Could Faculty Development Initiatives Like Workshops and Community of Practice Favour the Introduction of a Problem-based Approach in Higher Education? A Case Study
10.3280/exioa2-2022oa15078
This article is dedicated to evaluating the impact of Faculty Development for the introduction of Problem Based Education in higher education. A bachelor’s science degree program in Animal Care at the University of Padua has decided to introduce Problem Based Learning in an entire semester, as a first propaedeutic attempt at transforming the entire educational pathway. The transformation process was made possible by several elements: a Faculty Development program that allowed teachers to approach the PBL method and the creation of a Community of Practice (CoP) among the teachers. A preliminary evaluation of the impact of the Faculty Development program was conducted and the article describes some results: Faculty Development initiatives were effective, participants learned meaningfully, and enjoyed formal and in group training activities. Participants increased their motivation to teach according to the PBL approach for an entire semester. Participants were also motivated to create some Faculty Learning Communities (FLC), a special type of CoP in which Faculty members learn informally in group.
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Lieta Marinelli
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Could Faculty Development Initiatives Like Workshops and Community of Practice Favour the Introduction of a Problem-based Approach in Higher Education? A Case Study
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Lieta Marinelli
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Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice, Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge University Press. (Tr. it. Comunità di Pratica. Apprendimento, significato e identità) Raffaello Cortina editore, 2006.
Could Faculty Development Initiatives Like Workshops and Community of Practice Favour the Introduction of a Problem-based Approach in Higher Education? A Case Study
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Saggi e ricerche

Could Faculty Development Initiatives Like
Workshops and Community of Practice Favour the
Introduction of a Problem-based Approach in
Higher Education? A Case Study
Antonella Lotti*, Juliana Raffaghelli°, Marina De Rossi°, Lieta Marinelli°


Abstract
    This article is dedicated to evaluating the impact of Faculty Development
for the introduction of Problem Based Education in higher education. A
bachelor’s science degree program in Animal Care at the University of Padua
has decided to introduce Problem Based Learning in an entire semester, as a
first propaedeutic attempt at transforming the entire educational pathway. The
transformation process was made possible by several elements: a Faculty
Development program that allowed teachers to approach the PBL method and
the creation of a Community of Practice (CoP) among the teachers. A
preliminary evaluation of the impact of the Faculty Development program was
conducted and the article describes some results: Faculty Development
initiatives were effective, participants learned meaningfully, and enjoyed
formal and in group training activities. Participants increased their motivation
to teach according to the PBL approach for an entire semester. Participants were
also motivated to create some Faculty Learning Communities (FLC), a special
type of CoP in which Faculty members learn informally in group.

Key words: Higher education, Faculty Development, Problem Based Learning,
Community of Practice


Article submitted: 30/09/2022; accepted: 17/11/2022
Available online: 20/12/2022




*
    University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
°
    University of Padova.

Excellence and Innovation in Learning and Teaching (ISSNe 2499-507X), 2022, 2

Doi: 10.3280/exioa2-2022oa15078




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Introduction

     The Bologna Process aimed to create a European Higher Education Area
through the achievement of quality assurance of study programs and student-
centred education.
     Twenty years later, there are delays in the adoption of a student-centred
system.
     Change is needed and the European University Association (EUA) recalls
that student-centred education is an approach that replaces purely transmissive
models with an outcome-based perspective, implemented through new
approaches to teaching and learning, and curricula that are more clearly student-
centred. It also suggests using teaching strategies such as problem-based
learning or research-based learning (Gover et al., 2019).
     Introducing change is very difficult in Higher Education institutions, which
are bound by centuries of established tradition, where the lecturer is the one
who transmits his knowledge via the ex-cathedra lecture.
     The literature shows that change can be introduced through Faculty
Development (FD), i.e. through the development of university lecturers'
teaching skills. Steinert, in two systematic reviews conducted 10 years apart,
states that lecturers who participate in training activities introduce changes in
their teaching (Steinert et al., 2006; Steinert et al., 2016). However, there is very
little research dedicated to the role of Faculty Development and the adoption of
Problem Based Learning in Higher Education.
     FD is a focused term that covers a range of activities designed to improve
student learning and to help faculty improve their competence as teachers (Eble
& McKeachie, 1985).
     There are numerous FD approaches, which can be summarized in five
macro-areas, according to Yvonne Steinert’s model (Steinert, 2014):
1. Informal individual approaches (reflecting on experiences, learning by
     observing, learning by doing);
2. Formal individual approaches (online learning, student feedback, peer
     coaching);
3. Informal group approaches (work-based learning, Communities of Practice
     or CoP);
4. Formal group approaches (workshops and courses, fellowships and others,
     longitudinal programs)
5. Mentoring.




