To Improve the Academy

To Improve the Academy is published annually by POD and is abstracted in ERIC documents and in Higher Education Abstracts. Each annual volume of To Improve the Academy is provided free to current members as a benefit of membership. 

Back issues and additional copies of  To Improve the Academy can be ordered from The POD Network office. We have copies of the following volumes available: volumes 1-15 and volume 17. (There are no available copies of volumes 10, 12, and 16.)

Member prices (including shipping and handling):

• 1 volume @ $15 
• 2-5 volumes @ $12 / volume
• 6 or more volumes @ $9 / volume

Non-member prices (including shipping and handling):

• 1 volume @ $18
• 2-5 volumes @ $15 / volume
• 6 or more volumes @ $12 / volume

Submitting Manuscripts

Anyone interested in the issues related to instructional, faculty, and organizational development may submit manuscripts. Typically, manuscripts are submitted to the current editor(s) in December of each year and sent through a blind review process. The journal is distributed to members in October.

For information on submitting to To Improve the Academy visit the Call for Manuscripts page.

An index of each year's journal appears below. Click on a year to go to it directly.
 

Vol. 1, 1982 -- Editors -- Sandra Cheldelin Inglis and Stephen Scholl

Section I. People and Priorities: Reflections on Our work

Section II. Intellectual Journeys in Faculty Development

Section III. Evaluating Practices to Improve Teaching

Section IV. Tools for Training and Development

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Vol. 2, 1983 -- Editors -- Michael Davis, Michele Fisher, Sandra Cheldelin Inglis, Stephen Scholl

I. Approaches to Teaching

II. Promoting Adaptability in Higher Education

III. Faculty Development and Institutional Planning

IV. Heads Open, Hands On!

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Vol. 3, 1984 -- Editors - Lance C. Buhl, Laura A. Wilson

I. The Keynote Address to the 1983 POD Annual Conference

II. Renewing Centers for Professional Development

III. Professional Development Interventions

IV. Using Evaluation for the Improvement of Teaching

V. Student Development: Intellectual Growth and Writing

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Vol. 4, 1985 -- Editors -- Julie Roy Jeffrey, Glenn R. Erickson

I. What We Can Learn from Other Cultures

II. The Diversity of Faculty Development

III. Looking at Teaching and Learning in a Direct and Uncomplicated Fashion

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Vol. 5, 1986 -- Editors -- Marilla Svinicki (coordinating ed.), Joanne Kurfiss, POD, Jackie Stone, NCSPOD

I. Reflections

II. Conceptualizations

III. Practice

IV. Research

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Vol. 6, 1987 -- Editors -- Joanne Kurfiss, Linda Hilsen, Lynn Mortensen, Emily Wadsworth

I. Research -- Toward a Research Agenda on Classroom Teaching

II. Reflections -- Career Development Patterns and Needs of Faculty

III. Conceptualizations -- Models for Program Planning

IV. Practice -- Improving Teaching and Learning

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Vol. 7, 1988 -- Editor -- Joanne Gainen Kurfiss

Assoc. Editors -- Linda Hilsen, Susan Kahn, Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Richard G. Tiberius

I. Classroom Research

• W. Holmes, Art Essays and Computer Letters
• J. E. Knott, Alternatives for Evaluating the Death Education Student
• J. Stevenson, Evaluating Structured Group Activities for the Large Class
• B. E. Brittingham, Undergraduate Students' Use of Time: A Classroom Investigation
• J. Matoney, Weekly Quizzes and Examination Performance in Intermediate Accounting
• B. Lord, Student Styles and Learning in Two College of Business Courses
• R. Smith & F. Schwartz, Improving Teaching by Reflecting on Practice

II. Fostering Student Inquiry

III. Academic Life: Realities and Possibilities

IV. Emerging Contexts for Development

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Vol. 8, 1989 -- Editor -- Susan Kahn

Assoc. Editors -- Robert Boice, Laura Border, Linda Hilsen, Alton Roberts, Mary Deane Sorcinelli

I. Faculty Development: Where It Is; Where It's Going

II. Building Successful Faculty Development Programs

III. Issues and Approaches in Faculty and Instructional Development

IV. Improving Teaching and Learning

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Vol. 9, 1990 -- Editor -- Linda Hilsen

