Faculty evaluation of a faculty development center

There is relatively little firm information concerning the effectiveness of faculty development programs at the present time. This condition is not likely to be alleviated by any one study, including the present one. The study does, however, offer a rationale for the faculty survey approach it uses and reports faculty responses concerning importance and performance, to each of 19 functions that make up the faculty development program at the institution involved. The study was conducted in a large urban university and involved responses from both faculty who had participated in the program during the preceding year and those who had not. It was concluded that, despite the subjective nature and other limitations of the survey approach to evaluation of faculty development programs, the information provided is useful both as a basis for decision making and program improvement.     

Computer-Based Accountability: Implications for Training

Since the call for professional accountability in the early 1970s, counselors and counselor educators have attempted to assess counseling effectiveness, to upgrade programs as a result of assessments, and to communicate results of program assessment and change to their publics. Until recently, their efforts have been impeded by the interpersonal nature of counseling, insufficient training in research and evaluation, and available low-cost computer technology. This article addresses each of the impediments with the focus on how present computer technology, specifically computer-assisted systems, can be used to help counselors and counselor educators ethically input, store, and retrieve pertinent client and program data—data that can be used to achieve program evaluation and lead to accountable program development. The Counselor Accountability System is presented as an example of an easy-to-use computer program designed to facilitate counselor accountability.     

The evaluation of faculty development programs

This article reviews literature pertinent to the evaluation of faculty development programs and presents data from several studies conducted at two institutions. These data were consistent with those previously reported in that faculty participants consistently expressed satisfaction with development services. In addition, one study found that most faculty members voluntarily took some action to improve their instructional effectiveness, though only a minority pursued these efforts in depth. Volunteers who worked intensively with a faculty development consultant improved more on objective measures of effectiveness than did those who were only superficially involved in improvement efforts; those who received no consultative assistance failed to improve significantly. Evidence from a final study provided a control for faculty motivation and led to the conclusion that improvement was contingent both on faculty desire to improve and on the availability of professional assistance.     

University of Virginia Graduate Mentoring Institute: A Model Program for Graduate Student Success

This study examines an innovative model program for the mentorship of diverse graduate students entitled the Inter-Ethnic/Interdisciplinary Mentoring Institute for Graduate Education (i.e., Mentoring Institute), which was established by the Graduate Student Diversity Programs in the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Virginia (UVa). The Mentoring Institute was created to promote an inclusive environment for graduate students from diverse backgrounds as well as to provide support for and increase the number of students of color who successfully matriculate and graduate from UVa. A comprehensive program evaluation was conducted that assesses the mentoring experiences of UVa graduate students who participate in the Mentoring Institute. The evaluation data reveals how graduate students’ involvement in the Mentoring Institute has positively impacted their academic and social experiences as well as their feelings of connectedness to UVa's professional community. The evaluation also assesses ongoing activities, professional trainings, workshops, and other support mechanisms provided for graduate students by the Mentoring Institute. In all, graduate students who participated in the Mentoring Institute evaluation indicated that the program has contributed significantly to their academic success, social well being, and feelings of connectedness to the UVa graduate school community. This study should particularly benefit administrators, faculty, students, and higher education professionals who are interested in multicultural graduate student development at predominately White institutions of higher education.     

The Minnesota International Counseling Institute (MICI) 1989—Present: History,Joyful Moments,and Lessons Learned

This article describes the Minnesota International Counseling Institute, a biennial counseling institute created by faculty in the University of Minnesotas Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology Program. One hundred and fifty-two international counseling personnel from 40 countries have participated in the Minnesota International Counseling Institute. After eight Institutes and nearly 20 years, we wish to share our experiences with the international counseling community. The article presents reflection and evaluation by the faculty on our cumulative experiences with the MICI, including history, guiding principles, format, participants, evaluation, successes, lessons learned, and struggles. We hope our experience will be useful to other counseling and human development professionals and adapted by others interested in promoting counseling across cultures.     

Professional development for iPad integration in general education: Staying ahead of the curve

This faculty development case study focuses on a team of 16 General Education faculty at an urban women’s college during the initial 6 months of the college’s comprehensive implementation of an iPad teaching and learning environment. This article traces the effectiveness of an iPad professional development program through analyses of critical feedback, and makes recommendations for learner-centered faculty development for iPads in Higher Education. We present our conceptual framework, guiding principles and iPad professional development program. The effects of the program were measured using thematic and content analysis of post-session interviews, participant observation, one-to-one interviews and an online discussion forum. The predominant themes were anxiety, having individual needs considered, time considerations, and fundamental questions about expectations in the mobile learning environment. The key recommendation are to attend to collaborative planning, intervention, facilitating authentic professional learning communities and timing of faculty development that is intended to result in integration of new learning tools and environments.     

