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Circulating the CTL: A Message from the Coeditor-in-Chief
Get PDFDiscussing the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at my own cam-pus, I mention in an earlier issue of JCTL that “I hope not so much for our CTL to be just everywhere but everywhere to serve as a catalyst for ongoing dialogues geared to pedagogical innovation and to the institutional changes needed to motivate and maintain that innovation” (Tassoni, 2010, pg. 1). This intention has marked a principal aim of our CTL, one we nurture not only through public sessions on teaching issues and innovations, listserv conversations, and small group instructional diagnoses, but also through the number of faculty, staff, and students who provide service to our CTL as part of its Leadership Collaborative (LC)
Oh, the Places Your Center Can Go: Possible Programs to Offer
Get PDFGiven Todd’s extensive experience in faculty development for 20 years in a variety of types of institutions, regions, and faculty served, we have asked him to write a series on essential issues needed by directors of faculty development efforts. This series is designed to suggest areas for faculty developers to consider along with tips and techniques Todd has found to be helpful along the way. In this issue, Todd focuses on what programs to offer. Possible future topics will include how to get and maintain support on campus, bringing outside experts to campus, assessing/documenting your successes, and strategic planning. If there is a specific topic you would like to see addressed, contact the Editor-in-Chief at [email protected]
The “New” Faculty Development? Exploring the Relationship Between Human Performance Improvement (HPI) and Current Best Practices in Faculty Development
Get PDFFrom their beginnings with the first center for teaching and learning (CTL) at the University of Michigan in 1962, CTLs have grown to become respected organizations on their campuses. However, there is an unexplored nexus between the literature on human performance improvement (HPI) and faculty development. As professionals working in support of the academic enterprise, faculty developers must become aware of all possible opportunities to demonstrate their value in an increasingly difficult environment; HPI is just such an opportunity. By using a keyword search of books and articles written by recognized HPI authorities, the author identified and defined 22 words and phrases commonly used to describe the field. A review of the faculty development literature between 2001 and 2010 determined that references to HPI using these key words and phrases occurred in only 26% of the articles reviewed. In addition, over 44% of 303 CTL websites on a comprehensive list maintained by Hofstra University failed to link their services to any aspect of human performance improvement. Several options to begin implementing HPI are described
Making Waves: Demonstrating a CTL’s Impact on Teaching and Learning
Get PDFIn the face of increasing calls for assessment of all aspects of the university, centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) have increasingly searched for ways to document the impact of interventions. This article explores prior research about the activities of CTLs and how they have assessed programs and describes how a large-scale curriculum redesign and faculty development project can provide an opportunity to document the impact of a CTL. The use of assessment as both an intervention that improves teaching and learning and a means of documenting program impact is discussed
Creating Space for Adjunct Faculty: The Multiple Roles of Centers for Teaching and Learning
Get PDFThis article addresses the dovetailing of two higher education changes impacting CTLs: the growing population of adjunct instructors and the increasing responsibility of CTLs to take on organizational development roles. Based on data collected through a needs assessment at a mid-sized, urban, commuter college campus, the author suggests five areas through which CTLs can reconfigure existing spaces to be more inclusive of adjuncts. She argues that by reconfiguring spaces of teaching and learning, CTLs can move beyond a focus on individual instructor support and begin to play a role in organizational development at the institutional level
Faculty Developer as Change Agent: A Conceptual Model for Small Institutions and Beyond
Get PDFAs a newcomer to faculty development seven years ago, I thought I knew what I was getting into; I thought I could manage the task of promoting excellence in teaching and learning. After all, my field is education, so thinking about teaching comes naturally to me. What I did not know, and have only recently come to understand, is the complexity and reach of the role of faculty developer. The purpose of this article is to shed light on understandings that I have acquired through the work of our center and connect my experience to research on the role of faculty developer, on leadership, and on organizational change. Ultimately, I conclude that if we do our work well in the most apparent areas of engaging with faculty and focusing on teaching and learning, we are more likely to have a meaningful impact on the campus community, especially in a small college setting
The Care and Maintenance of Faculty Culture: A Small College Curricular Approach
Get PDFThe authors describe Carleton College’s de-centralized model of faculty development that functions through informal structural elements with the assistance and partial coordination of the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching. A curricular approach to faculty development—with coordinated goals, multiple iterations, and assessment of both goals and events—produces a faculty culture dedicated to collegial conversations and mutual instruction that helps foster a shared sense of purpose and contributes to an overall institutional focus on student learning
Integrating CTLs Into Campus Strategic Planning Through an Effective Brainstorming Process
Get PDFOne way Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) can position themselves at the epicenter of campus activity and insert themselves into strategic planning is by transforming group work through an effective brainstorming process that the authors have developed called Ideation Development for Excellence in Academic Learning (I.D.E.A.L.). The authors explain the evolution of the process in a learning community from best practices in brainstorming through a working model. The process has been effective with actual groups both on and off campus (vs. laboratory conditions)
Learning From Each Other: Involving Students in Centers for Teaching and Learning
Get PDFStudent involvement in centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) is often an overlooked avenue of faculty development. While several formalized programs for student involvement exist at other universities, the authors explore informal and easily implemented opportunities to work with students that can provide a viable starting point for centers of all kinds. They discuss the roles that students can play as presenters, panelists, audience members, marketers, and colleagues, and the valuable growth that involvement can foster for students and faculty alike as they engage in dialogue and reflection about teaching and learning
Indirect Faculty Development and the Role of Sociability
Get PDFInformal socialization is an essential ingredient in effective faculty development, and a necessary component of successful centers for teaching and learning. There is more to assisting faculty than providing workshops, even assuming faculty retain and use the methods discussed at the workshops. Foundational learning theories apply to faculty as well as any learner, and identifying how to create sustainable relationships with faculty is a key component of successful development. Theoretical models of socialization apply partly to this context, but a new model informed by emotional intelligence is needed for authentically connecting faculty with developers