Individual Difference Theory in Faculty Development: What Faculty Developers Should Know about Style

Authors

Betty Lou Leaver
Rebecca L. Oxford

Keywords

faculty, teachers, behavior, development

Abstract

Over the past three decades and more, growing attention has been paid to the need to tailor instruction to meet the differing learning and affective styles of students. However, little has been written about doing the same for faculty.

Typically, the purpose of faculty development is to empower new and experienced teachers by providing information, enhancing self-confidence, and developing attitudes and beliefs favorable to effective teaching. Such empowerment usually requires teachers to change their teaching behaviors— and change does not come automatically or identically to all teachers. Rather, “teachers change in areas [in which] they are already primed to change, and this priming depends on their individual characteristics and prior experiences” (Pennington 1996, 340).

Recommended Citation

Leaver, Betty Lou and Oxford, Rebecca L. (2005) "Individual Difference Theory in Faculty Development: What Faculty Developers Should Know about Style," Russian Language Journal: Vol. 55: Iss. 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70163/0036-0252.1249
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rlj/vol55/iss1/6