Sustainable Changes in Instructional Practices From Faculty Development: Relationships With Changes in Conceptions and Approaches to Teaching

• In Event: 14.043 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.043-15 - Faculty Development Impacts on Instructional Attitudes and Practices

Abstract

In the past two decades, learning and teaching in higher education have undergone a paradigm shift from faculty teaching to student learning. Universities and funding agencies have invested substantially in faculty development to transform teaching, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Many faculty development programs are evaluated to assess their immediate impact, but few have examined the on-going changes in faculty teaching. This paper examines the long-term relationship among changes in faculty conceptions, approaches, and practices of teaching after professional development. Specifically, three distinct categories of changes in conceptions are observed. A case-study approach is employed to explore the variations among these categories, sustainable changes in instructional practices over three years, and the implications for faculty development.

Authors

• Stanley M. Lo, University of California - San Diego

• Denise L. Drane, Northwestern University

• Rachael R. Baiduc, Northwestern University

• Su L. Swarat, California State University - Fullerton

• Gregory J. Light, Northwestern University