Dr. Karron Lewis Resume

Karron G. Lewis began her career in 1969 with a B.A. in All-Level Music Education from Texas Lutheran College in Seguin, Texas. She taught vocal music and music theory in high school and junior high. Through the years since leaving public school teaching, she has continued to be active in music as Music Coordinator and director of the Adult Choir and Instrumental Ensemble at churches in College Station, Texas, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Austin, Texas.

In 1977, Karron received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Educational Curriculum and Instruction with emphasis on the Observation and Analysis of Teaching. Her dissertation research combined this emphasis with her music background -- The Development and Validation of a System for the Observation and Analysis of Choral Conductor Gestures. While at A&M (1972-1975) she was a lecturer for the elementary and secondary education Teaching Skills course and coordinator of the Microteaching Labs.

After leaving A&M she went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she assisted in the development of Project TEACH (a teaching skills training program for Chemistry TAs). This project was funded by a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. Concurrently she was an Instructor Training Specialist for Chemistry TAs at UNL. In this position she utilized the Project TEACH materials to teach the TAs how to teach their labs and recitation sections more effectively.

At the conclusion of the grant funding period she moved to Austin, Texas and in September of 1978 she became a Faculty Development Specialist in the Center for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently the Associate Director of the Center and Coordiantor of Faculty Programs. In this position, she consults with University faculty members and TAs on a one-to-one basis to assist them in improving their teaching, conducts departmental and university-wide workshops on a variety of topics (e.g., Using Discussion Techniques, Time Management for Academics, Teaching Large Classes Effectively, etc.), assists departments in developing unified course syllabi and objectives for multi-section courses, engages in research activities, and periodically acts as a consultant and conducts workshops for faculty members at other institutions.

During the summers of 1978-1981, she was the pedagogy and microteaching instructor for a National Science Foundation Sponsored Summer Workshop for High School Chemistry Teachers. This involved exposing the teachers to a variety of teaching skills, videotaping them using these skills in micro-lessons, and providing individual critiques and suggestions for improvement. These workshops were conducted at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.

Through her work in the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD), she has become fairly well known nationally. In 1987 she coordinated the national POD conference and in 1988 she edited a book on individual consultation techniques -- Face to Face: A sourcebook of individual consultation techniques for faculty/instructional developers . She is the immediate past editor of the Journal of Staff, Program and Organization Development , the primary journal for the profession, and current editor for The Journal of Graduate Teaching Assistant Development, a relatively new journal focusing on the training and employment of graduate teaching assistants. She served as President-Elect, President and Past-President of the POD Network from 1994-1996.

Since 1995, Dr. Lewis has been representing the POD Network and faculty development in the United States as a council member of the International Consortium for Educational Development in Higher Education (ICED). In this capacity, she has presented workshops at their international conferences and discussed the development of Teaching Assistants in the U.S. at a seminar for the Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the UK.

Dr. Lewis' current research interests include the use of objective observation systems to determine teaching skill deficiencies, effective teaching methods for large groups, identifying small-class teaching methods which may be transferable to large-class situations, and the development of effective faculty development programs in the fine arts.