ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Faculty Guild, an educational services and technology organization focused on improving student outcomes through purposeful teaching, today announced that it has partnered with more than 35 higher education institutions to help them reimagine their approaches to faculty development and support.
Improving student outcomes, particularly among underrepresented minority and low-income students, continues to be a priority for higher education. Effective teaching, including evidence-based instructional practices, coupled with co-requisite developmental education models, adaptive learning and open educational resources, has positive impacts on student outcomes. Research shows that while workshops, seminars and video modules can be helpful introductions to teaching innovations, these tactics alone rarely lead to measurable change and improvement.
Innovative institutions seek to go further by creating a teaching culture where growth driven by evidence is encouraged, celebrated and sustained. In response, Faculty Guild enables institutions to provide faculty learning communities where new teaching ideas are explored for multiple terms. Faculty Guild powers online, professional learning communities through its software platform and network, research-based methodology and personalized coaching services.
"We are excited about the possibilities that Faculty Guild will offer us at Salt Lake Community College," said Dr. Clifton Sanders, provost for academic affairs at the institution. "Our participating faculty members look forward to being part of this innovative opportunity where they will join faculty from other institutions, reflect on their work and create their own ideas for how to improve. For us, a teaching culture is one of continuous improvement and change, which is hard to truly foster. The Faculty Guild fellowships provide our faculty a space to reflect and grow as teaching professionals."
For the spring 2019 academic term, the Faculty Guild community includes full-time and part-time faculty members as well as graduate students who teach across more than 40 disciplines. The community is comprised of mid-career and new faculty members from two-year and four-year institutions and systems, including:
- Cecil College (MD)
- Clovis Community College (NM)
- College of Southern Maryland (MD)
- Harford Community College (MD)
- Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KY)
- Salt Lake Community College (UT)
- St. Petersburg College (FL)
- Towson University (MD)
- University of Hawai'i Community College System (HI)
- University of Houston (TX)
- Wentworth Institute of Technology (MA)
"It's an exciting time for Faculty Guild, our institutional partners and the faculty we serve," said David Yaskin, CEO of Faculty Guild. "Our goal is straightforward but with far-reaching impact. By helping faculty members reflect on their own teaching and be open to considering new ideas, our data show that student outcomes improve. And it's extremely rewarding to know that every day we get to work with hundreds of faculty members as they go deeper with their teaching strategies, which, in turn, gives students, especially those who are struggling, a better chance at success."
The Faculty Guild model is based on more than six years of research, development, application and analysis, led by Dr. Gail Mellow and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. The project has involved more than a dozen colleges and hundreds of faculty since 2010 and resulted in the publication of the book "Taking College Teaching Seriously: Pedagogy Matters!"
Institutions sponsor a cohort of faculty members to participate in a two-term Faculty Guild fellowship. During the fellowship, individual members learn through a process of reflection and application, supported by a trained facilitator, a community of colleagues and easy-to-use software. Fellows are grouped either within or across institutions and work together online in small groups called Teaching Circles, which are further organized into networks focused on teaching English, math, health sciences, business, CTE and STEM, among others. Through Pedagogical Analytics™, fellows see how their teaching behaviors change over time, and their institutions receive aggregated, non-identified data to measure return on investment.
For more information, please call 844-776-3374 or visit http://www.facultyguild.org.
SOURCE Faculty Guild
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