Effective Faculty Development in an Institutional Context: Designing for Transfer.

Background Medical education is a continuously evolving field that requires faculty members to engage in ongoing professional development to maintain high-quality instructions. Faculty development programs at medical education department of medical colleges play a critical role in equipping educators with the necessary skills to address the dynamic challenges of medical education. However, the effectiveness of such programs is contingent upon accurately identifying faculty training needs. This study aimed to conduct a comprehensive need assessment survey to determine the specific areas where faculty members require further development in order to improvise their teaching skills. Methods The study was conducted at College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa. A structured google survey was designed and developed to assess faculty training needs across various competencies, including teaching methodologies, clinical instruction, curriculum development, and educational research. Faculty members were asked to rate the importance of each competency and indicate their need for additional training. The survey was distributed to all faculty members of college of medicine, King Faisal University, Al-ahsa by email. 41 faculty members across different departments, including Surgery, Biomedical Sciences, Clinical Neurosciences, and Obstetrics and Gynecology responded to the survey. Data collection was conducted over one month, and responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results The survey yielded responses from 41 faculty members, with Assistant Professors constituting 70% of the participants. The highest departmental representation was from Biomedical Sciences (35%) and Surgery (25%). Teaching in large and small groups received the highest mean importance rating (4.5), followed by facilitating and managing learning (4.3). The most frequently reported areas requiring additional training included large group teaching (65%), assessment and learning (60%), and educational research (55%). Faculty members recommended regular workshops on teaching methodologies, educational research, and statistical analysis, with an emphasis on accreditation of training sessions through relevant health authorities. Discussion The findings highlight the critical need for faculty development in large group teaching, student assessment, and educational research. The increasing role of technology in medical education was also evident, as faculty members expressed a need for training in e-learning platforms. Need assessment surveys provide valuable insights for tailoring faculty development initiatives; however, their limitations must be acknowledged. Surveys may not capture all faculty challenges due to reliance on self-reported data, potentially leading to a narrow focus on training programs. To address these limitations, institutions should integrate qualitative methods such as focus groups and peer mentoring to supplement survey findings. The integration of interdisciplinary faculty development initiatives has the potential to augment collaborative efforts and elevate the quality of educational experiences. Conclusion: This need assessment survey provides essential insights into the training needs of faculty members, emphasizing the importance of structured and targeted faculty development programs. While need assessment surveys serve as a foundational tool for shaping faculty training initiatives by the Faculty Development Committee, Medical institutions must adopt a multifaceted approach that includes qualitative insights and collaborative strategies to ensure comprehensive professional development of faculty members and other staff. By fostering an inclusive and dynamic faculty development culture, medical institutions can enhance teaching effectiveness and improve overall educational outcomes. The study helped a lot in development of annual faculty training need for the college of medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa BJMS, Vol. 25 No. 01 January’26 Page : 297-304

The current investigation aimed to assess the level of participation and recognition received by faculty members from State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in the Province of Iloilo as part of their faculty development programs. The obtained results will be utilized to develop an improved five-year faculty development plan. This study employed a quantitative research design, utilizing a descriptive method to determine the degree of engagement with various components of the faculty development program, which would serve as the basis for the faculty development model. A total of 848 respondents were randomly selected through simple random sampling and completed a survey questionnaire. Frequency count, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were employed to provide a descriptive analysis of the data. Furthermore, Chi-Square, Mann Whitney U Test, and Kruskal Wallis Test were utilized to examine significant differences in the extent of faculty development program utilization. The findings indicate that the majority of faculty members from SUCs expressed "very satisfied" levels of satisfaction regarding their engagement in scholarships, seminars, training, conferences, and symposia. They also reported being "satisfied" with their involvement in other faculty development programs, with the exception of fellowships. Moreover, the study revealed that there was no significant relationship between the extent of satisfaction with the faculty development program components and demographic profiles, except for the plantilla position. Post hoc analysis indicated significant differences among respondents holding the positions of instructors and associate professors, as well as assistant professors and associate professors.

