Opportunities for Professional Development

This chapter provides an overview of just a few on-campus faculty development opportunities sponsored by various programs around campus. It’s focus on the Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Writing Program is not meant to represent exhaustive coverage of the faculty development work that is accomplished on campus it is to familiarize you with a few established and emerging programming sources. In the months ahead, you will learn more about specific professional development activities through e-mail and other campus-wide announcements.

The Library

RESEARCH LITERACY AND THE ROLE OF THE LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE

“The ‘Information Highway’ we plan for the next century… may geometrically increase the amount of information, the way it can be sent, and the number of its recipients. But our experience of this highway maybe one of exhaustion (a new kind of ‘rat race’ or ‘gridlock’) rather than admiration for the ease and speed of a new kind of transport if we are unable to assert our own authority over the information. No additional amount of information coming into our minds will enable us to assume this authority; only a qualitative change in the complexity of our minds will.”
Robert Kegan In Over Our Heads: The Mental Perils of Modern Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994)

The Library’s goal for students at St. Lawrence University is in part a developmental one: by the time students graduate from this liberal arts college we hope that they will be able to deal effectively and critically with scholarly information, to be able to manipulate and communicate information within a particular discipline, for example. In other words, we aim to achieve a kind of “research literacy” that will allow students to assert their own authority over information in a variety of contexts so that by the end of their time here we will be able to say that there has been a “qualitative change” in the complexity of their minds.

It is important to remember, however, that in the era of rapid and accelerating “information explosions,” faculty need to also continue to develop their research skills. Beginning with your initial faculty orientation and continuing with a variety of different kinds of workshops, faculty will have the opportunity to explore new ways of dealing with scholarly information both within the traditional print paradigm and the emerging digital scholarly culture. You will be exposed, for example, to a range of resources relating to our book arts program, the Library’s laboratory press, and the many collaborative projects that involve the Library’s special collections. You will also have the opportunity to explore the Library’s new Geographic Information Systems, a powerful new tool for exploiting geographic data and images. Finally, we will work with you in developing strategies for effectively utilizing the Library’s array of electronic resources, including over 14,000 ejournals. In a typical academic year, the Library will work with a variety of other programs on campus to address the following topics:

Plagiarism and Research: How to deal with the increasing use of and reliance upon internet “cheat sites” and what this might mean in terms of the research process. From Full-Text to Full Image: How to use non-textural material available on the web. Copyright: Dealing with intellectual property and the net: issues and concerns for teaching faculty.

Building Online Bibliographies: How to search, download, and then appropriately use bibliographic databases customized for particular research projects.

Angel Courseware: How to properly incorporate intellectual content into courses utilizing SLU’s courseware package.

Overall Goal: To promote “information literacy” across the disciplines at St. Lawrence. In other words, we want faculty to be able to effectively find, use, and evaluate scholarly information so that you can productively work with students to help make that “qualitative change” in the complexity of their minds that is the hallmark of a sound liberal arts education.

The Center for Teaching and Learning

62 Park Street

"The university is committed to the goal of fostering excellent teaching in its faculty and to assisting its members to realize their full potential as teachers."
St. Lawrence University, Mission Statement: Aims and Objectives.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), an initiative to create and support faculty development programs focused on teaching innovation and excellence, was founded in 2001. Much of the Center’s work is collaborative and its programs are planned in conjunction with other academic affairs and instructional technology offices. The Center’s programming attempts to offer coherent and comprehensive workshops and seminars that enhance the current talents and inspire new pursuits of the St. Lawrence faculty.

Regularly offered programs include the Shop Talk series, weekly Tech Breaks, the Oral Communication Institute, New Faculty Orientation, January Tech Fest, and a new collaborative event, the May Faculty College. Starting in fall 2004, the Center is piloting a collaborative program involving 12 other colleges called Democracy Lab. This project allows faculty to use online deliberative dialogue modules to connect St. Lawrence University students to students from these other colleges while they discuss a variety of social issues.

In addition to the programs and activities sponsored by the Center, its mission also includes internal funding opportunities. Full-time faculty may apply for teaching with technology grants, instructional mini-grants, and pedagogy conference funds.

Under the leadership of Sondra Smith, the Instructional Technology staff works very closely with the CTL to offer a series of hands-on workshops in order to keep faculty updated on emerging teaching with technology opportunities. For the full slate of CTL and IT programs and funding opportunities, please visit http://www.stlawu.edu/ctl. The majority of CTL activities, including the technology workshops, are held right at the Center, 62 Park Street. The Center also has a lending library for faculty who are interested in borrowing resources on instructional design and development (i.e., books, journals, and videotapes).

For more information on the programs and services offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning, please contact Kim Mooney, Director (229-5981).

Summer Institute on Teaching Writing in the Disciplines

Since 1994, the University Writing Program has offered a Summer Institute on Teaching Writing in the Disciplines. By now well over 100 faculty from across the campus have found the Institute a productive and enjoyable occasion. The Institute begins with a belief that writing can enhance learning in any disciplinary course, no matter what the level or the subject matter. To that end, the Institute offers instructors a place to develop practical pedagogical strategies best suited for their courses and their students.

Among the issues covered:

Writing to learn in disciplinary courses; designing effective writing assignments; strategies for efficient and effective response to writing; approaches to teaching revision for clarity; strategies for working with grammar and punctuation.

Who should attend?

Anyone interested in writing and learning. Past Summer Institute faculty have come from Anthropology, African Studies, Asian Studies, Chemistry, Education, Music, Physics, Environmental Studies, Mathematics, Geology, Psychology, Government, Biology, Sociology, Fine Arts, Economics, English, Religious Studies, Speech & Theater, SPLS, Modern Languages, and ODY Library.

All participants in the Summer Institute receive a stipend for their participation. In addition, reference books, an SLU Writing Guide, and a variety of teaching materials are provided.

The Summer Institute is now part of the May Faculty College. The institute’s dates, times, and registration information are announced after spring break. If interested in further information, please contact the Writing Program Office at X5964