Faculty Development Programs
Applications in Teaching and Learning
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The text Faculty Development Programs: Applications in Teaching and Learning by Alusine M. Kanu is designed for teaching professionals and for those seeking careers in education, communication or in organizational training and development. Research indicates faculty development should be an ongoing endeavor for all faculty members because their growth as instructors has a profound impact on students. The underlying themes involve a discussion of the goals of improved teaching and learning and the influences that come into play in finding ways to foster student development, faculty development, institutional and organizational development, gender and communication issues, media and new technologies, leadership and development, curriculum models, designs and academic advising.
This introductory text includes discussions of goals and objectives of teaching and learning, activities to facilitate discussion of issues and techniques in teaching and learning, what it means to be educated, literature review on faculty development and understanding faculty as leaders. The goals include the development of human skills for communicative economic and social benefits and to enhance and empower higher institutions to contribute more effectively to development and transformation.
Objectives in faculty development programs include:
1. The development of expert systems to solve problems by addressing the multitude of factors which influence organization and individual performance.
2. Skills and knowledge on the basis of stated criteria with goals to include the building and maintenance of a professional network that will improve human performance through faculty and student interactions and transactions. Program design and implementation will increase understanding of self and appreciation of skills and styles that build trust and cooperation with other people in democratic societies.
3. Introduction to various individual organizational transferring technologies and will receive added hands-on experience in the application of organizational analysis and innovative practices.
4. Practice in performance and instruction by assessing needs, task analysis, and feedback systems by enhancing their repertoires of strategies for managing projects and managing change.
5. Presentation of observable, measurable, and specific, and they describe what faculty and students will be able to do based on research, time frames and methods. Of added significance are education and faculty training and preparation.
6. Outcomes of faculty development, curriculum development, and institutional leadership, conducting research, utilizing technology and improving research facilities and advising.
The topic of developing teaching faculty has extensive literature reviews with participation and effective programs. The most effective faculty development methods are those that respect faculties'desires to be experts in specialized disciplinary knowledge and specific teaching skills. In Teaching faculty to conduct problem-based learning Hitchcock et al. (2000) focus on three questions: (a) What is known from past research about training faculty in the skills of problem-based learning? (b) What skills are important to teach faculty and how does one teach them? and (c) What options are available for training faculty in problem-based learning? The development of faculty with such skills must be a primary and ongoing concern of faculty development programs or schools launching such efforts. The efforts and processes for faculty development include combining content, process, and premise reflection, instrumental, communicative, and emancipatory knowledge within the instructional pedagogical and curricular domains (Kreber, 2000). In faculty development, Murray (1999) distinguishes successful development programs and describes a survey administered in 1998 to faculty development officers at 250 randomly selected community colleges. Based on responses from 130 colleges, the author profiles those responsible for faculty development, summarizes the extent that each development activity is used, and articulates the need for concerted faculty development efforts.
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About the Book
Professor Alusine M. Kanu in Faculty Development Programs: Applications in Teaching and Learning demonstrates instructional competencies of faculty developer, leadership facilitator, organizational developer, media specialist, and academic advisor. This well-thought-out text conducts discussions to promote learning how to learn with methods of study that respect faculties’ desires to be experts in specialized disciplinary knowledge and specific teaching skills. The intended audience is anyone wanting to learn about teaching or knowledge transfer and for teaching professionals and those seeking careers in education, communication, or in organizational training and development. Faculty Development Programs: Applications in Teaching and Learning suggests contemporary underlying research and practice on up-to-date influences of education. An array of chapters includes developing multicultural faculty, faculty development, instructional development, organizational development, gender and communication issues, media and new technologies, leadership and development, curriculum development, and academic advising. This book provides students and faculty with positive and productive ways of educational development.
About the Author
Dr. Alusine M. Kanu is Professor in Communication at Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, Virginia, and adjunct faculty at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Kanu is a four-time author of Experiencing interactive interpersonal communication, Connecting intercultural communication: Strategies for communicating effectively across cultures, and Reflections in communication: An Interdisciplinary approach. He is a member of the Speech Communication Association, The American Society for Training and Development, and the National Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapists. Dr. Kanu, a native of Sierra Leone, is an alumnus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia with course work in communication, human resource training, and development, and his first doctorate is in Community College Education, with course work in Communication Instruction. Kanu is currently pursuing a second doctorate (D.Ed.) in Pastoral Community Counseling at Argosy University. His career experiences include working as an elementary school teacher, a counselor, librarian, radio announcer and producer, public relations, legal research and a public speaking workshop called “Training the Trainer.” In addition to 25 years’ experience teaching communication in the United States; he is a “Who’s Who” in North America. A noted scholar with proven competencies with an interdisciplinary human concern and multicultural approach, Kanu is the visionary for a Community College System in Sierra Leone in partnership with the expert leadership of Dr. Gail Kettlewell of George Mason University, designer of the International Community College Town Center Model and partnerships with the people and government of Sierra Leone and concerned members of the international community.