Abstract
PurposeThis study aims to understand the extent to which a faculty development program that includes a week-long course design experience followed by sustained support changes new faculty's perceptions, beliefs and teaching practices. The authors employed the teacher professional knowledge and skill (TPK&S) framework and characteristics of effective educational development interventions to drive the program development, implementation and assessment.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized a mixed methods approach. Data sources include pre-/mid-/post-program responses to a validated survey, pre-/post-program course syllabi analyzed using a validated rubric and pre-/post-classroom observations collected using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) instrument.FindingsFindings indicate transformative effects for participants' beliefs about their teaching and changes to their instructional practices. Significant and practical effects were observed across different portions of the program for increases in participants' self-efficacy, endorsement of a conceptual change approach toward teaching and perceptions of institutional support. Participants produced more learning-focused syllabi and many moved toward more student-centered instructional approaches in their teaching practices.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the voluntary nature of the new faculty development program, this study may have been limited by participant self-selection bias and differential sample sizes for the study's individual measures. Future research should consider designs which maximize faculty participation in measurement across all data sources.Originality/valueThis study addresses shortcomings in prior studies which utilized limited data sources to measure intervention impact and answers the call for more rigorous research to obtain a more complete picture of instructional development in higher education.
Highlights
An abundance of studies demonstrates the importance of implementing active learning in undergraduate courses (Freeman et al, 2014; Kuh et al, 2008)
There is a lack of rigorous research on these interventions to identify what works, what does not and why (Kezar, 2014; Stes et al, 2007) and limited use of theory to drive understandings in educational development interventions (Henderson et al, 2011). This present study aims to address the limitations identified in the literature by describing the design of an intervention for new faculty based on best practices in educational development and exploring its impact on faculty beliefs, perceptions and teaching practices
Research shows that focusing on new faculty can be impactful (Beach et al, 2016) as they may be more open to adopting effective teaching practices than more established colleagues (Ebert-May et al, 2011). We address this call through the development and assessment of an educational development intervention for new faculty
Summary
An abundance of studies demonstrates the importance of implementing active learning in undergraduate courses (Freeman et al, 2014; Kuh et al, 2008). Lecture still predominates in the majority of undergraduate classrooms (Stains et al, 2018). One reason for the limited adoption of active learning in higher education may be the use of educational. Published in Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http:// creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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