Assoc. Editors -- Robert Boice, Nancy Diamond, Lion Gardiner, Diane E. Morrison, Mary Deane Sorcinelli

I. Teaching and Research: Coming into Balance

II. Teaching: Making It Even Better

III. Faculty Development: Seeing and Envisioning Ourselves

IV. Faculty Development: Modeling Effective Practice

V. Diversity: Addressing the "...isms" of the '90s

VI. Faculty: Looking at the Spectrum

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Vol. 10, 1991 -- Editor -- Kenneth J. Zahorski

Assoc. Editors -- Howard B. Altman, Nancy A. Diamond, Lion F. Gardiner, Diane Morrison, Deborah Du Nann Winter, Donald H. Wulff

I. Faculty Development: Past, Present, Future

II. A Primer for Faculty Development Professionals

III. Promoting Diversity: Gender and Multicultural Issues in Academe

IV. Meeting the Challenge of the Adult Learner

V. Enhancing Teaching-Learning and Classroom Climate

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Vol. 11, 1992 -- Editors -- Donald H. Wulff & Jody D. Nyquist

Assoc. Editors -- Howard B. Altman, Nancy Chism, Nancy A. Diamond, Diane Morrison, Alton Roberts, Deborah Du Nann Winter

I. The Context for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development

II. Strategies for Enhancing Teaching and Learning

III. Strategies for Enhancing Faculty/Instructional Development

IV. Teaching Cases for Use in Faculty/Instructional Development

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Vol. 12, 1993 -- Editors -- Delivee L. Wright & Joyce Povlacs Lunde

I. Working with Faculty Communities

II. Communities and Voices: How to Practice Inclusive Behavior

III. Teachers and Students in the Classroom

IV. Addressing Change in Progams of Faculty Development

V. The Roles Faculty Developers Play

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Vol. 13, 1994 -- Editor -- Emily C. (Rusty) Wadsworth

Assoc. Editors --Beverly Black, Linda Hilsen, Mary Pat Mann, Diane Nyhammer, Charles Spuches

I. Teaching Improvement Practices and Programs

II. Including the "Other": Transforming Knowledge and Teaching

III. Listening to Each Other

IV. Classroom Practices for Teaching Improvement

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Vol. 14, 1995 Editor: Ed Neal

Reviewers: Shirley Adams, Cheryl Amundsen, James Browne, Phillip G. Cottell, Arthur Crawley, Deborah DeZure, Nancy A. Diamond, Madelyn Healy, Erin Porter, Rita Rodabaugh, Chuck Spuches, Christine A. Stanley, Emily C. (Rusty) Wadsworth, Dina Wills

Section I: Reconceptualizing the Practice of Faculty Development
Ronald A. Smith, Reflecting Critically on Our Efforts to Improve Teaching and Learning

Ben Ward
Improving Teaching Across the Academy: Gleanings from Research
The field of faculty development is at least thirty years old, and although we have learned many things about improving teaching skills during that time, we have not developed many definitive answers to the larger questions of our craft; e.g., how do we raise the status and quality of teaching across an entire institution? This article surveys the research literature to ascertain what we do know about these questions, with the hope that it will stimulate a dialogue among faculty developers that will yield a fuller understanding of these broad issues.

Donna Qualters
A Quantum Leap in Faculty Development: Beyond Reflective Practice
Quantum theory has introduced a new perspective of looking at reality. This article reviews current theories of reflective practice, discussion, and transformative learning as they apply to faculty development and explores dialogue and quantum theory as the next step in faculty information.

Margaret M. Morgan, Patricia H. Phelps, & Joan E. Pritchard
Credibility: The Crux of Faculty Development
Credibility, the quality through which leaders earn the trust and confidence of their constituents, underlies effective faculty development. Drawing upon the work of Kouzes and Posner (1993), this paper examines six practices, or disciplines, by which faculty developers can increase their credibility.

Arthur L. Crawley
Faculty Development Progams at Research Universities: Implications for Senior Faculty Renewal
This article examines the research findings from that portion of the National Survey on Senior Faculty Renewal which pertains to the faculty development programs available to senior faculty at research universities in support of their career development and renewal. Survey respondents were coordinators and directors of faculty development programs and selected academic affairs administrators with faculty development responsibilities at their respective institutions. In general, the findings reveal a high level of support for the traditional approaches to faculty development for senior faculty in the context of their teaching and research. However, the findings suggest that faculty development approaches that are targeted to enhance senior faculty careers by either expanding employment options or by creating new roles and responsibilities are more limited. Additional findings concern the availability of post-retirement options, opportunities for collaborative work, and incentives to encourage excellence in teaching, research, and service.

