Faculty Development Practices Research Articles

(Mis)Alignment in resident and advisor co-regulated learning in competency-based training.

In implementing competence-based medical education (CBME), some Canadian residency programmes recruit clinicians to function as Academic Advisors (AAs). AAs are expected to help monitor residents' progress, coach them longitudinally, and serve as sources of co-regulated learning (Co-RL) to support their developing self-regulated learning (SRL) abilities. Implementing the AA role is optional, meaning each residency programme must decide whether and how to implement it, which could generate uncertainty and heterogeneity in how effectively AAs will "monitor and advise" residents. We sought to clarify how AA-resident dyads collaboratively interpret assessment data from multiple sources, co-create learning goals and action plans and attempt to enhance residents' SRL skills. Shortly after each of their six meetings during two years of Internal Medicine residency, we conducted individual, brief interviews with AAs (N = 10) and residents (N = 10). We analysed transcripts using an abductive framework with theory-based and evidence-based sensitizing concepts. We collected 49 residents and 36 AA 'meeting debriefs', which produced rich data on how dyads variably engaged in SRL and Co-RL. Residents and AAs adopted "learning stances" that oriented their perceptions and approaches to Co-RL. Their stances did not always align within dyads. We found unique patterns in how stances evolved or devolved over time, and in how these changes impacted dyads' Co-RL processes. While some dyads evolved to engage in proactive co-regulation, most stayed consistent or oscillated reactively in their relationships, with little apparent Co-RL focused on helping residents to develop clinical competencies through SRL. We catalogued multiple influential sources of regulation of learning. The conceptually ideal form of Co-RL was not consistently achieved in this well-intended implementation of AA-resident dyads. To better translate 'coaching over time' from intention to practice, we recommend that residency programmes use Co-RL principles to refine CBME processes, including refining assessment tools, resident orientation sessions and faculty development practices.

Enhancing business education: neurodiversity informed faculty development practices

Purpose This paper aims to explore the importance of tailored faculty development for neurodiverse business educators. It focuses on how specialized support can enhance research output, teaching effectiveness and service contributions within the academic community. Design/methodology/approach This paper’s conceptual approach uses elements of autoethnography to inform and support prior theoretical and empirical work. An explication of how neurodiversity can be integrated into faculty development efforts is presented with emphasis on individualized support systems, empathetic mentorship and customized teaching and research support strategies to leverage often unrecognized abilities. Findings The research identifies that neuroatypical faculty possess certain strengths such as heightened problem-solving skills and attention to detail, which, when supported, can significantly enrich the academic environment. However, there is a lack of targeted support mechanisms for, and general awareness of, these faculty. The paper proposes modifications to existing faculty development activities, emphasizing general and individualized approaches to better harness the talents of neurodiverse educators. Practical implications Implementing the proposed strategies will foster an inclusive educational atmosphere while enhancing academic creativity, innovation and productivity. This approach also aligns with important trends in diversity and inclusion, promoting a more equitable and dynamic academic environment. Originality/value This research contributes to the field by extending the discourse on neurodiversity in higher education beyond student-focused initiatives to include faculty development. It provides actionable strategies to create inclusive environments that leverage the cognitive strengths of neurodiverse faculty, a relatively unexplored area in business education.

