Faculty development in the United States

This report gives an overview of faculty development in the United States during the past 30 years and suggests what remains to be done before this movement becomes fully institutionalized in American higher education.Jerry G. Gaff is Vice President at the Association of American Colleges. His degrees are at DePauw University (A.B.) and Syracuse University (Ph.D.) with specialization in psychology. He helped pioneer the establishment of campus-based faculty development programs in the 1970s, has worked on improving undergraduate general education programs, and currently directs a new project to prepare future faculty members for their roles in teaching and service, as well as research. Ronald D. Simpson is Director of the Office of Instructional Development at The University of Georgia, where he also is professor of Higher Education and Science Education. He holds degrees from The University of Tennessee and The University of Georgia.     

The National Renewal Conference: A Forum for the Discussion of Issues of Faculty Vitality and Renewal

A series of national conferences focusing on faculty renewal is described in this paper. These conferences were attended by over 450 faculty members, faculty development professionals, and academic administrators representing 188 institutions and higher education organizations in 39 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and the Virgin Islands. The programs of these conferences demonstrate that a wide range of activities promoting faculty renewal are ongoing in a variety of institutional settings throughout the country and examination of the conference programs and participants provides additional insight into the topic of faculty renewal in higher education.William K. Jackson is associate director of the Office of Instructional Development at the University of Georgia and a founding co-chair of the National Renewal Conferences. He holds graduate degrees in physics and educational administration (higher education) from the University of South Carolina and has served as an academic administrator at both a private liberal arts college and a public research university. He currently co-directs a FIPSE-funded Senior Teaching Fellows program at UGA.     

Smaller and better: The university of Michigan experience

This paper discusses several hierarchical and sequential reduction options, including Balderston's budgetary strategies and this author's curricular change options. The latter are based on data gathered in a 1979-80 survey of 46 states on patterns of program reduction. Having introduced various reduction categories, the paper then focuses on the institutional shrinkage process currently being implemented at the University of Michigan. Four specific strategies are being discussed: (1) across-the-board cuts, (2) reduction of nonacademic programs; (3) long-range faculty reduction procedures, and (4) program discontinuance. A host of potential problems regarding the elimination of academic programs is described. The paper concludes by providing several general recommendations for institutional shrinkage procedures.Presented at the Twenty-First Annual Forum of The Association for Institutional Research, Minneapolis, May 1981.     

Adjunct mentoring,a vital responsibility in a changing educational climate: the Lesley University Adjunct Mentoring Program

Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, has established an adjunct mentoring process in response to its growing number of adjunct faculty. Lesley’s adjunct corps serves in Lesley programs offered both on and off campus. The primary goals of the mentoring program are to support excellence in teaching, and to engage in mentoring that begins at hiring and provides continued professional development to the adjunct faculty member. This article underscores the general need for adjunct mentoring in postsecondary institutions, and describes Lesley University’s Adjunct Mentoring Program – developed specifically in anticipation and response to this need. The article outlines the program’s main elements, the principles that underlie it, and the place of such a program in higher education today. It is precisely because part‐time faculty members in postsecondary institutions often assume a number of roles – teacher assistant, annually hired adjunct, internship supervisor – that adjunct mentoring programs are a responsibility, and not a choice.     

Addressing Barriers to Technology Diffusion

ABSTRACT

In this paper we present a model for overcoming the significant barriers encountered by a small teacher education program in its effort to integrate technology within its curriculum. At the University of New England, teacher education faculty have succeeded in overcoming these impediments by collaborating with faculty in other programs of the institution. The model illustrates lessons learned over a period of four years as we moved from our initial ‘one step at a time’ plan to the current strategy. This successful model details our efforts to garner administrative and financial support, acquire hardware and software, provide opportunities for training and education, and develop technology rich learning experiences for our students.     

