Education Scholar - Philosophy

Philosophy

Right or wrong, most faculty learn to teach by observing others and selecting what they consider to be the best practices used by their most respected role models. Just as science and scholarship have informed health professions research and practice, they have also advanced the areas of teaching and learning, especially over the past 15-20 years. Although health professions educators need to become familiar with and actively use this literature; much of it is inaccessible to faculty. Often, significant research contributions are hidden in education and/or discipline-specific journals, and use educational jargon that limits the practical application of the findings. Treading into these waters for most health professions faculty is foreign territory.

The Education Scholar Program for health professions faculty members is based upon the belief that teaching is a respected scholarly activity in the higher education community, and as such, occupies a place of honor with other faculty work and scholarship. By taking the initiative to explore this program, you have already embarked on the path to the scholarship of teaching as a faculty member.

Scholarship and the Teaching Profession

The writing of the late Ernest Boyer of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching inspires our vision for this program. In his book, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate¹, Boyer details four interrelated types of faculty scholarship:

discovery, or disciplinary research;
application, or responsibly applying knowledge to societal needs and practice;
integration, or interdisciplinary collaboration; and
teaching, or the systematic approach to student learning through discovering what and how students learn

In this broadened view of faculty work, the thread that runs through the four types of scholarship is the commitment to standards of excellence that can be evaluated. Each requires a systematic approach of appropriate faculty preparation, accurate observation, documentation, and understanding as an intellectual activity.

In the recent book, Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate, Boyer’s colleagues propose a framework for “a set of standards that capture and acknowledge what [faculty] share as scholarly acts” across the four types of scholarship. (p. 24).² They include the following: Six Stages of Scholarship

Using the Boyer model of scholarship, we have selected program activities and readings to help faculty adequately prepare, test, assess, reflect and document changes in their teaching practices. In addition, we have drawn on a variety of technologies to enhance the quality and completion of these activities, and have incorporated an electronic “teaching portfolio” to help you organize, present, and critique your work. While this program is designed to accommodate independent learners, we encourage participating faculty to work with colleagues to create opportunities for discussion, collaborative peer observation, and feedback. To personalize the program, faculty can explore the many suggestions for additional reading and Web sites provided throughout the program.

Cited References

¹ Boyer EL. Scholarship reconsidered: priorities of the professoriate. New York: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; 1990.

² Glassick CE, Huber MT, Maeroff GI. Scholarship assessed: evaluation of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers; 1997.