The Effectiveness of English as a Science Medium Instruction in Higher Education

This research presents a comprehensive analysis of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education, drawing insights from seven studies involving 150 students. The investigation delves into various factors such as academic proficiency, TOEFL scores, and gender distribution. Findings reveal a clustering of TOEFL scores around the midpoint of the range, suggesting a normal distribution. However, gender distribution exhibits significant deviations from normalcy. Despite these variations, detailed statistical analyses offer valuable insights into student performance within EMI programs. Moving beyond data analysis, a systematic review explores the impact and effective practices of EMI in higher education. It acknowledges the ongoing debate regarding EMI's influence on language proficiency and academic achievement. While some studies suggest positive outcomes, others highlight challenges and discrepancies, emphasizing the complexity of evaluating EMI's success. The review underscores the importance of examining diverse linguistic and non-linguistic factors and calls for further research to inform instructional strategies. Furthermore, the study identifies effective practices in EMI implementation, emphasizing instructional techniques, curriculum design, language support services, assessment procedures, faculty development, and reflective practice. These approaches aim to create inclusive learning environments conducive to language acquisition, subject matter learning, and student success. Additionally, the review proposes solutions to address challenges and promote inclusivity in EMI contexts, including cultural orientation programs, academic assistance, institutional regulations, social justice initiatives, intercultural competencies, and student-centered teaching approaches. This holistic approach seeks to enhance the long-term success and well-being of students within the EMI framework in higher education.

Oral health educators' reflections on teaching 2022 and beyond.

The global pandemic prompted changes in health science education affecting both teaching and learning. This multi-institutional study assesses the near-term implications of these changes on faculty and faculty development. The project goals were to: (1) describe faculty experiences of teaching during the pandemic; (2) identify ways to sustain new pedagogical approaches, (3) describe the types of support faculty members need, and (4) offer recommendations to enhance oral health professions education. A mixed-method approach using exploratory sequential design was conducted in two phases collecting qualitative and quantitative data. Focus group participants included didactic, pre-clinical, and clinical faculty in dental school (DMD/DDS), dental hygiene and dental therapy programs, and also faculty members serving in administrative roles in these programs (N=37). One hundred forty-four faculty participated in the multi-institutional follow-up survey. Focus group and survey results led to 14 recommendations (nine structural and five individual) for oral health profession institutions and educators. Oral health profession education faculty were dramatically impacted by the pandemic and new faculty development needs were identified. Traditional faculty development topics and practices may be no longer applicable in the post-COVID-19 environment. Additionally, the pandemic stimulated creative approaches for curriculum design, teaching, and assessment in oral health profession education. Strategies need to be implemented to sustain these innovations.

Faculty development for translational simulation: a qualitative study of current practice

BackgroundTranslational simulation is focused directly on healthcare quality, safety, and systems. Effective translational simulation design and delivery may require knowledge and skills in areas like quality improvement and safety science. How translational simulation programs support their faculty to learn these skills is unknown. We aimed to explore current faculty development practices within translational simulation programs, and the rationale for the approaches taken.MethodsWe used a qualitative approach to explore faculty development in translational simulation programs. We conducted semi-structured interviews with representatives who have leadership and/or faculty development responsibilities in these programs and performed a thematic analysis of the data.ResultsSixteen interviews were conducted with translational simulation program leaders from nine countries. We identified three themes in our exploration of translational simulation faculty development practices: (1) diverse content, (2) ‘home-grown’, informal processes, and (3) the influence of organisational context. Collaboration beyond the historical boundaries of the healthcare simulation community was an enabler across themes.ConclusionLeaders in translational simulation programs suggest a diverse array of knowledge and skills are important for translational simulation faculty and report a range of informal and formal approaches to the development of these skills. Many programs are early in the development of their approach to faculty development, and all are powerfully influenced by their context; the program aims, structure, and strategy.

Designing an Inclusive Learning Training Series for Pharmacy Educators.

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of five faculty development sessions focused on inclusive teaching strategies in pharmacy education. Inclusive strategies ensure that every student can clearly understand and engage in meaningful learning opportunities. Three sessions were implemented in fall 2020 and two in spring 2021. Sessions focused on experiential, didactic, and graduate education. A convergent parallel mixed methods evaluation was conducted using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Sessions were highly rated, and participants provided suggestions for curriculum improvement (e.g., creating resources, surveying students, and peer auditing syllabi for aspects of inclusiveness). Given the increasing emphasis on inclusion in pharmacy education, this work is timely for sharing strategies aimed at faculty development and teaching practices.

Understanding online teaching effectiveness: Nursing student and faculty perspectives.

