The Idea of Educational Development: An Historical Perspective

Abstract

This essay examines the idea of educational development, inspired both in content and approach by John Henry Newman's influential 19th century work on the idea of a university.

Perceptions of Outreach, Theory, and Practice at Centers for Teaching and Learning

“…Developers are focused on providing and defending the needs of their institution (Atkins et al 2017, Cook & Kaplan, 2011, Daniel et al, 2018. Further, they have used a variety of instructional, cultural, and organizational models to establish themselves within the university (Cruz, 2018;Donlan, Loughlin, & Byrne 2019;Hines, 2017). These include practices such as communities of practice (Cohn, Stewart, Thesisen, & Comins, 2016), action research designs (Beaty & Cousin, 2003;Morales, 2016), and models for training, development, and assessment (Schumann et al, 2013;.…”

“…Additionally, CTL employees come from a multitude of disciplinary and educational theory backgrounds creating further attributes to how a CTL may communicate, reach out, and practice within a university (Kearns et al, 2018;McDonald, 2010). However, much as there has been discussions and research regarding the common top-down, bottom-up and lateral decision making of units (Baker et al, 2018;Cook & Kaplan, 2011;Cruz, 2018;Diamond, 2002;Little, 2014;Mitchell, 2015). and common practical and theoretical models (Donlan et al, 2016;Hines, 2017;Schumann et al, 2013), there must be some conceptualization, either practical or theoretical in the use of theory, practice, and outreach.…”

“…Due to the diverse nature of university needs, types, sizes and CTL structures, literature has not explored how these three concepts-practice, scholarship, and outreach-may be understood differently based on the variables of the university. Many scholars have hesitated to generalize the nature of CTLs because of the diversity in disciplinary background (Cruz, 2018;Kearns et al, 2018), leadership (Palmer et al, 2010), funding (Kelley et al, 2017), type of institution (Baker et al, 2017;Goto & Davis, 2009;Smith & Gadbury-Amyot, 2014), needs of the university (Diamond, 2002;Cruz, 2018;, and other constraints (Diamond, 2002;Green & Little, 2016;Leibowitz et al, 2015). While Hellstrӧm et al (2018) explored how CTLs work as centers for interdisciplinary collaboration, they only investigated the director's perspective of how he or she worked to build interdisciplinary collaboration.…”

“…This process can ultimately hinder a clear focus of the unit, while also ensure that CTLs provide necessary and purposeful offerings that align with the university goals and stakeholder decision making. In this way, a top down decision could bring topics such as diversity across the university, civic engagement or other campus-wide initiatives that fit into organizational development as needed from strategic plans and provosts (Cruz, 2018;Diamond, 2002).…”

“…For Cruz (2018), the socialization which occurs within the communities of CTL is the very foundation of the unit. Mentorship, socialization, and community all work within the conceptual model of communities of practice in higher education.…”