The professoriate in the twenty-first century—with some speculations about impending changes.

Abstract

This paper examines trends about university teaching in the twentieth and twentyfirst centuries. The effectiveness of teaching and evaluating university teachers is questioned, as is how faculty roles will change in light of ongoing transitions in resources, expectations, and technology. Faculty members will soon cease to lecture at universities and must be prepared for future empirically based university teaching practices in which faculty members instead engage in individual mentorship, small seminars, and advising. Teachers of psychology, alongside other faculty, must purposefully develop new skills to navigate the quickly changing academic road into the future.

An evidence-based roadmap for success: Part 1—The bumpy road of graduate school.

“…When scholars surveyed new faculty in 2012, 82% had received formal training in teaching (Silvestri, Cox, Buskist, & Keeley, 2012; see also Buskist, 2013). The increase of formalized training for university teaching presents challenges to the faculty advisors who supervise graduate students in their teaching because faculty advisors likely received less formal instruction and mentoring on university teaching (Wertheimer & Woody, 2017). This may leave advisors feeling like they have little to offer as they prepare graduate students for academic careers; in these and similar situations informal mentors beyond the advisor can help students grow as teachers.…”

Guidance for Teachers: A Review of Facets of an Academic’s Life: A Memoir

“…Wertheimer humbly describes his own anxieties about university teaching, particularly regarding his lack of formal education about teaching (as was typical in 1950s era graduate programs; Wertheimer & Woody, 2017). Today’s teacher-scholars are far more likely to have had explicit education in university teaching, particularly those educated in the new millennium (see Buskist, 2002; Silvestri et al, 2012; for a review see Buskist, 2013), and Wertheimer’s experience can provide a stark contrast about historical and continued devaluing of teaching relative to research in university settings (see Buskist & Irons, 2006).…”

Obituary for Michael Wertheimer

“…Despite a typical doctoral experience in the early 1950s, which did not include education on the methods, ethics, or scholarship of teaching (Wertheimer & Woody, 2017), he applied his lifelong emphasis on precision and rigorous assessment to his teaching and the larger field of the teaching of psychology. Despite his own professed doubts about his classroom abilities (Wertheimer & Woody, 2017), he received numerous teaching and advising awards in his career, including the Distinguished Teaching in Psychology Award from the American Psychological Foundation (now the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award). These well-earned recognitions, however, cannot capture the teaching values that Professor Wertheimer brought into every classroom.…”

“…Although much of his career unfolded before widespread use of the term scholarship of teaching and learning , Professor Wertheimer emphasized these evidence-based foundations and, of course, precision in his teaching. Despite a typical doctoral experience in the early 1950s, which did not include education on the methods, ethics, or scholarship of teaching (Wertheimer & Woody, 2017), he applied his lifelong emphasis on precision and rigorous assessment to his teaching and the larger field of the teaching of psychology. Despite his own professed doubts about his classroom abilities (Wertheimer & Woody, 2017), he received numerous teaching and advising awards in his career, including the Distinguished Teaching in Psychology Award from the American Psychological Foundation (now the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award).…”