Faculty Development Programs

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Project Update - July 2004

The Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities (FIICU) Adventure of the American Mind project focuses on higher education faculty development. The five Illinois institutions noted above were invited to participate in the first year of the project and National Louis University was selected to co-direct the project. Over the last year, 11 faculty from the five institutions developed faculty development plans for their teacher education programs that will be implemented in 2004-2005. To facilitate the work, three project meetings were held, a web site was developed, and faculty from three institutions (National Louis, Bradley, and McKendree) presented a workshop on the AAM project at the Midwest Association of Teacher Educators conference in Urbana, Illinois in March 2004. This report describes the models of faculty development constructed for the project and briefly details the plans designed by each institution.

Though faculty from each institution designed plans that would fit the individual needs of those institutions, a common thread of faculty development quickly emerged. It was also the model employed in the overall project: faculty collaboration on curricular and professional development processes and products that aimed to embed AAM activities on using the Library of Congress (LOC) web site into the curriculum of teacher education programs. The idea was to make the LOC as integral part of the teacher education program as textbooks or other resources. To achieve this aim, the planning included:

• Development and pilot testing of activities in various teacher education courses.
• Expanding faculty collaboration across colleges and departments.
• Designing professional development venues that fit within the existing programs
  of the institutions.
• Developing a project-wide evaluation strategy to assess progress and results.
• Creating the ways and means for sharing the various ideas, strategies, activities,
  and other aspects of institutional projects with other participating faculty from other institutions.
• Developing plans for dissemination of project activities and findings that enhanced collaboration among the participants.

The plans of the participating institutions are as follows:

National Louis University

This project involved faculty from the Psychology and Social Sciences Department of the College of Arts Science (CAS) and the Curriculum & Instruction and Reading and Language Programs in the (NCE) College of Education. Two related thrusts were planned.

The first is the creation of a course on the History of Chicago for undergraduates in the teacher education program that will be offered in Winter 2005. The second was the development of a visual literacy curriculum for use in the History of Chicago course and teacher education methods, field experience, and student teaching courses. The plan for next year will embed the LOC and visual literacy into the teacher education curriculum through further development of the visual literacy curriculum thread, presenting workshops at established faculty development venues, collaboration with other faculty, and using the project web site as a resource.

Bradley University

Educational Technology and Reading and Language Arts faculty are involved in this institution’s efforts. The project here also involved the development of activities that were pilot tested in educational technology, reading, and language arts methods, and student teaching courses. The project faculty recruited colleagues in History and Women’s Studies to use the LOC web site documents in teaching students how to use primary sources in research. Planned activities include further embedding of the project activities and LOC into the teacher education program by investigating the possibility of having LOC staff member Elizabeth Ridgway offer a workshop for social studies and teacher education students and faculty, offering workshops and forums for faculty at established venues, and sponsoring a context for the best lesson plan using LOC resources. In addition, pre and post surveys on the use of primary sources will be developed and administered to teacher education faculty who participate in the workshops.

Dominican University

This project involves special education and library science faculty and activities were piloted in graduate library courses. The planning focuses on the development of an embedded curriculum module for reading, social studies, and special education methods courses, workshops for faculty at special Friday venues, and the development of Pathfinders to help faculty and teacher education students learn better LOC web site navigation techniques. The Pathfinders will help faculty and students in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science develop tools for effective finding and use of LOC resources to support instruction by focusing on searching for resources on a specific topic. In addition, a LOC resource manual for inclusion and special education teachers will be developed that will include learning strategies, instructional approaches, technology, and sample lessons for students with disabilities.

Greenville College

Language Arts faculty collaborated on this project that focuses on a series of six workshops for faculty next year to introduce faculty to the LOC website and AAM activities on using technology and primary sources. Sustainability will be achieved in future years through presentation of two workshops annually. Efforts are also being made to involve librarians in the project. The Greenville faculty also are involved in developing the evaluation instrument for the project

McKendree College

Faculty from Educational leadership and Social Studies Teacher Education developed this project that pilot tested activities in graduate research and undergraduates social science methods courses. The project activities also focus on embedding the LOC web site and AAM activities into the curriculum by further integration into education courses, and a series of workshops for faculty and presentations at departmental meetings. The McKendree faculty also are involved in developing the evaluation instrument for the project as well as writing conference session proposals

An Adventure of the American Mind is made available through a Library of Congress grant funded by the U.S. Congress. AAM is administered through the Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas Inc.
For site-related problems, e-mail aam@ercwc.org..