Ehime Univ. 'faculty developer' leads way
Mina Matsumoto Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
This is an excerpt from The Yomiuri Shimbun's Educational Renaissance series. This part of the series, to be continued next week, focuses on how to raise the level of teaching skills among faculty members in higher education.
MATSUYAMA--Among the various measures taken by the nation's universities to improve the quality of teaching in their classrooms is Ehime University's assignment of a full-time "faculty developer."
Hiroaki Sato, 35, joined the faculty of the national university specifically as a consultant on teaching. one day last semester, Sato, an associate professor at the university's Institute for Education and Student Support, met with one of his colleagues, Hideo Nagao, 58, a professor of education of the disabled at the university's Faculty of Education.
"It seems that you're talking a little bit fast [while teaching]," Sato said to the professor, carefully choosing his words. "It may have something to do with how much time you're allocating [to each part of your class]."
Nagao agreed with the counselor's point, saying, "Because I have students of various levels, I have to think about how many topics I should include in my course."
Ehime University introduced the teaching consultation system three years ago. Such specialists are working at many universities in the United States, which has already implemented various measures for faculty development. Called "faculty developers," experts like Sato observe the courses of "client" instructors over and over and have interviews with students taking the courses, before identifying points on which they should improve.
In the United States, faculty developers play various roles--not only consulting, conducting surveys for students and analyzing their results, but also developing training programs for the faculty and implementing those programs. Because they may get involved in designing whole curriculums of their universities and restructuring their institutions, faculty developers are expected to have studied the psychology of learning and adult education, as well as have knowledge and experience of university management.
Sato is the first Japanese faculty developer certified by the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, a U.S. organization dedicated to fostering human resources development in higher education. Thanks to his speciality, Sato is often invited by other universities to give lectures and training programs.
Earning a master's degree at Hokkaido University, Sato was a visiting researcher at Portland State University before coming to Ehime University five years ago. While often going to the United States to participate in training programs for faculty developers, Sato has come up with his own faculty development program for the university.
Sato's program is divided into five stages--from one intended for novice instructors to one to help trainees work as leaders in professional development. Now Sato himself focuses on the third stage, which gives trainees techniques for teaching consultation.
"Various courses have various concerns regarding their teaching approaches," Sato said. "That's why it's vital to deal with individual instructors."
Regarding Nagao's case, Sato sought comments from students taking one of Nagao's courses about the medical care of children with developmental disorders. Many of them appreciated the professor's course as he was "committed" and offered "satisfying content," but at the same time some others pointed out that it was "hard to read" Nagao's writing on the blackboard and said the course was itself "complicated."
Sato told Nagao about similar cases he had observed at other institutions where he had tried to improve teaching methods, as well as mentioning failures he had experienced in his own classes. While listening to these examples, the professor came up with some ideas for improvement on his own--such as carefully examining beforehand what to deal with in the course and using star ratings to show how import!ant each topic is.
During the remaining classes in the first semester, Nagao discussed his ideas for improvements with his students while implementing them in his teaching. "I feel relieved that the consultation has resulted in specific improvement measures," the professor said.
"By nature, the instructors who visit me are committed ones," Sato pointed out. "They already know how to improve their teaching. Faculty developers just help them solidify their ideas."
Having dealt with many cases--through which he has earned credibility for his specific advice on improvements--Sato receives a variety of consultation requests.
"I've asked him for consultations many times," said Takeshi Narabayashi, 44, an associate professor at Ehime University's Faculty of Law and Letters. "Through discussions with my students based on the results of consultations with him, I've found that the students themselves change their attitudes toward taking my courses."
The university conducts surveys of students to learn how satisfied they are with their courses, and the satisfaction ratings reached about 80 percent, up by 20 percentage points for three years from the 2002 academic year.
Some of the faculty at Ehime University have completed all five stages of Sato's professional development program and can now work as his assistants. The university aims at having additional faculty developers follow Sato.