Faculty and department head preferences for dealing with retrenchment demands

A random sample of faculty members and department heads rated the acceptability of alternative responses to financial retrenchment pressures within a framework created by a fictitious but realistic scenario. Relatively few differences were found among the recommendations and/or preferences of department heads, tenured faculty, and nontenured faculty. There was a strong preference for protecting the instructional program even at the cost of research and service activities. Several findings, including the preference for reductions in noninstructional rather than instructional programs, were consistent with a self-serving hypothesis. Respondents from departments with recent enrollment declines were more willing than other respondents to accept heavier work loads as a response to retrenchment pressures. Implications for planning processes were discussed.     

Faculty integration of technology in teacher preparation: outcomes of a development model

This article reports on a faculty development model that uses a variety of approaches and strategies to help faculty restructure their curricula and effectively model technology integration for their students. A multifaceted model, funded in part by the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) initiative, was implemented at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The model included training, technical and collegial support, access, and incentives. Questionnaires and qualitative data indicated substantive changes in faculty expectations and assumptions regarding technology as well as increases in faculty and student technology skills and the degree to which faculty members integrate technology into their curricula. The model helped to facilitate the collaborative efforts of a cadre of faculty to model and integrate technology throughout their teacher preparation programs.     

Faculty-exchange programs promoting change: motivations,experiences, and influence of participants in the Carnegie Mellon University-Portugal Faculty Exchange Program

The international mobility of faculty is increasing worldwide. Although studies have considered the experiences of academics abroad, less is known about faculty-exchange programs with policy objectives. This study helps to fill this gap by analyzing a nationwide structured faculty exchange program established by Carnegie Mellon University and Portuguese universities to bring change to Portuguese higher education. The findings are based on interviews with Portuguese program participants, whose motivation to participate and experiences with the program, in addition to the influence of their experience abroad on their home institution, were explored. We find that, although the alignment of individual motivations with institutional interests is important to such programs, the complex transposition of individual experiences to the institutional level may be impeded by cultural resistance as well as resource and organizational constraints. Our exploration of the features that determine the success or failure of these experiences provides insights for policymakers seeking to implement faculty-mobility programs in the future.     

Faculty Productivity Barriers and Supports at a School of Education

All programs in a midwestern university recently embarked on a path to help increase the scholarly productivity of faculty. The effort to develop a research emphasis within the School of Education required determining the needs of tenure-track faculty regarding meeting the new requirements. The purposes of our study were to investigate these needs and identify the individual, environmental, and leadership factors that affect faculty productivity. Findings revealed a need to transform the School’s service and teaching culture to a culture of research and scholarship. Recommendations for helping other schools of education to become more research-oriented are provided. While the study focuses on data from a particular School of Education, the implications may generalize to faculty productivity within other institutions, particularly within professional schools. Susan A. Santo  received a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from the University of Virginia and is currently an Associate Professor of Adult and Higher Education at the University of South Dakota. Her research interests include faculty productivity in higher education and improving distance learning. Mary E. Engstrom  received an Ed.D. from the University of South Dakota in Curriculum and Instruction. She is currently the Associate Director of Extended Learning Services at the University of Montana. Her research interests include instructional design for online learning and professional development for educators. Linda Reetz  received an Ed.D. from the University of North Dakota in Teacher Education and serves as the Associate Dean of the School of Education at the University of South Dakota. Her research interests include higher education practices for teacher education programs and mild disabilities. William Schweinle  received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington in Psychology and serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota. His research interest area is in statistics. Kristine Reed  received a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in Curriculum and Instruction/Administration and serves as a faculty member in Curriculum and Instruction, University of South Dakota. Her research emphases include multicultural education and rural education.     

FROM WAC TO MEW TO MET: THE EVOLUTION OF A MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHING PROGRAM

In three years, Stetson University's More Effective Teaching Program (MET) has evolved from a writing‐across‐the‐curriculum faculty development program into a voluntary collaborative learning and teaching project. Based originally on the pedagogy associated with “writing‐to‐learn,” it contains five components that have been designed and adapted to enhance the university as a community of learning and teaching. However, what MET is does not seem as important as the way it has evolved and remained vital. A faculty committee established and maintained MET by using positive wording, tone, and attitudes; by utilizing existing research and assessment efforts to institute each successive program; and by insisting that all elements be conducted as grassroots faculty efforts. As well establishing a diversity of effective faculty development programs, Stetson University has benefited from MET because it has created expectations for the evolution and the improvement of on‐going programs.     

