Faculty Growth Plan
Purpose
The Faculty Development Program at George Fox University exists to help faculty members exercise appropriate stewardship of their abilities and of university resources. The faculty member will need to recognize and balance the expectations for teaching, scholarship, service, and the integration of faith and learning by making a Faculty Growth Plan (FGP) in which he or she sets goals and defines the means to accomplish them. This FGP provides an ongoing structure to encourage accountability and to focus energies. Faculty should consult the Faculty Handbook for promotion and/or tenure expectations.
Though George Fox University is committed to providing resources for implementing FGPs, these resources are limited and are a privilege rather than an entitlement. The university views them as an investment in the future of the faculty and the institution. Therefore, requests for funds will be evaluated in light of a thoughtfully developed FGP. When assessing the previous year’s FGP, each faculty member will be responsible to show that the funds have been used wisely and have advanced his or her progress toward a stated goal.
Faculty development activities should:
- Assist the faculty member’s professional development.
- Strengthen George Fox University as an institution for Christian higher education.
- Demonstrate that the faculty member exercises thoughtful stewardship of his/her abilities and institutional trust.
The program seeks to foster:
- Intentional growth in ability as a teacher.
- Scholarship, particularly creative work that is shared with professional peers, that involves students, or that clearly enriches teaching.
- Scholarship that enriches the understanding and classroom integration of the Christian faith with the discipline of study.
- Leadership roles in professional societies.
- Leadership roles in church.
- Leadership roles oncampus.
Funding is available for, but is not necessarily limited to:
- Professional memberships, which contribute directly to the achievement of FGP goals.
- Subscriptions to professional journals that help to meet FGP goals.
- Participatory conference attendance, including travel, meals, accommodations, fees.
Instructions for Individual profile
In order to help focus the individual FGP, each faculty member needs to take stock of his or her strengths and weaknesses, current responsibilities, and long-range goals. This profile is for the use of the faculty member only. Do not turn this in with the FGP. Using this document, the faculty member will prepare a two-year FGP.
Self-Assessment
Include strengths and current interests as well as weaknesses and current dislikes. Include items directly related to your current institutional responsibilities (e.g., preference for lecturing over leading discussion, preference for class sizes of fewer than 20, inability to turn back written work promptly). Include indirectly related items as appropriate (interest in subjects outside your discipline, desire to spend more time with your family).
Current Responsibilities
List your current institutional responsibilities including teaching duties, scholarly activities, committee work, administrative work, and extracurricular work with students. List your extra-institutional responsibilities,
including such items as major church involvement, civic responsibilities, leadership in professional organizations, family time commitment, and the like.
Long-Range Goals
List your teaching, scholarship, service, and faith-learning integration goals for the next five years. Include any institutional roles you would like to perform. If administration is a part of your load, include administrative goals as well.
Short-Range Goals
Outline two or three one or two-year goals in each category that will move you toward your long-term goals.
Keep this document for your own reference.
Instructions for Formal Annual Rolling FGP
General Instructions
Each year in early May, assess the degree to which you accomplished your goals for the year just past, and update your growth plan to apply to the next two years. Department chairs should work with new faculty on this plan. It should have specific goals for professional growth. The means by which you will accomplish each goal should be adequately described. The goals should be attainable within the two years. Both goals and means of accomplishment should be specific enough to allow for evaluating the extent of attainment of each goal. The relationship between the goals and any requested funds needs to be clear and direct.
FGP Format
- Cover Sheet
- On a separate cover sheet, indicate your name, department, and the academic years of the plan. If either year is a sabbatical year, indicate that as well.
- Assessment of Previous Work
- Describe the successfully completed goals, including tangible outcomes (improved course evaluations, affirming peer reviews, writing, talks, performances, publications, etc). Copies do not need to be submitted. However, keep such evidence in a file to include with the 3rd-year and 6th-year portfolios.
- Describe progress made on outstanding goals; describe the degree to which each goal was achieved (include changes in direction or circumstances which affected your ability to meet your goal); indicate what steps, if any, you have taken toward achieving it. You should include that goal, revised as appropriate, in the new FGP.
- You may be able to provide assessment of scholarship and service goals with a bulleted list or perhaps even copy them from an up-to-date curriculum vitae; however, the assessment of teaching goals needs to be more descriptive and reflective (sentences and paragraphs rather than a list or a check-off).
Goals and Plans for the Next Two Years
Use the categories of Teaching, Scholarship, Service, and Integration of Faith and Learning to organize your FGP. A reasonable FGP will include two or three substantive goals in each of the four areas. For each goal, please include a goal statement, the steps you will take to accomplish your goal, a budget estimate of costs directly related to your goals, and the year of expected completion. Goal statements should be succinct and represent professional development ends, rather than means of accomplishment. For example, a general goal may be to increase your abilities to teach students of diverse learning styles; a means of accomplishment might be to learn which technologies can engage them and how to incorporate those into your classroom presentations.
Teaching goals should include at least one goal related to methodology in addition to whatever curricular or content goals are included. This is also a good place to incorporate the changes you are making in response to department assessment activities.
Please place your goals that address the integration of your faith with your teaching, scholarship, and/or service in a separate category called Integration of Faith and Learning. The assessment of the previous year’s integration goals belongs in a separate category as well.
Send FGP to Department Chair and College Dean
Send the FGP to both the department chair (or program director) and to the College Dean by the end of May; the College Dean evaluates it and sends it to the AAO where it will be used as a basis for granting funds. The AAO will return to you the dean’s evaluation. At your fall meeting with the department chair, the chair will discuss your FGP with you in light of department priorities and the dean’s evaluation.
The department chair will submit his or her FGP to the College Dean. The chair will meet annually with the College Dean to discuss that year’s FGPs from his or her department, including the chair’s own FGP.
The Faculty Personnel Committee will review the FGP for each faculty member as part of the third-year and sixth-year reviews.
Fundable Activities and Guidelines
Fundable Activities
Faculty development activities should:
- Assist the faculty member’s professional development.
- Strengthen George Fox University as an institution for Christian higher education.
- Exceed duties routinely expected of all faculty.
The program seeks to foster:
- Intentional growth in ability as a teacher.
- Scholarship, particularly creative work that is shared, that involves student, or that clearly enriches teaching.
- Scholarship that enriches the understanding and classroom integration of the Christian faith with the discipline of study.
- Leadership roles in professional societies.
- Leadership roles on campus.
Funding is available for, but is not necessarily limited to:
- Professional memberships, which contribute directly to the achievement of FGP goals.
- Subscriptions to professional journals, which help meet FGP goals.
- Participatory conference attendance, including travel, meals, accommodations, fees.
Funding Guidelines
The faculty development program is intended to support faculty in their professional development. Online travel and membership request forms are sent to the faculty via email during the summer with early- to mid- September deadlines for submission. Late requests will not be considered. The following professional support opportunities will be considered for funding:
Professional Organizations
- Journals, memberships
- Leadership roles: executive offices; committee work
Professional Conferences
- Documented attendance: attend, take notes, network, report back
- Presentations: paper/poster presentations; workshops; clinics; shows; performances; panels
Educational Experiences
- One-day seminars; completion of terminal degree
- Academic coursework beyond the terminal degree when appropriate
Books & Software
- Publishing: reviews; articles; monographs; textbooks; manuals
Submit proposals for research grants or leaves to the Faculty Development Committee when you receive the call for proposals in the Fall. Expenses that can be included in your proposals are as follows:
- Preparation leading to presentation or publication
- Software necessary to the project
- Photocopying
- Travel to archives, museums, libraries or labs to support the project
- Permissions fees