In the United States, each such expert oversees about 200 instructors. In contrast, Ehime University has only one faculty developer to cover its 760 teachers. Sato alone cannot deal with all of them because it takes at least five hours to consult with a teacher and observe his or her courses before offering advice.
Sato is now working together with other universities to organize a faculty development program he will offer in September. "I believe we should have a fundamental review of the nation's academic education as whole," he said.
Faculty training efforts mixed
The nation's universities have already reached the point at which the number of applicants for admissions almost equals the number of enrollment spaces available. one of the biggest challenges the schools face in this environment is how to deal with students who have widely differing levels and needs.
The Education, Science and Technology Ministry's standards for universities and junior colleges will be revised in April next year, making it mandatory for higher educational institutions to work on faculty development--in other words, implementing measures to help the faculty improve their teaching skills.
It was in 1999 when faculty development became an obligation for universities. The ministry's survey in the 2005 academic year found that of the nation's 713 national, public and private universities, about 80 percent, or 575 institutions, offered some form of faculty development programs.
However, when it comes to what they actually did, about half of them merely offered lectures. Because many institutions had hitherto taken a rather perfunctory approach toward faculty development, some pioneering cases are now attracting attention before the standards are revised.
Generally speaking, universities in western Japan tend to be more serious about this issue than their counterparts in the eastern part of the nation. For example, Kyoto University began opening certain courses to observation by other instructors in the mid-1990s, while Nagoya University has produced a "Mr. Tips" series of booklets for its faculty, offering hints on how to improve the planning and teaching of courses.
Another tendency in the nation's faculty development is that national universities are more committed than their private counterparts. This is partly because faculty development became an official obligation for universities in 1999, when national universities still received sufficient financial and human resources before they were made to become independent administrative entities in 2004.
It should be noted, however, that the revised standards are to make faculty development mandatory for higher educational institutions, not for individual teachers. University professors often do not have a teacher's license and have no obligation to go through teacher training programs. How to train such faculty members will likely become an area in which universities compete to demonstrate their competence.
(Aug. 2, 2007)
Mina Matsumoto Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
This is an excerpt from The Yomiuri Shimbun's Educational Renaissance series. This part of the series, to be continued next week, focuses on how to raise the level of teaching skills among faculty members in higher education.
MATSUYAMA--Among the various measures taken by the nation's universities to improve the quality of teaching in their classrooms is Ehime University's assignment of a full-time "faculty developer."
Hiroaki Sato, 35, joined the faculty of the national university specifically as a consultant on teaching. one day last semester, Sato, an associate professor at the university's Institute for Education and Student Support, met with one of his colleagues, Hideo Nagao, 58, a professor of education of the disabled at the university's Faculty of Education.
"It seems that you're talking a little bit fast [while teaching]," Sato said to the professor, carefully choosing his words. "It may have something to do with how much time you're allocating [to each part of your class]."
Nagao agreed with the counselor's point, saying, "Because I have students of various levels, I have to think about how many topics I should include in my course."
Ehime University introduced the teaching consultation system three years ago. Such specialists are working at many universities in the United States, which has already implemented various measures for faculty development. Called "faculty developers," experts like Sato observe the courses of "client" instructors over and over and have interviews with students taking the courses, before identifying points on which they should improve.
In the United States, faculty developers play various roles--not only consulting, conducting surveys for students and analyzing their results, but also developing training programs for the faculty and implementing those programs. Because they may get involved in designing whole curriculums of their universities and restructuring their institutions, faculty developers are expected to have studied the psychology of learning and adult education, as well as have knowledge and experience of university management.
Sato is the first Japanese faculty developer certified by the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, a U.S. organization dedicated to fostering human resources development in higher education. Thanks to his speciality, Sato is often invited by other universities to give lectures and training programs.
Earning a master's degree at Hokkaido University, Sato was a visiting researcher at Portland State University before coming to Ehime University five years ago. While often going to the United States to participate in training programs for faculty developers, Sato has come up with his own faculty development program for the university.