Online teaching has expanded over the past few decades, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, characteristics of online teaching effectiveness and quality remain understudied. This study examined perceptions of online teaching effectiveness from nursing faculty and student perspectives. The findings presented are from phase 1 of a three-phase, mixed methods research project. In this phase, a qualitative descriptive design was used to analyze data obtained from focus group interview sessions. A purposive sampling of faculty (N = 15) and students (N = 17) from one midwestern, public university participated in five focus groups. Seven themes emerged through qualitative data analysis of faculty focus group data. Student focus groups yielded six themes. Faculty and students identified challenges and strategies for effective online teaching. Student and faculty perceptions of online teaching effectiveness aligned for many themes. Study findings have distinct implications for nursing education. Identifying the characteristics of online teaching effectiveness provides the foundation for establishing tangible constructs and robust evaluation, broadening the impact on learning outcomes, faculty development, and educational practice.

COVID-19: A MOTIVATOR FOR CHANGE IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION?

Despite recent research and initiatives, learner-centered instructional practices have not made their way into post-secondary Science, Technology,Engineering and Math (STEM) classrooms, even though there is clear evidence showing the benefits include increased grades, higher student engagement, and deeper learning. STEM educators rank the barriers associated with active learning higher than their colleagues in other disciplines, and identify the inability to cover all the content as a key factor in their decision to adhere to didactic practices. Insights and instructional strategies and methods garnered from teaching-related faculty development opportunities are often tried, but their use is not generally sustained unless a personal experiencedrives that change in practice. Unquestionably, COVID-19 has had an immediate, global impact on higher education. Educators have been forced to alter their teaching practices to accommodate the switch to remote learning. Most Teaching and Learning Centers offered myriad workshops to facilitate this change. This quantitative study set out to determine if COVID-19 precautions created the personal experience necessary to initiate a change in STEM teaching practices. Using educator-related threshold concepts as a framework, it analyzed institutional registration records to determine the type of faculty development opportunitieschosen by engineering educators, and the extent to which they participated in those related to learner-centered instructional practices for remote delivery.Analysis shows that engineering educators participated proportionally less than their colleagues in other disciplines, and there is an indication that the pandemic may facilitate an ongoing change in the teaching practices of engineering educators. Opportunities for enhancing faculty development practices for engineering educators are proposed.

Sensor, Wearable, and Remote Patient Monitoring Competencies for Clinical Care and Training: Scoping Review.

Sensor, wearable, and remote patient monitoring technologies are typically used in conjunction with video and/or in-person care for a variety of interventions and care outcomes. This scoping review identifies clinical skills (i.e., competencies) needed to ensure quality care and approaches for organizations to implement and evaluate these technologies. The literature search focused on four concept areas: (1) competencies; (2) sensors, wearables, and remote patient monitoring; (3) mobile, asynchronous, and synchronous technologies; and (4) behavioral health. From 2846 potential references, two authors assessed abstracts for 2828 and, full text for 521, with 111 papers directly relevant to the concept areas. These new technologies integrate health, lifestyle, and clinical care, and they contextually change the culture of care and training—with more time for engagement, continuity of experience, and dynamic data for decision-making for both patients and clinicians. This poses challenges for users (e.g., keeping up, education/training, skills) and healthcare organizations. Based on the clinical studies and informed by clinical informatics, video, social media, and mobile health, a framework of competencies is proposed with three learner levels (novice/advanced beginner, competent/proficient, advanced/expert). Examples are provided to apply the competencies to care, and suggestions are offered on curricular methodologies, faculty development, and institutional practices (e-culture, professionalism, change). Some academic health centers and health systems may naturally assume that clinicians and systems are adapting, but clinical, technological, and administrative workflow—much less skill development—lags. Competencies need to be discrete, measurable, implemented, and evaluated to ensure the quality of care and integrate missions.