IT Entry knowledge and skills of university teachers vis-à-vis their interest levels: the case of the oldest university in Asia

Technology, considered as the new language of teaching and learning, is an irrevocable reality. Any institution of higher learning is expected to look into the future without losing sight of its core capabilities-the malleability of its faculty members. Today, more than ever, teachers are expected to operate in an environment where “hiteach”, “hi-touch” and “hi-tech” govern their instructional behaviors. It is in this light that this study was conducted to situate teachers coming from a time-tested institution, such as the University of Santo Tomas, the oldest university in Asia, in terms of their IT knowledge, skills, and interests with a view to identifying implications on how faculty development programs may be made more responsive to the present-day educational structure.     

The professor as a person: The role of faculty well-being in faculty development

This article examines the rationale for an expanded definition of faculty development and reviews institutional structures and practices which support the personal and professional development of faculty through faculty and academic development, employee assistance, and health promotion programs.Glenda Hubbard is a professor in the Department of Human Development and Psychological Counseling, and a practicing therapist in the Employee Assistance Service of the Hubbard Center for Faculty and Staff Support at Appalachian State University. She received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Miami. Her current interests include the faculty development needs of mid-career faculty and women's issues in counseling. Sally Atkins is a professor in the Department of Human Development and Psychological Counseling, and a faculty/staff psychologist for the Hubbard Center at Appalachian State University. She received her Ph.D. in counselor education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her current interests include faculty quality of life, therapy and the arts, and cross-cultural psychology.     

Peer and Faculty Mentoring for Students Pursuing a PHD in Gerontology

The Graduate Center for Gerontology at the University of Kentucky incorporates three levels of mentoring in its PhD program. This project assessed satisfaction with peer and faculty mentoring and explored their perceived benefits and purposes. Core and affiliate faculty and current and graduated students were surveyed. Participants seemed satisfied with the mentoring they were giving and receiving, although all groups discussed limitations. Peer mentors were seen as social support and advice givers, while faculty mentors were viewed as responsible for direction and skill-building. These results can contribute to the development of new mentorship programs and the modification of existing ones.     

A Faculty Development Program for Nurse Educators Learning to Teach Online

As the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville prepared to move their graduate programs online, a nursing faculty grass-roots movement led to the implementation of a faculty development program. This instructional design portfolio describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of this program, with the goal of identifying best practices in the design of programs for learning to teach online.     

Revisiting Vico's Pedagogy of Invention: The Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate School Internship

Debates regarding higher education's relevance and responsiveness to societal exigencies have in the past three decades resulted in the development of programs with leitmotifs such as “service learning,” “problem-based learning,” and “civic engagement” (e.g., “Scholarship on Teaching and Learning,” McNair Scholars, etc.). A recurring theme in these enterprises has been the emphasis on honing students’ capacity for criticism. And while this faculty is valuable, it may be ultimately insufficient for students’ active and productive problem-solving and concrete engagement. Heuristically employing Giambattista Vico's rhetorical pedagogy, this essay investigates a programmatic effort to respond to this overly critical orientation. I explicate a formal parallel between the criticism launched, on one hand, by the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate School Internship at the University of Texas at Austin against public research universities, specifically the elimination or reduction of structural and instructional ambiguity and prioritizing of criticism, and, on the other hand, by Vico against Cartesian skepticism, specifically the critical teaching methods generated therein. I thus articulate a model of invention as taught through practice, and advocate a pedagogy based on this revitalized invention, demonstrating its utility in students’ realities.     

