ERIC Number: EJ998687
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-May
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0736-7627
EISSN: N/A
Impact of Faculty Development on Physical Therapy Professors' Beliefs
Behar-Horenstein, Linda S.; Zafar, Mueen A.; Roberts, Kellie W.
Journal of Faculty Development, v26 n2 p37-46 May 2012
Physical therapy faculty share similarities with faculty across allied health fields, such as nursing, and other clinical disciplines that educate students in licensing and board certification programs. Most have clinical experience and discipline-based expertise, however they may not have had the benefit of continuous learning aimed at enhancing their teaching repertoires. Because of the rapid influx of clinicians into the academy, faculty development is considered essential to their integration. The purpose of this study was to describe how faculty development impacted physical therapy professors' understanding and use of new instructional skills. Eight physical therapists from a university located in the Southeast U.S. participated in a six-week, 12-hour teaching seminar focusing on curriculum and teaching where participants kept reflective journals to record their responses to question prompts. Basic unitizing, coding, and categorizing were used to conduct a multi-stage analytical process. Eight themes emerged including assessment, instructional strategies, teaching styles, and individuals' planned changes to their classroom practice, among others. Findings showed that professional development is essential for enriching faculty instructional capacity to promote student learning and patient care. Investing in the professional development of faculty may help ensure quality teaching so that professors become conduits to knowledge production. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)
Descriptors: Allied Health Occupations Education, Physical Therapy, Clinical Experience, Faculty Development, Expertise, Teaching Styles, College Faculty, Teacher Attitudes, Teaching Methods, Seminars, Journal Writing, Classification, Patients, Educational Quality
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education; Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A