A New Style of Reflection from Online Simulation Faculty Development Practice

A New Style of Reflection from Online Simulation Faculty Development Practice

Learning in Faculty Development: The Role of Social Networks

Faculty development is increasingly acknowledged as an important aspect of health professions education. Its conceptualization has evolved from an individual skills training activity to contemporary notions that draw on an organizational model. This organizational model recognizes relationships and networks as important mediators of knowledge mobilization. Although such conceptual advancements are critical, we lack empirical evidence and robust insights into how social networks function to shape learning in faculty development. The purpose of this study was to understand how informal professional social networks influence faculty development learning in the health professions. This study used a qualitative social network approach to explore how teaching faculty's relationships influenced their learning about teaching. The study was conducted in 2018 in an undergraduate course at a Canadian medical school. Eleven faculty participants were recruited, and 3 methods of data collection were employed: semistructured interviews, participant-drawn sociograms, and demographic questionnaires. The social networks of faculty participants influenced their learning about teaching in the following 4 dimensions: enabling and mobilizing knowledge acquisition, shaping identity formation, expressing vulnerability, and scaffolding learning. Faculty developers should consider faculty's degree of social embeddedness in their professional social networks, as our study suggests this may influence their learning about teaching. The findings align with recent calls to conceptually reorient faculty development in the health professions as a dynamic social enterprise.

Factors to be considered in designing a faculty development program for medical education: local experience from the Western region of Saudi Arabia.

BackgroundAmong the different aims of medical education, the provision of society with skilled, professional, and knowledgeable healthcare workers who maintain and develop their expertise over a lifetime career is important. The achievement of this goal is linked with the professional development of both faculty members and healthcare workers. This study aims to measure the perception of faculty members regarding their views about the goals of faculty development programs, practices and activities, and factors that determine their achievement.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in multiple universities in the Western region of Saudi Arabia. The participants were given a pre-designed self-administered questionnaire generated from literature. The survey questionnaire consisted of three sections that were designed to assess the faculty members’ perception on the faculty development program.ResultsA total of 210 faculty members participated in the study. The most important perceived goal was to motivate teachers to become better teachers. The most important perceived practice was establishing a positive climate for teaching and learning. The most important perceived factor was skilled and dedicated staff support.ConclusionThe results of this study demonstrate that faculty members have positive perceptions regarding all aspects of faculty development programs. This study will raise awareness regarding the importance of faculty development programs in sustaining educational vitality. We recommend the implementation and maintenance of comprehensive faculty development programs in Saudi universities.

From Keller's MVP Model to Faculty Development Practice

AbstractAs faculty and faculty developers, we sometimes forget that the principles of learning and motivation that we apply to students also apply to us. This chapter illustrates how the MVP model can be used to create effective faculty development activities.

Systems Alignment for Comprehensive Faculty Development in Liberal Arts Colleges

Using an alignment framework, the authors explore faculty development initiatives in liberal arts colleges in order to understand the connection between organizational priorities and processes as connected to faculty members’ stated needs. The study draws on mixed-methods data from The Initiative for Faculty Development in Liberal Arts Colleges (IFDLAC), including survey and interview data from the 13 member institutions of the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA).The authors offer future implications for faculty development practice.

Conceptions of how a learning or teaching curriculum, workplace culture and agency of individuals shape medical student learning and supervisory practices in the clinical workplace.

The role of workplace supervisors in the clinical education of medical students is currently under debate. However, few studies have addressed how supervisors conceptualize workplace learning and how conceptions relate to current sociocultural workplace learning theory. We explored physician conceptions of: (a) medical student learning in the clinical workplace and (b) how they contribute to student learning. The methodology included a combination of a qualitative, inductive (conventional) and deductive (directed) content analysis approach. The study triangulated two types of interview data from 4 focus group interviews and 34 individual interviews. A total of 55 physicians participated. Three overarching themes emerged from the data: learning as membership, learning as partnership and learning as ownership. The themes described how physician conceptions of learning and supervision were guided by the notions of learning-as-participation and learning-as-acquisition. The clinical workplace was either conceptualized as a context in which student learning is based on a learning curriculum, continuity of participation and partnerships with supervisors, or as a temporary source of knowledge within a teaching curriculum. The process of learning was shaped through the reciprocity between different factors in the workplace context and the agency of students and supervising physicians. A systems-thinking approach merged with the "co-participation" conceptual framework advocated by Billet proved to be useful for analyzing variations in conceptions. The findings suggest that mapping workplace supervisor conceptions of learning can be a valuable starting point for medical schools and educational developers working with changes in clinical educational and faculty development practices.

