Faculty Development and Student Learning : Assessing the Connections

Colleges and universities across the US have created special initiatives to promote faculty development, but to date there has been little research to determine whether such programs have an impact on students' learning. Faculty Development and Student Learning reports the results of a multi-year study undertaken by faculty at Carleton College and Washington State University to assess how students' learning is affected by faculty members' efforts to become better teachers. Extending recent research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to assessment of faculty development and its effectiveness, the authors show that faculty participation in professional development activities positively affects classroom pedagogy, student learning, and the overall culture of teaching and learning in a college or university.

William Condon is Professor of English at Washington State University. He is coauthor of Writing the Information Superhighway and Assessing the Portfolio: Principles for Theory, Practice, and Research.

Ellen R. Iverson is Director of Evaluation at the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College.

Cathryn A. Manduca is Director of the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College.

Carol Rutz is Director of the Writing Program at Carleton College.

Gudrun Willett is Project Director for the Tracer Project and an associate at Ethnoscapes Global, LLC.