Faculty Work and the New Academy: Emerging Challenges and Evolving Roles
November 9-11, 2006
Chicago, Illinois
Director of Inquiries, Charles Blaich, will facilitate at two sessions:
Friday, November 10, 2006
1:45 – 2:45 p.m.
"The Faculty Role in Value Added Assessment"
In this seminar, a dean, a faculty member, an institutional researcher, and two leading researchers studying liberal education will lead a conversation about how to fruitfully engage faculty in the improvement of teaching and learning. They will report on recent work on a Teagle-funded initiative to engage faculty in value-added assessment. Participants will learn how to develop models for establishing useful collaborations among faculty, institutional researchers, and senior administrators with a special emphasis on approaches that replace the ubiquitous but mistaken tack of seeking faculty "buy-in" for assessment with a collaborative approach that grounds assessment more directly in faculty culture and interests.
Steven Weisler, Dean of Academic Development, Hampshire College; Charlie Blaich, Director, Center for Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College; Carol Trosset, Director of Institutional Research, Hampshire College; Scott VanderStoep, Associate Professor of Psychology, Hope College; and Greg Wolniak, Research and Policy Analyst, Human Capital Research Corporation
Saturday, November 11, 2006
12:45 – 1:45 p.m.
"Can Faculty Teach 'The Good Life?'"
The principle of free inquiry defines the academy. Session facilitators will raise two questions using this principle: 1) how do colleges that have a distinctive and often religious perspective of the "good life" honor free intellectual inquiry; and 2) are there especially effective strategies for faculty who wish to teach "the good life"? The session includes findings from church-related and secular colleges and the audience will reflect on barriers, challenges, and successes in teaching "the good life".
Larry A. Braskamp, Professor Emeritus of Loyola University Chicago; Charles Blaich, Director of Inquiries, Wabash College; and Lois Calian Trautvetter, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University