Growth as a Scholar or Creative Artist

Here is our existing handbook language:

2.342 Growth as a Scholar

The College believes that there is an inherent connection between teaching excellence and the faculty member’s continuing growth as a scholar. Maintaining a specialized professional interest helps to sustain vitality in teaching. “Publication” of the results of continuing scholarly activity is essential and is broadly construed. Making one’s efforts public among professional peers brings with it mutual benefits from the exchange of insights and critiques. Some qualitative growth, whether in depth or in breadth, should be evident in such activities over time. Both the College community and the wider network of professional colleagues elsewhere serve appropriately in the nurturing of such growth and can speak to its presence.

In general, it is appropriate for the College to consider the overall quality of an individual’s contribution to the intellectual life of the community when making personnel decisions.

  • Evidence of scholarly growth or creativity in a field shall include (but not be limited to):
  • Publication of articles or books;
  • Favorable reviews of one’s published work;
  • Participation in professional organizations;
  • Public presentations inside and outside the College;
  • Public exhibits of creativity, such as art shows, concerts and dramatic performances;
  • Other evidence provided by the faculty member and deemed appropriate by the FAC.

Here is our draft proposed language. This is from FEP (2008), with a few minor changes from FAC this year. It is based on the Boyer model of scholarship.

2.342 Scholarship and Creative Activity

The College believes that there is an inherent connection between teaching excellence and the faculty member’s continuing scholarship and creative activity. Making one’s efforts public among professional peers and more general audiences brings with it mutual benefits from the exchange of insights and critiques. Both the College community and the wider network of professional colleagues elsewhere serve appropriately in the nurturing of the faculty member’s scholarship and creative work. In considering the connection of the faculty member’s scholarship and creative expression both to the teaching mission of the College and to professional peers, the College strives to balance the internal worth and external merit of that work.

Criteria and Assessment

Because teaching is the primary focus of faculty members at Guilford, the faculty member under review should describe their scholarship and reflect on the connection between their scholarly and creative activity and continued teaching excellence. The faculty member’s self-evaluation and supporting documentation is the primary means of assessment of these criteria.

The self-evaluation provides a description of the connection between the faculty member’s teaching and scholarship. Demonstration of this connection may include effects of the faculty member’s scholarship on the content of existing or planned courses, on pedagogical methods, on the mentoring of student research or creative works, or other salutary effects on student learning. Peer review of the results of continuing scholarly activity is essential and is broadly construed. Publication, presentations or exhibits inside and outside the college and reviews and application by others of one’s work are some of the ways that a faculty member can demonstrate peer review of scholarly and creative activity.

The College recognizes and evaluates a wide variety of scholarly and creative activities consistent with the College’s mission. Drawing on Boyer’s taxonomy in Scholarship Reconsidered (1990), a faculty member’s scholarship is demonstrated in one or more of the categories of discovery, integration, application, or teaching. Many activities and products can be classified as more than one type of scholarship. The faculty member may describe other activities that provide evidence for continuing scholarship that do not fall into the categories described below. Appendix L summarizes standards that the Faculty Affairs Committee will consider as it evaluates scholarship. The College does not expect all pieces of scholarship to meet all these standards.

The scholarship of discovery refers to original research or creative work within the faculty member’s discipline(s).

Evidence of scholarship of discovery is assessed through scholarly activities such as publication or presentation of original work within one’s discipline or public exhibits of creativity such as art shows, concerts, and dramatic performances. Peer reviews and application of the faculty member’s scholarship by others may also be used to demonstrate the scholarship of discovery.

The scholarship of integration speaks to the analysis, interpretation, and synthesis of research and creative work from one or more disciplines. It speaks to the College’s emphasis on interdisciplinary studies (although interdisciplinary scholarship can be placed in any of these categories of scholarship).

Evidence of scholarship of integration is assessed through publication or presentation of theory, literature reviews, meta-analyses, multidisciplinary research, creative work, or other appropriate work for specialist or non-specialist audiences. Peer reviews and application of the faculty member’s scholarship by others may also be used to demonstrate the scholarship of integration.

The scholarship of application refers to professional activities outside or within the College that require the use of knowledge in the faculty member’s discipline(s). Such activities often reflect the College’s commitment to Principled Problem Solving (PPS), although the scholarship of application is not limited to PPS.

Evidence of scholarship of application is assessed by publications, presentations, consultations, or the development of intellectual property in which the faculty member applies their disciplinary knowledge. Evidence includes but is not limited to developing and/or assessing programs for community agencies, original or creative work geared toward a general audience, shaping public policy, and consultation to schools, courts, businesses, and other institutions.

The scholarship of teaching specifically refers to the development and assessment of pedagogical methods in the faculty member’s discipline(s) with the purpose of informing and influencing academic peers.

Evidence of scholarship of teaching is assessed by publication or presentation of research and theory relating to pedagogy as well as reviews and applications of the faculty member’s scholarship of such work by others.

 

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