Testing the Engagement Theory of Program Quality in CACREP‐Accredited Counselor Education Programs

This study examined the engagement theory of program quality ( Haworth & Conrad, 1997 ), which highlights positive student learning outcomes that result from stakeholder involvement in program evaluation within master's‐level graduate programs. A total of 481 master's‐level counseling students and 63 faculty members, representing 68 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)–accredited counselor education programs, participated in the study. Findings reveal that engagement theory is a potentially useful quality assessment resource for CACREP‐accredited programs in their efforts at enhancing and sustaining program quality.     

Design,implementation, and evaluation of an ePortfolio approach to support faculty development in vocational education

This article provides an account of the design, implementation, and evaluation of an ePortfolio approach to faculty development and performance evaluation at a Canadian post-secondary vocational education institute. The approach was piloted in two phases in 13 departments. Survey and interview data were collected and analyzed to determine adoption, reception by faculty, and impact of the approach on faculty development. While adoption of the approach in the pilots was limited, participants who adopted the approach reported collecting more and different feedback, developing increased awareness of areas for improvement, and planning their professional learning more explicitly. Further studies are needed to determine what design elements of the portfolio optimally support professional development and performance evaluation.     

Through the looking glass … preservice professional portfolio's

Abstract

This article shares one institution's experiences using professional portfolios to assist future teachers in becoming effective practitioners and making the transition between school and work. It describes the portfolio development process and the exit presentations. Both give students a peer/faculty forum to showcase their competencies, growth, and promote reflection, self‐confidence, job search preparedness, and an increased awareness of professional standards. In order to ascertain students’ perceptions regarding the development of a professional portfolio, faculty administered a questionnaire. Student feedback highlighted the benefits of portfolio development and offered suggestions for future improvements. They overwhelmingly viewed the invested time as worthwhile, saw the process as an appropriate program exit assessment, and recommended its continuation with future students. In addition, their suggestions held implications for portfolio use in teacher training programs.     

中小学教师需要具备的教学知识

教学知识是教师从事教育教学活动的基础知识,与教师的专业发展密切相关。信息时代,中小学教师应当具备怎样的教学知识才能胜任教育教学工作?从理解教师的教学活动的角度来解答这一问题,按照教学活动所经历的"设计—实施—评价"程序,构建出教师所需教学知识的内容框架。教师所需的教学知识应该包括五个方面:关于为什么教的知识、关于教什么的知识、关于教谁的知识、关于怎样教的知识和关于如何评价的知识。     

Community Consultation and Intervention: Supporting Students Who Do Not Access Counseling Services

Although the severity of psychological problems among college students and the demand for campus counseling services has increased, many students who could benefit from mental health services still do not access them. This article describes Community Consultation and Intervention, a program designed to support students who are unlikely to access professional help despite the best efforts of traditional counseling center outreach. Community Consultation and Intervention reaches into the campus community to intervene by advising faculty and staff who may be the only contact for a distressed student, taking on a nontraditional “student support” role in direct interactions with students, offering advocacy when university systems or other environmental stressors precipitate psychological problems, and providing case management and crisis intervention services on behalf of the university when troubled students are especially concerning and disruptive to their communities. The most novel element of the program—the student support role—is distinct from conventional counseling in that it privileges problem solving, support, advice, and advocacy over focusing on emotions and other traditional mental health interventions. Case studies and programmatic challenges are described.     

Now I’m Ready: The Impact of a Professional Development Initiative on Faculty Concerns with Program Assessment

This article examines the impact of a faculty professional development effort on the understanding, confidence, and attitudes of education faculty related to program assessment activities. We applied literature on the adoption of innovations, institutional effectiveness, and professional development to a case study of a series of workshops on assessment. The results suggest that faculty members had improved skills and knowledge, understanding, confidence, and attitudes regarding assessment following the workshops. The opportunity for faculty members to collaborate with colleagues on assessment and to develop an understanding of the kinds of supports in place for assessment work were important elements in the gains.     

An Alternative Professional Development Program: Lessons Learned

Abstract. This article describes how a group of small liberal arts college faculty embraced the opportunity to create a faculty learning circle as an alternative professional development program. We provide a review of the program, discuss the lessons learned, and offer recommendations for future efforts in developing a similar faculty development program. Analysis of participant responses to the learning circle indicated that the experience met all their intended objectives. Faculty learning circles contribute to the participants' professional development and could be incorporated into any college campus.     

