New Faculty and teaching and learning
Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed under Conversations, CourseDesign
Simon Marshall posted about the challenges of prioritizing teaching and learning for new faculty.
One glaring omission in our preparatory training is that no formal pedagogical training is required (remember, “recommended” and “required” yield very different behaviors from faculty too!).
With RTP, research and grant writing, it’s a wonder they can attend to teaching at all. Having a course design institute or curriculum available at the onset of a teaching career seems obviously logical, yet it happens a few institutions. At the same time, many new faculty have teaching experience and some even have training.
They don’t do faculty development per se at Claremont. Instead a course on course design is recommended to all graduate students. Ok, it’s recommended, not required, but it’s for credit. It’s intense and practical.
I’m sure there are other ways to approach it as well. Professional development is after all a part of every organization.
