Brigham Young University
Faculty Center


Faculty Development Plan
Counseling Psychology and Special Education [Example 1]
2005

 

I have recently joined the faculty of the Counseling Psychology and Special Education Department.  I am looking forward to opportunities to increase my skills and talents as I work toward reaching my professional goals.  Below is a summary of my current strengths as well as a list of my goals in a variety of areas.

I.  Self Assessment

      Strengths, Skills, and Competencies.  I entered the field of special education as an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University.  I was pursing a degree in general education and decided to also seek a special education certification.  I soon realized that my interests and abilities were better utilized in working with students with disabilities.  I spent 5 years in the public schools working with students with special needs.  This experience allowed me to build new skills as I learned to manage paraeducators, address parent concerns, and collaborate with the general education teachers.  In addition, working with students increased my patience, sensitivity, and ability to break down instruction into its simplest form. 

      During this time I also completed a Master’s of Science Degree at Brigham Young University.  As a part of this program, I completed a thesis that addressed teaching self-advocacy skills to students with disabilities.  This experience enhanced my research skills.  I was able to review current literature on the subject of meeting the needs of students with disabilities in the general education classroom.  These skills have benefited me as I have worked on developing a course for general education teachers to better prepare them to meet the needs of students with disabilities who will be served in their classrooms. 

      I am interested in improving the communication between the special education department and the teacher education department in the School of Education.  I have a unique opportunity to closely associate with the faculty in the special education department, but to teach students in the teacher education department.  I would like to see the strengths of both departments incorporated to best serve all students in the School of Education.

      I hope to continue to learn and progress in my knowledge of how to prepare teachers to benefit students with disabilities.  I am committed to the field of special education and I wish to become educated and involved in the current practices that are being developed to better serve this population of individuals.  I hope to become skilled at instructing teachers in using research-proven strategies in their future classrooms.

Professional Goals

Teaching

Scholarship

Citizenship



Faculty Development Plan
Counseling Psychology and Special Education [Example 2]
May 2002

 

As a new tenure-track faculty member in the Counseling Psychology and Special Education department, I believe that I can make significant contributions to the learning and training of our students, to individual and collaborative scholarship, and to the university community and professional associations. In addition, as a faculty member in the school counseling psychology program I have a desire and responsibility to increase and maintain my clinical skills. Below is a discussion of my strengths and targets for future development.

Teaching

Strengths

Students have reported that I am available for questions and consultation. I truly value learning from and with students.

I am intentional in my teaching. At the beginning of each class, I share with the students the carefully articulated objectives for that class period and an agenda to meet those objectives. I use PowerPoint presentations to organize class time and provide a variety of means of learning such as case studies, discussion questions, group discussion, and teacher and student presentations. Student evaluations of learning focus on applications of concepts rather than memorization and occur frequently with individualized and timely feedback.

Targets for Future Development

Increase specificity of course objectives, teach to those objectives by making each class period, assignment, and assessment align with a learning objective from the syllabus.

I would like to use more experiential activities and case studies in class. There are numerous resources about these activities which I can utilize. I would like to manage classroom discussions so that they achieve course objectives and make good use of class time.

I would like to have another faculty member or some one from the Faculty Center review my tests and make suggestions for improvement in the way questions are phrased. Other resources from the Faculty Center can be utilized.

Needed resources

Administrative support to maintain the integration of my research agenda and teaching assignments.

Scholarship

Strengths

I have an emerging research agenda related to gender, self-concept, sexual harassment, adolescent development, and feminist scholarship. I am working toward developing an intersection of these interests.

One of my strengths is developing collaborative research relationships. I have developed several collaborative relationships which I hope will create long-term opportunities for joint scholarship. I am working with XXX, assistant professor at the University of South Florida. Together we have several research interests related to gender issues and education and we are motivated to move this agenda forward in the school psychology literature. Another collaborative relationship is with XXX and XXX. We are working toward increasing the awareness and skills of para-educators in the areas of sexual harassment and student violence.

I would like to move toward developing collaborative relationships with leaders in the areas of self-concept and gender issues in education. In the area of self-concept-XXX, XXX, XXX, and XXX are influential. In the area of gender issues in education, XXX is establishing herself as a leader in this area. I would like to explore feminist scholarship from a gospel perspective with XXX.

Targets for Future Development

General Strategies

Scheduling daily time for writing, recording actual writing times, and documenting achieved goals has been a successful strategy learned at the "Publish, Don't Perish" workshop sponsored by BYU's Faculty Center. I will continue with this habit.

