Posted 3:52 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5, 2024
Five Research-Based Tips for Faculty and Department Chairs
In today's rapidly evolving academic landscape, continuous professional development is crucial for instructors to stay current with educational innovations, research advancements, and pedagogical strategies. Instructors can take an active role in committing to continual improvement. Department chairs and academic leaders can also help create an environment that encourages and supports continuous professional development. Here are five tips, and corresponding potential strategies, to help commit to continuous professional development for yourself and for your department.
ONE: Approach with a growth mindset
UWL’s FYS 100 course, required of all first-year students, has an entire unit for first-year students about the important of a growth mindset. This mindset is important for instructors and students alike! When you have a growth mindset, you believe that skills and abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. So, adopt a growth mindset to foster a culture of learning and improvement.
For instructors: Remember that continual improvement can involve small, medium, or large amounts of time and effort; start small if you need to. Commit to scanning the CATL Weekly newsletter each week to find at least one nugget of teaching goodness or an event to delve deeper into a teaching topic that’s been on your mind.
For department chairs: Model lifelong learning. Share with individuals and/or the department your own professional development experiences and encourage instructors to pursue new skills and knowledge areas, particularly with CATL and within your discipline’s professional organizations.
TWO: Use the resources
UWL encourages ongoing improvement by continuing to support the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning (CATL), a unit on campus with a mission to help support instructor improvement. CATL has been at this for many years which means we have a lot of resources both on our website and internal to CATL. And, we know that finding just the resource you need can be overwhelming. But please don’t let that stop you from learning something new! Simply drop us a line (catl@uwlax.edu) and explain your teaching challenge or question, and we’ll gather up some resources for you and/or sit down to chat with you about it.
For instructors: Contact CATL at any time for a meeting/consultation on a teaching topic of interest. Model lifelong learning with your colleagues by sharing with instructors in your department the resources you gathered about a teaching strategy or teaching technology at a CATL event or through a CATL meeting/consultation.
For department chairs: Don’t create, recreate, or invent a resource. Use the resource of CATL to help you find or create what is needed for the teaching topics relevant to your department.
THREE: Celebrate efforts and progress
Recognize instructors who engage in continual improvement activities, even if their initial efforts are modest. This encourages a culture in which trying new things and learning from mistakes is valued.
For instructors: Engage in conversations with your department peers around teaching strategies and ask how they are learning more. Listen and ask questions. Consider various options. Invite CATL to chat with a smaller group of colleagues that are discussing similar opportunities and challenges.
For department chairs: Provide time in a department meeting for instructors to share about recent professional development events attended (conferences, workshops, etc.). Share at a department meeting recent news/announcements about those who completed a CATL or professional training, received a teaching and learning related grant, published SOTL research, etc.
FOUR: Consider collaborative and interdisciplinary opportunities
Collaboration is a powerful tool for professional growth. Instructors who engage in collaborative professional development experience greater improvements in teaching practices and student outcomes. CATL tries to build-in collaborative experiences in all our offerings and has specific offerings, such as intensive trainings and communities of practice, that have a specific collaborative and interdisciplinary advantages.
For instructors: Attend a CATL workshop, event, or training. Commit to engaging in conversations about teaching with others outside of your discipline. Be open to and contemplative about approaches and ideas to teaching that may be different than typical for your discipline.
For department chairs: As you learn more about teaching improvement goals of instructors, pay attention to development opportunities that align with those goals and individually invite instructors to those upcoming events. Paying attention to their specific needs and connecting with specific instructors when aligned opportunities arise indicates you care for their development. Consider attending an event with an instructor who may seem hesitant.
FIVE Create a supportive environment
A supportive environment is crucial for encouraging instructors to engage in continual professional development. Connection and conversation go a long way in creating a supportive space for continual improvement.
For instructors: Set a goal to learn something new every week related to teaching improvement; this can be done by participating in a CATL event, reading an article, listening to a podcast, attending a webinar, or more. Set aside some time each week to help accomplish this goal. Bring a co-worker along if you are attending something. Share with a co-worker what you learned. Ask questions when others are sharing about their teaching.
For department chairs: Encourage department attendance at a CATL events. Ask CATL to facilitate a workshop at a department meeting. Share about yours or ask others to share about their professional development journey. Consider how department policies may or may not help create a supportive environment conducive to continual improvement.
Fostering a culture of continuous professional development within an academic department requires intentionality, support, and a commitment to lifelong learning. By encouraging a growth mindset, creating collaborative opportunities, integrating CPD into performance evaluations, offering flexible options, and fostering a supportive environment, instructors and department chairs can cultivate an environment where professional growth thrives. Ultimately, this investment in CPD will not only benefit individual instructors members but also enhance the overall quality of education and research within the institution.
So, as we starting into the 2024-2025 academic year, the CATL staff hopes you will commit to continual professional improvement. And, remember, you don’t have to go at it alone, CATL would be so honored to be part of your journey!
Content partially generated from ChatGPT -- OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (GPT-4 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat