from VCCA Journal, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring/Summer 1988, 35-36
© Copyright 1988 VCCA Journal
Just as there are stages in adult development, there also may be progressive steps through the groves of academe. Harold Hodgkinson speculated that "teachers are not finished products, they can learn new skills and strategies, grow and change, and go through somewhat predictable stages of development." As a participant in the Virginia Tidewater Consortium Summer Institute held at the College of William and Mary, I feel I passed through a very meaningful stage of development. The institute involved learning new teaching skills and strategies through the "master teacher" concept and applying them to the community college classroom.
The institute focused on the following topics:
In addition to the instructional value of new strategies and techniques for teaching that may be learned, faculty development has another dimension that is often forgotten. Warren Martin reminds us, "...unless faculty feel valued, important, fulfilled, competent, as whole persons, they cannot contribute greatly to the student's growth or institutional well-being."
But professional growth through faculty development may help them "to become more imaginative, compassionate and fully actualized human beings capable of strengthening educational institutions and serving as educational exemplars and leaders for students."