Lynda J. Emery
Teaching Improvement: Disciplinary Differences in Faculty Opinions
Improving teaching and learning at universities where faculty are rewarded primarily for research and scholarly activity is difficult. Faculty opinions about participating in teaching improvement activities at a research university were surveyed. This article presents survey results by college. Faculty opinions about incentives for participating in teaching improvement activities, promotion and tenure criteria, faculty development interests and outcomes for participating are included. Implications for faculty development are discussed.

Section II: Faculty Collaboration and Collegiality Kate Kinsella, Peers Coaching Teaching: Colleagues Supporting Professional Growth Across the Disciplines

Roy Killen
Improving Teaching Through Reflective Partnerships
The purpose of this paper is to explain how both experienced and inexperienced faculty can improve their teaching and their students' learning through a systematic process of reflecting on their day-to-day teaching by collaborating with a "reflective partner." The suggestions are based on the author's experiences as a teaching, teacher educator and faculty developer, and on the belief that good teachers are those who help students to learn and to achieve their full potential as individuals. The reflective teaching techniques in this paper have a strong focus on the technical aspects of teaching. However, the techniques also provide faculty with opportunities to reflect on broader issues such as the beliefs that guide their teaching practices. By following the suggestions in this paper, faculty can identify their teaching strengths and limitations, develop the confidence to experiment with the new teaching strategies to overcome these limitations, and gain a better understanding of all aspects of their teaching.

Richard J. Nichols & Beverley T. Amick
The Case for Instructional Mentoring

James K. Wangberg, Jane V. Nelson, & Thomas G. Dunn
A Special Colloquium on Teaching Excellence to Foster Collegiality and Enhance Teaching at a Research University

Section III: The Changing Student Constituency

Deborah Jefferson & Susan Peverly
Faculty Development and Changing Environments of the Urban Campus

Robert R. Dove
Academic Syndromes Revisited

Matthew L. Ouellett & Mary Deane Sorcinelli
Teaching and Learning in the Diverse Classroom: A Faculty and TA Partnership Program

Section IV: New Practices

James M. Hassett, Charles M. Spuches, & Sarah P. Webster
Using Electronic Mail for Teaching and Learning

Robert W. Lewis
Exploring Student Ratings Through Computer Analysis: A Method to Assist Instructional Development

S. Kay A. Thornhill & Mellisa Wafer
Improving Students' Critical Thinking Outcomes: A Process-Learning Strategy in Eight Steps

Afterword: The 1994 POD Conference
 
Jon Travis, Lisa Cohen, Dan Hursh, & Barbara Lounsberry
Family Portrait: Impressions of a Nurturing Organization

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Vol. 15, 1996 Editor: Laurie Richlin

Reviewers: Marva Barnett, Joseph Brocato, Michele Chase, Will Davis, Rita Rodabaugh, Ben Ward, Cheryl Amundsen, James Browne, Philip G. Cottell, Art Crawley, Madelyn M. Healy, Chuck Spuches

Section I: Instructional Development Stephen Brookfield, Through the Lens of Learning: How Experiencing Difficult Learning Challenges and Changes Assumptions about Teaching

Stephen Brookfield
Through the Lens of Learning: How Experiencing Difficult Learning Challenges and Changes Assumptions About Teaching
The author challenges faculty to cast themselves in the role of learners for tasks or subjects which, unlike their areas of expertise, do NOT come easily to them. The purpose is to better understand what it is to experience the struggle shared by many students to grasp new material. The author recounts his own efforts to master a daunting new skill and the many lessons he learned about teaching and learning in the process.

Ernest T. Pascarella
On Student Development in College: Evidence From the National Study of Student Learning
This paper summarizes some of the major findings of the National Study of Student Learning, a longitudinal investigation of the factors influencing student intellectual development at 23 diverse colleges and universities in 16 states. Findings from the following analyses are presented: effects of perceived teacher behaviors on general cognitive skills of two- and four-year colleges; cognitive effects of historically Black and predominantly White colleges; and cognitive effects of Greek affiliation.

