Faculty Development On A Shoestring

Faculty development is essential for promoting excellence in teaching and research, supporting institutional goals, and creating a culture of continuous learning that benefits both faculty members and students. However, educational institutions do not always allocate adequate resources towards supporting their faculty's professional development, especially from the institutional level. Underfunding this support can lead to the inability to attend conferences to keep up with the latest research and pedagogical practices in their fields, the inability to conduct meaningful research, and lack of access to modern technologies. This in turn can limit faculty growth and harm student learning outcomes. Ultimately, faculty who do not feel supported by their institutions can become disengaged or leave. This book attempts to address the needs of faculty from institutions where there may not be adequate resources to support robust faculty development activities. The chapters are written by faculty development experts in the US and Europe who understand the disparities between institutions and want to share programs that can be implemented for little or no cost. Each chapter provides objective, content, implementation, and evaluation details that can be used to replicate the program at other institutions. The hope is to begin to level the playing field in faculty development through sharing successful low resource programs with proven outcomes.

This book attempts to address the needs of faculty from institutions where there may not be adequate resources to support robust faculty development activities. 

This volume addresses all facets of faculty development, including academic and career development, teaching improvement, research capacity building, and leadership development. In addition, it describes a multitude of ways, ranging from workshops to the workplace, in which health professionals can develop their knowledge and skills. By providing an informed and scholarly overview of faculty development, and by describing original content that has not been previously published, this book helps to ensure that research and evidence inform practice, moves the scholarly agenda forward, and promotes dialogue and debate in this evolving field. It will prove an invaluable resource for faculty development program planning, implementation and evaluation, and will help to sustain faculty members’ vitality and commitment to excellence. Kelley M. Skeff, M.D., Ph.D., May 2013: In this text, Steinert and her colleagues have provided a significant contribution to the future of faculty development. In an academic and comprehensive way, the authors have both documented past efforts in faculty development as well as provided guidance and stimuli for the future. The scholarly and well-referenced chapters provide a compendium of methods previously used while emphasizing the expanding areas deserving work. Moreover, the writers consistently elucidate the faculty development process by highlighting the theoretical underpinnings of faculty development and the research conducted. Thus, the book provides an important resource for two major groups, current providers and researchers in faculty development as well as those desiring to enter the field. Both groups of readers can benefit from a reading of the entire book or by delving into their major area of interest and passion. In so doing, they will better understand our successes and our limitations in this emerging field. Faculty development in the health professions has now received attention for 6 decades. Yet, dedicated faculty members trying to address the challenges in medical education and the health care delivery system do not have all the assistance they need to achieve their goals. This book provides a valuable resource towards that end.

This book introduces community college faculty and faculty developers to the use of faculty learning communities (FLCs) as a means for faculty themselves to investigate and surmount student learning problems they encounter in their classrooms, and as an effective and low-cost strategy for faculty developers working with few resources to stimulate innovative teaching that leads to student persistence and improved learning outcomes.Two-year college instructors face the unique challenge of teaching a mix of learners, from the developmental to high-achievers, that requires using a variety of instructional strategies and techniques. Even the most experienced teachers can find this diversity demanding.Faculty developers at many two-year colleges still rely solely on the one-day workshop model that, while useful, rarely results in sustained student-centered changes in pedagogy or the curriculum, and may not be practicable for the growing cohort of part-time faculty members.By linking work in the classroom with scholarship and reflection, FLCs provide participants with a sense of renewed engagement and stimulate collegial exploration of ways to achieve educational excellence. FLCs are usually faculty-instigated and cross-disciplinary, and comprise groups of six to fifteen faculty that work collaboratively through regular meetings over an extended period of time to promote research and an exchange of experiences, foster community, and develop the scholarship of teaching. FLCs alleviate burnout and isolation, promote the development, testing, and peer review of new classroom strategies or technologies, and lead to the reenergizing and professionalization of teachers.This book introduces the reader to FLCs and to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, offering examples of application in two-year colleges. Individual chapters describe, among others, an FLC set up to support course redesign; an “Adjunct Connectivity FLC” to integrate part-time faculty within a department and collaborate on the curriculum; a cross-disciplinary FLC to promote student self-regulated learning, and improve academic performance and persistence; a critical thinking FLC that sought to define critical thinking in separate disciplines, examine interdisciplinary cross-over of critical thinking, and measure critical thinking more accurately; an FLC that researched the transfer of learning and developed strategies to promote students’ application of their learning across courses and beyond the classroom. Each chapter describes the formation of its FLC, the processes it engaged in, what worked and did not, and the outcomes achieved.Just as when college faculty fail to remain current in their fields, the failure to engage in continuing development of teaching skills, will equally lead teaching and learning to suffer. When two-year college administrators restrain scholarship and reflection as inappropriate for the real work of the institution they are in fact hindering the professionalization of their teaching force that is essential to institutional mission and student success.When FLCs are supported by leaders and administrators, and faculty learn that collaboration and peer review are valued and even expected as part of being a teaching professional, they become intrinsically motivated and committed to collaboratively solving problems, setting the institution on a path to becoming a learning organization that is proactive and adept at navigating change.

