A little learning is a dangerous thing - The 'language problem' and select issues with faculty training courses and their impact

Other conference contribution, 2017

In this talk, my concern is with the actual impact of our various faculty training courses and activities. I will try offer a confessional of sorts and attempt to draw out possible aspects that might transfer into other higher education systems and disciplines. What do we really aim for in a faculty training course? Do we take intended learning outcomes to heart and really, as in really, assess them? Has anyone ever ’failed’ a faculty training course they completed for instance? Are these mainly conceptual courses where we settle for facilitating a more informed approach to improving student learning but settle for less when it comes to the details - where the devil resides as you all know. If we get feedback from our former participants that their courses or assignments don’t really work, that feedback doesn’t happen or is only summative, does that in any way affect the courses we give faculty or our co-teaching with faculty in integrated interventions? Or is it that we settle for studying the impact of our faculty training by looking at vacuous course evaluation data? If we do want to increase the granularity in our courses, what are our options even? At some point, we may have to acknowledge that we sit on expertise that might not transfer in, say, a 3-credit course as it were and that we may have to take charge of a collaboratively taught course for enhanced learning among students and further education among our faculty colleagues! I will account for faculty training and educational development resources including our integrated team-teaching at Chalmers and present a few examples from activities where I am involved. Once that is covered, we can hopefully discuss these challenges together.