Larry K. Michaelsen, L. Dee Fink, & Robert H. Black
What Every Faculty Developer Needs to Know About Learning Groups
This article advances two related propositions. One is that virtually all of the commonly reported "problems" with learning groups, such as less content coverage, free-riders, and students' feeling that instructors are not teaching unless they are talking, are a natural consequence of the way the groups are being used. The other is that the vast majority of the problems can be prevented by avoiding group assignments that retard the development of effective learning teams and limit student learning. This article will a) examine the underlying causes of the most commonly reported problems with learning groups, b) outline some simple, but effective, strategies for preventing their occurrence in the first place and, c) describe a new tool, the Learning Activity Impact Grid (LAI-Grid), that can be used to ensure that assignments promote both team development and learning.

Karin L. Sandell, Robert K. Stewart, & Candace K. Stewart
Computer-mediated Communication in the Classroom: Models for Enhancing Student Learning
The introduction of computer-mediated communication into the college classroom has been a subject of concern to faculty interested both in exploring means of enhancing communication with their students and in facilitating students' learning about the technological revolution occurring in the business and professional worlds. The tools available to faculty include electronic mail (e-mail), bulletin boards, electronic conferencing, and electronic searching (surfing) for information, via the Internet. This paper reviews the findings from different measures taken during a campus-wide project to test computer-mediated communication, in order to provide some suggestions about ways of enhancing the teaching-learning connection through classroom projects utilizing e-mail and the Internet.

Harold B. White, III
Dan Tries Problem-Based Learning: A Case Study
Problem-based learning approaches to education often generate justifiable enthusiasm among faculty who have become frustrated with the limitations of traditional lecture-based education. However, faculty contemplating a change to a problem-based format rarely anticipate the many practical difficulties that can destroy one's enthusiasm and create chaos in the classroom. This case study, about the trials and tribulations of a fictional anthropology professor, attempts to alert faculty who are interested in trying the method to some of the unexpected challenges they might encounter.

Section II: Faculty Development

Jon E. Travis, Dan Hursh, Gentry Lankewicz, & Li Tang
Monitoring the Pulse of the Faculty: Needs Assessment in Faculty Development Programs
Although needs assessment is a common and necessary element of faculty development programs, the process never seems to be as easy or as effective as we might like it to be. Sadly, the literature is relatively weak in this all-important area of responsibility. Such a problem, no doubt, is due in part to the individual environment of each institution. Based on a presentation at the 1995 POD Conference, this article reviews a number of institutional approaches to gathering data from faculty, which may suggest some options for the reader.

Nancy Van Note Chism and Barbala Szabo
Who Uses Faculty Development Services?
Information about who uses faculty development services exists more in the oral tradition than in the literature. This study sought to explore the question systematically, based on a review of the literature and the conducting of a descriptive survey of faculty development programs. The findings of the study show that most programs collect information on their users, that this information is usually not shared publicly, and that aggregate usage is broad-based, rather than concentrated within particular types of faculty. These findings contradict some popular claims and support others. Recommendations suggest that information be collected systematically and that claims about users be based on data.

Ronald A. Smith & George L. Geis
Professors as Clients for Instructional Development
Although there is a large amount of activity and a sizeable literature in the area of instructional development, there has been relatively little research on faculty members, the clientele for improvement efforts. This paper highlights some characteristics of professors that are relevant to improvement activities. Professors are interested in, value, and work on their teaching; they think they teach rather well. However, they demonstrate a lack of sophistication in talking about teaching and the development of instruction. They focus primarily upon content rather than design or methodology. Teachers' views of what should be done to enhance instruction are discussed and contrasted with those of faculty developers. One conclusion is that faculty developers and faculty members may have very different views on how to go about improving instruction.

Joyce Povlacs Lunde & Myra S. Wilhite
Innovative Teaching and Teaching Improvement
To discover who innovative teachers are, their practices, and how they might have impact on the improvement of teaching on campus, the authors surveyed 310 faculty on our campus, including recipients of Distinguished Teaching Awards, non-recipients of awards, and newer faculty. Items included sources of ideas, teaching strategies, relating to students, and persistence in making successful changes in teaching. A focus group was selected from those displaying persistence. We believe that innovative teachers are passionate about teaching, persist in its improvement, listen to their students, use active learning adapted to the context, are risk takers, and keep themselves vital. The authors recommend that teaching and learning centers encourage and recognize innovative faculty, helping them become visible as presenters and models for their peers.

