The Lounge

Several of The Lounge's bloggers who have completed online faculty development courses have mentioned that the experience not only provided new information, but reinforced what they have been doing in the classroom or lab. It reminded me that continuing education is not only about new ideas, but also about self-reflection and reinforcement. To know that we are on the right track with our teaching methods and instructional delivery, and that we share similar best practices with one another as colleagues, is a critical component of real faculty development.

One of The Lounge participants, Stacy Slabaugh, recently commented in a blog, regarding one of the CEE courses she completed, "...helps keep me as an instructor reminded of my responsibilities toward my students instead of getting lost on the students' responsibilities to my class." This started me thinking about what we call the "learning partnership." 

Indeed, adult learners and their instructors should create learning partnerships where outcomes are identified and responsibilities, on both the student's and instructor's parts, are clearly defined, aligned and communicated.

As Faculty Coaches, I would be interested in hearing any comments or observations about perceptions of a "learning partnership." What does it mean from your experience?

Steven Moore, in his discussion topic "Chef Instructor" in The Lounge, raises an excellent point about the potential predispositions students may have about a particular subject and/or class, and how those predispositions may sometimes create challenges in motivation. Steven suggests that utilizing different teaching and learning styles can help.

One technique that I have used is to have students in a new, or first, class create, based on their interests and expectations, their own learning objectives for the course (with guidance). I then introduce the established learning objectives and integrate the students' input into them. Typically, even though there may not be extensive knowledge of the subject-at-hand, it is surprising how aligned both sets of objectives are. Then referring back to the aligned objectives as the course proceeds maintains career relevance and encourages continued buy-in.

As Faculty Coaches, I challenge us to encourage our instructors to continuously seek out new ways to present material, and create interactive, career-relevant and motivational learning environments.

One of our recent bloggers, Aldgenette Leatherwood, commented on the importance of learning students' names on the first day of class. It reminded me that even the simplest of techniques utilized by instructors can make such big differences and create lasting impressions with students. Our names in themselves are powerful entities that create identity and recognition. When an instructor learns and uses a student's name in a positive manner, it demonstrates to the student that he or she matters. Names are comprehensive representations of who we are, and a simple effort made to learn and use them adds a personal touch to our learning environments.

Dr. Sandy Gecewicz, in a comment on Patricia Scales's blog, "A Student's Learning Style, said, "Students today need a different approach than many of the teachers had when they went to school.  I am interested in not only addressing the individual learning styles but to show instructors how to approach the different generations as they all learn differently..." This reminded me that the way we learn is not only affected by our different modalities, but by generational differences as well. Instructors have often commented on the various makeups of their student populations - it is not unusual, for example, to have both recent high school graduates and seasoned adult workers in the same classroom or lab. As Faculty Coaches, we can empower our faculty by encouraging them to point to those differences in their learning environments, and ask both "highschoolers" and more seasoned classmates to present contributions they can both make to enhance learning for each other. This just scratches the surface - the learning possibilities are endless for the many demographical differences among our students - generational, cultural, personal learning styles, just to name a few.

One of The Lounge's bloggers, Kevin Shockency, recently noted in his blog, "Selling the Goods," similarities between sales and teaching, and concluded "...finding the value in the content I create and deliver, is not hard to find, and I can sell that idea and value to the student/customer."

This struck me as interesting and quite true. In many senses, faculty are sales professionals too. This does not diminish the importance of instructors' educational roles, or the acumen of teaching, but we do sell ourselves not only as subject-matter experts, but as agents of the disciplines we represent, the workplace as a whole, and the institutions where we teach.

As we consider the importance of faculty development in the ongoing professionalism of our expert instructors, it is worth remembering the many visible and crucial roles that our faculty perform as both educational liaisons and sales representatives.

I was purchasing some Vitamin C the other day and happened to think of a series of workshops I did several years ago called The Multi-C Manager. Each managerial role began with the letter C - sort of a "vitamin or energy" boost for managers - perhaps not too much of a stretch. :-)

I thought I might share the "C" roles with institutional managers across all departments and functional areas. Though the "C"s represent specific areas of management and leadership, they very much address the many things we do in a day's time: 

• Conducting the Strategic Planning Process
• Communicating Effectively  
• Cultivating Ethical Fitness in Our Institutions 
• Customer First Service 
• Clarifying our Organization's Mission, Core Values and Operational Activities
• Coaching Our Employees
• Coordinating the Efforts of Our Work Teams
• Curbing Organizational Attrition and Focusing on Employee Motivation and Retention
• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
• Conflict Resolution
• Change Dynamics
• Capturing Time - Managing Our Time, and Competing Roles and Responsibilities

Though not an exhaustive list, the "C"s demonstrate the crucial responsibilities leaders have within their organizations.

Recently, one of The Lounge's bloggers, Jeremy Miller, commented on the need for teachers to reflect, and then build on their strengths while improving on weaknesses. This struck me as a major facet of ongoing faculty development and professional growth - ongoing not only through more formal studies and continuing education, but also from experience gained, as a classroom manager, instructional planner and deliverer, and subject matter practitioner.  

As Jeremy stated, "We learned much in school to sharpen our skills, but we must learn outside of the classroom post-graduation.  Things we learn about ourselves may not be found in a textbook alone, but may also be found within ourselves as we sit in quiet solitude pondering our passions and charging our battery for the road of teaching ahead."

The professional faculty member is not only a subject matter expert, but also a passionate learner, an interactive facilitator, and a student motivator. To Jeremy's observations, self-reflection and battery recharging are keys to building and exemplifying this professionalism. 

I read a blog post recently from RK Selmon, entitled "Professional Development: A Life Learner Activity." Thank you so much RK, I couldn't have said it better myself!

As Faculty Coaches, one of the points we might emphasize to our instructors is that faculty development and professional growth are focal points in the lifelong learning process. Though CEUs are important to ongoing credentials, thet are only one piece of the development pie. The lifelong learning process itself is a natural part of every educator's genre.

As RK mentioned, "Advancements via online portals have made it most convenient for educators and professionals to receive quality and continuous development. Ideally resources and tools as available through services like the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) have combined various levels of facilitation that allow participants accessibility and manageability."

As our career college institutions stay involved with so many initiatives, activities and faculty/staff responsibilities, hopefully resources such as CEE are streamlined, relevant and practical to the point where accessibility and convenience support the continuous learning process and where we have time, as stated by RK, to address other issues having such arrangements in place.

I welcome any additional questions or discussions on my July 26th webinar. For your convenience, here is a copy of the presentation.