Judith,

This is an important question:  How do you get faculty interested in learning the powerful new ideas about college-level teaching that are "out there"?  
     We don't have a tradition in higher education of learning about teaching but we badly need it.

My response to your question:  We need both a bottom-up and a top-down approach.  
    Bottom-up:  This is where you or a faculty developer or some advocate of good teaching can work to build enthusiasm for learning about teaching.  I have found that the best "argument" for learning and using new ideas is to link them to the general problems that many professors face in their teaching: problem with attendance, low engagement, and poor levels of student learning as evidenced in test or project performance.  If these advocates can say:  "Hey, you might want to take a look at these ideas and practices.  A lot of teachers have found they increase class attendance, etc."

Top-down:  At the same time, we need to encourage college & university administrators (chairs, deans, provosts) that, if they want a top-notch educational program, it is absolutely necessary to find ways to encourage a high percentage of all teachers to learn about and use these new ideas about Best Practice in college teaching.
    They can do this via annual evaluations and course evaluations.  These usually focus on the Holy Trinity of higher education: teaching, research, and service.  What they need to do is add a component there on professional development, especially in relation to teaching.  
    The justification for this is that all professors need to work on getting better, all the time, i.e., every year throughout their career, even the good teachers.  We can all get better, and if that is possible, we need to be doing it.  And that means two things:  Learning about teaching and changing our teaching.  It is hard to get better without doing both of these tasks.

My Best,  Dee Fink

On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at 4:53 PM, Bradetich, Judith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have appreciated the quick, supportive responses that I got to my query about Business schools – THANK YOU! to all who responded. I now have another question.

I have been officially asked to work as a “Faculty Fellow” to get more faculty interested in TBL across my campus, so I will be presenting some workshops this fall and hope to infect a cohort of multi-disciplinary people with the TBL virus/passion.  One of the women I work with suggested that perhaps we are going about it the wrong way – from the ground up – and wondered how other universities have essentially coerced their faculty to use it. Not that we would do THAT, but it’s still an interesting tactic – from the top down.

So my question is, how does this happen? What evidence is presented in these instances that convinces administrators to insist on implementation of TBL across their campuses? Is there one specific “tipping point”? – or many? I know there is research evidence that corroborate our story, but what else?? – what is the nitty-gritty selling point that seems to grab people?

I am really curious. I have a feeling there will be as many different responses as there are respondents. Perhaps a pattern will appear. If that is the case, I will be happy to share my findings. Perhaps a packet of persuasive PR-type documents can be gathered and disseminated through this ListServe and the Collaborative. If there already are such documents, please point me in the right direction! TBL is at the forefront of future educational practices. Ultimately, I would love to see TBL’s influence will grow exponentially, and if I can be part of the process, I would be pleased.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Judi Bradetich

 


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--
***********************
L. Dee Fink         
234 Foreman Ave.
Norman, OK  73069
Phone/FAX:  405-364-6464
Email:  [log in to unmask]
Websites:      
        www.designlearning.org   [multiple resources on course design]
        www.deefinkandassociates.com   [offer workshops & online courses]
        www.finkconsulting.info  [Fink's consulting activities & publications]

**Former President of the POD Network in Higher Education (2004-2005)
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences (2013, Updated Ed.,  Jossey-Bass)
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services



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