. The objective was to encourage and support faculty and staff teams in creating a high quality, relevant and efficient learning and teaching culture. This led to intensive faculty development activities and introduction of a certificate course in university teaching. This course is first of its kind in Pakistan with an objective to acquaint the faculty members with the basic concepts and recent trends in teaching and learning in higher education. The content addressed six important areas namely curriculum, teaching skills, assessment, research, professional development and information technology skills. A number of instruments were developed for the program evaluation. This study is an evaluation of the first two courses. The immediate analysis of the results showed that this intervention was well received and perceived to be of high relevance to the university teaching as well as there has been a positive improvement from one course to another which is encouraging for the organizers. The program is now replicated at fifteen faculty development centres across Pakistan. This information will be useful for institutions/departments developing similar programs especially in developing countries.

Future Goals and Actions of Faculty Development

2017

This paper has demonstrated that there is a vital role for campus teaching and learning centers to play in a fluctuating educational landscape, and encourages the collection of more systematic and meaningful assessment data to demonstrate the contribution and future value of this work. Changing demographics, the galvanizing effect of information technologies, dwindling resources, and what we continue to learn about learning all impact the daily work of the campus. The synergy between faculty, faculty development, and student learning can drive institutional culture in promising ways. Faculty development, done well, is adaptive, and designed to instigate expert learning and stimulate student success. The best faculty development assumes faculty can improve their teaching practice (and seek to do so), and strengthens faculty capacity to improve student learning outcomes. Equally encouraging, teaching centers that can productively engage a majority of faculty in teaching development can establish a campus culture of teaching excellence.

A mandala of faculty development: using theory-based evaluation to explore contexts, mechanisms and outcomes

Advances in Health Sciences Education, 2016

Demonstrating the impact of faculty development, is an increasingly mandated and ever elusive goal. Questions have been raised about the adequacy of current approaches. Here, we integrate realist and theory-driven evaluation approaches, to evaluate an intensive longitudinal program. Our aim is to elucidate how faculty development can work to support a range of outcomes among individuals and subsystems in the academic health sciences. We conducted retrospective framework analysis of qualitative focus group data gathered from 79 program participants (5 cohorts) over a 10-year period. Additionally, we conducted follow-up interviews with 15 alumni. We represent the interactive relationships among contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes as a ''mandala'' of faculty development. The mandala illustrates the relationship between the immediate program context, and the broader institutional context of academic health sciences, and identifies relevant change mechanisms. Four primary mechanisms were collaborative-reflection, self-reflection and

FACULTY COMPETENCE AND DEVELOPMENT METHODS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management, 2017

Education is the backbone of any economy and educators are the biggest actors of the education system. Their competence development is very important. The previous literature showed that faculty development is possible through various development techniques and there are a lot of techniques that are adopted from traditional time and some are developed recently after recognizing their need. The authors in this article have made a critical analysis of these traditional and modern faculty development techniques and their appropriateness for the development of different competencies among educators of higher education. This study has been carried out through literature review. The study concludes that 'learning by teaching community' is the most important technique for competence development of teachers followed by 'learning from students' feedback', and 'mentoring programmes'.

A Comprehensive Approach to Faculty Development

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 2006

The purpose of this report was to describe the development, implementation, and outcomes from 3 complementary programs to facilitate the development of faculty members. The Faculty Development Committee (FDC) at the University of Tennessee developed 3 new complementary programs: the Individual Faculty Development Program to encourage faculty members to assess and identify their own specific developmental needs; the Seed Research Grant Program to fund scholarly activities by faculty; and the Technology Support Program to foster financial support of technology upgrades crucial for meeting the research, education, and service needs of faculty members. Eighteen faculty members participated in the Individual Faculty Development Program during the first 2 academic years and all provided positive feedback about their experiences. The Seed Research Grant Program funded 6 projects during its inaugural year. Limited outcome data from these 2 programs are extremely favorable relative to grant submissions and publications, and enhanced educational offerings and evaluations. The Technology Support Fund was initiated in the 2005-2006 academic year. The 3 faculty development programs initiated are offered as examples whereby faculty members are given a high degree of self-determination relative to identifying programs that will effectively contribute to their growth as academicians. Other colleges of pharmacy are encouraged to consider similar initiatives to foster individual faculty development at this critical period of growth within academic pharmacy.