Assessing the Impact of a Year‐Long Faculty Development Program on Faculty Approaches to Teaching   

This paper reports findings from an empirical four-year study designed to investigate the relationship between key constructs of an extended model of teaching and learning in higher education. Using a mixed-methods approach, we sought to assess the impact of a year-long faculty development program (FDP) designed for pre-tenure faculty on participant approaches to teaching. From our analysis of participant critical reports of teaching, post-program interviews, and the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI), we found evidence of positive change in the approaches to teaching of junior faculty participants in the FDP. All three methods elicited evidence indicating that participating faculty moved towards more conceptual change/student focused approaches to teaching, and that a significant part of that change could be attributed to their participation in the program.