Faculty Development in Out-of-the-Way Places (original) (raw)

Faculty development at its best

Innovative Higher Education, 1986

recognizes that the early freshman experience can be a difficult one. It offers a three quarter hour course of study, University Studies 1000, designed to assist first quarter freshman negotiating a new environment. This course uniquely mixes the academic and personal experiences in three areas: career exploration, human development, and the history of universities. This paper presents the author's own professional and personal development as she interacted with the academic content of the course and the students' struggles of late adolescence and the chaos of college.

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.

5: Getting Started with Faculty Development

To Improve the Academy, 2002

As a result ofan academic senate decision to reconceptualize the baccalaureate, the Rio Piedras Campus of the University ofPuerto Rico began, in late 1994, a major transformationalprocess that hasledit to rethink itselfasa community oflearners. One ofthe principal instruments ofchange hasbeen our Centerfor Academic Excellence, created in early 1998 as a result ofthe transformationalprocess. This chapter discusses the process that led to the creation ofthe center, as wellas its structure, activities, and visionfor thefuture. U7e hope that our experience will beusefid to those institutions thinking aboutventuring into the area offa£ulty development.

Faculty development as institutional leadership: A framework for meeting new challenges

… of the Higher …, 2002

Post-secondary institutions are faced with enormous opportunities and challenges to change. A number of trends, including increasing expectations for accountability, technology integration, faculty renewal, and the continuing development of the scholarship of teaching have created a press for change that challenges the traditional values and practices of academic communities. Within this dynamic and uncertain context, faculty developers are often called upon to facilitate institutional problem solving and change. The changing context of contemporary post-secondary education offers faculty developers exciting opportunities to optimize the leadership potential of the faculty development role. Once we begin to conceptualize faculty development as leadership, conceptual and practical tools from the leadership literature become valuable assets. To become more systematic in applying effective leadership principles in the complex task of leading through faculty development, we identified specific principles and qualities from the leadership literature that are relevant to faculty development practice. Rather than attempting to practice these leadership characteristics in parallel with faculty development, we argue that they should be integrated to conceptualize leadership as an inherent role in faculty development practice. This leadership perspective is built on the processes Parker Palmer (1998) uses to frame effective teaching: personal identity and integrity, knowing in community, teaching in community, and learning in community. The purpose of this paper is to engage colleagues in an exploration of a leadership perspective intended to provide faculty developers with a unifying framework to conceptualize their diverse work with individuals, programs, and institutions.

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.

Faculty development for the 21st century

Educause Review, 2009

©2009 Veronica Diaz, PB Garrett, Edward R. Kinley, John F. Moore, Celeste M. Schwartz, and Pat Kohrman. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ ...

Reframing Research on Faculty Development

Academic Medicine, 2011

Research on faculty development has focused primarily on individual participants and has produced relatively little generalizable knowledge that can guide faculty development programs. In this article, the authors examine how current research on faculty development in medical education can be enriched by research in related fields such as teacher education, quality improvement, continuing medical education, and workplace learning. As a result of this analysis, the authors revise the old model for conceptualizing faculty development (preferably called professional development). This expanded model calls for research on educational process and outcomes focused on two communities of practice: the community created among participants in faculty development programs and the communities of teaching practice in the workplace (classroom or clinic) where teaching actually occurs. For the faculty development community, the key components are the participants, program, content, facilitator, and context in which the program occurs and in which the faculty teach. For the workplace community, associated components include relationships and networks of association in that environment, the organization and culture of the setting, the teaching tasks and activities, and the mentoring available to the members of that academic and/or clinical community of teaching practice. This expanded model of faculty development generates a new set of research questions, which are described along with six recommendations for enhancing research, including establishment of a national center for research in health professions education.