Faculty Development Curriculum: What Informs It?

With the current milieu of current legislation and continued budget reductions for higher education, institutions are faced with being more creative in their efforts to reduce spending while achieving their stated mission. The purpose of this paper is to inform college administrators and faculty about the sources used to inform faculty development initiatives and curriculum at postsecondary institutions. This review of literature examined information from a mix of quantitative and qualitative case studies that focus on the experiences of faculty to improve student learning, thus it reveals underlying themes that emerged from the analyses of the studies' findings.Under increasing legislative pressure for institutions of higher education (IHE) to show accountability for funding and accreditation with increasing weight given to student learning outcomes, much of the literature characterizes the efforts of college faculty and administrators in their response to these pressures. The purpose of this literature review is to inform college administrators and faculty of sources that inform faculty development curriculum for increasing student learning at two- and four-year colleges.This review examines selected literature related to faculty development projects that were conducted at public and private IHEs. The relevant, recurring themes that surfaced from the literature include: (a) faculty development curricular reform requires collaboration and support; (b) tangible data-driven evidence is needed to measure the effectiveness of professional development efforts; (c) successful faculty development requires faculty members' commitment to their professions and teaching; (d) effective program and curriculum assessment provides a clearer indication of faculty development programs and student success. To present these themes in more detail, this article opens with a brief definition and historical development of faculty development, followed by a review of faculty development efforts at various institutions, and closing with a cumulative list of best practices and useful resources to inform faculty development curriculum.A Working Definition of Faculty DevelopmentFaculty development is not a new concept in higher education. However, it has taken on new characteristics to handle the typical issues, but with different challenges since its beginning in the 1800s (Camblin & Steger, 2000). Most agree that professional development is an continuous, systematic and integrated process to improving learning and practice through attendance at regular sessions that focus on a common theme (Haviland, Turley, Shin, 2011; Murray, 2002a, 2002b). In the not too distant past, faculty development has typically been concerned with the advancement of subject matter competence and the mastery of one's own discipline as it related to (p. 3). More recently, faculty dynamics and demands changed and institutional wellness became paramount amidst changing faculty and student demographics at IHEs (Camblin & Steger, 2000). For the open-door community colleges, these challenges were confounded with a majority of students being socially, economically disadvantaged, and academically under prepared (Cohen & Brawer, 2013; Pitts, White, and Harrison, 1999).Of equal importance to the discussions on faculty development are conversations about the decline of faculty with previous high school teaching experience into the 1970s (Cohen & Brawer, 2013). This reduction in trained faculty created a sizeable gap between experienced faculty members who departed from community colleges and college graduates who received college teaching preparation before joining the faculty ranks as prepared educators. Fiscal reductions continue to constrain the efforts of IHEs in training their faculty to discharge their responsibilities adequately. These factors have made it necessary for deans and program coordinators to become well versed in the effective design of faculty development programs without straining their institution's operating budget. …