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Figure 1 - Approaches to FD (Steinert, 2014)




    The most popular methods are face-to-face or online workshops, long
courses also in the form of retreats, and CoPs.
    The workshops are a usually brief, intensive educational program for a
relatively small group of people in a given field that emphasises participation
in problem solving efforts. Steiner states that “workshops are a common format
for facilitating knowledge acquisition, attitudinal change, and skill
development for learners at all levels of the educational continuum. Workshops
rest on the premise that active participation and involvement are a prerequisite
for learning and that “learner must be attentive and motivated for learning to
occur” (Steinert, 2010).
    The Community of Practice (CoP) is a concept coined by two
anthropologists, Etienne Wenger and Jane Lave, in the early 1990s that defines
groups of people, united by the same domain or field of interest, who come
together to exchange practices, learn from each other, and develop a sense of
belonging and community (Wenger, 1998). Within universities, CoP are also
used in the version introduced by Michael Cox more than forty years ago and
are characterized by the creation of a group of lecturers who commit to working
together for a certain period (usually an academic year) to explore a topic of
common interest or to design a new curriculum together, as in the case of the
introduction of PBL (Cox, 2004).
    EUA suggests introducing PBL which is both a teaching method and a
curriculum organizer.



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    PBL is a teaching strategy that has its roots in the thought of John Dewey
(1933) and that was first introduced in the university sphere in the early 1970s
at McMaster University in Canada (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980). This first
experience allowed to discover the possibility of training future physicians by
means of an interdisciplinary module curriculum in which students, divided
into small groups and led by a tutor, learned in a self-directed way the basic and
clinical disciplines, starting from the analysis of complex clinical situations of
realistic patients (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993). As early as the 1970s and 1980s,
degree courses organised in interdisciplinary modules began to spread,
favouring PBL for the training of physicians in the Netherlands in Maastricht,
in the USA and in Australia, and subsequently for the training of engineers,
economists, health professions, psychologists and veterinarians on all
continents.
    The wide diffusion of PBL has caused great diversity in the adoption of the
model and today we can count numerous reference models, which differ in the
extent to which PBL is used as a teaching and learning method for the entire
degree course, or simply as a teaching method within a discipline, in the size of
the groups, in the style of the facilitators' conduct, in the process proposed to
the students, and in the breadth of the problem (e.g. one problem per week, one
problem per semester, one problem per day). Nevertheless, there is a common
agreement in stating that PBL is characterised by the presence of the following
key elements:
● the use of problems as the starting point of learning;
● students collaborate in small groups for part of the time;
● flexible guidance by the tutor;
● number of lectures is limited;
● learning is student-centred;
● ample time for independent study must be provided.
    This complex advancement of PBL, and the difficult implementation of the
approach makes it particularly challenging for academics without experience in
active methods. Specific content creation to address the students’ activity, the
orchestration of the students around the problems, the interdisciplinary
configuration of the problems, require careful attention not only in designing a
PBL intervention, but also in training the teaching staff that will implement it
(Lotti, 2018).


Context of the Intervention

   The University of Padua is very attentive to the quality of teaching and
promotes the introduction of student-centred education through the adoption of