Robert J. Menges
Experiences of Newly Hired Faculty
Faculty experiences during the first three years in a new job were investigated by following new hires at five colleges and universities. Their initial years are characterized by stress, dilemmas about how to allocate time to competing responsibilities, uncertainty about what is expected of them, and dissatisfaction with feedback about their progress. Faculty development offices can promote more enlightened policies and practices to help ease faculty transition into a new job.

Section III: Organizational Development

Delivee L. Wright
Moving Toward a University Environment Which Rewards Teaching: The Faculty Developer's Role
This article describes the role of the faculty developer in a departmentally-focused, campus-wide program to revise the rewards system in an AAU-Land Grant University. This process took into account the local values and attitudes of a department as well as the broader mission and values of the institution. It emphasizes a sense of faculty ownership of decisions combined with the collaborative efforts of academic administrators, faculty, and faculty developers.

Robert Dove & Dina Wills
Transforming Faculty into an Agile Work Force
Some institutions of higher education have begun to implement agile operational strategies as they work to take advantage of new technologies and respond to new demands made from their various constituencies. Key to the success of these agile strategies is the ability of the faculty to create an agile learning environment. This paper focuses on the role of the faculty developer in creating that agile environment. It presents concrete programming suggestions and a model for faculty developers to follow as they assume the role of helping faculty become agile.

Mary L. Everley & Jan Smith
Making the Transition from Soft to Hard Funding: The Politics of Institutionalizing Instructional Development Programs
The institutionalization of grant-funded instructional development programs is a political process. This paper reviews the experiences of programs that have both failed and succeeded to cross the hard-to-soft-money divide and the literature on planning and change in higher education, and offers strategies that will encourage institutionalization. Changing institutional culture, building a strong advocacy group, and gaining the support of key administrators are essential to program continuance.

Deborah A. Lieberman & John Reuter
Designing, Implementing, and Assembling a University-Pedagogy Institute
This article describes two models for designing and implementing technology-pedagogy institutes as part of university wide faculty development. Each model contains similar learning objectives for Institute participants, yet describes different institute designs. The authors describe the strengths and weaknesses of each model as learned through assessment evidence gathered during institutes on their campus. Assessment of student learning in relation to technology introduced within the class is discussed. Suggestions for more effective Institutes and assessment tools are addressed.

Victoria Harper
Establishing a Community of Conversation: Creating a Context for Self-Reflection Among Teacher Scholars
This paper will discuss how the Teacher Scholars Project was created to encourage thoughtful conversations about teaching at the university, how portfolio activities such as videotape sessions and the sharing of narratives about teaching were integrated into project activities, and how faculty were encouraged to seriously look at their own practice and to reflect on it in conversations with a group of peers over the course of an entire academic year. It concludes by considering the importance of the creation of a community of conversation across disciplines in establishing conditions for more meaningful discussion and self-reflection on campus.

Gabriele B. Sweidel
Partners in Pedagogy: Faculty Development Through the Scholarship of Teaching
The Partners in Pedagogy project uses a three-pronged plan of action to address faculty development through the scholarship of teaching: a) the formation of faculty pairs to conduct classroom observations of each other's teaching, b) interviews with three of each other's students, and c) collegial discussion, both between faculty pairs and course-discipline at monthly meetings. The combination of monthly meetings to discuss pedagogy, feedback from peers concerning teaching methods and techniques unrelated to evaluations, student interviews, and cross-discipline participation contribute to the powerfulness of this campus-wide program.

Milton D. Cox
A Department-Based Approach to Developing Teaching Portfolios: Perspectives for Faculty Developers
The Department-Based Teaching Portfolio Project, now in its third year at Miami University, provides departments the flexibility to design and implement teaching development processes that honor the diversity of disciplines, departmental cultures, and leadership styles of department project coordinators. This approach has generated an interesting variety of departmental processes and results, for example, in the use of off-campus consultants and in the manner in which teaching portfolios are developed. Based upon the outcomes of the Project, 20 recommendations inform faculty developers in their roles as department developers.

