Chart+of+Development+Strategies-+Class+3

=** Professional Development Strategies **=


 * ** Strategy ** || ** Description ** || ** Strengths ** || ** Limitations ** ||
 * Individual Consultation || An "expert" acts as a mentor of sorts. The person will watch the faculty teach, go over notes and handouts, and give feedback on the performance. The consultant will then suggest strategies to improve performance and shepherd the faculty member through the process providing moral support along the way.

//__More Detail on Data Collection__// In an individual consultation, Lewis (2002) argues that it is the responsibility of the consultant to gather a variety of data in order to provide the best intervention or advice for the faculty member. This may consist of an interview, analysis of course materials, a classroom observation, review of student evaluation data, and an analysis of a video or audiotape of the faculty member's teaching. || The faculty member get feedback from someone who supposedly has watched many faculty teach and can speak to what works and what doesn't. You get a third party impartial observer to look at the situation with "fresh eyes". Often, faculty in certain disciplines become entrenched in a certain way of doing things, the consultant can provide suggestions on ways to get out of those bad habits.

Individual consultation allows a consultant to truly understand a faculty member's unique strengths and weaknesses, and tailor interventions or suggestions to meet his/her needs. Lewis also argues that it is the "best way to instill lasting commitment and change" (2002, p. 59). || It can be hard for faculty to suggestions from someone who might not be familiar with their particular field of study. You only get one perspective using this method. One extra set eyes, while better than nothing, doesn't give you varying opinions.

An additional limitation of this intervention is the sheer amount of time it takes to do one-on-one consultation. The tax on time can be an issue both for the consultant and the faculty member.

Assumption that consultants are aware of their own biases and are trained as counselors in some regards. The Kaplan article discusses mulitcultural issues and how consultants can assist faculty in various ways. He makes it much easier that I think it really is. See Figure 2 in article (Negotiating Consultant Identity) for a great list of questions I think every consultant should go thru before meeting with every faculty member.

Often times the Dean, department chair, etc need to value and recognize the problem as well. It should be a collaborative process including the consultants. Often times it gets shoved off onto consultants and assumed they are taking care of the problem. || || Observed and observers create a partnership though pre-observation conference meeting(s), descriptive (neutrally generated) observation notes by the observer, and finally faculty directed post-observation conference. || Observations “provide individualized assistance based on the needs of the teacher” (p. 74). Collaborative observations give teachers ownership/increased responsibility of the process and reduces the “threat” of observation by recognizing that both observer and observed are professionals. Employs recording descriptive, “neutral” data in categories determined in partnership with the observed teacher in order to reduce observer bias. || Regardless of the intent of mutual respect, bias exists. “Classroom observation produces an incomplete picture of the teaching and learning that is occurring” (p. 80). || · **Faculty learning communities (FLCs)** are defined as "cross-disciplinary communit[ies] of eight to ten faculty engaged in an active, collaborative, year-long curriculum focused on enhancing and assessing student learning, with frequent activities that promote learning, development, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and community" (p. 110). · ** Scholarly teaching vs. the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) ** - "'The purpose of scholarly teaching is to impact the activity of teaching and the resulting learning, whereas the scholarship of teaching results in a formal, peer-reviewed communication in the appropriate media or venue, which then becomes part of the knowledge base of teaching and learning in higher education'" (Richlin, 2001, p. 58, as cited in Cox). ||  # multidisciplinary focus - the community includes members from different disciplines and requires that everyone provide feedback to each other || interviews a class in order to provide the professor with rich student feedback. The interview occurs mid-year, following discussions between the faculty developer and professor where course materials are reviewed and the concept of student feedback is emphasized by the faculty developer. For an SGID, students form small groups and record consensus and nonconsensus responses to questions that include, but are not limited to: (a) what do you like about this course; (b) what changes would you like to see; and (c) what suggestions do you have for the professor. A minimum of 30 minutes of class time is required for the SGID. The feedback is collected by the faculty developer and then communicated to the professor with the two discussing potential responses and changes to the course (Diamond, 2002). || There are many strengths to SGID. When compared to the typical evaluations administered at the end of the term, SGID provides professors with feedback during the term, allowing them to make immediate changes based on the feedback of students. Additionally, the interviews provide rich data with specific issues and suggestions (Diamond, 2002). I think the relationship established between faculty developer and professor is most valuable though. SGID includes multiple meetings between the two and as a result, professors have a better appreciation for student feedback and have developed a strong relationship with a valuable resource on-campus. || SGID is a process that requires a lot of time from the professor and faculty developer (Diamond, 2002). It also requires a certain level of vulnerability and passion from the professor, which I see as the biggest challenge to ensuring the success of SGID. || Since there is a lack of a single definition, SoTL can be used and interpreted in a variety of ways, thus opening more doors ie: learning can take place in a non-scholarly setting || Its scope is limited to higher education Finding a unifying definition of SoTL is problematic How can you test for SoTL? Is it ethical to use a quasi-experimental study where one group fails to receive resource(s) that could potentially lead to increased learning || (McKinney, 2004) || *SoTL work often occurs by only a small number of faculty members (often in isolation) with work not adequately shared. (McKinney, 2004) ||
 *  Collaborative Observation  **
 *  Collaborative Observation  **
 * Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) and Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) projects ||
 * 1) mentor relationship - pairing an experienced SoTL scholar with a newcomer provides faculty who are trying to learn the scholarship of teaching a learning with individualized attention.
 * 2)   Participation in SoTL activities increases faculty (a) enthusiasm for teaching and (b) appreciation of SoTL as an intellectual pursuit. Faculty also report being more reflective, comfortable, and confident, and feelingin both reviatlized and inspired.
 * 3)   FLCs "support the effective development of SoTL" (p. 123), though it is also noted that participation in SoTL activities fosters community.
 * 4) Through the scholarship of teaching a learning, teaching is becoming linked with scholarly activity. By making the process of improving one's teaching practices a scholarly activity, SoTL leaders have peeked faculty interest in teaching, supported the concentration on research, and managed to benefit students in the process.  || * SoTL is not always well-received or thought of as scholarly work by faculty members who do not participate in SoTL activities and intitatives.
 * Faculty members often need encouragement to publish SoTL reults; they may feel inadequate to contribute anything to the field, since they are new to the concept of SoTL and know the number of years it took for them to be "experts" in their primary disciplines.
 * Small Group Instructional Diagnosis || For a Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID), a faculty developer
 * Scholarship of Teaching and Learning || Growing in importance because the academy realized we needed to know more about how, why, and when our students learn (4). Most definitions of SoTL tend to focus on activities or processes. Several definitions of SoTL include: "ongoing learning about teaching and the demonstration of such knowledge" "Work that encourages an empirical examination of teaching in relation to student learning" or is related to three activities: "engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning, self-reflection on teaching and learning in one's own discipline, and public sharing of ideas about teaching and learning within the discipline" (6) || Supports adaptations to changing technologies and growing study body
 * SoTL cont. || *SoTL is a social movement with roots deeper than just HE (i.e. sociology), going back more twenty years.
 * "SoTL contributes to the knowledge base about teaching and learning and is serving as a movement to stimulate networking, research, discussion, and action related to improving teaching and learning" (McKinney, 2004). || *SoTL work can help more accurately define pedagogical, curricular, and institutional reforms in colleges and universities.
 * Can help change "status quo" to enhance student outcomes.
 * SoTL efforts often reap little support, reward, & recognition.
 * Meaning of SoTL and related terms are not well-defined.
 * Legitimacy of SoTL work needs strengthened.
 * There are ethical and methodological challenges (how to test SoTL because unethical to have a control and experimental group).