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non-transmissive teaching models and supporting innovative two-year projects
proposed by its departments. It has established a strategic action aimed at
introducing active teaching in Higher Education, namely “T4L”
(https://www.unipd.it/teaching4learning).          The     PBL’s      skills-oriented
professional development program is indeed closely related to the redesign and
retraining      of    an     entire      “Animal      Care”    university      course
(https://www.unipd.it/en/educational-offer/first-cycle-degree/agricultural-
sciences-and-veterinary-medicine). The Department of Comparative
Biomedicine and Food Science in 2021 proposed a two-year project aimed,
among other things, at conducting a one-semester trial to test the effectiveness
of student-centred teaching, using PBL as a curriculum organiser and teaching
strategy.
    The aim of the project was to plan the semester in a sequence of
interdisciplinary modules lasting three to five weeks in which the students,
divided into small groups, would analyse and discuss an emblematic problem.
    The Faculty members therefore had to change their role as lecturers passing
on their knowledge in lectures and play four new roles: planners of
interdisciplinary modules, creators of problems to propose to their students,
facilitators of small learning groups and evaluators. The project included many
FD activities: PBL retreats, workshops on assessment and the launch of a
Faculty Learning Community, or Community of Practice (CoP).
    The retreats took place in January and June 2022, and lasted two days each,
the workshops took place both in-person and online and were 4 in number. The
CoP was created after the first retreat and continues throughout the project.
    By the end of the first retreat, the participants had decided to adopt the Dutch
model of the Maastricht PBL, which involves one problem per week for each
group of students. In addition, the participants planned the semester in 4
interdisciplinary modules dedicated to four professional competences of the
animal care keeper: update, research, management and clinical (Table 1).

Table 1 - The semester organised in modules

  Module/              Module                       Module        Module       Module
   Block         Dr. Google vs Pubmed              Management     Clinical     Research

   Length                1 week                      4 weeks       3 weeks      5 weeks

   During the works of the Faculty Learning Community, the groups of
teachers have planned the weeks according to the model of the typical week
which foresees that each group opens the problem on Monday and closes it on
Thursday. Between the first and second sessions, students can study in a self-


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directed way and participate in field visits and practical activities in the
laboratory (Fig. 2).

Figure 2 - A typical week




   The problem is analysed and discussed according to the 7 jumps method of
the PBL of Maastricht University (Fig. 3).

Figure 3 - Seven Jumps PBL at Maastricht University




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Methodological Approach

    The effectiveness of FD has been linked in the literature to projects that
evolve over time and that are attributable to the logic of institutional
transformation (Grover et al., 2016; Ranieri et al., 2019). The idea of separate
or focused courses has been largely overcome by approaches based on peer-
coaching, professional learning based on problem solving and in particular on
CoP (Steinert, 2020) as it has been consolidated as an approach for adult
learning in general (Schreurs et al., 2016). However, the evaluation of
integrated and longitudinal interventions imposes several methodological
difficulties (Charlier & Lambert, 2020). In particular, the adoption of mixed
methods that can sometimes be intrusive for an extremely high and autonomous
level of professionalism, such as that of the university teacher, implies an
accurate planning of the moments and the tools aimed at the collection of
essential data that certify the effectiveness and impact of training interventions.
Nevertheless, the number of participants depends very much on the
characteristics of the projects and levels of specialization in training.
Sometimes, numbers that allow inferential statistical analysis are not reached.
In fact, the literature reports integrated approaches that invite “complexity”
(Fernandez & Audétat, 2019). In short, FD strategies that grasp moments,
products, reflections, not in a definitive way but in relation to the objectives of
institutional development. Leadership also appears to be a fundamental
component when obtaining participation and therefore systematic data
collection along the various phases of a program (Tsoh et al., 2019).
    Having considered these assumptions, we carried out a study contextualized
within the major T4L Padova University teaching innovation project and the
Animal Care course. This context lays the foundations for a systematic and
longitudinal analysis, of which this article reports the first phase. Such phase
consisted in the direct training of the participants by expert teachers in PBL and
the consequent first phase of informal professional learning aimed at deepening
the design of PBL paths to be implemented in the immediately following
semester.

Data collection

    The research questions (RQ) that guided this preliminary work were:
    RQ1 - Considering the different profiles of the participants, was the direct
training intervention effective in terms of understanding the topic (PBL) and
intention of applying it in class?
    This question sought to explore the following subsidiary research questions:


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● What are the profiles of the teachers involved in didactic innovation, and in
   experimenting with teaching in interdisciplinary modules that favour PBL
   as a teaching method?
● What attitude do these teachers who participate have towards teaching: are
   they more teacher-centred or more student-centred?
● Do the lecturers appreciate FD activities?
● Are formal and group-based FD activities effective in imparting knowledge
   and skills in innovative didactics, particularly on PBL?
   RQ2 - After the direct and formal meetings, does the self-directed and group
informal professional learning activity indicate basic forms of consolidation of
a CoP aimed at improving PBL-mediated teaching?
   This second question aimed at getting answers to the following subsidiary
research questions:
● Do Faculty Development activities motivate teachers to undertake teaching
   experimentation involving redesigning their course and changing their
   teaching style?
● Do informal Faculty Development activities, such as Communities of
   Practice or Faculty Learning Communities, support teaching change?
   Table 2 displays the variables explored and the tools used to answer these
two questions.