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Vol. 16, 1997 -- Editor: Deborah Dezure, Eastern Michigan University

Reviewers: Joseph Brocato, Laura L. B. Border, Will Davis, Patricia Kalivoda, Deborah A. Lieberman, Liz Miller, John P. Murray, Laurie Richlin, Rita Rodabaugh, D. Lynn Sorenson, Ben Ward

Section I: Changing Roles for Faculty and Faculty Developers

Ann E. Austin, Joseph J. Brocato, and Jonathan D. Rohrer
Institutional Missions, Multiple Faculty Roles: Implications for Faculty Development
The authors review the context in which the topic of faculty roles is gaining attention, draw on data from a qualitative study of how faculty construct their roles, and argue that faculty developers and other institutional leaders should consider expanding the scope of faculty development activities in ways that support faculty across the full breadth of their roles. The article concludes by suggesting that faculty developers ask questions about faculty roles in the institutional context and "map" faculty development opportunities to ensure that multiple roles are supported.

Irene E. Karpiak
University Professors at Mid-life: Being a Part of...But Feeling Apart
This article explores the experiences of mid-career and older faculty members in higher education through a qualitative study of 20 associate professors (15 men and 5 women) between the ages of 41 and 59 at a Canadian university. In non-directive interviews, "gray-ing" professors discussed their satisfactions and struggles, not only in relation to their students and their academic work, but also in relation to the whole university and its administration. An emergent schema is presented that identifies four attitudes characteristic of this group of professors: Meaning, Malaise, Marginality, and Mattering.

James A. Anderson
Faculty Development and the Inclusion of Diversity in the College Classroom: Pedagogical and Curricular Transformation
Colleges and universities are confronted with a plethora of questions and concerns that are associated with the inclusion and success of diverse student populations. Especially critical is the role that faculty will play in fostering a supportive and effective learning environment which benefits the wide range of racial, cultural, gender, and class groups. Faculty development activities can assist faculty to make their courses more inclusive both in content and in pedagogy. Those who direct teaching excellence and faculty development efforts must be more proactive as they impact faculty attitudes toward diversity.

Karron G. Lewis and Eric Kristensen
A Global Faculty Development Network: The International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED)
Although higher education systems around the world differ considerably in structure and the methods used in teaching, there is universal concern for the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning. Thus, faculty and educational development activities are a worldwide phenomena. In 1993, The International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED) was born to facilitate exchange of faculty and educational development information. This article looks at the history of ICED and the accomplishments of this organization since its inception. We look at examples of faculty development work in Sweden, Australia and Finland and consider the implications these international programs might have for faculty developers and faculty development work in the U.S. and Canada.

Joyce Povlacs Lunde and Myra S. Whilhite
Teaching Improvement Consultation for Teaching on Television
Instructional consultants have traditionally offered individual consultation to faculty members on their campuses to improve teaching and learning. This kind of consultation to improve teaching is also valuable for those teaching on television, but consultants may need to prepare themselves in learning technologies and distance education in order to help faculty offering instruction via television. In addition, the phases of initial interview, data-gathering, data-feedback, implementation, and evaluation, which constitute a process often used to improve teaching, need to be expanded to address teaching over television.

Section II: Faculty Development Program Models

Alenoush Saroyan, Cheryl Amundsen, and Cao Li
Incorporating Theories of Teacher Growth and Adult Education in a Faculty Development Program
This paper describes a theory-based faculty development program and provides preliminary evidence as to its effectiveness in promoting change in thinking about teaching. The program design was based on Ramsden's (1992) theory of teacher growth and Mezirow's (1991) transformative theory in adult education. The program was offered as a three-credit course to graduate students and as a week-long (40 hours) workshop to faculty. Assessment included responses to pre- post- questions about participants' views from teaching. Results indicate that both groups changed their focus from viewing teaching as transmitting knowledge to a more integrated and complex conception of teaching.

Katherine Sanders, Christopher Carlson-Dakes, Karen Dettinger, Catherine Hajnal, Mary Laedtke, and Lynn Squire
A New Starting Point for Faculty Development in Higher Education: Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment
Traditional faculty development approaches often focus on teaching faculty skills to use in their classrooms. In order to have a deeper cultural impact, we have found it useful to start the conversation at a different point than teaching skills; that is, to have faculty learn how people learn by experiencing a learning environment that is substantively different that their previous classroom experiences. Our program, Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment (CCLE), has been successful in helping faculty from diverse disciplines at a major research institution to work together to learn about learning and redesign teaching.

