| Through the process of an exploratory case study some of the factors surrounding faculty and their efforts to improve their classroom teaching are explored. These factors include pressures from the university to publish and perform high quality research, limited time with which to pursue faculty development beyond their own research, a lack of understanding of what it means to be an effective educator, and inadequate feedback from both students and university administration with regards to their teaching quality and effectiveness.This study also found that some faculty consistently undertook additional faculty development activities geared towards education through workshops or more self-directed methods. These faculty members seemed to have a better understanding of effective teaching and how it could be achieved including more focus on student interaction and engagement. In contrast, other faculty continue to use traditional lecture methods with little student involvement outside of the occasional question and answer session. |
