Faculty Development Ideas

Faculty may find the following ideas useful for enhancing teaching and scholarship skills. Obviously, no one is expected to pursue all these suggestions; nevertheless, engaging in even one activity each semester will steadily improve teaching and learning over time.

Enhancing Teaching and Learning

Get Feedback on Teaching
- Use online student rating results to make course improvements.
- Collect mid-semester student feedback (e.g., surveys, focus groups).
- Use the CTL program, Student Consulting on Teaching (SCOT).
- Partner with peers to provide one another feedback.
- Analyze student assessment data to identify trends in student performance and problems to be remedied by changing teaching strategies, course content, and learning activities, etc.
Develop Instructional Skills and Materials
- Compare your course plan with someone teaching the same or a similar course.
- Share and discuss your teaching strategies and materials with another instructor.
- Improve the quality of your exams and other assessments (contact Bryan Bradley, a CTL consultant).
- Write an article for a professional teaching and learning improvement journal in your discipline, highlighting an innovative course design or approach to teaching, possibly in conjunction with a scholarship of teaching research project.
Improve Course/Program Design and Alignment
- Invite student feedback on the congruency of course objectives, activities, and assessments.
- Discuss with the department chair the alignment of course learning objectives with program goals and the Aims of a BYU Education.
- Share and discuss course learning objectives and materials with those teaching other courses in the same curriculum sequence.
- Discuss course improvement plans with appropriate curriculum committees or department chair.
Consult with CTL Professionals about Teaching and Learning Issues
- Designing a course.
- Integrating faith and intellect in BYU courses (consult with Alan Wilkins , Associate Director of the Faculty Center).
- Assessing student learning.
- Improving teaching strategies.
- Getting feedback on teaching.
- Working effectively with teaching assistants.
Learn More About Teaching and Enhancing Student Learning
- Subscribe to a publication on college teaching.
  - Publications useful to any college teacher:
    - National Teaching and Learning Forum (online version available through CTL)
    - The Teaching Professor (group rates available through CTL)
    - College Teaching
  - Discipline-specific journals.
- Attend a teaching conference:
  - Lilly Conferences: national and regional.
  - Discipline-specific conferences.
- Read a book:
  - For newer faculty:
    - Teaching Tips by Wilbert McKeachie
    - Tools for Teaching by Barbara Davis
    - More book recommendations
  - For more experienced faculty:
    - Creating Significant Learning Experiences by L. Dee Fink
    - Thinking About Teaching and Learning by Robert Leamnson
    - Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher by Stephen Brookfield
    - Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn by Raymond Wlodkowski
    - Improving College Teaching by Maryellen Weimer
    - Learning and Motivation in the Postsecondary Classroom by Marilla Svinicki
  - Additional books and other resources are available in the Center for Teaching and Learning Library.
- Search the Center for Teaching and Learning Website for Information and resources to improve teaching and learning.

Enhancing Scholarship

Getting Ideas
- Discuss ideas for research and creative works with colleagues.
- Network with scholars and professionals at other institutions.
- Set aside a regular time (each week/month) to stay current on the literature or the latest creative activities in your discipline.
- Read in a new area or on a new subject.
- Share key parts of your research in your classroom teaching to help you clarify your thinking and generate new ideas and perspectives.
- Join a new professional association, attend different professional meetings, subscribe to new journals.
- Take a fresh look at familiar scholarship topics or questions (e.g., from an LDS or faith-based perspective).
Research & Data Analysis
- Regularly involve graduate or undergraduate students in research and/or creative works.
- Apply for a Mentoring Environments Grant or encourage students to apply for ORCA scholarship grants.
- Develop your ability to use more complex data analysis techniques or institute tighter systems for data collection and analysis.
- Learn to use the Center for Statistical Consultation and Collaborative Research.
- Learn to access databases relevant to your discipline. The Harold B. Library offers access to hundreds of databases, including some fee-based services.
- Develop a new research technique (or apply an old technique from one field into a new field).
Writing
- Read a book on Improving Writing.
- Set aside daily blocks of time to write or work on creative activities-- at least 15-30 minutes each day. Don't wait for huge blocks of time!
- Write/create in a setting away from your office and phone (at home, in the lab or studio, in the library, etc.).
- Have "writing office hours." Don't answer the phone, email, or the door during your writing hours. Put a sign on your door or turn off the lights in your office if it will dissuade people from knocking on your door during your writing office hours.
- Begin writing as soon as you begin a project. Don't finish the literature review or research first: write as you read and research.
Feedback
- Note names of several established scholars in your research area and initiate conversations with them regarding areas of common interest: seek their counsel, ask them to review sections of your pre-publication materials, send them reprints or other representations of your scholarship, etc.
- Share early drafts of your work (even at the outline stage).
- Commit to having a number of colleagues review your work as it progresses.
- Hold yourself accountable to a supportive partner. Report regularly.
- Meet regularly with peers (and research assistants!) to share drafts and get feedback.
- Send your drafts to Faculty Editing Service for review.
Publishing
- Read a book on Increasing Productivity and on Getting Published.
- Talk to a potential editor/publisher/producer about a work you are proposing. Find out if it will be suitable for that venue and explore ways to make it more appropriate for that audience.
- Submit cover letters, abstracts, sample chapters, or plans about your research to several publishers/producers.
- Don't wait until you have "perfected" your piece. Get it into an editor's (or publisher's) hands as soon as you can. Set deadlines.
- Have a back-up plan in case a piece is rejected. Have envelopes prepared and ready to send to the next potential venue.
Collaborative Scholarship Activities
- Collaborate on a research project or creative activity with a colleague.
- Invite colleagues to review your written work and give suggestions for improvement.
- Offer to review your colleagues' written work and provide helpful feedback.
- Establish a regular time to discuss specific disciplinary readings with colleagues.
- Regularly discuss your current research interests with colleagues in your department or college.
- Collaborate with a colleague in presenting scholarly work.
- Organize a monthly departmental "brown bag" to share current works-in-progress.
- Cultivate a form of scholarship conducive to mentoring undergraduates.
Other
- Develop organizational skills: prioritize, simplify, identify tasks to delegate to others.
- Regularly review calls for proposals from external funding agencies.
- Plan a professional development leave.
- Apply for a fellowship grant.

Generated by the staff of the BYU Faculty Center and the BYU Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), September, 2008. Last updated April, 2009.

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