REFLECTIONS OF COMMUNITY-COLLEGE STUDENTS REGARDING MENTEE/INSTRUCTOR TEACHING AND LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS

This investigation used data collected from students who assessed their instructors' teaching and learning effectiveness. Instructors were community-college career and technical-education faculty enrolled in the Community College Induction Mentoring Program (CCIM), a jointly sponsored program between Iowa State University and the instructors' respective community colleges. These new faculty were involved in a structured mentor/mentee program in which the mentor was involved in a 1-day mentor training program. The mentor/mentee relationship was designed around annual goals with an action plan developed, executed, and assessed for each goal. One component of the mentor/mentee program involved documentation of an effectiveness plan, including students' perception of their mentored-instructors' teaching and, as a consequence, their own learning effectiveness. Students were asked to complete an evaluation instrument comparing their “reactions” and “learning” in classes taught by mentored instructors enrolled in the CCIM program relative to other nonmentored instructors. A total of 9 hypotheses provided the direction of the research. Student ratings were typically higher for new instructors who received peer mentoring. Mentees and mentors consistently reported a high level of satisfaction about their partnership. Supervisors voiced strong support for the program. This paper shares student survey results of mentee/instructor teaching and student learning effectiveness.     

Using a Group Work Approach to Develop the Potential of Students in a Non-Traditional MSW Work-Study Program

Abstract

This article describes the role of a special faculty advisor, the Professional Development Counselor, in utilizing group work techniques and stages of group development to facilitate minority students' professional development as they successfully engage in and complete an MSW work-study program. It also outlines the history of the program, and discusses the use and results of an evaluation survey to measure the program's graduates' perceptions of their experiences and views of professional self.     

Reducing Inequality in Higher Education: The Link between Faculty Empowerment and Climate and Retention

Since 2001 the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program has distributed over $130 million in grants to improve work climate, enhance professional success, and increase recruitment and retention of female faculty in STEM fields. The process by which each institution designs and implements these interventions is seldom studied, however. Using climate surveys, administrative records, and a difference-in-differences regression approach, we assessed whether exposure to the design and implementation process helps explain improvements in climate and retention during the early years of ADVANCE implementation. We found that departments wherein at least one faculty member participated in ADVANCE committee work experienced significant improvements in job satisfaction among female faculty members and significant reduction in turnover among female full professors, suggesting that the ADVANCE design process was itself an intervention.     

Mutual Mentoring for Early-Career and Underrepresented Faculty: Model,Research, and Practice

In the beginning, “Mutual Mentoring” was little more than an idea, a hopeful vision of the future in which a new model of mentoring could serve as a medium to better support early-career and underrepresented faculty. Over time, Mutual Mentoring evolved from an innovative idea to an ambitious pilot program to a fully operational, campus-wide initiative. This article describes the conceptualization, design, implementation, and evaluation of a Mutual Mentoring initiative from 2006 to 2014. Findings indicate that faculty members who participated in this initiative were more likely to regard mentoring as a career-enhancing activity as well as to develop mutually beneficial mentoring relationships than were their non-participating peers.     

Science Faculty Belief Systems in a Professional Development Program: Inquiry in College Laboratories

The purpose of this study was to investigate how science faculty members?? belief systems about inquiry-based teaching changed through their experience in a professional development program. The program was designed to support early career science faculty in learning about inquiry and incorporating an inquiry-based approach to teaching laboratories. Data sources for this qualitative study included three semi-structured interviews, observations during the program and during faculty members?? implementation in their courses, and a researcher??s journal. In the first phase of data analysis, we created profiles for each of the four participants. Next, we developed assertions, and tested for confirming and disconfirming evidence across the profiles. The assertions indicated that, through the professional development program, participants?? knowledge and beliefs about inquiry-based teaching shifted, placing more value on student-directed learning and classroom inquiry. Participants who were internally motivated to participate and held incoming positive attitudes toward the mini-journal inquiry-based approach were more likely to incorporate the approach in their future practice. Students?? responses played a critical role in participants?? belief systems and their decision to continue using the inquiry-based format. The findings from this study have implications for professional development design.     

Exploring the Influences of a Partner-Based Teacher Credential Program on Candidates’ Performance Outcomes

The study compared candidates in a 4-year undergraduate program for secondary mathematics and science teaching, based on the UTeach model, with candidates in a 1-year postbaccalaureate program at the same institution. Candidates in the undergraduate program participated in a partnership of university mathematics, science, and education departments and intensive field-based experiences in high-needs schools. We conjectured that this approach would better prepare prospective teachers to develop beginning teacher competencies. Analysis of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers Teaching Event identified few differences between candidates in both groups. Surveys revealed significant differences between candidates’ perceptions of their preparation for teaching. These findings suggest that different program models can offer differential support to prospective teachers but how the program features are enacted influences the impact that these programs have on teacher preparation.