Brigham Young University
Faculty Center


Faculty Development Plan
Communications
2005


"The mission of Brigham Young University – founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. That assistance should provide a period of intensive learning in a stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected and the full realization of human potential is pursued."



XXXX, assistant professor of communications

Department of Communications

Brigham Young University

Provo, Utah 84602

Tel. 801-422-xxxx

xxxx@byu.edu

______________________________________ ________________

Signature Date



OUTLINE FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PLAN

I. Self-Assessment

A. Teaching

B. Research

C. Citizenship

II. Professional Goals

A. Teaching

1. Goals and Plans

2. Relationship Between Individual Goals and Department and University Aspirations and Needs

3. Resources Needed

4. Activities and Accomplishments So Far

5. Comments on Measures Used to Assess Success

B. Research

1. Goals and Plans

2. Relationship Between Individual Goals and Department and University Aspirations and Needs

3. Resources Needed

4. Activities and Accomplishments So Far

5. Comments on Measures Used to Assess Success

C. Citizenship

1. Goals and Plans

2. Relationship Between Individual Goals and Department and University Aspirations and Needs

3. Resources Needed

4. Activities and Accomplishments So Far

5. Comments on Measures Used to Assess Success

I. SELF-ASSESSMENT

A. Teaching

1. Strengths:

  • Professional experience. I have practiced professionally both as a journalist and a lawyer. Students attach credibility to real-world experiences dealing with material discussed in the classroom.

  • Respect. I value and encourage student questions and contributions.

2. Weaknesses:

  • Lack of teaching experience. Including the two semesters recently completed, I have taught only six semesters of university-level journalism and media law courses.

  • "You're too nice." In my effort to accommodate and help students, I must guard against being a pushover.

3. Interests and Opportunities:

  • Professional work and Christian service. I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to explore with students the ramifications of BYU's Mission and Aims.[ii] Taking a thought from former BYU Law School Dean Carl S. Hawkins, I believe this means making professional service part of our Christian ministry.[iii]

  • Competence. I am enthusiastic about assisting students to become competent academically and professionally. For example, I am interested to collaborate with students on academic research and professional journalism.

B. Research

1. Strengths:

  • Writing experience and ability. I have been a professional writer for 10 years in newspapers, magazines, trade publications and scholarly journals.

  • Training and skill. Journalism and law school taught me to recognize “newsworthy” happenings, identify and describe trends, and analyze issues comprehensively. Law school training will greatly benefit me among communications scholars publishing on legal topics.

2. Weaknesses:

  • Tendency to take on too much. Curiosity and desire can lead me to get involved in too many projects at once.

  • Nature of my background. I am trained and experienced in legal research and writing and not more generally in social science research, including statistics.

3. Interests and Opportunities:

  • Great material. There is much exciting breadth and depth to the research I can conduct on communications law. There should be no lack of interesting topics to research, think and write about.

  • Becoming a public scholar. I would like my research not only to get out in the academic world but also to have a greater influence in society through sharing it with students, writing op-ed pieces in newspapers and submitting amicus curiae briefs to courts in communications law cases.

C. Citizenship

1. Strengths:

  • Willingness. I am willing to get involved in various activities and work hard. I am enthusiastic about working with colleagues.

  • Understanding of importance. I value making a difference in committee work and I realize the benefit I can gain by service.

2. Weaknesses:

  • Lack of experience. Until the 2004-2005 academic year, I had not served on professional and academic committees.

3. Interests and Opportunities:

  • Making service relevant and useful. I am interested in citizenship service for genuine reasons of contributing to the professions and to academia rather than just fulfilling a requirement.

II. PROFESSIONAL GOALS

A. Teaching

1. Goals and Plans:

Strengthen students spiritually. I will do this by:

  • Creating writing assignments that require students to reflect on the meaning of making their professional work part of their Christian service.

  • Fostering other experiences (such as final projects, volunteer positions) in which students can explore the meaning of professional work as Christian service

  • Appropriately demonstrating my faith and testimony

Enlarge students intellectually. I will do this by:

  • Creating challenging and rigorous assignments and exams that will be graded under “strict scrutiny.”

  • Staying current in my discipline by reading new cases

  • Publishing manuscripts on media law and journalism topics, thus allowing me to have something worthwhile to teach

Engaging in activities that will allow me to improve myself as a teacher and thus better help students to learn, such as:

  • Attending on-campus and off-campus seminars on teaching

    Using teaching resources such as books and the Faculty Center personnel

  • Seeking feedback and suggestions from colleagues

  • Creating and maintaining a teaching portfolio

Build students’ character. I will do this by:

  • Reading about and discussing examples of professional communicators, lawyers and others, including Church leaders, who exhibit excellent character traits (for example, read and discuss portions of biography of J. Reuben Clark)

Foster students’ lifelong learning and service. I will do this by:

  • Supervise internship experiences of print journalism students and respond to their weekly email updates with encouragement and teaching along the lines of not just doing well but also doing good.