Tracey Sutherland and James Guffey
The Impact of Comprehensive Institutional Assessment on Faculty
In this age of accountability, colleges and universities are being called on to provide evidence of their effectiveness. As a result, comprehensive assessment initiatives are being implemented on most campuses, requiring increasing numbers of faculty to become involved. Beginning with an overview of a faculty-driven assessment model, this article describes specific roles faculty play and the results of a study in which faculty describe how their involvement influences their teaching and professional development. The primary purpose of faculty development is to improve the learning environment. Faculty participation in institutional assessment efforts enhances that environment. The results of the study provide compelling evidence of the benefits of faculty involvement in institutional assessment initiatives.

James S. Laughlin
WAC Revisited: An Overlooked Model for Transformative Faculty Development
Recently, higher education specialists have called for new faculty development initiatives, claiming current faculty development efforts need to go beyond a reductive "teaching tips" approach to consider transformative practices aimed at improving learning. While such critiques are valuable, they tend to overlook one mode of development that has had undeniable success in initiating significant individual and institutional transformations in the realms of teaching and learning. Over the past two decades, the faculty workshop in writing across the curriculum (WAC) has become a major part of successful WAC programs across the country. This article discusses how, at their best, such workshops go beyond a bag of tips for assigning and grading writing and lead faculty members through a powerful dialogic reexamination of their pedagogy. For some it is a transformative experience, resulting in wholesale changes in the ways they teach and in the ways their students learn. The article concludes by asserting that a well-conceived WAC workshop continues to offer an excellent model for other faculty development initiatives, such as those concerned with implementing teaching technology and interdisciplinary.

Section III: Assessing Faculty Development Activities

Nancy Van Note Chism and Borbala L. Szabo
Teaching Awards: The Problem of Assessing Their Impact
Although teaching awards are a popular approach to the reward and improvement of teaching, their impact has not been studied extensively. The studies that have been done find that they are motivational and affirming, but extensive, clear effects on teaching improvement have not been documented. Part of the difficulty in studying effects of awards involves goal complexity and vagueness. Suggested ways of studying effects begin with goals and employ a variety of approaches, ranging from interviews and surveys to document analysis.

Karen List
"A Continuing Conversation on Teaching:" An Evaluation of a Decade-Long Lilly Teaching Fellows Program 1986-1996
This study assesses what difference the Lilly Teaching Fellows Program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst has made in its first ten years, both to the fellows who have participated in it and to the University community. Based on a survey of the fellows, the study concludes that the program has had significant positive effects on teaching skills and attitudes, collegiality, research and service. The study also assesses the seven major components of the Lilly Program and suggests ways in which they might be improved. The author then recommends increased institutional support for teaching to decrease the tensions between the programs' emphasis on teaching and institutional emphasis on research.

Milton D. Cox
Long-Term Patterns in a Mentoring Program for Junior Faculty: Recommendations for Practice
Faculty developers believe mentoring programs are beneficial for new and junior faculty. Although there are reports on the early years of these programs, few have existed for more than 15 years. This article reports on a junior faculty program in place for 18 years with the same goals, format, and activities. The endurance of its mentoring component, with continuing support of faculty, former mentors and protégés, and administrators, is a measure of its success. Mentoring patterns relative to gender, mentor repetition, protégés who later mentor, and multidisciplinary within pairings may be of assistance and encouragement to anyone initiating or continuing a mentoring program. Over 70 recommendations are included.

Section IV: Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness

Pat Hutchings
The Pedagogical Colloquium: Taking Teaching Seriously in the Faculty Hiring Process
In an effort to make teaching and learning more central, a growing number of campuses are adopting some form of the "pedagogical colloquium," a strategy proposed by Lee Shulman, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in the context of a national project on the peer review of teaching. The purpose of the pedagogical colloquium is to create an occasion for examining and assessing the teaching skills and potential of faculty job candidates. Different models are now evolving, from formal presentations parallel in nature to the research colloquium commonly expected of job candidates, to more informal discussions of pedagogy, sometimes in combination with other strategies, such as teaching demonstrations. The pedagogical colloquium has the potential to make teaching more important in hiring decisions and to prompt important departmental campus conversation about expectations of faculty in the teaching arena, but it also raises a number of difficult issues. In this article, Pat Hutchings describes three emerging models, analyzes issues, and looks ahead to next steps in making the pedagogical colloquium a route to a more scholarly conception of teaching.