Cultivating a Culture of Undergraduate Research at a Public Comprehensive University

Abstract

Winthrop University is a public comprehensive university of about 6000 students, 5000 of whom are undergraduates. The Department of Mathematics offers a baccalaureate degree in mathematics, but has no graduate degree programs. As late as 2009, there was essentially no undergraduate research in the department. At this time, faculty made efforts to cultivate a research program that would motivate faculty to pursue more scholarly opportunities and include undergraduates in their scholarship. These efforts began with in-house-sponsored summer programs that lasted a few weeks and grew over the subsequent 5 year period to several externally funded undergraduate research programs, including a National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program. In this paper, we discuss some lessons we learned in developing a culture of undergraduate research. We focus on the advantages and challenges of undergraduate research at primarily undergraduate universities, offer advice for starting or growing a research program, and provide resources for funding undergraduate research.     

Does Educational Preparation Match Professional Practice: The Case of Higher Education Policy Analysts

This study compares the extent to which higher education policy analysts and master’s and doctoral faculty of higher education and public affairs programs match on a set of competencies thought to be important to higher education policy analysis. Analysts matched master’s faculty in three competencies while analysts and doctoral faculty matched in five competencies. The findings suggest possible reasons why analysts and graduate faculty agree or differ on various competencies. Also, the findings raise important questions regarding the preparation of higher education policy analysts and the graduate programs that educate them. This study is an addition to the body of competency literature. Eduardo C. Arellano  obtained a B.A. in Political Science and an M.P.A from the University of Texas at El Paso, and he holds the Ph.D. in Educational Administration from New Mexico State University. He is an assistant professor at New Mexico State University in the Department of Educational Management and Development. His special interests are interactional diversity, competency, and US–Mexico border studies. Mario C. Martinez  has a B.A. in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership from Arizona State University. He is an associate professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the department of Educational Leadership. His special interests are higher education policy, governance, finance, competency modeling, and strategy.     

Undergraduate Research and Service-Learning Programs in a Kinesiology Program at a Teaching University

High-impact practices foster student success, but faculty faced with heavy teaching loads and lack of resources and infrastructure are challenged to implement such practices. Kinesiology faculty at California State University, East Bay collaborated to implement two student programs: Kinesiology Research Group and Get Fit! Stay Fit! The Kinesiology Research Group, a faculty–student research group, and Get Fit! Stay Fit!, a service learning experience, partnered to consolidate human and structural resources. Student–faculty mentoring circles were used to support this innovative partnership. Here, we report student perceptions of the value of these programs to their academic and professional development.     

Article Productivity Among the Faculty of Criminology and Criminal Justice Doctoral Programs, 2010–2014

One important dimension of the quality of a graduate program is the quality of its faculty. Previous assessments of the publication productivity of criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) faculties have been needlessly incomplete and narrow, reflecting publications only in a small number of CCJ journals. Assessments covering only CCJ journals fail to reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of CCJ and bias results against programs whose most productive scholars publish in non-CCJ journals. The present research covers the full array of major journals in which CCJ-related research appears, by searching for articles using the Web of Science and ProQuest databases. This article is an update of two previous evaluations, covering 2000–2004 and 2005–2009. Based on article counts, the most productive faculties are those of Sam Houston State University, Florida State University and the University of Cincinnati. The article also summarizes changes in rankings of CCJ programs from 2000 through 2014.     

Assessment and the fear of punishment: how the protection of anonymity positively influenced the design and outcomes of postsecondary assessment

This study examines how a state system of higher education, located in the Rocky Mountains area of the United States, allowed faculty members from the state's public institutions of higher education to control the design and implementation of a pilot assessment of statewide general education courses. One of the primary reasons faculty were allowed to control the assessment process was to assuage the commonly held fear by faculty, academic departments, and institutions that they could be punished for the poor assessment results of their students who took the pilot assessment. An important conclusion of this study is that the promise of anonymity, given by the state board of regents (and tacitly by the legislature) to individual faculty members, academic departments, and institutions, was essential to the success of the assessment process.