Table 2 – Variables adopted in the study

                                                RQ 1
       Variables               Instruments          Levels and descriptors
 Participants’ profiles:   Test COLT                Female, Male, Other
 Gender,                   (Conceptions On          Years of teaching 0-2, 3-5, 6-10, 11-15,
 Experience in             Learning And             more than 15.
 Teaching,                 Teaching ) (Jacobs       The teacher conception of teaching,
 Conceptions on            et al., 2012), Italian   addressing three types of approaches:
 Learning and              standardized version Active Learning conception, Traditional
 Teaching                  (Rampoldi, 2021)         conception, Mixed conception
                                                    Self-reported measures, voluntary,
                                                    anonymous
 Topics                    Pre and Post-Test        Test consisting of 10 questions relating to
 Knowledge and             On PBL concepts          the topics of training delivered formally by
 Understanding                                      expert teachers.(Grades, 1 to 10)
                                                    Objective measures, Voluntary, non-
                                                    anonymous




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 Perceived impact of       Final Participants’        Opinion of the teacher collected with Likert
 the training on           Survey                     scale starting from direct questions related
 professional learning                                to the quality of the trainer, of the content,
                                                      of the average time dedicated to the main
                                                      activities and concepts on PBL.

 Intention to use (apply                          Opinion of the teacher collected with Likert
 the specific                                     scale with respect to their intentions to
 knowledge achieved                               apply the PBL and to socialize it with other
 to further professional                          colleagues.
 practice)                                        Self-reported measures, voluntary,
                                                  anonymous
                                              RQ 2
        Variables              Instruments                   Levels and Descriptors
 Participation in          Three-month            Number of meetings as option between: 0-
 informal professional     follow-up              2, 3-5, more than 5
 learning activities.      questionnaire after
                           the formal training
 Type of activity          provision              Themes of the meetings, multiple answers
 developed among                                  possible:
 peers and perceived                              • Design supplementary PBL activities
 professional learning                            • Selection of evaluation methods and
                                                  construction of assessment tools
                                                  • Syllabus Design
                                                  • Design problem situations for PBL
                                                  sessions
                                                  • Design of interdisciplinary training
                                                  modules
                                                  • The role of the PBL tutor and the
                                                  facilitation of PBL groups.
 Impact perceived                                 Agreement/Disagreement Likert Scale
 from involvement in                              Self-reported measures, voluntary,
 informal professional                            anonymous.
 learning activities.


Data Analysis

   As regards the analysis of the data, descriptive techniques of mono- and bi-
or multivariate statistics have been applied to all variables. The graphs have
been created with the aim of analysing trends or phenomena of relevance that
guide the inferential statistics and the discussion. The learning level was
analysed by means of a non-parametric comparison test between two means
(Wilcoxon). The relationship between the perceived impact and the intention
of using the PBL or socialization was analysed with the non-parametric test of
correlation between Spearman variables. The Kruskall-Wallis test was adopted
as robust, non-parametric test to analyse multi-level variance. The inferential
techniques are basic given the low number of cases in the sample and the

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impossibility of connecting cases imposed by ethical limitations with respect to
the identification of participants in the case of detecting sensitive information.
It should be considered that the data collected, although adopted only for the
evaluation of the program and aggregated, can be perceived by the teacher as
an element of surveillance with an impact on the concept relating to his/her
work performance and consequent career advancement.


Results

Impact of formal learning activities (RQ1)

   Table 3 reports the descriptive statistics of the main characteristics regarding
the 19 (nineteen) university teachers’ taking part to the formal training on PBL.
This table is integrated with two bivariate graphs (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5) which
explore the relationship between the teaching approach (COLT) and the
participants’ characteristics in terms of gender and teaching experience.

