In-depth faculty development in education using veterinary and medical faculty side by side

John Dewey¹ and Abraham Flexner²*,  ¹Columbia University, New York NY, 10027 U.S.A., ²Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 U.S.A.

 Purpose
Since many faculty are not well trained in education, various strategies are now used to improve education faculty development. We have pursued a novel strategy, mixing faculty from two adjoining schools (Medicine and Veterinary Medicine) for a 9 month course, ½ day per week. This abstract describes the project and its outcomes.

 Methods
The program has run for four years. Scholars are nominated by their deans and freed from competing time by their department chairs. 8-10 faculty meet for 3.5 hours weekly, Sept-May. Participants range from assistant professors to associate deans, drawn from both clinical and basic science. Half of each group is drawn from each school. Faculty are 2-4 core leaders with diverse visiting faculty. Themes for the 25 seminars include learning theory, teaching perspectives/technique, assessment, research, curriculum development, and leadership. Scholars attend field trips to simulation sessions and to a Waldorf school to analyze novel environments. They also assess leaning sessions and design their own project in leadership.

Results
40 faculty have completed the program. Involvement of two schools has facilitated recruitment. Sixteen participants are now leading new courses/projects, while 8 are leaders in curricular design. Applications for and satisfaction with the program have grown each year. Scholars particularly praise the interactions with faculty from a different school, which broadens perspective and lessens institutional biases.

Conclusion
In-depth faculty development with diverse participants from different schools is building a core of educationally sophisticated leaders. Mixing diverse faculty from different schools encourages broadmindedness in discussion and facilitates institutional reform.