Developing dental faculty for the future: ADEA/AAL Institute for Teaching and Learning, 2006-09

This report summarizes the history and curriculum of the American Dental Education Association/Academy for Academic Leadership Institute for Teaching and Learning (ADEA/AAL ITL) Program for Dental School Faculty, describes participant feedback, and reviews how the program serves the faculty development initiatives of the American Dental Education Association. The fifty-hour program (6.5 days), conducted in two phases at collaborating dental schools, enhances core academic competencies of new and transitional faculty, including faculty members whose responsibilities include predoctoral, allied, and postdoctoral dental education. The program's mission is to prepare participants to become more effective teachers and develop other skills that will facilitate confidence, job satisfaction, and professional growth in the academic environment. From 2005 to 2009, 174 individuals graduated from the program, representing forty-three schools of dentistry in the United States and Canada and twenty-nine private practices. A total of forty scholarships have been awarded to participants by the American Academy of Periodontology Foundation, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and the American Association of Orthodontists. In an online survey completed by 75 percent of ADEA/AAL ITL participants, 99 percent indicated they were positive or highly positive about their learning experience in this faculty development program. Ninety-six percent stated that the program had been important or very important in their effectiveness as a teacher. In 2010, the program will be held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, with phase I occurring on August 19-22, 2010, and phase II on October 22-24, 2010. In summary, the ADEA/AAL ITL is addressing an unmet need through a formal professional development program designed to help new and potential faculty members thrive as educators and become future leaders in academic health care.