Course Design for Teaching Development: Key Considerations for Faculty Developers

The purpose of this paper is to address key elements of designing a course that aims at developing core competencies in teaching and learning for faculty members. The paper includes discussion of the initial preparation, objectives and learning outcomes, syllabus construction, assignments, assessments, grading, and teaching strategies. The paper is divided into sections, one for each theme or key topic in relation to course design. Finally, a brief reflection concludes the paper. The process of course design did not only allow to learn about the principles of course design, but also expanded one’s understanding of oneself as a faculty developer.

Evolving from Didactic to Dialogic: An Action Research for Improving Teaching Practices in the mini-CEX Workshops

BackgroundFaculty development is imperative to ensure successful outcomes in the training of competent physicians. However, how faculty developers can improve the delivery of an assessment workshop through researching their individual teaching practices remains unexplored.MethodsIn 2016, the authors conducted four cycles of action research in the context of mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) workshops. Multiple sources of qualitative data, including a faculty developer’s reflective journal, field notes taken by a researcher-observer, and post-workshop written reflection and feedback from fourteen workshop attendees, were collected and analyzed thematically.ResultsBy doing action research, the faculty developer scrutinized each step as an opportunity for change, enacted adaptive practice and reflection on teaching practices and formulated action plans to transform a workshop design. In so doing, a workshop evolved from didactic to dialogic with continuous improvement on enhanced engagement, focused discussion and participant empowerment through a collaborative inquiry into feedback practice. These action research cycles also supported development of adaptive practice and identity formation in the faculty developer.ConclusionsThe systematic approach of action research serves as a vehicle to enable faculty developers to investigate individual teaching practices as a self-reflective inquiry, to examine, rectify, and transform processes of program delivery, and ultimately introduce themselves as agents for change and improvement.

Using SoTL to Foster a Research Approach to Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

This chapter discusses how Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) can be used to foster a research approach to teaching and learning and how faculty development that supports colleagues to engage in SoTL can support the development of scholarly faculty. Both the process and the product of SoTL are discussed, conceptualised as different levels of SoTL engagement. The role of the faculty developer in such scholarship is discussed, drawing on Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a framework for engagement in SoTL projects. Last, implications for the work of a faculty developer are drawn and future avenues of research in faculty development proposed.

Contingency, Staff, Anxious Pedagogy—and Love

This article examines the intersection between the feelings of anxiety and love. The author looks at how the affective labor she performs professionally has shifted as she has moved from a contingent faculty role to a faculty development role. This shift, while necessary, highlights the power imbalance within academia, as well as the devaluation of affective labor. She examines how her anxieties as a faculty developer differ from the anxieties that faculty are bringing with them in their interactions with her.

SoTL and the Institutional Review Board: Considerations before navigating the application process for classroom research in higher education

One of the more challenging areas of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research can be navigating the components of human subjects research protections implemented by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The authors of this article, a faculty developer and a current and former research compliance coordinator, discuss the history of IRB in relation to SoTL research and explicate some of the foundational components of IRB protocols for SoTL projects. In particular, the authors explore what constitutes “research” for SoTL projects, explain the different IRB types of review, and offer some sample SoTL projects with respect to their IRB implications.

A Strategy to Expand the University Education Paradigm

To date most online content and experiences have been packaged in a traditional “class” format and delivered using a web site posted on a provider’s server. This chapter suggests a slight deviation from this approach for packaging and delivering Internet education. It suggests a look beyond the “class” delivery approach. The premise for this strategy is the belief that the greatest strength of the Internet for education may lie in delivery of class “components,” not classes, themselves. These online components can be used to supplement and add value to the traditional class experience, not replace it. The strategy proposes that the university provide, sponsor, administer and maintain an automated online portal to post and sell faculty-created material. An “e-store” selling products developed by the university’s faculty members. It is hoped that universities will explore this idea to develop new ways of packaging and delivering education that better reward the faculty developer, help pay for the service and also add “value” to the education experience.

A Strategy to Expand the University Education Paradigm

To date most online content and experiences have been packaged in a traditional “class” format and delivered using a web site posted on a provider’s server. This chapter suggests a slight deviation from this approach for packaging and delivering Internet education. It suggests a look beyond the “class” delivery approach. The premise for this strategy is the belief that the greatest strength of the Internet for education may lie in delivery of class “components,” not classes, themselves. These online components can be used to supplement and add value to the traditional class experience, not replace it. The strategy proposes that the university provide, sponsor, administer and maintain an automated online portal to post and sell faculty-created material. An “e-store” selling products developed by the university’s faculty members. It is hoped that universities will explore this idea to develop new ways of packaging and delivering education that better reward the faculty developer, help pay for the service and also add “value” to the education experience.