Dr. Steve Karbowski, associate professor and chair of restorative sciences, is participating in the American Dental Education Association/Academy for Academic Leadership Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The program is designed to assist private practitioners in making the transition to academic careers and to help current faculty establish rewarding careers in dental education.

The ITL curriculum consists of lectures and small group sessions covering topics including personality and learning styles, principles of learning, evaluating student performance, critical thinking, course planning and clinical and classroom teaching practices.

The classes are broken up into two three-day sessions over long weekends with distance education modules in between. The ITL scholars conduct interviews with administrators, faculty and students at their respective campuses and report the results at the second session.

“My objective is to bring back information and ideas for faculty development within the Department of Restorative Sciences,” says Karbowski.