Introduction
Conforming with the historical development trend of the international higher education, dealing with the difficulties in developing mass higher education and building the world first-class university, and coping with the challenges of improving teaching quality in higher education, the Center for Faculty Development, BNU was established on February 22, 2012.
·Working Philosophy
We firmly believe that it is the usefulness that is what matters to the faculty，which is also the working philosophy of our center. We run pragmatic advanced study and training programs for the instructors to help them solve the problems and confusions that they encounter in teaching practice. We also believe that only when we enter into the scenes of teaching can we identify the problems which have practical meanings and understand the difficulties which the instructors are facing. We focus our attention on the practical result of our work, striving to offer our help whenever and wherever necessary.
·Working Goals
We are working for the goal of enhancing the teaching execution of university faculty and then advancing the teaching quality of higher education. First of all, we inherit and carry forward the teaching culture of university and learn from others’ excellence to transform it into our own inexhaustible motivation. Besides, we support faculty in building advanced teaching philosophy. Adapting to new generations, faculty must acquire updated teaching philosophy and develop new teaching methodologies. Thirdly, we help faculty pick up teaching skills and methods required in teaching, sum up their teaching experience and carry on teaching research, fulfilling the desire of every teacher who wants to get help in teaching. Fourthly, we establish a communication platform for teachers where they can share their teaching experience and communicate with each other. The last but not least, we are fully taking advantage of modern technology to construct teaching resources providing the teaching assistance by breaking the limits of time and space, and therefore achieve ubiquitous study and training.
·Working Standards
We are oriented towards the working standards of internationalization, professionalization, sophistication and sustainability. As a national demonstration center for teaching, our center must open our mind, regard the world top universities as benchmark, communicate with them and standardize our work. The Center staff are supposed to be equipped with expertise and competence to serve teachers professionally. The services we provide like lectures, seminars and teaching consultation are supposed to be high-level with remarkable impact. The assistance to faculty is a long-term and systematic work, therefore it has to be endurable. To overcome the shortage of spotty training model, we should employ serpent-form model to normalize education study and training.
·Working Contents
Our center works on helping, researching and supporting, accordingly our staff are helpers, researchers and supporters. To help is to serve for faculty’s professional development by adopting all the accessible ways. To research is to seek the basic laws of university faculty development and university teaching. To support is to help finish fundamental work for university leaders and functional departments. Our specific work includes:
----Providing professional development programs on teaching
The programs aim to benefits faculty at any stage of professional development. We provide faculty with help of all kinds from all directions. We help the faculty renew the teaching philosophies, acquire the necessary teaching techniques, skills and improve teaching abilities. Novice teachers receive training on basic teaching skills mainly including teaching designs, teaching methods and teaching analyzing. Experienced teachers are encouraged to explore innovative pedagogies, to evaluate their own teaching methods and to undertake the teaching research to acquire self-development. Excellent teachers are supported summarizing and refining their teaching methods and theories, making them become the teaching masters in our university. Besides, we offer TA programs to graduates and pre-FD programs to post-graduates.
----Providing consultation on teaching and learning
The Center provides the consultation services. The teachers who encounter confusions in teaching practice are welcome to our center. The Center prepares places for the entire faculty members where they will have point-to-point discussion about teaching. The teachers will also get effective advice in accordance with the individual need. We sincerely hope that the teachers will come to us whenever they meet obstacles.
----Contributing to the reform of teaching and learning
The Center contributes to academic excellence by helping faculty explore innovative ways and perform teaching research. We foster the reform of traditional teaching methodology to realize the effectiveness of teaching activities and the development of students. We assist faculty in studying advanced teaching philosophy, updating teaching content, teaching methods and teaching models, improving teaching strategies and structures and summarizing teaching experience and results.
----Doing research on teaching and learning
Doing research on teaching is the fundamental work of our center and is also the vitality depends on which we exist and thrive. Our center should focus on studying the working strategies of faculty development, the ways to improve the teaching execution, and the laws of faculty development in different stages. In addition, we attach great importance to the study on the development of novice teachers, backbone teachers and excellent teachers, on the specific teaching methods in universities and on the basic laws of students’ learning.
----Collecting and sharing resources
The Center provides high-level teaching service to faculty by collecting teaching resources of high quality from inside and outside the campus which include those from prominent professors, excellent teachers and senior researches etc. Meanwhile the Center creates effective sharing mechanism for teachers to communicate and collaborate.
·Working Guiding principles
-Focus on key points.
-Focus on distinctive characteristics.
-Focus on practical results.
We are looking forward to working with the partners to improve our teaching and learning.