An Outcome Evaluation of the Faculty Instructional Development Program: Its Impact on Teacher Self-Efficacy and Teaching Approaches

Faculty instructional development programs aim to enhance faculty members’ instructional quality and promote student learning. Despite their promise, these programs do not always yield improved outcomes, making their evaluation crucial to understanding the effectiveness and influencing factors. Although many studies have investigated the effectiveness of faculty instructional development programs by measuring program participants’ changes in teacher self-efficacy and teaching approaches, little research has investigated how and why instructional development programs affect these critical program outcomes. This study examined the outcomes of a faculty instructional development program for early-career faculty, offered by the college teaching resource center at a U.S. public university. Using a mixed-methods evaluation design, the study aimed to comprehensively understand the program’s effects on participants’ teacher self-efficacy and teaching approaches. The quantitative survey results revealed a statistically significant increase in teacher self-efficacy and teaching approaches among participants after the program. The qualitative interview data further supported these findings, revealing key themes that contribute to the program’s effectiveness: providing opportunities to learn various teaching aspects, building a supportive learning community through active strategies, giving feedback and opportunities to reflect on teaching, offering college-level collaborative support for teaching, and addressing confounding factors of program effects. These findings illuminate critical features of effective instructional development programs. We propose recommendations to better support faculty needs and offer suggestions for evaluating faculty instructional development programs.