American University Of Teacher Professional Development

Faculty professional development has great influences on the faculty’s sound development and improving the quality of higher education. Culturing high-level faculty is one of the most important factors of American Universities to be world-famous. In the United States after World War II, the pace of faculty professional development speeded up. A wealth of activities and projects were established to promote the faculty’s professional development which gained successful experience. This thesis will study the history of faculty professional development after World War II and then systematically analyze its current situations in the United States. At last, it will draw revelations from faculty professional development practices in America.This paper is composed of four body parts except the introduction.The introduction briefly introduces the significance and purpose of the paper, basic conceptions, related research literature review at home and abroad, the main ideas and methods used in this thesis.Chapter two classifies the historical evolution of American faculty professional development as "teachers’age","scholars’age ","developers’age" and "learners’age ", then traces backgrounds, main activities and main characters in different ages, which portray the profile of faculty professional development in the United States.Chapter three analyzes the current practices of the faculty professional development in the United States. Firstly, it explores main features of new faculty, mid-career faculty and tenured professors. Secondly, it discusses four main organizations carrying on faculty professional development activities, such as, on-campus organizations, faculty development companies, professional development associations and kinds of Foundations. Additionally, it describes specific professional development programs for new faculty, for mid-career faculty and for tenured professors. Lastly, it expounds some modus frequently used in the above activities.Chapter four selects University of Michigan and St. Thomas University faculty professional development practices as typical cases and analyzes characteristics according to the concrete practices in these two universities.Chapter five analyzes the achievements and problems existing in China’ s faculty professional development practices comparing with suc-cessful exp erience of the faculty professional development in the United States and the n draws the revelation from faculty professional development practices in th e United States.