Evolving as Nurse Educators in Problem-Based Learning Through a Community of Faculty Development

Supporting Change in Entrepreneurship Education: Creating a Faculty Development Program Grounded in Results from a Literature ReviewEpicenter, an NSF-funded STEP Center, is creating a team-based program to supportinstitutional change and faculty development, the Pathways to Innovation Program, with the goalof integrating entrepreneurship and innovation education into formal and informal engineeringcurriculums in higher education. To guide the design and implementation of the facultydevelopment program, a literature review was conducted during June-August 2013 to identifyeffective models and promising practices from the complementary topic areas of facultydevelopment and change in higher education. During the review and selection process, relevantarticles were expected to address the following parameters:1. Scale: the faculty development program should be regional or national;2. Topic: the program should support engineering faculty in adopting or adapting curricula;3. Context: engineering faculty should integrate entrepreneurship and innovation curricula;4. Sustainability: successful changes would be institutionalized at all levels;5. Evaluation: faculty development programs would demonstrate changed attitudes, knowledge, and practices in engineering faculty and students.Although articles that definitively addressed all of these parameters were not found, we wereable to identify articles that reported promising practices or models around Scale, Context, and tosome extent, Evaluation. We synthesized these results into findings about the components ofeffective faculty development and change programs.Components of Meaningful Faculty Development Programs:• The combination of duration, experiential learning opportunities, and peer interaction are factors that contribute to meaningful faculty development programs.• The content and activity of faculty development programs should be constructed around a learning theory and principles of instructional design.• Evaluation, beyond satisfaction, is not conducted programmatically in faculty development programs; but it should be incorporated into every stage of a faculty development program, including pre-planning activities.Components of Fostering Change in Higher Education• Curriculum change must be viewed systemically. It is not merely a matter of ‘adding-on’ or ‘adding-in’ missing or new curriculum components.• Theories of change must guide the work of making change in order to evaluate the success of particular approaches or the impact of the change effort.• External facilitators are essential to managing group change processes and to creating a less stressful learning environment when faculty members begin to question their approaches.Our paper will present detailed results about promising faculty development models andinstitutional and curricular change management processes. It will discuss implications of thefindings and recommendations for the design of the Pathways to Innovation Program. And it willreport on the progress of the program launch (planned for Spring 2014) and integration intoentrepreneurship and innovation curriculums at participating institutions of higher education.

BackgroundThe role of clinician educators has expanded to encompass diverse responsibilities alongside providing competent care and engaging in scholarly activities. Faculty development (FD) programs have emerged as vital tools for equipping educators with teaching skills and career advancement opportunities. However, assessing faculty development programs’ impact on organizational culture remains challenging due to their multifaceted nature. This study explores this gap to understand how faculty development influences organizational culture.MethodsThis qualitative study used a constructivist approach to explore faculty perspectives on the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) Faculty Development Program’s influence on organizational culture. Forty-three faculty members participated in nine semi-structured focus groups, selected for diversity across roles and locations. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and anonymized to ensure accuracy and participant confidentiality.Data analysisTranscripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. A multidisciplinary team independently reviewed transcripts, identified preliminary codes, and refined themes through iterative consensus building. Coding was organized using memos and grouped into themes. Using information power principles, the team determined that nine focus groups provided sufficient data richness to meet the study’s aims.ResultsThe research team identified and refined four central themes: professionalization, legitimization, the value of community, and leadership impact. The participants reported a greater sense of professionalization through enhanced teaching skills, increased awareness of educational literature, and heightened confidence in their educator roles. The faculty development program fostered a strong community, promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing, and mutual support across specialties and locations. Leadership impact was evident at individual and institutional levels, increasing confidence, mentorship, and organizational support.ConclusionsThis study provides valuable insights into the organizational impact of faculty development programs, shedding light on how such initiatives influence faculty experiences and organizational culture. Future research should explore leadership values, faculty retention, burnout prevention, and the broader value of education within academic institutions.

Academic dentists and members of the practice community have been hearing, for more than a decade, that our educational system is in trouble and that the profession has lost its vision and may be wavering in the achievement of its goals. A core of consistently recommended reforms has framed the discussion of future directions for dental education, but as yet, most schools report little movement toward implementation of these reforms in spite of persistent advocacy. Provision of faculty development related to teaching and assessment strategies is widely perceived to be the essential ingredient in efforts to introduce new curricular approaches and modify the educational environment in academic dentistry. Analyses of the outcomes of efforts to revise health professions curricula have identified the availability and effectiveness of faculty development as a predictor of the success or failure of reform initiatives. This article will address faculty development for purposes of enhancing teaching effectiveness and preparing instructors for potential new roles associated with curriculum changes. Its overall purpose is to provide information and insights about faculty development that may be useful to dental schools in designing professional growth opportunities for their faculty. Seven questions are addressed: 1) What is faculty development? 2) How is faculty development accomplished? 3) Why is faculty development particularly important in dental education? 4) What happens when faculty development does not accompany educational reform? 5) Why are teaching attitudes and behaviors so difficult to change? 6) What outcomes can be expected from faculty development? and 7) What does the available evidence tell us about the design of faculty development programs? Evidence from systematic reviews pertaining to the teaching of evidence-based dentistry, strategies for continuing professional education, and the Best Evidence in Medical Education review of faculty development outcomes are presented to answer this question: does faculty development enhance teaching effectiveness? Characteristics consistently associated with effective faculty development are described.

