Perceptions of new full-time faculty on professional development in Wisconsin technical colleges

This mixed-methods study used an online survey and interviews to explore perceptions of 21 first-year faculty in the Wisconsin Technical College System to determine which professional development activities were important to their teaching needs and concerns and whether there were differences between occupational and general education faculty. Danielson's Framework for Teaching was used to ground the exploration of professional development activities germane to technical college teaching. The combined findings from the survey and interviews revealed that instructional as well as organizational development were primary needs of new faculty during the first year with informal support and getting frequent, meaningful feedback as most beneficial in preparing them to teach. Differences between occupational and general education faculty indicated a need to provide separate professional development topics to reflect a distinction in daily work and responsibilities. The researcher made 11 recommendations and a checklist for designing and evaluating professional development programming.