Sato's program is divided into five stages--from one intended for novice instructors to one to help trainees work as leaders in professional development. Now Sato himself focuses on the third stage, which gives trainees techniques for teaching consultation.
"Various courses have various concerns regarding their teaching approaches," Sato said. "That's why it's vital to deal with individual instructors."
Regarding Nagao's case, Sato sought comments from students taking one of Nagao's courses about the medical care of children with developmental disorders. Many of them appreciated the professor's course as he was "committed" and offered "satisfying content," but at the same time some others pointed out that it was "hard to read" Nagao's writing on the blackboard and said the course was itself "complicated."
Sato told Nagao about similar cases he had observed at other institutions where he had tried to improve teaching methods, as well as mentioning failures he had experienced in his own classes. While listening to these examples, the professor came up with some ideas for improvement on his own--such as carefully examining beforehand what to deal with in the course and using star ratings to show how import!ant each topic is.
During the remaining classes in the first semester, Nagao discussed his ideas for improvements with his students while implementing them in his teaching. "I feel relieved that the consultation has resulted in specific improvement measures," the professor said.
"By nature, the instructors who visit me are committed ones," Sato pointed out. "They already know how to improve their teaching. Faculty developers just help them solidify their ideas."
Having dealt with many cases--through which he has earned credibility for his specific advice on improvements--Sato receives a variety of consultation requests.
"I've asked him for consultations many times," said Takeshi Narabayashi, 44, an associate professor at Ehime University's Faculty of Law and Letters. "Through discussions with my students based on the results of consultations with him, I've found that the students themselves change their attitudes toward taking my courses."
The university conducts surveys of students to learn how satisfied they are with their courses, and the satisfaction ratings reached about 80 percent, up by 20 percentage points for three years from the 2002 academic year.
Some of the faculty at Ehime University have completed all five stages of Sato's professional development program and can now work as his assistants. The university aims at having additional faculty developers follow Sato.
In the United States, each such expert oversees about 200 instructors. In contrast, Ehime University has only one faculty developer to cover its 760 teachers. Sato alone cannot deal with all of them because it takes at least five hours to consult with a teacher and observe his or her courses before offering advice.
Sato is now working together with other universities to organize a faculty development program he will offer in September. "I believe we should have a fundamental review of the nation's academic education as whole," he said.
Faculty training efforts mixed
The nation's universities have already reached the point at which the number of applicants for admissions almost equals the number of enrollment spaces available. one of the biggest challenges the schools face in this environment is how to deal with students who have widely differing levels and needs.
The Education, Science and Technology Ministry's standards for universities and junior colleges will be revised in April next year, making it mandatory for higher educational institutions to work on faculty development--in other words, implementing measures to help the faculty improve their teaching skills.
It was in 1999 when faculty development became an obligation for universities. The ministry's survey in the 2005 academic year found that of the nation's 713 national, public and private universities, about 80 percent, or 575 institutions, offered some form of faculty development programs.
However, when it comes to what they actually did, about half of them merely offered lectures. Because many institutions had hitherto taken a rather perfunctory approach toward faculty development, some pioneering cases are now attracting attention before the standards are revised.
Generally speaking, universities in western Japan tend to be more serious about this issue than their counterparts in the eastern part of the nation. For example, Kyoto University began opening certain courses to observation by other instructors in the mid-1990s, while Nagoya University has produced a "Mr. Tips" series of booklets for its faculty, offering hints on how to improve the planning and teaching of courses.
Another tendency in the nation's faculty development is that national universities are more committed than their private counterparts. This is partly because faculty development became an official obligation for universities in 1999, when national universities still received sufficient financial and human resources before they were made to become independent administrative entities in 2004.
It should be noted, however, that the revised standards are to make faculty development mandatory for higher educational institutions, not for individual teachers. University professors often do not have a teacher's license and have no obligation to go through teacher training programs. How to train such faculty members will likely become an area in which universities compete to demonstrate their competence.
(Aug. 2, 2007)