Huixiang Yuan

Defense Date

3-17-2014

Graduation Date

Spring 2014

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

EdD

Department

Instructional Technology (EdDIT)

School

School of Education

Committee Chair

Joseph Kush

Committee Member

William Barone

Committee Member

David Carbonara

Keywords

China, effectiveness, faculty development, faculty development program, student-centered

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of a two-year faculty development program designed to assist faculty in making transition from a teacher-centered to a student-centered approach to instruction at a private university in China. One hundred full-time faculty participated in the program and ultimately 52 participants who attended entire two-year workshops were involved in the research. Seven point Likert Scale survey including open-ended questions as well as live classroom observation techniques were used to examine how the participants perceived the faculty program, whether they made improvement of their learning of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and whether the participants used what they learned after the completion of the program. The findings from this study indicated that the most of majority participants (93%) had significant positive reactions to the faculty development program; they made great improvement in their learning of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (t statistic is -6.163; p value is far small than 0.05); participants started using student-centered behaviors they learned in their teaching practice after completion of the program. The unintended outcomes regarding program improvement were also found through open-ended questionnaire in this study. The results inferred that trainer's ability strongly contributed to the high degree of overall evaluation of the program. A follow-up and longitudinal research is needed to track the impact on the organization and the impact on students' learning achievement over time. More types of university contexts including both private and public universities need to be addressed for future research.

Format

PDF

Language

English

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