This paper describes a pilot project about how Self-Determination Theory (SDT) was implemented for faculty engagement with a new, 3 year undergraduate medical school curriculum. SDT is a motivational theory of psychological development with premises stating individuals have natural tendencies needing support and fostering for growth and outcomes.…

"The Wisconsin Experience Seminar" is an extended-orientation style first-year seminar (FYS) that is intended to support students' transitions to college. The course is held each academic semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is taught by instructors in a variety professional roles at the university. The program is housed…

Popular teaching books often advise instructors to tell students about efforts to improve teaching, and Centers for Teaching and Learning often inadvertently reveal such efforts to students through particular programs. Yet no research exists that investigates students' perceptions of educational development and the growth in teachers that it…

Effective faculty development programs are essential to improving student success and achieving institutional goals. Yet designing and implementing successful faculty development within FYE programs remain a challenge. We examine these challenges and discuss how a redesigned on-campus faculty development effort, connected to an online course on…

The Predominately Undergraduate Institution in this study identified a sharp decline in external grant seeking during the 2007-2014 academic years. During these years some faculty applied for grants on a regular basis, but some faculty stopped seeking grants altogether. The first author interviewed 15 of the most persistent grant seekers to…

This study emphasizes the importance of faculty development and training as a means to prepare faculty to design the capstone course as a high-impact educational practice. Specifically, this research explores transformative learning in the capstone class as a vehicle for reflection on personal and professional ethics. Students enrolled in a…

The iGeneration is predisposed to communicating via social media, and oftentimes students' first instinct in classroom group work is to connect with members on social media. While some social networks allow for the creation of private groups, these students are still responsible for adapting the technology for this new purpose: collaborative…

This article focuses on a national study of writing instructors regarding the inclusion of social media in their teaching. The results from this study indicate the field's burgeoning interest in social media in the writing classroom: as technological tool, as content for analysis, as a composing space, and much more. These findings suggest the…

Institutions of higher education are increasingly utilizing ePortfolio projects to allow students a space to showcase their work to their instructors, peers, and potential employers, and with the primary audience focusing on instructor or peer, the ePortfolio has worked well over the years. However, as the audience shifted more to potential…

Instructors often use social media as an extra platform for sharing information and therefore extend the classroom beyond classroom walls. However, when more thoughtfully integrated in pedagogy and tied to specific desired learning outcomes, social media may help accomplish more: strong engagement and self-reported comprehension, aided by the…

Faculty members traditionally develop a teaching philosophy statement (TPS) as part of the job application process, for tenure reviews, or to encourage reflection. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach--to develop the TPS with students as the primary target audience, distribute it to students at the beginning of a course, and collect…

The authors describe cross-decades changes in the achievement attitudes and behaviors of average U. S. undergraduates that parallel the declines in meaningful learning reported by Arum and colleagues. Comparisons of pre-1987 and 2004-8 students on seven achievement-predictive measures revealed that (a) average 2004-8 undergraduates scored…

In 1991, the AACU issued a report on improving undergraduate education suggesting, in part, that a curriculum should be both comprehensive and cohesive. Since 2008, we have systematically integrated our research methods course with our capstone course in an attempt to accomplish the twin goals of comprehensiveness and cohesion. By taking this…

Leveraging Educational Technology for Evidence-Based Practice (LET-EBP), a four year federally funded project, was designed to extend use of educational technologies in the prelicensure undergraduate nursing program of a large public research university. Faculty members supported through the project developed and integrated over 20…

This study utilizes a social exchange framework to analyze the qualitative narratives of 81 graduate student mentors participating in the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate Internship at The University of Texas at Austin. Findings suggest that in addition to personal benefits, mentorship has four major professional benefits: a deeper…