IJHEP International Journal of Higher Education Pedagogies ISSN: 2669-2333 Volume 2 , Issue 4 © The Author(s). 2021 Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and redistribution in any medium, provided that the original author(s) and source are credited. Professional Development for Effective Teaching in Higher Education Zeynep Kızıltepe 1 * and Özlem Salı 2 1 Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Boğaziçi University, İstanbul, Turkey 2 Foreign Languages Department İstanbul, İstinye University, Turkey zeynep.kiziltepe@boun.edu.tr ABSTRACT Improved instruction leads to effective student learning, which is one of the key elements for the success of the higher education institutions. Most faculty members begin teaching professionally based on their experiences as university students, without completing any formal professional development program. The aim of this study is to investigate the needs of faculty members in a newly established private university in İstanbul to improve their teaching and learning process. Findings are based on the answers of 200 faculty members aged between 25 and 75. Besides the demographic information which included if they have had any professional development program, the study entailed a checklist. Whether they needed information about distance education (teaching methods, measurement and evaluation, student relationships); face to face education; (teaching methods, active teaching techniques, critical thinking, classroom discussion, effective techniques for large and small classes, differentiation, classroom management); and general information (techniques to cope with stress, learning styles and strategies, syllabus design, to evaluate student learning, student centered learning, increase student motivation, teaching technologies) are among the items of the checklist. Results showed that the 97% of the respondents had never had a professional development program before. While measurement and evaluation were the areas that they felt they needed to be informed the most, classroom management was the least one. As a result, a professional development program for all faculty members was highly recommended to the institution. Keywords: Differentiation, higher education institutions, professional development, student evaluation, teaching and learning Cite this article as: Kızıltepe, Z., & Salı, Ö. (2021). Professional Development for Effective Teaching in Higher Education. International Journal of Higher Education Pedagogies, 2(4), 28-37. https://doi.org/10.33422/ijhep.v2i4.81 1. Introduction As improved instruction is accepted as one of the key factors for better higher education institutions (HEIs), and student success as a priority for high quality universities, faculty members have faced challenges and opportunities due to recent technological developments and the changing demographics of the student body (Davidson 2017; Sorcinelli 2007; Sorcinelli 2014). They often begin teaching based on their experiences as students in universities they attended (Mundy, Kupczynski, Ellis, & Salgado, 2012). It is highly probable that they have not taken a professional development course encompassing teaching methods, psychology of students, student evaluation, and/or classroom management. Because of this, students may be subjected to long and boring lectures or monologues, meaningless assignments, and unrelated exams. In the 21st century, higher education is transforming itself to meet the multiple demands that society has imposed on it (Brancato, 2003). Focusing on learning as well as teaching, widening the learning environment to a more global one, the