Tip: Meeting Faculty Members Where They Are
Some thoughts on getting what you need from faculty development: advocate with your institution, find a community & take on a leadership role.
Last week I attended the Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, where I was thrilled to meet in person several people who are readers of Tips for Teaching Professors. So exciting! If you’re interested in seeing information from the presentations I was part of, here’s the link to both topics.
One idea that has been floating around in my head for a while now is how we offer faculty development for “advanced users.” Last summer I had the opportunity to interview a number of very experienced and expert teaching faculty, who all pointed out the need - largely unmet - for workshops and activities geared towards folks who have already done all of the usual things. This idea, that we need more advanced faculty development floated back to the top of my mind last week, as I heard someone leaving a perfectly acceptable session complain, “I could have presented that session…” Whether that was actually true, this individual clearly didn’t have their needs met by what the session provided, and the underlying issue that keeps bubbling up for me is are we meeting the needs of experienced & engaged faculty?
I see this concern playing out in the experiences of teaching faculty in a couple ways…
Focus on technology. The big professional development sessions, like return-to-campus activities in August and January, frequently seem to be aimed at catching people up on the latest tech roll-outs. Teaching HyFlex? Here’s your boot camp. Didn’t do the summer LMS trainings? Spend the day learning all the new tools. New to the institution? Here’s everything you need to know about accessing rosters, submitting early alerts, recording grades…
It feels like the immediate need for making sure that these technology pieces are being used correctly by everyone sometimes overtakes more nuanced discussions about the role of ed tech in our classrooms and in our assessment practices.
I know these conversations are happening in many places, I just am not sure that they are happening on campuses among faculty who are not also “faculty development geeks,” as several of my interviewees called themselves.
Which leads to my second point…
Focus on “newbies” or “resistant” faculty. The faculty I spoke with last summer explained that so many opportunities on their campuses were really more appropriate for people early in their careers, and the workshop and presentation topics tended to repeat each year. While this might be a good strategy for catching up any new hires, or catching the reluctant attendees who skipped the topic when it was first presented, it is not a great situation for the faculty who’ve attended all the “low-hanging fruit” topics, and are looking for something to help them level up what they’re doing.
I think this is part of why the higher ed conference last week was so great - it was a place for all the people who really want more to get together and share ideas. I think we need more spaces for these types of experiences, while acknowledging that we are still working in a pandemic and so many of us are just beyond stretched thin at this point.
Call to action!
So here’s the point of this post: What can you, as an interested and engaged faculty member, do to get what you need out of development opportunities?
Can you advocate with your institution for what you need - and does this advocacy look like more money, more time, more workshops, more FLCs, something else entirely?
Can you find a community of other faculty - maybe at your institution, maybe within your discipline - with whom to pursue some more in-depth, teaching-focused activities?
Can you take on a leadership role - knowing that we often learn most & best from teaching others, is there space for you to lead on your campus in engaging colleagues in conversation and work around a teaching-focused topic that resonates for you?
I would love to hear what you need most at this moment and if you have any thoughts on what you might be able to do to get those needs met…
Thanks, as ever, for reading & thanks to all of you who reached out over the past couple weeks with gentle wonderings about where Tips for Teaching Professors had gone - happily, still here & cooking up some new ideas!
