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Summary Notes on The Preparing Future Faculty Program (PfF), by
the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
and the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), 8 pages.
Summarized by J. T. P. Yao, 7/2/01
"A joint undertaking of the Association of American Colleges and
Universities (AAC&U) and the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS),
PFF is supported by the National Science Foundation, The Pew Charitable
Trusts and a private donor. It was designed, first, to develop alternative
models of faculty preparation (1993-1997) and then to institutionalize
them (1997-2001). A third phase (1998-2001) was launched to develop
model programs in science and mathematics departments in collaboration
with the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American
Chemical Society, the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical
Association of America, and the Special Interest Group on Computer
Science Education/ACM. … Currently an independent assessment
of the impact of PFF programs on the success of faculty members
in their early careers is being conducted."
"The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program is both a configuration
of ideas and a national program involving 43 doctoral degree-granting
institutions and more than 250 'partner' institutions. … A
PFF program provides doctoral students with opportunities to observe
and experience faculty responsibilities at a variety of academic
institutions with varying missions, diverse student bodies, and
different expectations for faculty."
"The national PFF programs have three core features. Most essential
is the cluster: an anchor, doctoral degree-granting institution
or department collaborating with various partner institutions or
departments. … Second, the PFF program must address the full
scope of faculty roles and responsibilities including teaching,
research, and service, emphasizing how the expectation for these
responsibilities are often quite different in different campus settings.
And third, participating doctoral students should have multiple
mentors and receive reflective feedback not only for their research
activities, but also for their teaching and service activities."
"… The traditional Ph.D. is a research degree, preparing, for
example, historians, chemists, and sociologists. The degree does
not prepare these highly skilled research professionals to be faculty
members. Academic employers increasingly also expect new faculty
to be excellent teachers. …"
"PFF programs include a formalized system of mentoring in all aspects
of professional development. Just as doctoral students have a mentor
to guide their research, they also need guidance as they develop
their teaching and service repertoire. ..."
"Working in clusters of institutions and departments, and in response
to local opportunities, a wide range of activities has been developed
and incorporated into PFF programs. Each cluster is encouraged to
develop its own program and to include activities in three loci:
in individual departments, across the university, and on partner
campuses. …"
"The PFF national office conducted program-wide surveys of doctoral
students in PFF programs during the spring of 1995 and again in
1996. … The top four benefits of participation graduate students
cited were that PFF:
· Strengthened understanding of faculty roles and their interest
in an academic career;
· Broadened their awareness of diverse institutions;
· Enhanced their ability to compare in the job market; and
· Assisted them in understanding the job search process.
…"
"… Information about all these resources and papers is available
on the PFF website www.preparing-faculty.org"
[Readers who are interested in this article are encouraged to read
the original paper in its entirety. Other summary notes on faculty
reward systems are available on the Internet at http://lohman.tamu.edu
under the heading "Summaries of Papers ..."]
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