"Action Research can empower all administrators in higher education to engage more effectively in resolving challenges in colleges and universities. Scholar-practitioners are particularly well poised to impact three defined areas of practice: college students, faculty, and curriculum, teaching and learning. Through these three areas of foci broad issues within higher education are explored. Action Research is a powerful, localized methodology for impacting difficult and complex issues embedded in organizations. Higher education administrators regularly confront these types of difficult issues and hold the responsibility to solve these problems"--

This practical guide clarifies why school librarians need to be part of the professional development process in their schools—and shows just how to achieve that goal. To remain gainfully employed, today's school librarian has to be a leader in the school. To that end, Adult Learners: Professional Development and the School Librarian encourages librarians to become instrumental in providing professional development to teachers and staff. The book begins by explaining why librarians should participate in designing and presenting professional development, then goes on to provide tips, examples, and a complete model for doing this based on system used at the author's school. Readers will discover how to determine what is practical and how to turn ideas into actions, whether they want to implement a major initiative or start with something small. Most important, this book details how to become part of the professional development team in ways that are both relevant and meaningful to the teachers and staff involved. When these stakeholders understand what the librarian knows and how they can benefit, the librarian's sphere of influence will be expanded—and a job just might be saved.

Since the first edition of A Guide to Faculty Development was published in 2002, the dynamic field of educational and faculty development has undergone many changes. Prepared under the auspices of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD), this thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded edition offers a fundamental resource for faculty developers, as well as for faculty and administrators interested in promoting and sustaining faculty development within their institutions. This essential book offers an introduction to the topic, includes twenty-three chapters by leading experts in the field, and provides the most relevant information on a range of faculty development topics including establishing and sustaining a faculty development program; the key issues of assessment, diversity, and technology; and faculty development across institutional types, career stages, and organizations. "This volume contains the gallant story of the emergence of a movement to sustain the vitality of college and university faculty in difficult times. This practical guide draws on the best minds shaping the field, the most productive experience, and elicits the imagination required to reenvision a dynamic future for learning societies in a global context." —R. Eugene Rice, senior scholar, Association of American Colleges and Universities "Across the country, people in higher education are thinking about how to prepare our graduates for a rapidly changing world while supporting our faculty colleagues who grew up in a very different world. Faculty members, academic administrators, and policymakers alike will learn a great deal from this volume about how to put together a successful faculty development program and create a supportive environment for learning in challenging times." —Judith A. Ramaley, president, Winona State University "This is the book on faculty development in higher education. Everyone involved in faculty development—including provosts, deans, department chairs, faculty, and teaching center staff—will learn from the extensive research and the practical wisdom in the Guide." —Peter Felten, president, The POD Network (2010–2011), and director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Elon University