Concurrent Session X
Saturday, June 14, 2:00–3:00 PM
Are We Ready to ‘Go Global’ with a Scholarship of Educational Development?
Ros Woodhouse & Cherie Bova: York University, Canada
To speak of a ‘global scholarship of educational development’ suggests a shared, world-wide understanding of terms that are contested (‘scholarship’) and emergent (‘educational development’). A strong movement (especially in North America) is promoting recognition of educational work as scholarship, reflected in an explosion of ‘scholarships’ for teaching, assessment, curriculum development, and educational development. The goal of our session is to elicit a critical and constructive conversation about the meaning and value of a distinct scholarship of educational development, and to examine what ‘going global’ might enable or preclude for practitioners and for the field.
Teaching CAN Be Improved: 200 Faculty Tell How
Whitney Ransom & Russell Osguthorpe: Brigham Young University, USA
What have more than two hundred faculty who have made significant improvements in their teaching done to realize this growth? During this engaging presentation, researchers will highlight how faculty across a variety of disciplines have focused on 3 top areas to improve teaching over the last three years. Data come from faculty surveys, online student ratings, and 30 case studies. Participants will learn what students say about teaching and learning and which factors seem to have the greatest impact on teaching and learning. Participants will also discuss aligning outcomes, activities, and assessments to the life of the learner.
Interdisciplinary Learning: The Integration of Professional and Academic Communication Skills Into Subject-Specific Undergraduate Courses
Dorothy Missingham & Colin Kestell: University of Adelaide, Australia
Despite industry demands for a high level of communication skills from university graduates, students are often resistant to studying, what they term as, ‘English’. Thus an important approach to learning and teaching of academic and professional communication skills is their integration with discipline-specific courses. In one Australian university, communication has been integrated with technical subjects in undergraduate degree programs. This interdisciplinary approach—whilst similar in some respects to other universities, both in Australia and overseas—is unique to this particular School in that the integration occurs across all four-year levels of undergraduate studies. The embedding of written, oral and team communication skills is based on constructivist theory—in particular, notions of both ‘spiral curriculum’ and scaffolded learning (Rose, Wood & Bruner 1974). It has been devised to reflect authentic professional practice and thus better prepare students for future employment.
Developing the Marginalized: Working with Contract/Continuing Education Instructors
Brad Wuetherick & Cathy Olson: University of Alberta, Canada
The language of marginalization resonates strongly in the literature on sessional (or adjunct) work. Educational development units often struggle to implement programs with varying levels of participation and success for sessional staff teaching in credit-degree programs. On many university campuses, however, this third tier of instructors is often completely neglected in institutional plans for educational development activities—the continuing-education instructor. This interactive, discussion-focused session explores issues around continuing-education instructor motivation and self-identity, as well as their perception about the role of educational development in their own growth as instructors.
Understanding Academics’ Development: Implications for Instructional Development
Elisabeth Laga, Sarah Creten, & Mieke Clement: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Our universities share a concern for high quality teaching. As educational developers we are challenged to understand how academics develop with regard to their teaching, in order to offer high quality support adapted to their needs, while at the same time advancing the goals of the university. On the basis of survey results, we will discuss where, when and how academics learn. The analyses show that academics experience instructional development as an individual, informal process, closely related to the daily enactment of teaching. Consequences of these findings for instructional development strategies will be explored.
Strategic Use of Teachers´ Inquiry into Teaching and Learning
Anders Ahlberg, Roy Andersson, & Maria Larsson: Lund University, Sweden
The policy-driven process for unification of the European Higher Education area dominates the agenda in Europe. However, research shows that such top-down processes largely leave classrooms unaffected. So, which are the aspects of teaching and learning that university teachers find relevant? In this session we present an analysis of over 300 development projects, conducted by teachers from engineering, humanities-theology, and medicine. The strategic use of such information in the development of academic organizations will be explored.
What do New Educational Developers Need to Know? A Global Conversation
Eric Kristensen: University of Ottawa, Canada; Donna Ellis: University of Waterloo, Canada
When preparing new educational developers, what knowledge, skills and expertise are needed in different countries around the world? One year ago, the presenters designed a five-day intensive institute for new educational developers. The institute sessions were created and delivered by 21 experienced North American professionals to help ease the steep learning curve that new developers often feel in their positions. How did our non-North American participants react to this program? We will present feedback from the institute’s international participants and invite session attendees to offer their critique of the program with an eye towards future international training and professional-development efforts.
When Silence is Not Enough: Navigating Heated Moments in Class
Therese Huston & Kent Koth: Seattle University, USA
Classrooms are becoming more global and diverse, and when students aren’t aware of others’ perspectives, they are likely to make naïve and offensive comments. Students may do this because (1) they think they know who is in the room, or (2) they aren’t thinking about who is in the room. Instructors are likely to respond with silence or anger if they are unprepared for such moments. We will distribute and discuss case studies that educational developers can use to help faculty generate constructive responses. In this highly interactive session, participants will evaluate how to adapt these cases for their own institutions.
Small College Faculty and Staff Development in an International Perspective
Michael Reder: Connecticut College, USA; Becky Bull: Bishop Grosseteste University College, UK
In the past decade faculty-development work at small colleges has emerged as a distinctive niche within our profession (Mooney & Reder, 2008). How does such work at small colleges compare and contrast in an international context? In this interactive session, we will explore the central issues coalescing around the professionalization of teaching-and-learning activities and the work of faculty developers at small colleges in both the UK and the US. Four key issues will be explored in a comparative context, including: What are the characteristics and traditions related to teaching and learning in these small-college settings? What are the models and structures for staff and faculty development programs at such colleges? What are the distinctive components of successful educational development at small colleges? And, finally, what are the future trends and issues small college developers will likely need to address through their programming and as they continue to shape the future of our profession?
Closing the Gap between Data and Decision Making
Pat Esplin, Steve Wygant, Steve Woods, & Stefinee Pinnegar: Brigham Young University, USA
Do you struggle to use data to plan, implement and make changes at the institutional, program, or classroom level? Panel members will discuss data-driven decision making at each level. Participants in this interactive session will be invited to think in new ways about using data to guide, design, and implement change in their own situations.