Reading high quality, cutting edge research will provide models for my research and writing. I will schedule a weekly session at the library for reading.

My goal is to submit at least two manuscripts to peer-reviewed publications each year. When manuscripts are returned with encouragement to 'revise and resubmit,' I will respond within two to four weeks.

Self-concept

I intend to move forward in submitting my dissertation for publication and factor analysis of thesis and dissertation data.

I have limited experience in qualitative research. While I have been reading about rigorous methods in this area, I sense a need for mentoring and guidance. I have audited a course in qualitative methods but would like more supervision and tutoring in this area. Completing this proposed qualitative study is continuing the line of research initiated with my thesis and dissertation.

Sexual harassment

I plan to continue collaborative research relationship with XXX and XXX that will explore sexual harassment from the perspective of para-educators. This project also integrates with providing training to para-educators, which is a citizenship activity.

I will explore the possibility of a nationally representative survey of teacher and administrators views and experiences of sexual harassment.

Feminist scholarship

I would like to integrate feminist scholarship, specifically feminist models of supervision and pedagogy with methods of school psychology. An additional component to be integrated into feminist scholarship is gospel principles and perspectives.

Other

I would like to collaborate with field-based educators to develop relationships that will be mutually beneficial. Specifically, I would like to work with adolescent girls that are attending an alternative educational setting. I also would be interested collaborating with middle school administrators and teachers to create developmentally appropriate educational settings. Several outcomes of these relationships might be that students, teachers, and administrators would benefit from additional resources provided by research funds and the development of long term relationships for completing field-based research.

Needed resources

A mentor with experience in qualitative research methods that is willing to review my research strategies, analysis, and manuscripts for submission to scholarly journals.

Motivated and qualified research assistants to help with data collection, analysis, and manuscript submission.

Direction in creating collaborative relationships with field-based practitioners

Citizenship

Strengths

An initial strength is a willingness to contribute to the strength of the Counseling Psychology and Special Education Department. I seek out opportunities to give service to the department and look forward to future opportunities to serve. I would appreciate opportunities to serve the university community.

I have taken the lead in the department financial committee.

I have coordinated efforts for student-to-student mentoring.

I am an ad hoc reviewer for two journals. While this activity facilitates professional service, it also contributes to my editing skills and understanding of the characteristics of manuscripts which will likely be published.

With BBB and MMM, we will be delivering training in Provo School District that will teach non-certified staff about responding to violent, aggressive, or sexually harassing students.

Targets for Future Development

Continue to seek opportunities for service at BYU, especially in the areas of women's issues and needs.

Identify colleagues beyond the BYU community to begin collaborative relationships

Explore opportunities for service within the state and national associations for school psychologists

Collaborate with other faculty in the area of teaching: observe their teaching, ask for feedback on tests and assignments, consider organizing a brown bag for teaching ideas.

Needed resources

Reminders to be mindful to balance citizenship activities with teaching and scholarship.

Professional Skills

Strengths

I have been a practicing school psychologist in XXX and XXX. I had excellent training in consultation, problem analysis, assessment and intervention in both my formal and informal education. I have had extensive experience in serving children with behavioral difficulties.

I graduated from an APA approved program in order to assure some ease in gaining licensure. I believe this training will increase the likelihood of successful licensure.

Targets for Future Development

Maintain licensure and improve professional competencies through direct service and accumulating CEU's.

Needed resources

Opportunities which allow development of my professional clinical skills

Supervision for addition 2000 hours of post-doctoral hours.

Awareness and acknowledgement of the time needed to prepare for licensing exams. If possible, a lighter teaching load for the semester when I will be taking the exams.

Supervision

Strengths

I have had a graduate course in supervision at the University of XXX, which included a supervised experience in supervision. I understand the fundamental concepts of quality supervision. During my first semester at BYU, I kept supervision notes and met with students as needed.

Targets for Future Development

I have had limited experience in supervision. My supervision needs to be more directive and at the same time responsive to student needs. My supervision this semester was fairly unstructured. In the future, I will have students develop specific plans for the time spent in supervision. In these plans they will identify specific skills they want to develop and I will respond with meaningful ways to help them achieve their goals.

There are several resources concerning effective supervision in school psychology services, which will benefit me and my students. It also may be helpful to consult with other faculty about supervision issues.

Needed resources

A mentor to consult about supervision issues

_________________________              _________________________       

XXX, Mentor                                                  XXX, Dept Chair