Michael Palmer

Born and raised in Wyoming, Michael obtained his B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. There he won both the University of Wyoming Outstanding Dissertation Award and the Sara Jane Rhoads Award for Outstanding Research for the Ph.D. Degree in Chemistry. Upon completing his graduate studies, Michael accepted a postdoctoral research position in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Virginia. Michael’s research focused on environmentally and industrially important catalytic processes, from the desulfurization of petroleum feedstocks and the conversion of natural gas to liquid fuels to the selective oxidation of aromatic compounds. Published accounts of his chemical research can be found in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, and Organometallics.

Michael's educational development research is broad and has focused on a range of topics, including teaching consultation techniques, graduate student professional development, course design initiatives and the impact intense instructional development activities have on teacher beliefs and practices, alternative grading techniques, and pedagogical innovation. Published accounts of his work can be found in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, for example:

• Science

• Innovative Higher Education

• International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

• New Directions for Teaching and Learning

• Studies in Graduate and Professional Student Development

• College Teaching

• Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning

Michael was the 2011 Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education’s (POD Network) conference co-chair and served on the core faculty of the POD-sponsored New Faculty Developers Institute from 2009-15. He was a member of the POD Network’s board of directors (2013-16), and former chair of the Membership Committee (2013-16) and Robert J. Menges Award subcommittee (2016-18). He served as associate editor (2020-21) and editor-in-chief (2021-23) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development and currently serves on the editorial board. In 2023, Michael won the POD Network’s Bob Pierleoni Spirit of POD Award, the organization's highest award, akin to a lifetime achievement award.

With colleagues Dorothe Bach and Adriana Streifer, he won the 2014 POD Network Innovation Award for work on a valid & reliable syllabus rubric; with Lindsay Wheeler and Itiya Aneece the 2015 Robert J. Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Development for work on student perceptions of syllabi; with Adarsh Char, Lauren Kane-Sample, Chip Evans, and William Hall the 2016 POD Network Innovation Award for work on c3Design.

Michael’s current pedagogical interests include course design, alternative grading techniques, and pedagogical innovation. He has taught a wide range of courses from chemistry lecture and lab courses and applied calculus courses to a suite of 1st- and 2nd-year seminars on the science of learning, pedagogy, "living your best college life," and infinity. In 2012, he won one of UVA’s All-University Teaching Awards.

• 2023 POD Network Bob Pierleoni Spirit of POD Award

• 2016 POD Network Innovation Award, with Adarsh Char, Lauren Kane-Sample, Chip Evans, William Hall. c3Design: A Highly Interactive, Online Course Design Learning Environment

• 2015 Robert J. Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Development, with Lindsay Wheeler and Itiya Aneece. Not Your Granddaddy’s Syllabus: Investigating Student Perceptions of Course Syllabi.

• 2014 POD Network Innovation Award, with Dorothe Bach and Adriana Streifer. Measuring the Promising: A Valid and Reliable Syllabus Rubric.

• Member, To Improve the Academy Editorial Board (2021-present)

• Editor-in-chief, To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development (2021-2023)

• Consulting Editor, College Teaching (2018-present)

• Member, POD Network Core Committee (2013-16)

• Streifer, A. C., Palmer, M. S., & Taggart, J. (accepted). From expectations to experiences: Students’ perceptions of specifications grading in higher education. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

• Yik, B. J., Machost, H., Streifer, A. C., Palmer, M. S., Morkowchuk, L., & Stains. (2024). Journal of Chemical Education, 101(9), 3723–738. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00698

• Palmer, M. S., & Giering, J. A. (2023). Characterizing pedagogical innovation in higher education. Innovative Higher Education, 49, 353-373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-023-09681-6

• Streifer, A. C., & Palmer, M. S. (2021). Is specifications grading right for me?: A readiness assessment tool to help instructors decide. College Teaching, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2021.2018396

• Wheeler, L., Palmer, M. S., & Aneece, I. (2019). Students’ perceptions of course syllabi: The role of syllabi in motivating students. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13:3, Article 7. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ij-sotl/vol13/iss3/7

• Palmer, M. S. (2024). Characterizing and contextualizing pedagogical innovation in higher education. National Conference for the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, Pittsburg, PA, November 16-19.

• Streifer, A., & Palmer, M. S. (2022). 15,925,248 ways to improve the equity of grading schemes. National Conference for the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, November 17-20.

• Hurney, C. A., Troisi, J.D., Hostetler, L.A., Palmer, M. S., & Wright, M.C. (2021). What’s the special sauce? Evolution toward high-impact course design institutes. National Conference for the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, online, November 8-17.

• Improving Learning by Understanding Forgetting. (2023). Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY.

• Specifications Grading: An Alternative Grading Practice to Support Equitable Teaching and Learning (with A. Streifer). (2023). Hamilton College, Clinton, NY.

• Grading to support racial equity (with A. Streifer). (2022). Berea College, online.

• Falling from Infinity

• Borges’ Infinity

• Living Your Best College Life

• Science of Learning

• CavEd Pedagogy Seminar

• Chemical Principles Laboratory

• Applied Calculus I & II

2012 UVA All-University Teaching Award