  • Mentoring graduate and undergraduate students as an internship supervisor, directed research supervisor, co-academic researcher and co-writer on professional journalism projects

  • Achieve above-average teaching evaluations.

2. Relationship Between Individual Goals and Department and University Aspirations and Needs:

  • Spiritually Strengthening. Students need examples of faculty members who “possess a remarkable diversity of gifts, but they all think of themselves as brothers and sisters seeking together to master the academic disciplines while remaining mastered by the higher claims of discipleship to the Savior.”[iv] I am striving to do this.

  • Intellectually Enlarging. My goals seek to help students engage in sound thinking and effective communication as they develop skills and engage in broad and deep thinking.[v]

  • Character Building. I am attempting to “reinforce such moral virtues as integrity, reverence, modesty, self-control, courage, compassion, and industry.”[vi]

  • Lifelong Learning and Service. My goals seek to help students “learn, then demonstrate, that their ultimate allegiance is to higher values, principles, and human commitments rather than to mere self-interest.”[vii]

3. Resources Needed:

  • Teaching assistants. With classes of 40 or more, the department will provide teaching assistant help.

  • Technology training and support. I can get this through CID as well as the College’s computer support personnel.

4. Activities and Accomplishments So Far:

  • Classes taught. In Fall 2004 I taught Communications 211 (News Writing), Communications 300 (Media Law, Ethics and Responsibility) and Communications 323 (News Editing). In Winter 2005 I taught Communications 406 (Advanced Media Law and Regulation), Communications 323 (News Editing) and Communications 300 (Media Law, Ethics and Responsibility).

  • Evaluations. In Fall 2004 my instructor ratings were 6.7, 7.1 and 7.2. In Winter 2005 my instructor ratings were 7.0, 7.1 and 7.1. In addition, I received positive comments from students both formally and informally. I believe my efforts have benefited them.

  • Christian service. In Winter 2005 I incorporated a service learning project in the structure of Comms. 406. Students engaged in interesting projects that benefited others and allowed them to explore the meaning of making their professional work part of their Christian service. Feedback was positive. Also, in both Comms. 300 and Comms. 323 students fulfilled a writing assignment reflecting on the meaning of making their professional work part of their Christian service.

  • Faculty Center. I am participating in the Faculty Development Seminar. The Fall 2004 lunch meetings were very helpful. The Winter 2005 emphasis on mentoring has been helpful, as Kevin Stoker has provided me some feedback and a place to bounce ideas around. The Spring 2005 seminar promises to assist me greatly.

  • American Press Institute. I was awarded a fellowship, as well as funding from the department and college, to attend the API Journalism Educators seminar June 12-17 in Reston, Virginia. This will assist me in course design, teaching and assessment.

  • Writing Matters. I have been selected to participate in the Spring 2005 Writing Matters seminar here at BYU. This will help me in teaching students how to write.

  • SCOT. In Winter 2005 I had three Students Consulting on Teaching – one for each of my classes. They provided valuable assistance and feedback.

  • Rubrics. I sought help from the Faculty Center in assessing learning. Bryan Bradley and I discussed grading rubrics. I immediately implemented them in my classes for Winter 2005 and saw benefits of clarity for both myself and the students.

  • Supervising internships. As a member of the print journalism faculty, I have supervised numerous students serving internships. In Fall 2004, I supervised one student. In Winter 2005, I supervised six students.

  • Mentoring. In Winter 2005 I supervised four undergraduate communications studies students doing directed research. One of the students contributed to a paper I submitted to an academic conference. Additionally, my graduate research assistant in Winter 2005 is a coauthor for a paper I submitted to an academic conference.

  • Self-administered evaluations. In Fall 2004, I administered midterm evaluations in all three courses I taught and used these to improve the remainder of the courses.

5. Comments on Measures Used to Assess Success:

B. Research

1. Goals and Plans:

2. Relationship Between Individual Goals and Department and University Aspirations and Needs:

3. Resources Needed:

4. Activities and Accomplishments So Far:

5. Comments on Measures Used to Assess Success:

C. Citizenship

1. Goals and Plans:

2.Relationship Between Individual Goals and Department and University Aspirations and Needs:

3. Resources Needed:

4. Activities and Accomplishments So Far:

5. Comments on Measures Used to Assess Success: