The use of digital technologies is now widespread and increasing, but is not always optimized for effective learning. Teachers in higher education have little time or support to work on innovation and improvement of their teaching, which often means they simply replicate their current practice in a digital medium. This paper makes the case for a…

This article presents a four-stage model for mentoring faculty in higher education to deliver high quality online instruction. It provides a timeline that shows the stages of program implementation. Known as the Distance Education Mentoring Program, its major outcomes include certified instructors, student achievement, and the attainment of a…

Background: Over the past decades, the issue of improving teaching in higher education has been seriously addressed. Centres for instructional development, aimed at enhancing teaching, have been set up in many countries. Instructional development for early career academics is perceived to be of particular importance. Given the considerable…

Although the idea of using a workshop to educate potential users about a set of materials or techniques is not new, the workshops described here go beyond simple dissemination and create ongoing communities of practice that support widespread and sustained improvement in the biochemistry classroom. The degree to which pedagogical innovations…

This article describes how establishing a literacy-focused school leadership team can strengthen and expand the reach of the literacy coach. This team helps bring faculty into dialogue to critique and transform their current literacy practices and works towards developing a common vision, beliefs, and a shared language within the school. This…

The University of Sydney is a large, research-intensive, campus-based Australian University. Since 2004 a strategic initiative of project-based eLearning support has been creating teams of non-academic and academic staff, who have worked together to develop online resources to meet identified needs. The University's aims in continuing to provide…

Given the difficulty of representing the interests of a diverse faculty such as Utah State University, this 5-year plan has sought relevant information from both faculty and administrators in an assessment of the needs of the university for this period. Some conclusions about needs have been drawn from existing data: enrollment can be expected to…

This article discusses instructional development, a process evolved by instructional technologists which provides a useful approach to bridging the gap between educational research and its practical application to the solution of educational problems. (Author/RM)

Describes North Carolina's model of community college faculty development that coordinates the improvement of curricula and instruction with professional development activities. Discusses the strategy of basing projects at individual colleges while targeting single curriculum areas statewide and lists curriculum improvement projects since 1985.…

A staff and organizational development program was designed to foster the use of research to improve instructional effectiveness at the elementary level by monitoring and managing key classroom variables related to student achievement. A classroom improvement program, called the Basic Skills Instructional Improvement Program (BSIIP), was developed…

Use of peer mentoring to improve college instruction and the concept of mutual mentoring are discussed, drawing on four faculty mentoring projects in which mentor faculty were paired with other teachers to develop new, alternative teaching methods/materials or gain new knowledge. Cross-disciplinary mentoring and mutual faculty benefits are…

The co-authors have been co-Principal Investigators on two large-scale National Science Foundation-funded teacher enhancement projects for the past eight years. One of the projects focused on middle and high schools and the second focused on the elementary school. The design of each was different, reflecting the differing natures of the…

The 17 papers in this compilation were selected from 29 presentations given at the conference. The collection includes the following papers: (1) "Does Classroom Context Affect Examination Performance?" by Debra Elliot, Toni Strand, and David Hothersall; (2) "Accent on Abilities: Empowering the Learner by Integrating Teaching, Learning, &…

Recent reports on mathematics education reform have focused the attention of educational practitioners and policymakers on new goals for mathematics education and new descriptions of mathematical proficiency. QUASAR is a national project (Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying Student Achievement and Reasoning) designed to improve the mathematics…

While most of the dialogue in education today is about accountability, standardized testing, and adequate yearly progress, the truth is that student success is deeply connected to the physical, emotional, and cognitive needs that they have at different ages. The best schools already know this and follow practices that are academically engaging and…