PurposeThe faculties are crucial to education. They should have enough training facilities and be encouraged to actively contribute to high-quality education and successful learning. Faculty engagement and development activities should be explored and included in learning organizations and employee engagement in India. This paper aims to describe higher education as a learning organization. The research will also assess how faculty development programs affect faculty engagement behaviors in these institutions and if professional development mediates this effect, which has not been previously examined.Design/methodology/approachThis study was conducted with quantitative data collected from 267 faculties through reliable and validated adapted questionnaires. Semistructured interviews were conducted with heads and professor-level faculties to gain insights into faculty development and engagement. Partial least squares structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM 3.3.6 version) was used to test the conceptually drafted model.FindingsFaculty professional development programs shown to improve higher education faculty engagement and professional progress. The studies also showed that higher education institutions must prioritize faculty development to become learning organizations. Professional development reduced the direct effects of faculty development program (FDP) on faculty engagement. This suggests that professional growth mediates the research.Practical implicationsThis research emphasizes and professional development to boost teacher involvement in B-Schools. Management must design faculty development programs to construct professional development and learning organizations, according to the results. Developing and writing rules that encourage faculty engagement in such internal and external programs would also enhance their academic and administrative abilities and assist higher education institutions become learning organizations.Originality/valueThe study is one of the few to examine the impact of faculty development programs and professional development on faculty engagement in higher education institutions, particularly B-Schools, and its competitive mediating role.

Background: Faculty development is a critical component of medical education, playing a pivotal role in enhancing the quality of teaching, research, and clinical practice. In the context of African medical schools, where unique challenges exist, the effectiveness of faculty development programs becomes crucial. This systematic review aims to evaluate and analyze the existing literature on faculty development programs (FDPs) implemented in African medical schools. Aim: The primary focus was to assess the effectiveness, impact, and key characteristics of these programs in enhancing the teaching, research, and professional development of faculty members. Method: A comprehensive search strategy was employed to identify relevant studies published in peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and grey literature databases. Inclusion criteria encompassed articles reporting on faculty development initiatives within medical schools across the African continent. The search was not restricted by publication date, ensuring a broad scope of evidence. The initial search yielded a substantial number of studies, and after screening for eligibility, a final set of articles was included in the systematic review. The identified faculty development programs varied in their structure, duration, and focus areas, encompassing pedagogical training, research capacity building, and leadership development. The outcomes assessed included changes in teaching methodologies, research productivity, and overall job satisfaction among faculty members. Conclusions: This review suggests that there is need to invest in faculty development program, create a better learning policy, by implementing these strategies, the quality of teaching, research, and clinical practice will be improved In African medical schools.

Although medical schools espouse a commitment to the educational mission, faculty members often struggle to develop and maintain their identities as teachers. Teacher identity is important because it can exert a powerful influence on career choice, academic roles and responsibilities, and professional development opportunities. However, most faculty development initiatives focus on knowledge and skill acquisition rather than the awakening or strengthening of professional identity. The goal of this Perspective is to highlight the importance of faculty members' professional identities as teachers, explore how faculty development programs and activities can support teachers' identities, and describe specific strategies that can be used in professional development. These strategies include the embedding of identity and identity formation into existing offerings by asking questions related to identity, incorporating identity in longitudinal programs, building opportunities for community building and networking, promoting reflection, and capitalizing on mentorship. Stand-alone faculty development activities focusing on teachers' identities can also be helpful, as can a variety of approaches that advocate for organizational change and institutional support. To achieve excellence in teaching and learning, faculty members need to embrace their identities as teachers and be supported in doing so by their institutions and by faculty development.

