Faculty Development Definitions

The arena of faculty development actually consists of three major areas: faculty development, instructional development, and organizational development, or combinations of all three. This section provides definitions of each of these terms.

Faculty Development

Faculty Development refers to those programs which focus on the individual faculty member. The most common focus for programs of this type is the faculty member as a teacher. Faculty development specialists provide consultation on teaching, including class organization, evaluation of students, in-class presentation skills, questioning and all aspects of design and presentation. They also advise faculty on other aspects of teacher/student interaction, such as advising, tutoring, discipline policies and administration.

A second frequent focus of such programs is the faculty member as a scholar and professional. These programs offer assistance in career planning, professional development in scholarly skills such as grant writing, publishing, committee work, administrative work, supervisory skills, and a wide range of other activities expected of faculty.

A third area on which faculty development programs focus is the faculty member as a person. This includes wellness management, interpersonal skills, stress and time management, assertiveness development and a host of other programs which address the individual's well-being.

While not all faculty development programs include all these areas, most of them have as their philosophy the faculty member as the driving force behind the institution; therefore, assisting that person to be as productive as possible will make the entire institution more productive.

Instructional Development

Instructional Development takes a different approach for the improvement of the institution. These programs have as their focus the course, the curriculum and student learning. In this approach, instructors become members of a design or redesign team, working with instructional design specialists to identify appropriate course structures and teaching strategies to achieve the goals of instruction.
Instructional development programs can also examine how a course fits into the overall departmental and institutional curriculum; they help define instructional goals and methods which will maximize learning; they evaluate course effectiveness in terms of goal achievement; they produce or evaluate learning materials for use in the course. Many instructional development programs include a media design component.

Some programs have expanded this focus a bit to include training faculty members and teaching assistants to perform these functions themselves. This involves the presentation of workshops on course design, alternative instructional methods, materials production, and so on. This expansion also frequently includes a research component which either studies a variety of questions about instructional effectiveness or assists faculty members in conducting their own studies of course methods.

The philosophy behind these programs is that members of the institution should work as teams to design the best possible courses within the restrictions of the resources available.

Organizational Development

Organizational Development provides a third perspective on maximizing institutional effectiveness. The focus of these programs is the organizational structure of the institution and its sub components. The philosophy is that if one can build an organizational structure which will be efficient and effective in supporting the faculty and students, the teaching/learning process will naturally thrive.

One activity such programs offer is administrative development for department chairs, deans and other decision makers. The reasoning is that these are the individuals who will be making the policies which affect how courses are taught, how faculty are hired and promoted, how students are admitted and graduated. If those policies allow for growth and flexibility while maintaining standards, the amount of learning which occurs will increase.

Other activities include helping sub units understand how curricular decisions are made how courses are staffed, and other organizational matters. Do these administrative matters reflect the mission of the institution? Is it still valid or should it be changed? What is the change process?

Still other programs deal with personnel issues involving faculty. How are faculty evaluated and rewarded? How are they prepared for changes in the institution, including their own retirement? Where do faculty fit into the overall governance structure of the institution? What is the effect of unionization, departmentalization, professionalization?

Thus, it can be seen that these programs look at interactions within the institution and how they affect the functioning of the individual as well as the institution. Then they seek ways of making those interactions more humane and more effective.

Combinations of the Above

In reality many programs offer activities in all of these areas. Each program must define for itself what is appropriate for the institutional needs and philosophy. There is no magic formula for what makes a perfect program. In choosing a program focus appropriate for your institution, consider the following variables:

The Faculty
To what extent are faculty accustomed to working independently? How much interaction among colleagues is there around the topic of teaching or personal development? How much do faculty participate in institutional governance on a regular basis? If faculty are relatively independent individuals, programs which focus on their needs will best suit their style. If they frequently work in groups as units, instructional development will be very successful. If they regularly participate in governance, they will appreciate programs in organizational development.

The Institution
How stable is the institution? How centralized is the administration? At what stage in its development is it? What is the relationship of the parts to the whole? In times of change and growth, instructional and organizational development programs can be an exciting way to explore new alternatives and seek solutions to problems. At those times faculty development programs tend to focus more on helping the individual cope with change. When the institution is stable, faculty development helps the individual grow within the security of that stability.

The Realities
Above all, the direction of a program should be that which is desired by the faculty, supported by the administration and consistent with the resources. Before choosing a focus for the program an institution would be well advised to identify the desired program outcomes, determine what kinds of activities are likely to bring them about and then decide if the resources are available to carry out the plan.