Jamie Webb and Kathleen McEnerney
Implementing Peer Review Programs: A Twelve Step Model
Nationally, universities and colleges are expressing increased interest in peer review of teaching in response to public calls for accountability from academe. Further motivation comes from within campuses themselves as they respond to an increasingly non-traditional student body. Based on our experience with a peer observation program at California State University-Dominguez Hills, we identified twelve steps for planning and implementing a peer review process. In this article we discuss each of the twelve steps, presenting a rationale and sharing our experiences.

Patricia Hagerty, Kenneth Wolf and Barbara Whinery
Improving Teaching Through Faculty Portfolio Conversations
The authors recount their experiences using portfolios of their teaching as the basis for conversations with colleagues and students about their teaching effectiveness. The authors identify a number of features that affected the quality of these conversations, including group composition, individual commitment, artifact collection, and conversation structure. The authors conclude that these portfolio conversations enabled them to develop insights into their teaching that they might not have been able to gain otherwise.

Peter Seldin
Using Student Feedback to Improve Teaching
Student feedback has become the most widely used-and, in many cases, the only-source of information to evaluate and improve teaching effectiveness. Some instructional developers use the approach effectively while others do not. This paper discusses important new lessons learned about what works and what doesn't, key strategies, tough decisions, latest research results, and links between evaluation and development.

Section V: Designing Effective Courses, Assignments and Activities

Barbara E. Walvoord and John R. Breihan
Helping Faculty Design Assignment-Centered Courses
Faculty developers must help faculty shift from a teaching paradigm to a learning paradigm. Workshops that help faculty plan the "assignment-centered" course are a productive approach to that challenge. This article shows faculty developers how to plan and lead such a workshop. Research suggests that faculty often focus on content and coverage in their course planning. To combat this tendency, the workshop leads faculty through the course-planning process. In the workshop, faculty first develop learning objectives, then plan the assignments and exams that will both teach and test the essential skills and knowledge of the course. Then faculty choose and organize their instructional methods and the use of in-class and out-of-class time to maximize the development of the most important knowledge and skills. This approach contrasts with the text-lecture-coverage-centered course, in which the teacher concentrates first on the topics she or he will cover. The assignment-centered course is one of the strategies that research suggests will enhance students' critical thinking in higher education.

Larry K. Michaelsen, L. Dee Fink and Arletta Knight
Designing Effective Group Activities: Lessons for Classroom Teaching and Faculty Development
The primary objective of this article is to provide readers with guidance for designing effective group assignments and activities for classes and workshops. In doing so, we examine the forces that foster social loafing (uneven participation) in learning groups and identify four key variables that must be managed in order to create a group environment that is conductive for broad-based member participation and learning. We then discuss the impact of various types of activities and assignments on learning and group cohesiveness. Finally, we present a checklist that has been designed to evaluate the effectiveness of group assignments in a wide variety of instructional settings and subject areas.

Sandra A. Harris and Kathryn J. Watson
Small Group Techniques: Selecting and Developing Activities Based on Stages of Group Development
Research shows that active and cooperative learning activities can be effective teaching methods; however, developing and carrying out these practices is often challenging, perhaps even confusing and frustrating, to educators who have not been trained in group processes. This article reviews basic principles for using group techniques in college classrooms, describes the developmental stages of groups, and provides examples of activities and assignments as well as processes for reflection and evaluation.

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Vol. 17, 1998 -- Editor: Matthew Kaplan, University of Michigan
Reviewers: Carol A. Bailey, Judith E. Miller, Eileen T. Bender, Liz Miller, Laura L. B. Border, John P. Murray, Nancy A. Diamond, Karen M. Peters, Patricia Kalivoda, Laurie Richlin, Barbara B. Kaplan, D. Lynn Sorenson, Victoria M. Littlefield, Gary Wheeler, Henryk R. Marcinkiewicz, Alan Wright

Section I: Changing Roles for Faculty Developers

Marilla D. Svinicki
Divining the Future for Faculty Development: Five Hopeful Signs and One Caveat
The fortunes of faculty development centers rise and fall on the waves of change that roll through postsecondary education on a regular basis. These waves can swamp us, or we can ride their crest. This article points out some of the waves the author sees now and in the immediate future and how we can