By Barbi Honeycutt, PhD

Faculty everywhere are flipping their classes, but can we flip faculty development? That’s the question I asked myself when I flipped the pre-conference workshop at the 2016 Teaching Professor Technology Conference. What I discovered is that we can “practice what we teach” and design faculty-centered learning experiences much the same way we design student-centered learning experiences.

In this article, I provide a few recommendations for flipping a faculty development workshop. For further inspiration, the article concludes with a showcase of the work created by the participants in my workshop last fall.

Define the flip
In my work, the FLIP means to “Focus on your Learners by Involving them in the Process.” The flip is a philosophy, a model, and an approach I use to engage my learners in higher level thinking during class time. My learners are faculty and my “class time” is the time I spend with them in workshops and programs. This definition of the flip can work really well for faculty development professionals since we often don’t know who will attend an event or if they have access to pre-workshop materials. Additionally, many of the faculty development events I lead are stand-alone workshops or “one and done” events, which makes it difficult to create continuity or build community among the participants as I would with students in a semester-long course.

If you’re thinking about how to flip a faculty development workshop, my first recommendation is to define what the flipped model means to you and your learners. Don’t let definitions from other contexts and environments limit what you can do when you work in a professional development or continuing education setting.

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121. That’s the number of days until the 14^th annual Teaching Professor Conference. Have you secured your place?

Each year this must-attend conference brings together more than 1,000 faculty members from campuses throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad. The conference features seven preconference workshops, two plenary presentations, more than 75 concurrent sessions, and dozens of poster presentations.

The Teaching Professor Conference is the place to:

• Explore the newest ideas and research in teaching and learning
• Uncover ways to refresh, reenergize, and reinvigorate your teaching
• Discover practical strategies that can be integrated into your courses
• Discuss the state of today’s changing classroom
• Network with like-minded educators who care deeply about teaching and learning

This conference does not focus on a specific discipline. Instead it is a gathering of teachers with a passion for teaching and a commitment to finding evidence-based solutions to the challenges that we face in our day-to-day practice. We all know the college classroom is changing in new and exciting ways. But with change comes challenge, and that is why dedicating time to your own professional growth is so important.

At the Teaching Professor Conference, you can expect lively discussion, spirited debate, and a rewarding exchange of ideas throughout all three days. You will leave the conference informed, inspired, and brimming with ideas you can put to work in your classroom right away.

We hope you can join us in St. Louis, June 2-4!

Don’t forget … Faculty Focus Premium members can register for just $549—that’s $100 off the current pricing. Simply log into your account, and follow the top-secret instructions provided under Current Member Discounts. Not yet a member? Sign up today and you, too, can take advantage of our special membership pricing. Offer expires March 1, 2017. Good on new registrations only.