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Concurrent Session IV
Friday, June 13, 10:15–11:15 AM
China Higher Education International Forum: Engaging in Faculty Development: A Shared Responsibility
Li, Shouping: Beijing Institute of Technology; Zhou, Ling: Beijing Institute of Technology; Wu, Shaochun: Harbin Institute of Technology; Peng, Tao: China University of Geo-Science; Ye, Shuiping: China Women’s University; Shi, Xiaochun: China Women’s University; Meng, Mingming: China Women’s University; Li, Kang (Hugo): Michigan State University
Chinese higher education is the largest in the world with a student enrollment of 22 million. However, the quality of teaching and learning has not kept pace with the increase of student enrollment. The paradigm shift from teaching to learning is still an unfamiliar concept to many Chinese educators. Faculty development is mostly directed at newly recruited teachers in Chinese institutions. Continuous faculty support and development throughout all career stages are new concepts to those in Chinese universities. This symposium provides Chinese administrators and educators an opportunity to discuss the possible ways to working together in order to fulfill their potentially shared responsibility of faculty development to improve the quality of higher education.
Engaging with Faculty in Educational Development: A Research-informed Perspective
Karin Crawford: University of Lincoln, UK
This session focuses on incorporating the “voice” of faculty in the evaluation and enhancement of educational development practices in higher education. The possibilities for, and complexities of, meaningful engagement will be considered through the exploration of a qualitative research project that informs an institution-wide approach to inclusive educational development practices. The debate and discussion within this session will draw attention to the transferability of the empirical and the experiential knowledge across the global context of educational development—in particular, addressing potential organizational strategies to address identified tensions.
Supporting New and Junior Faculty with Year-Long Programs
Margaret Cohen & Karen St.Clair: University of Missouri-St.Louis, USA; James Groccia: Auburn University, USA
This session will present the structure, content, and evaluation data from two different programs that are designed to to support and retain new faculty. The year-long programs at two different institutions provide retreats and monthly seminars, and offer mentoring and consulting functions. Participants will learn specifically about the successful strategies incorporated into these programs, and these can begin to design programs for new and junior faculty tailored to their own campus contexts.
Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge
Ray Land: University of Strathclyde, Scotland
This session invites discussion of the discipline-based conceptual framework of ‘threshold concepts’ which can be considered akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking. It represents a transformed way of understanding, interpreting, or viewing something, without which the learner cannot progress. This transformation may be sudden or protracted, with the transition to understanding often involving ‘troublesome knowledge’. Difficulty in understanding threshold concepts may leave the learner in a state of ‘liminality’, a suspended state or ‘stuck place’ in which understanding approximates to a kind of ‘mimicry’ or lack of authenticity.
Using Student Evaluations to Improve Learning and Teaching
Julene Bassett & Trav Johnson: Brigham Young University, USA
Student evaluations of instruction are the most common means of evaluating teaching at US colleges and universities. Their results are used primarily in summative evaluations (e.g., personnel decisions). Student evaluations also have great potential for improving classroom instruction and student learning, both in individual classes and throughout institutions. Unfortunately, this use of student evaluations is often underutilized. This session explores various ways to use student evaluations to improve teaching and learning. The presenters will share successful strategies currently used at Brigham Young University.
Situate Your Practice as an Educational Developer in Relation to Research Literature
Cheryl Amundsen: Simon Fraser University, Canada; Lynn McAlpine: McGill University, Canada
Underpinning this session is a systematic review of the (English language) educational development literature (1994-2007) conducted by a team of individuals, including the presenters. This review investigated not only which educational development activities are represented in the literature, but also why various approaches are taken. Some findings of the review will be shared. The primary focus of the session is to provide the opportunity for participants to analyze their practice as an educational developer in relation to the various characterizations represented in this review of the literature.
Creativity Unbound? Rethinking “Constructive Alignment” as Paradigm and Method
Trevor Holmes: University of Waterloo, Canada; Kathryn Sutherland: Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Few educational developers would dispute the utility of John Biggs’ (1996) notion of “constructive alignment” for improving university teaching and learning. Notwithstanding the concept’s wide adoption around the world, the presenters offer various critiques and creative encounters with it and encourage participants to draw their own conclusions. Working through role-play, metaphor, and critical theory, the presenters and participants will explore the limits of constructive alignment for program, curriculum, and course design.
How to Evaluate Educational-Development Programs—A Systematic Approach
Edith Kroeber: University of Stuttgart, Germany; Anke Diez: University of Karlsruhe, Germany
Evaluation of educational development programs is carried out almost everywhere, but usually tells little about the effects of the program elements on the participants. The evidence that the intended effects occur is rather poor; only a few studies show some effects. In this session a model for evaluating educational-development programs is introduced which can help to systematize evaluation activities. Two methods will serve as examples through which to evaluate one important goal of educational development programs: the changing of teaching conceptions.
The Future of Faculty/Educational Development: An International Perspective
David Gosling: University of Plymouth, UK; Nancy Chism: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA; Mary Deane Sorcinelli: University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
This session is grounded in empirical research conducted by the authors in five separate studies of over a thousand respondents from 18 different countries, but principally from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and South Africa. The presenters will provide a synthesis of key findings concerning the current and future challenges facing educational/academic development across the globe. Emerging themes will be identified and differentiated by country of origin. Participants will work in internationally mixed groups to offer their own assessment of the challenges faced by faculty/educational development and to begin shaping an agenda for the future.