Investing in our future: Preparing incoming faculty for today and tomorrow using education developer / faculty mentoring teams

Abstract

Enculturating incoming faculty members into the paradigm of student-centered education is of central importance in building a sustainable, robust base of excellent educators in higher education. Since university faculty typically begin teaching with little to no pedagogical background, and (in our system) there are no official requirements for them to acquire such skills during their tenure, we developed an evidence-based, personalized, comprehensive mentoring program that prepares junior faculty to use their strengths and to leverage the latest principles of good teaching. Here we introduce our program for incoming faculty, entitled Welcome Aboard, and highlight its cornerstones, such as pedagogical and disciplinary mentors, class observations, teaching consultations, the use of small-group instructional dialogue, and self-reflection.