Table 3 - Descriptive statistics of the participants’ profiles

 N          Variable            Stats/Values               Freq (%     Valid       Missing
                                                           of Valid)
 1          Gender              Female                     11(57.9%)   19 (100%)   0 (0%)
                                Male                       8 (42.1%)
 2          Colt                Active Learning            8 (57.1%)   15 (79%)    4 (11%)
                                Approach (ALA)
                                Mixed Approach             5 (35.7%)
                                (MIXED)
                                Traditional Approach       2 (14.2%)
                                (TRA)
 3          Experience (yrs.    11-15                      1 (7.1%)    14          5 (26.3%)
            of teaching)        6-10                       5 (28.6%)   (73.7%)
                                3-5                        4 (35.7%)
                                0-2                        4 (28.6%)

   As we can observe, the participants compose a balanced group in relation to
gender and experience. Though there are more female participants (n = 11;
58%), the group of males is also consistent (n = 8; 42%). Only one teacher has
11-15 years of experience and there is a relevant group of teachers with middle-
high experience (cumulative percentage of 6-10 and 3-5 reaches the 64.3%).
There is also an interesting group of young teachers with less than 2 years (29%,
4 cases) of experience, who presumably might benefit with the interactive
planning and interactions with more experienced teachers.


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Figure 4 - Gender and Teaching Approach

      7
                  6
      6
      5
      4
                                3                                                                    3
      3
                                             2               2           2
      2
                                                                                         1
      1
      0
                 ALA        MIXED       Not-Decl            ALA     MIXED            TRA          Not-Decl
                            Female                                            Male


Figure 5 - Years of Teaching and Teaching Approach




3,5
                                         3                         3
  3

2,5
          2       2                                          2
  2

1,5
                                                   1                         1       1
  1

0,5
                            0       0                                                         0       0
  0
      MIXED ALA         TRA MIXED ALA            TC MIXED ALA                TRA MIXED ALA           TRA
              less_than_2                3-5                      6-10                       11-15



   As for the COLT we observe that most female participants prefer active
learning methods (6/11 females and 6/19 teachers) whereas the teachers with a
MIXED approach (namely, one that embraces a traditional perspective on
teaching but has also a positive disposition towards active learning methods)
are distributed between females and males (3 and 2 respectively).



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    The two approaches are equally distributed between the teachers with
different levels of expertise. Nonetheless, most teachers’ preferring an active
learning approach are in the middle of their careers, (3 respondents ALA have
3-5 years of experience and 3 have 6-10).
    Having analysed the group’s main characteristics, let us consider the
learning achievements in terms of knowledge and understanding of the PBL.
Outcomes of the pre- and post-test design are reported in the Table 3. This
exploration already displays a consistent difference, taking into consideration
the different grades got between the pre- and the post-tests, and the close values
of the mean and the median with rather low standard deviation and IQR. The
skewness moves from a little orientation to the left (positive) distribution (i.e.
lowest grades) to a more evident right (negative) distribution (i.e. highest
grades). The distribution can be considered platykurtic (for both cases, > 3.0),
which highlights that there are rarely or no outliers, with scores concentrated
near the central tendency measures.
    Nonetheless, given the little number of participants and the non-randomized
composition of the group, robust statistics where preferred for testing the
hypothesis of impact of the professional development intervention over
participants learning.

Table 3 - Participants learning outcomes – Descriptive statistics

 N=19         Mean   Std. Dev   Min   Q1     Median                 Q3          Max      IQR
 Pre-test     5.89   1.13       4.00  5.00   6.00                   6.00        1.48     1.00
 Post-test    8.77   1.17       7.00  8.00   9.00                   10.00       1.48     2.00
 (Table continues)
   N=19         CV Skewness SE. Skewness    Kurtosis                 N. Valid          % Valid
 Pre-test      0.19 0.20      0.54         0.61                     18.00              94.74
 Post-test     0.13 -0.46     0.62         -1.38                    13.00              68.42


   The results of Wilcoxon rank sum test with continuity correction were
significant at the cutoff level of .05 (W = 10, p = 1.498e-05) showing that the
participants improvement on knowing and understanding PBL was not due to
the case but to a clear effect of the intervention.
   The participants’ perceptions about the course’ effectiveness were also
explored, considering the self-reported measures also as a good proxy of
motivation and particularly of intention to adopt the knowledge achieved. The
Figure 6 display such results.
   We observed in this case that all the measured parameters were high in the
scale 1-5. However, the Impact (mean score 4.89), the Relevance of the topic
(4.74), the possibility of practicing some techniques relating to the PBL (4.74)
and the intention to use the knowledge achieved (4.78) were consistently

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evaluated with the highest scores. There were slightly fewer positive opinions
around the time available to achieve the course contents, both for the practice
and the theory of PBL.

