A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF FACULTY MEMBERS TO IMPROVE QUALITY IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Nowadays, in the higher education of our country, after a period of quantitative growth, the issue of improving the quality of education has become a common goal and demand, especially in engineering education. There are various factors that contribute to the quality of engineering education, one of which is faculty members. The purpose of this study was to provide a framework for faculty members’ professional development in order to promote quality in engineering education. The research method is qualitative and exploratory, which is done through interpretive analysis of the content of articles in the field of professional development of faculty members in engineering education. For this purpose, the backgrounds and patterns presented by other researchers in domestic and foreign scientific data bases were first identified and analyzed. Then, to confirm the findings, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five experts in higher education and engineering education. During these two stages of qualitative research, a total of 120 concepts were identified and categorized into five main categories and then conceptual model design was undertaken. The framework presented in this article is a process and content model. Based on this model, the starting point for faculty development programs is the mission of the universities, and the needs of faculty members. There are also various strategies for implementing professional development programs, and the evaluation and feedback mechanism is another feature of this model that sets it apart from other similar models.