Student Learning is a Product of Student Thinking!
In this day and age, teaching needs to actively engage students in critical thinking that is focused on meaningful learning outcomes. Passively listening and note-taking during a lecture is not as likely to bear fruit in the modern information age as it was decades ago. New teaching strategies are warranted, which means that faculty members must grow and evolve in their pedagogies to keep pace with rapidly changing academic environments and new generations of students. At the same time, we must endeavor to connect with students spiritually so as to help their development in their own faith amid a myriad of secular influences.
With these challenges in mind, faculty development activities at PBA are grounded in 5 basic principles:
- Faculty members should be committed to continual personal improvement, always striving to improve their courses and enhance their teaching and scholarship.
- Faculty members should embrace education as a discipline unto itself, which warrants lifelong scholarly endeavors to establish and maintain expertise in teaching.
- Faculty development is most effective when individual faculty members are able to voluntarily establish their own personalized, self-directed development plans.
- Faculty development programs are most likely to produce tangible results when the activities involve small, collaborative learning groups or one-on-one guidance.
- One-time workshops, lectures or seminars are seldom of value in developing faculty. Personal growth is best achieved through training that is conducted over time as part of an ongoing, longitudinal theme.