APA Refresher for Faculty

I don't know about you, but I'm often unable to learn something new after only one explanation or demonstration. Even if I think I've got it, I tend to forget the specific processes if I don't do something frequently. (How do I run that stupid overdue report in Aleph? How do I delete an item? How do I set the clock on my VCR?) I hope you can relate.

Now think about how our instructors feel about using APA for citations and references. Students get the instructions repeatedly, maybe more than once per quarter, and then they get to apply what they've learned. But many instructors hear our APA workshops less frequently, if at all, and they don't have to apply the concepts in multiple papers each quarter. No wonder many instructors feel less than confident when it comes to in-text citations and reference pages.

Based on requests from faculty members during our last GAP scoring session, I decided to offer APA refresher sessions for faculty professional development this quarter. I held two sessions this week, and a total of 10 instructors attended. In the one-hour sessions, we looked at examples of paraphrases, summaries, and quotes, and we examined the in-text citations. Participants built reference citations and corresponding in-text citations. (I used modified versions of some of the activities we made for our standardized Success Strategies APA session way back when.)

For some who attended, this was their first direct instruction in APA citations even though they've taught on campus for several quarters. Even for instructors who have been around a while, this was a valuable time to ask questions and actually write out citations.

As you think about workshops for next quarter, don't forget about your faculty. Even though you've already shown them how to cite a book or how to use a database, they may not have taken the opportunity to use what you've taught them. Perhaps new instructors have joined your team since your last faculty workshop. Consider holding refreshers for your faculty members.

Now... who's going to teach me to set the clock on my VCR?