Measures matter: Evidence of faculty development effects on faculty and student learning

In this paper, a team of researchers explores the benefits and challenges of using rubrics for analyzing faculty development influences on teaching strategies and student writing outcomes. Fine-grained rubrics, aligned with local faculty development practices and institutional conditions, proved more successful at identifying particular changes in practice than generic rubrics or holistic analyses of writing. Nonetheless, the complexity of tracing faculty development into student learning calls for a combination of context-dependent methods. The Tracer Project – a collaboration between a Midwestern Liberal Arts College (Carleton College or “CC”) and a large State University (Washington State University or “WSU”) – applies mixed methods to assess the effects on student learning of programs to teach faculty about writing across the curriculum, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking. This paper is an invitation to other researchers to learn from the Tracer Project's journey and to continue to develop approaches that will reveal faculty development effects on their campuses.

Experimental Effects of Student Evaluations Coupled with Collaborative Consultation on College Professors’ Instructional Skills

This experimental study concerned the effects of repeated students’ evaluations of teaching coupled with collaborative consultation on professors’ instructional skills. Twenty-five psychology professors from a Dutch university were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. During their course, students evaluated them four times immediately after a lecture (class meeting in which lecturing was the teaching format) by completing the Instructional Skills Questionnaire (ISQ). Within 2 or 3 days after each rated lecture, the professors in the experimental group were informed of the ISQ-results and received consultation. Each consultation, three in total, resulted in a plan to improve their teaching for the next lectures. Controls received neither their ISQ-results nor consultation during their course. Multilevel regression analyses showed significant differences in ISQ-ratings in the experimental group compared to the control group, specifically on the instructional dimensions Explication, Comprehension and Activation. In addition, the impact of each of the three consultations plus differences between targeted versus non targeted dimensions were analyzed. This study complements recent non-experimental research on a collaborative consultation approach with experimental results in order to provide evidence-based guidelines for faculty development practices.

The Future of Faculty Development: Where Are We Going?

AbstractIn this concluding chapter, the authors point readers to innovations in faculty development that are appearing on the horizon, in the context of changes and challenges confronting higher education institutions. Additional thoughts are presented about the structures and processes in the practice of faculty development that need attention, including those related to pressing issues in the field as a profession.

18: FACULTY DEVELOPMENT BEYOND INSTRUCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Most faculty development programs focus on the faculty member as teacher. However, faculty seek support in many areas, including orientation, mentoring, scholarly writing, time management, career advancement, leadership, and service. Research and practice also suggest that faculty and faculty development programs benefit from an integrated approach to professional development. This chapter fills a gap in faculty development practice by suggesting ways that centers can create programming that goes beyond instructional development, thereby supporting a more expansive range of faculty work.

Faculty Development Practices In Distance Education For Success With Culturally Diverse Students

The student population is becoming more geographically and culturally diverse in the online arena because students from all parts of the world are able to register for online classes. These diverse students need competent and qualified online facilitators that are able to use diverse teaching pedagogies to meet their learning needs. Therefore, developing and training faculty members through a successful orientation program to integrate diverse cyberspace technology into the classroom for student learning are a necessity today. As such, administrators should focus on the effective development, training, and retaining of technologically savvy educators to teach in various distance learning modalities (online, on-ground, and blended formats) using cyberspace technology while focusing on effectively achieving learning outcomes with diverse students. The document discusses diversity issues, the desires and views of online students based on a survey of 229 graduate students, and suggestions for new online faculty members. An emersion model of training used for faculty orientation and development is presented.