Figure 6 – Participants opinion on the course




      Intention_Use                                    4,78
               Place                                 4,53
      Time_Practice                              4,21
       Time_Theory                               4,16
            Support                                  4,63
            Practice                                   4,74
       Organisation                                  4,58
             Impact                                     4,89
          Relevance                                    4,74

                       0,00      1,00           2,00           3,00    4,00           5,00


   The Spearman Rank Correlation Rho test yielded a significant result at the
cutoff value of .05 (S = 466.21, p = 0.02735) for the relationship between
perceived workshop’s impact and relevance and intention to use the knowledge
achieved both in their classroom and their networks.

Prosecution of informal learning activities: basis for the Faculty
Learning Community (RQ2)

    The analysis of the teachers’ self-reported indications about their informal
learning activity yielded relevant results relating the main topics dealt with and
the relationship between the number of encounters and the perceived learning
outcomes.
    The descriptive statistics reported in Table 4 point out at the relevant number
of meetings carried out, demonstrating the continuity of the activities. Indeed,
we observe that almost 50% of participants (n = 9; 47%) engaged in more than
5 successive meetings in order to deepen their approach to PBL, to be applied
in class. There was a less but relevant group (n = 6; 32%) who took part in at


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least 1 or 2 meetings. As for the topics, we observe that the group was splitted
between a subgroup of 7 (37%) who decided to focus more on less topics,
whereas the other subgroup decided to deal with almost all the topics relating
planning a good PBL (n = 8; 42%). The most relevant topics are displayed in
the Figure 4, where we can see that the teachers were concerned about a good
definition of the PBL situations (15/19) and a careful planning of
interdisciplinary modules (13/19). As expressed in the introduction, we infer
theoretically that this continuity puts the basis for a CoP, aimed at providing
support and circulate professional knowledge about PBL. The less relevant
topic, though appearing in 7 (37%) of cases, was the Syllabus design.

Table 4 - Descriptive Statistics on Informal learning meetings

 N    Variable                    Descriptors          N         %        Valid    Missing
 1    Freq IM                     1-2                  6         31.6%    19       0 (0%)
                                  3-5                  4         21.0%    (100%)
                                  More than 5          9         47.4%
 2    N Topics                    2-3 topics           7         36.8%    19       0 (0%)
                                  4-5 topics           8         42.1%    (100%)
                                  All topics           2         10.5%
                                  One Topic            2         10.5%
 3    Further-Learning            Fully Agree          15        78.9%    19       0 (0%)
                                  Rather agree         4         21.0%    (100%)
                                  Neither agree nor    0         0.0%
                                  disagree
                                  Rather disagree      0         0.0%
                                  Fully disagree       0         0.0%
 4    Participate Further         Fully agree          14        73.7%    19       0 (0%)
      FLCM                        Rather agree         4         21.0%    (100%)
      (Participation in the       Neither agree nor    1         5.3%
      Faculty Learning            disagree
      Community)                  Rather disagree      0         0.0%
                                  Fully disagree       0         0.0%
 Total                                                 19        100.0%   100%     0%

   Most importantly, after this activity, about two thirds of the participants
declared they had continued learning during and were willing to further
participate in the informal meetings (79% and 74% “fully agree”, respectively).
The others “rather agreed” (n = 4; 21%) with both claims, and none of the
participants disagreed (rather or fully) about the continuity of learning or
participating in informal teachers’ meetings.
   In order to further explore the teachers’ perception of informal learning we
considered the influence of the number of topics the groups dealt with on the


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perceived professional learning (further learning). The Kruskall-Wallis Test
resulted significant at the cutoff level of .05 (chi-squared = 8.2286, df = 3, p =
0.042). The post-hoc analysis (Wilcoxon Rank sum test with continuity correction)
yielded only one significant difference (W = 12, p-value = 0.02), relating the higher
perceived learning by those engaging in 2-3 topics with regard to those engaging
in 4-5 topics. A possible interpretation of this result is that the focus on a relevant
number of topics (4-5) encompassed a higher cognitive effort, occasionally
accompanied by discussion between the group’s members. Such a situation could
end up in a more intense perception of learning effort. No significant differences
were found between those dealing with one and 4-5 topics or all the topics.
Apparently, in these situations too little coverage or dispersion of the attention in
all the topics is less effective in producing a feeling of professional learning.
Interestingly, the number of meetings did not have impact on the perceived learning
(the Kruskall-Wallis test did not yield significant results). Therefore, the frequency
of the meetings was less important than the number to the topics to improve
perceived learning. Nonetheless, these results have to be taken into consideration
with a grain of salt, given the fact that the sample was very little.

