Evaluating a teaching development grants program: Our framework, process, initial findings, and reflections

Higher education teachers’ professional learning: Process and outcome

“…This kind of support is evident in all the papers in this volume. We see for example institutional support of centres for teaching and learning (Hum et al, 2015;Taylor & Znajda, 2015), targeted funds to advance the scholarship of teaching (Hum et al, 2015), academic programs for faculty to gear teaching practice towards a particular educational approach embraced by the university administration and convening of task forces to do the ground work for implementing a particular policy or support a curriculum reform (Bickerstaff & Cormier, 2015;Hoekstra & Crocker, 2015;Nevgi & Lö fströ m, 2015), and a national project to identify the impact and effectiveness of teacher development programs and activities of teaching and learning development centres in Australian universities (Chalmers et al, 2015). Institutional support is heartening as it provides concrete evidence of a desire for organizational learning and helps us reconceptualize professional learning as a goal for the community at large rather than something intended for a limited number of individuals within the community (Laurillard, 1993).…”

“…An example in this volume that underscores the intentionality of fostering SoTL is the TGDF project, reported by Hum et al (2015). The grants, awarded to professors through this project are intended ''for instructors to identify questions about teaching and learning of interest to them, conduct a systematic investigation, and to share their findings with colleagues.''…”

“…The notion of community development is implicit in some of the reported projects (e.g., Hoekstra & Crocker, 2015;van Schalkwyk et al, 2015), salient in others (e.g., Hum et al, 2015;Taylor & Znajda, 2015) but central to the study reported by van Waes et al (2015). They explore if and how social interaction patterns of faculty shift before, during, and after an instructional development program and look for evidence of mediating or constraining factors.…”

“…As we see in the projects described by Bickerstaff et al (2015), Hoekstra et al (2015), and Hum et al (2015), project implementation is predicated on the availability of and access to experts, consultants, network of colleagues and other support mechanisms during the process. Bickerstaff et al (2015) describe the real time support offered during an instructional reform in their multicampus college setting.…”

“…Some (Hum, Amundsen, & Emmioglu, 2015;Nevgi & Lö fströ m, 2015;van Waes, van den Bossche, Moolenaar, Stes, & van Petergem, 2015) outline a theoretical or conceptual framework and the specific way in which it has informed the design and the interpretation of findings. Others report baseline research that is fundamental to theory building (e.g., Chalmers et al, 2015;van Schalkwyk et al, 2015).…”