Objective This study aims to determine faculty members’ feedback and the level of satisfaction about the faculty development program carried out with the hybrid learning method at Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine (SÜTF) and compare faculty members’ satisfaction levels regarding face-to-face and online sessions. Material and Methods The Faculty Development Program has been carried out since 2010 and updated with program evaluations as well as faculty members’ needs and expectations. In the COVID-19 pandemic era, distance education and hybrid education sessions were added to the program. The renewed faculty development program was conducted in June 2021 with a hybrid learning method, eight sessions both face-to-face and online and six sessions online only. The feedback of the participants was obtained through online questionnaires consisting of structured items rated with Likert-type scales (1: Strongly disagree – 5: Strongly agree and 0: Very poor – 10: Very good) and semi-structured items. Results Fifty faculty members participated in the program and 30 (60.0%) answered the research questionnaires. Faculty members reported a total of 170 session participation, 140 (82.4%) face-to-face and 30 (17.6%) online. It was determined that the participants' satisfaction levels about the faculty development program sessions was high and very high (min=4.05±0.99 ; max=5.00±0.00). It was also found that there is no statistically significant difference between faculty members evaluations for online or face-to-face participation in the training sessions. Participants reported that their overall evaluation of the program was very good (9.33±0.65). Conclusion The SÜTF Faculty Development Program, designed in accordance with the COVID-19 conditions, has been successfully implemented using the hybrid method. The positive feedback of faculty members and the fact that online or face-to-face participation in the sessions does not make a difference in their satisfaction levels is considered as an important development for the implementation of the forthcoming faculty development program using the hybrid method.

Purpose: The process of attracting, training, and retaining adjunct clinical faculty can be a challenge for regional medical campuses. It is important to have a faculty development program that addresses the specific needs of community-based faculty members. However, there is a shortage of literature on how to best develop and deliver such programs at regional campuses. Objective: to describe the development and implementation of a comprehensive faculty development program at a regional medical campus.
 Method: An intensive faculty development program was developed at the regional medical campus of a large US Midwestern medical school. The faculty development program was directed by a senior faculty member at the regional medical campus working with a senior educator from the medical education office on the main campus. The program expanded the number of yearly faculty development workshops offered to all faculty at the regional campus and specifically included an intensive two-year program for 12 faculty teaching scholars. The two-year Teaching Scholars program entailed additional meeting sessions along with assignments, readings, and the scholars’ commitment to incorporate session content into practice. Results: Teaching scholars maintained regular session attendance. Self-assessed knowledge and skills in completing common teaching activities improved for participating faculty across the study period. All participating faculty rated the program good (18%) to excellent (82%) and all indicated they would recommend the program to colleagues.
 Conclusions: The described program can be accomplished by any regional medical campus working with faculty experts at the main campus. The financial costs of the program were minimal, and data from the program supported its benefits.

Faculty development programs (FDPs) have proven to be successful for improving teaching skills in higher education. This review article summarizes literature reviews and resource books on faculty development. It tackled why FDP is important, history of FDP in the past years, and questioned whether FDP produced any positive effect on students' academic achievement as well as the different methods to assess FDPs effectiveness. The review also discussed how to establish FDP, presented its ideal structure, features that make FDP effective, and outlined the barriers to its successful implementation as well as the future vision. This report also highlighted the situation of FDP in Saudi Arabia. Finally, the review concluded that professional FDPs produce promising outcomes in the learning and teaching practices and recommended that teachers in higher education should attend FDP training activities on regular basis and that the scope of planned FDPs should extend beyond the health professions discipline, to include social skills necessary for collaboration, professional growth as well as management, and leadership abilities.

PurposeDrawing on the decade of experience of Boston University Medical Campus’ Faculty Development Office, this paper reports strategies used to launch and continually improve faculty development programming within an academic health sciences campus.Patients and MethodsThe authors explain the steps that Boston University Medical Campus took to institute their set of faculty development programs, including an overview of resources on how to periodically conduct needs assessments, engage key institutional stakeholders, design and evaluate an array of programming to meet the needs of a diverse faculty, and institute real-time program modifications.ResultsIn a step-by-step guide, and by highlighting vital lessons learned, the authors describe a process by which biomedical educators can create and sustain a robust faculty development office within their own institutions.ConclusionThis paper identifies steps to launch and improve faculty development program. Faculty development programs should be expanded to support faculty in academic medical centers.

