Faculty Development and Student Learning: Assessing the Connections

by William Condon, Ellen R. Iverson, Cathryn A. Manduca, Carol Rutz, Gudrun Willett

Overview

Colleges and universities across the US have created special initiatives to promote faculty development, but to date there has been little research to determine whether such programs have an impact on students' learning. Faculty Development and Student Learning reports the results of a multi-year study undertaken by faculty at Carleton College and Washington State University to assess how students' learning is affected by faculty members' efforts to become better teachers. Extending recent research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to assessment of faculty development and its effectiveness, the authors show that faculty participation in professional development activities positively affects classroom pedagogy, student learning, and the overall culture of teaching and learning in a college or university.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253018786
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2016
Series:	Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William Condon is Professor of English at Washington State University. He is coauthor of Writing the Information Superhighway and Assessing the Portfolio: Principles for Theory, Practice, and Research.

Ellen R. Iverson is Director of Evaluation at the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College.

Cathryn A. Manduca is Director of the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College.

Carol Rutz is Director of the Writing Program at Carleton College.

Gudrun Willett is Project Director for the Tracer Project and an associate at Ethnoscapes Global, LLC.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Pathways from Faculty Learning to Student Learning and Beyond, by Mary Taylor Huber

1. Connecting Faculty Learning to Student Learning

2. Sites of Faculty Learning

3. Seeking the Evidence

4. Faculty Learning Applied

5. Spreading the Benefits

6. Reaching Students

7. Faculty Development Matters

Afterword, by Richard Haswell

Appendix 1: Critical and Integrative Thinking Forms, Washington State University, 2009

Appendix 2: Methodologies in the Study

Appendix 3: History of the Critical Thinking Rubric

Appendix 4: Rating Forms

References

Acknowledgments

Notes

What People are Saying About This

North Carolina State University - Chris M. Anson

This book provides a careful study not only of the ways that faculty development changes teachers’ conceptions of student learning and how to foster it, but what those changes actually yield in student achievement. At a time of major pressures for higher education institutions to defend their value and account for their outcomes, this book could not be more welcome.

Editorial Reviews

"What ground-breaking work. If only those holding the faculty development purse-strings would read it, digest the implications for student growth and retention, and then resource well-designed FD initiatives to improve student learning."—Tim Doherty

"This book is highly recommended and has implications for any library who provides faculty development in the form of workshops or consultation services. It also provides a useful context to engage campus discussions about information literacy. The authors end their study with a useful discussion of strategies that can make professional development more effective."—Journal of Academic Libraries

"This book provides a careful study not only of the ways that faculty development changes teachers' conceptions of student learning and how to foster it, but what those changes actually yield in student achievement. At a time of major pressures for higher education institutions to defend their value and account for their outcomes, this book could not be more welcome."—Chris M. Anson, North Carolina State University

From the Publisher

What ground-breaking work. If only those holding the faculty development purse-strings would read it, digest the implications for student growth and retention, and then resource well-designed FD initiatives to improve student learning.

Tim Doherty

This book is highly recommended and has implications for any library who provides faculty development in the form of workshops or consultation services. It also provides a useful context to engage campus discussions about information literacy. The authors end their study with a useful discussion of strategies that can make professional development more effective.

Journal of Academic Libraries