Professional Development for Faculty

Academic Teaching and Learning (T&L) centers are tremendous resources for university faculty, where often their graduate schools and post-doctoral fellowships are scholarship-focused and mostly devoid of pedagogical training. Some T&L centers not only serve their local users, but also place open material on the web. These are superb sources of free, reliable information and guidance for faculty. One excellent example is The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University. Sections are available for faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and undergraduates as learners. Resources include:

• Solve your teaching problem here

  A diagnostic resource from the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University.

• 28 handouts on time management, effective reading, problem solving, and other study skills for students
• A special section for instructors of large enrollment courses, called the Big Class Project
• Effective Classroom Practices, which are learning approaches and activities for the classroom, from the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University

Another useful site is the Institute for Teaching, Learning, and Academic Leadership (ITLAL) at the University of Albany.  Resources include:

• A general teaching resource list for faculty, organized by a series of 15 questions
• A section for new faculty, which includes a gem, a listing of ten top books for university instructors, including a review and table of contents for each book
• Some best practices for assigning and grading writing
• A guide to service learning