Foreword

This issue marks the eighth annual appearance of To Improve the Academy, which began publication in 1982 as a forum for exchange of ideas and information among instructional, organizational, and faculty development professionals. Published annually by the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD), To Improve the Academy continues to serve its original purpose of helping POD members and supporters stay abreast of new developments in a field that has seen especially rapid evolution over the past ten years. The growth in POD membership in recent years, along with the increasing number of articles submitted for inclusion in this publication, suggest that this evolution is likely to continue in the decade ahead.

Appropriately for the last year of the 1980’s, a number of articles in this collection address, either explicitly or implicitly, the future of faculty and instructional development, highlighting changes in higher education likely to affect faculty and student needs and proposing responses and future directions. Demographic trends – the anticipated influx of new faculty members during the 1990’s and the increasing numbers of women, minority, and “nontraditional” students – and the implications of these trends for the academy are the focus of several of these essays. Other articles describe innovative approaches and model programs that reflect the accumulated experience and wisdom of a maturing field, recognizing, in particular, that just as instructional development is most effective when it responds to the real needs of learners, so faculty development works best when it responds to the expressed needs of teachers.

We hope that you will be stimulated, encouraged, and helped by the articles in this collection, and we invite you to reproduce and use the material you find here. POD does not copyright the articles it publishes; we ask only that you credit the authors and the source.

We also encourage you to submit your own manuscripts for possible inclusion in the next edition of this series and hope that you will consider becoming a member of POD. (Contact people are listed below.) The POD Network provides members with an excellent way to keep in touch with development professionals and activities around the country. Since 1976, it has been an important resource for faculty members and administrators concerned about the quality of teaching and learning and the context in which that teaching and learning take place.

Invaluable assistance in preparing the manuscript for this volume was provided by Kim Karcher, Rose Klein, and Joan Lahy of the University of Wisconsin System Office of Academic Affairs. I am grateful to them for their help. I wish also to thank Dr. Douglas Dollar of New Forums Press for his advice, encouragement, and patience during the past year.

Susan Kahn, Editor

Madison, Wisconsin

July 1989

  • 1990 Editor:

  • Linda Hilsen

  • University of Minnesota, Duluth

  • 10 University Drive

  • Duluth, MN 55812

  • Membership Information:

  • Delivee Wright

  • Teaching and Learning Center

  • University of Nebraska

  • 120 Benton Hall

  • Lincoln, NE 68588

  • Conference and Program Information:

  • Emily C. Wadsworth

  • Professional Development

  • Northeastern Illinois University

  • 5500 N. Saint Louis

  • Chicago, IL 60646