Figure 7 - Topics analysed during the informal meetings



                   Role of Tutor                    10


 Assessment_Strategies_design                       10


    Planning_Interdis_Modules                       13


                Syllabus_design             7


      Planning_Integrations_TL                      9


     Problem_Situation_Writing                               15

                                   0   2        4        6    8   10   12   14   16   18




Discussion

   The analysis of the results shows that the participants, mostly female in the


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middle of their professional lives, enjoyed the training activities offered
through a formal approach and emphasizing groupwork.
    The data also reveal that the FD activities were effective in terms of learning
about the PBL method as a teaching strategy and curriculum organizer.
    These initial data are in line with systematic reviews on impact evaluation,
which confirm the participants’ positive reaction and appreciation of training
events, which is a motivational response. Our results confirm through objective
measures (pre-test and post-test comparisons) that also understanding and
knowledge can be promoted through this type of interventions (Steinert et al.,
2006; 2016).
    One finding that seems important to us is that the Faculty Development
activities motivated the lecturers to re-design their teaching and to participate
in team-teaching, paying attention to interdisciplinary collaboration. Indeed,
interdisciplinary approach in teaching and research is crucial when inviting the
students to work on problems, not topics or content (Ranieri et al., 2019). As a
result, the participants, furthered during the informal work group through the
interdisciplinary perspectives, devoting particular attention to it after an initial
design during the formal training.
    Finally, the participation in Faculty Learning Communities, as specific type
of CoP, allowed the lecturers to exchange experiences, plans, and learn from
each other. In fact, the lecturers all participated in the numerous meetings aimed
at planning interdisciplinary modules in detail, constructing problems,
constructing assessment tests, and acting as facilitators of small learning
groups.
    These data are also in continuity with what was found in the literature: the
adoption of an innovative interdisciplinary curriculum, with modules or
educational blocks, requires teachers to adhere to a different teaching model,
and this transformation is made possible by FD initiatives that offer the
opportunity to acquire a different vision of higher education, to learn new
teaching strategies and new assessment methods (Des Marchais, 2001; Snell,
2014).


Conclusions

   Our research focuses the role of FD as part of the modernization of higher
education. For this purpose, we purported that FD could be a relevant driver of
change. We found this assumption to be supported by the research in the field,
in a specific way: if the professional learning activity goes far beyond the
simple course, towards a concatenation of strategies and interventions aimed at
the situated development of university lecturers' teaching skills, then, the

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effectiveness of FD is ensured. In this article, we focused particularly in two
forms of interventions: formal group activities such as workshops and retreats,
and FLCs, i.e. informal group meetings.
    Therefore, our study attempted to display to which extent such a FD activity
might be effective in introducing PBL in the context of a three-year degree
course at the University of Padua. The activity focused one of the semesters as
part of a strategic, longitudinal project that should have a prosecution in further
semesters.
    Preliminary data seem to indicate the importance of FD, in terms of
teachers’ satisfaction, orientation to apply their knowledge and engagement in
further group activities to polish and improve their teaching projects.
    The results are to be deemed preliminary, but they lay the foundations to
follow up the case and produce a longitudinal study. Indeed, the lecturers will
apply what has been planned in the first semester of the third year, and only in
a few months’ time will we be able to verify the impact of the training on the
lecturers’ behavior in the classroom and on the results, i.e. the students’
performance.
    The limitations of this work are the small number of subjects examined, 19
participants. However, the data is consistent with work found in the literature
and encourages us to go further down the road of introducing change through
formal and informal FD.

Acknowledgements: Although this article is the fruit of thoughtful work by the
four authors together, Antonella Lotti wrote Introduction, Context, Discussion
and Conclusion; Juliana Raffaghelli wrote Methodological Approach and
Results; Marina De Rossi and Lieta Marinelli did the supervision and
coordination.


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