1. Building a Curriculum-Based Center
Sally Kuhlenschmidt, Paul Bush, Nancy Givens, Ken Kuehn
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching
Western Kentucky University
2006 PODNetwork Conference, Portland, OR
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

2. Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching
Session Objectives
Understand the concept of a curriculum-based center
Investigate how you might use this concept for planning, resource allocation, and assessment
Examine developing your own curriculum, based on your needs/values
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

3. Curriculum-based Center
A curriculum-based center is one that
has a set of overall learning objectives and topics
uses them for the total set of learning experiences and
uses those for planning, resource allocation and assessment.
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

4. How do you plan your seminars?
Experience or judgment of the developer
Requests
Worked with another unit
Convenience (someone volunteers)
A needs assessment
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

5. How do you plan your seminars?
Experience or judgment of the developer
Requests
Worked with another unit
Convenience (someone volunteers)
A needs assessment
May overlook some areas
Requests may result in “safe” choices
May follow more than lead
May fulfill the needs of another unit
Can miss critical areas if they do not know of those areas
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

6. Advantages of Planned Curricular Approach
Clarity of Objectives – guidepost for decisions.
Curricular alignment (objectives/activities/assessments matching) should lead to better learning by faculty
Practicing what we preach
Fits the “mindset” of a university about quality
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

7. Advantages of Planned Curricular Approach
Strengthens Activities
Ensures coverage of all important topics
Use to guide prioritization of resources and activities
Basis for customized programs, e.g. G.A.s, new faculty
Robust—can fit new initiatives into it
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

8. Advantages of Planned Curricular Approach
Enhances Evaluation
Use for evaluating Center program—needs, holes, values
Can make a stronger case for the Center in difficult times
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

9. Objectives of FaCET Curriculum
strengthen our faculty’s awareness that teaching is a discipline
provide a metacognitive structure for our activities
achieve consistency across activities for easier, more thorough provision of resources
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

10. Our 9 Choices of Categories
I Understanding the Student
II Teacher Issues (as employees)
III. Preparing to Teach
IV. Course in Progress
V. Course Technology
VI. Curriculum Development
VII. Civic Engagement
VIII. Administrative Issues
(deans, department heads, FaCET)
IX. Special Topics
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

11. Current Uses of FaCET Curriculum
Categorize our seminars
complete major levels over 3 years
Categorize our materials
for retrieval and completeness
Review New Faculty folder
Categorize consultations
to see what needs people have
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

12. Developing A Curriculum
History
3 Year Topics
Website
Need for Key words
Database redo
How we developed ours
Major themes
Sticky-notes to categorize sub-ideas.
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

13. Examples of Subcategories for III. Preparing to Teach
A. Principles of effective teaching
B. Principles of effective learning
C. Legal/ethical issues
D. Structuring a course
E. Structuring a lesson
F. Class types
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

14. Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching
Future Plans
Sharing the curriculum with faculty
Reflective tool/self-assessment
Activity Report
Basis for certificate or other recognition
Start dialogue about evaluation of teaching
Education for department heads about the discipline of teaching
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching

15. Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching
Discussion
Curriculum: Yes or No?
Who helps develop it?
Additional advantages/uses?
Potential challenges?
Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching