Faculty Development: Essentials

Higher education looks towards new faculty entering academe as a strategic lever to infuse and maintain academic vitality. Although teaching is often an expectation and responsibility, most often they do not have formal training in teaching pedagogy or “pedagogical content knowledge”. Faculty development thus, refers to a broad range of educational activities that institutions provide to enhance professional career growth of practitioners and teaching faculty in their roles as educators. Hence, professional development should be an ongoing endeavor for all faculty members because their growth as instructors has a profound impact on their students. Whether the institutions have extensive, well-funded faculty development initiatives or operate on a shoestring budget, I'm sure each institution and instructor will find some useful information in this monograph to help with faculty development efforts. For the evolving academic careers of 21st Century, the monograph provides strategies and suggestions for faculty development. The contents herein, offer inspiration and are practical (and often inexpensive) ways to accomplish the goal of improved teaching and learning.