Introduction It is my intent in this article to apply recent theoretical developments in adult education to instructional development practice. More specifically, I will use the process of self-directed learning and the theory of transformative learning to reframe the roles that instructional developers adopt in working with faculty. Background Colleges and universities across North America as well as government departments responsible for higher education are increasingly paying attention to the quality of teaching [28]. This growing concern has led to renewed attention to faculty growth and development: how new faculty acquire their teaching skills [4], what higher education administrators can do to foster good teaching [31], the role of evaluation in enhancing effectiveness [12], and practical strategies for the instructional developer [39]. What is particularly encouraging are recent attempts to view instructional development from new perspectives that treat faculty as adult co-learners; for example, Zuber-Skerritt's [41] interest in collaborative research between developers and faculty; Amundsen, Gryspeerdt and Moxness's [1] work with faculty discussion groups; and Lunde and Hartung's [25] Cooperative Program for the Professional Renewal of Faculty. However, Levinson-Rose and Menges's [24] concern of a dozen years ago is still a concern of writers and researchers in faculty development. Upon reviewing the literature from the inception of faculty development programs in the late 1960s until 1980, Levinson-Rose and Menges concluded that most programs provided superficial experiences. They tended to focus on the teaching of specific techniques (constructing tests, preparing course outlines) in a prescriptive format and without consideration of the context of the faculty member's teaching or his or her prior knowledge and experience. The primary evidence of the effectiveness of such strategies was participants' ratings of their satisfaction with the session [24]. It became clear that one fundamental limitation of both practice and research in instructional development was the lack of a coherent and comprehensive theoretical foundation for the field. Institutions interested in the quality of teaching naturally enough followed the common model of establishing a center to support and enhance teaching. Such a center would then be staffed by developers (academic or staff positions) and support personnel. Generally, little formal training was available to such individuals [6]; therefore they relied on available guides and resources emphasizing practical techniques. Their research interests then focused on the evaluation of the effectiveness of their practice. This is not to say that promising theoretical work was not done, but it did tend to be somewhat fragmented, related to single aspects of the field. The intent here is not to provide a comprehensive review of these works; some illustrations should suffice to underline the point being made. Faculty development was linked with career development, drawing on stage theories [7], and with organizational development [21] models. Smith [35] and Smith and Schwartz [36] drew on Argyris and Schon's [2] action theory to devise strategies for helping faculty identify their assumptions about teaching. Brinko [6] used Vygotsky's [38] theory of cognitive development to describe communication between the instructional developer and the faculty member. Several researchers have used cognitive theory as a means of understanding faculty members' knowledge of their subject matter and of their instruction [29, 34]. Each of these aspects of instructional development are important, and the work being done to understand them by drawing on various theories can only be applauded. Yet one is still left with the sense that a more comprehensive theoretical framework would serve to enhance these efforts as well as the work of practitioners in the field. Rationale Faculty are adult learners. …

BackgroundWorkshops are the most common models to enhance knowledge and skills in a specific subject area with an intent to explore, solve a problem and/or innovate new things. The most important aspect of a workshop is the transfer of knowledge in a safe learning environment as a faculty development activity (FDA). At International Medical University (IMU), Malaysia’s first private medical university which was established in 1992, Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) are run throughout the year in order to enhance the knowledge and skills in teaching and assessment. In order to sustain this faculty development, IMU has a dedicated medical education unit called the IMU Centre of Education (ICE) with dedicated staff and respected faculty developers who are academic role models to the faculty of the institution. However, FDA are collaboratively run by ICE and IMU Centre for lifelong learning (ICL).ObjectivesTo determine the immediate impact of faculty development workshops for health professionals in teaching schools of IMU to enhance the teaching and assessment abilities of the faculty.MethodologyA retrospective quantitative research design was developed to collect data from multiple standard setting workshops using a 3-point Likert scale. A 20 items questionnaire as a pretest from the participants with and without the prior reading of online posted reading materials. An interventional hands-on workshop and a post-test score, using the same 20 items questionnaire, followed the workshop intervention. A collated quantitative data were gathered from a sample of 139 participants attending the standard setting workshops. Data were analysed using paired t test, one-way ANOVA and ANCOVA with effect size in SPSS version 24.ResultsA mean difference between pretest and post-test score was significant at t (138) = 92.24, p < 0.01. A barely significant difference of mean scores between pre-read, partially read and not-read participants was found at F (1, 136) = 9.402, p = < 0.05 and η2 = 0.121 by one-way ANOVA. A post-test difference of the mean scores across those read, partially read and not-read for reading materials on a controlled pretest score determined by one-way ANCOVA remained non-significant at F (1, 136) = 0.240, p = 0.787 associated with a practical effect size = 0.4% only.ConclusionA significant difference of the mean pretest and post-test score within the group was also significant between the groups. A post-test score, controlling on pretest score, was found not significant and is suggestive of an effectively delivered workshop for all participants. As a practical guide, a 7-step plan is recommended to ensure immediate impact of FDP. Majority of the participants rated the workshop as good in terms of content, organisation, delivery and usefulness. A high percentage of survey respondents reported that similar workshops to be offered in future.