BOF: Using the Science of Learning to Help Faculty Help Students Learn More Effectively

November 16, 2020

Scholarship on the science of learning focuses on empirical research, theoretical implications, and practical applications related to how people learn and remember, particularly in the classroom. In these BoF sessions, led by educational developers with backgrounds in cognitive psychology, we will first consider what we currently know about the learning literature, including learning myths that permeate the academy, in order to help frame participants' perspectives as they attend POD sessions. In the final session, we will reconvene to share resources and discuss how we might be able to apply the science of learning to concepts encountered during the conference.

Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) SIG

November 18, 2020

SIG Mission: The mission of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) SIG is to support educational developers who seek to advocate for and promote SoTL at their institutions through sharing resources and building a collaborative community of POD Network members interested in SoTL in educational development.

Thinking-Forward: Institutional Context Matters in Shaping Undergraduate STEM Education Reform

November 13, 2020

In this research session, we report on emergent findings from a study that examines the institutional landscape in which innovations to undergraduate STEM education take place, leveraging the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative. We will (1) overview outcomes of earlier research and its relationship to the current study; (2) describe our study and identify the contextual elements that we find critical to successful educational reform; and (3) offer a Live Q&A Office hour on Wed., November 18, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET for conversation on how universities are coordinating multiple undergraduate STEM education reforms to achieve sustainable change on campuses.

Pandemic Reflection: Investigating Faculty and Academic Administrators’ Perceptions and Actions

November 13, 2020

The aim of this session is to present research findings on the short and potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on faculty and academic administrators' perceptions, actions, and decision-making processes regarding pedagogical and curricular choices. The scope of our research included mixed-method university-wide surveys and in-person focus groups and interviews with faculty and academic administrators. We will present preliminary results and discuss how data may be used to inform best practices concerning decision-making about academic leadership, pedagogy, and resource allocation if ever we must endure and overcome another unforeseen crisis, but also for future directions of our institution and higher education.

Holistic Faculty Development: A Systematic Review

November 13, 2020

This session reports results of a new systematic review of articles evaluating faculty development interventions that support aspects of faculty worklife beyond teaching—here termed "holistic" faculty development—from 1980 to 2019. This is a portion of a broader study, for which 8,847 unique items were retrieved, yielding 3,051 relevant articles, of which 479 evaluated an intervention. Participants in the session will review and discuss the history represented by the results, including the goals, scope, and diversity of interventions and evaluation methods.

How is Teaching Effectiveness Assessed in Tenure-Track Hiring?

November 12, 2020

This session reports on a CTL action research study that examined how academic hiring committees consider a candidate's teaching effectiveness for tenure-track, assistant professor positions. We report on a nationwide survey of 168 hiring committee chairs from 9 different disciplines, and use this data to provide recommendations for preparing teaching philosophy statements and diversity and inclusion statements. Implications of this work are relevant for anyone entering the academic job market as well as for CTL's providing consultations to individuals on the job market or delivering programs to prepare future faculty.

Plenary 4:Global Faculty Development: 5 Countries, 11 Campuses and Why it Matters for Everyone

November 13, 2020

With increasingly interconnected global higher education, the shortcomings of dominant Anglo-American models of educational development are exposed when transposed upon emergent higher education communities and global First Nations' contexts. Moreover, as educational development becomes increasingly professionalized, harmful gaps and toxic cultures arise from blind spots created by disciplinary "best-practices". This experiential session examines our profession's limitations and the potentially detrimental constraints of faculty development modes we practice on our own campuses. This session encourages strategies for more critical reflexive practices that will benefit the profession and underserved populations of faculty and students.

Assessment Fellowships: Empowering Graduate Students, Serving Faculty, Expanding Center Capacity

November 13, 2020

This session offers takeaways from the Teaching Assessment Fellows pilot at Columbia University. The pilot launched last year with an interdisciplinary cohort of graduate students who were assigned to work with faculty, Center staff, and each other to develop and apply a range of assessment skills, leading to targeted analysis of faculty teaching projects. This approach enabled a significant expansion of assessment services offered by the Center and opened up a new path for graduate student professional development. Participants will be invited to brainstorm variations of the pilot that they could envision running in their own institutional contexts.

Building inclusive excellence into STEM teaching by training graduate students

November 12, 2020

The STEP-UP program at the University of Washington trains cohorts of late-stage STEM PhD students in the best practices of inclusive and active teaching. By mentoring these trainees through practice sessions, in pedagogical theory, and while they are Instructors of Record, we help build capacity for new instructors to treat diverse student populations more effectively and with greater respect. We use design-based research to investigate and improve on the impact of our training curriculum and for trainees' undergraduate students. We will show data on our successes and challenges in training next-generation instructors to be equitable and inclusive.

Developing a Global Faculty Development Program: Focusing on Assessment

November 13, 2020

To meet new expectations for the shift from a conventional teacher-centered method to more learner-centered teaching, coupled with the increased needs of teaching in English in a Japan university, collaboration across countries is needed. What should a good global FD program be, and how can it be assessed? This presentation will focus on the development of an FD program between Waseda University in Japan and University of Washington in the US as well as its assessment. We will describe our program and its assessment along with findings from the past two years in order to stimulate discussion regarding future development.