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February 2006

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From:
Jim Greenberg <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 24 Feb 2006 13:22:55 -0500
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Tbers, 

At the last TB we talked about faculty workload.  Below, Dr. Michael Siegel,
former professor and chair of Psychology at SUNY Oneonta shares his ideas
about faculty workload.  Please read his post and think about some of the
ideas he presents for discussion at our next meeting which will be March 8th
at 8 am in Morris Hall.

Thanks, 

Jim Greenberg




Faculty Workload
 
Michael H. Siegel
 
 
            I present the following as a series of opinions and suggestions,
but I confess to almost complete uncertainty about their wisdom and trust
you who will read this to add your suggestions to it and suggest other
points of view.  I will have succeeded in doing what I have tried to do if
some people who care about higher education will read this and offer their
ideas.  I am not unaware that each of the ideas presented below come with
negative as well as positive consequences and believe that these should be
discussed by those whose lives would be affected by them.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
 
 
Major points
 

1.     Lack of clarity about faculty workload

 
2.     Details on workload

 
3.     Concerns over stress levels of new faculty

 
4.     Suggestions to help new faculty

 
      A.  Reduced teaching load after initial hire
 
      B.   Establishing meaningful mentoring system
 
      C.  Generation of Center for Teaching Excellence
 
      D.  Some suggested books for faculty new to teaching.
 
 
 


      Just ask someone who is not connected to higher education their idea
of how hard college teachers work.  You will likely hear something like
³There isnıt a more spoiled bunch, a bigger group of losers who think they
work hard when they work hardly at all.  How hard is it to work nine or
twelve hours a week, after all?²
 
      Present such a view to some of the new faculty hires and you might get
either a blank stare or a hostile one.  Certainly it is true that most
college departments have either a twelve or a nine hour teaching load, but
that certainly does not begin to define what the workload is for faculty nor
does it illuminate just how very difficult breaking into teaching is for a
first time college instructor.
 
      Janet Nepkie, a professor in the Music Department at SUCO, believes
that the reason for such harsh judgments exist in the general population is
that we, in higher education, have done such a poor job of explaining  what
we do.  She also has detailed an extensive listing of what a workload
consists. Much of what I write in the next few paragraphs is derived from
her.
 
      What is it that faculty do beyond meeting classes for nine or even
twelve hours per week?  All faculty must spend time designing and planning
each of their courses and preparing for every class.  This is not trivial.
Designing a new course can take weeks prior to the start of the semester and
each class may well require several hours of preparation involving reading a
variety of texts and journal reports, consulting with colleagues at other
colleges and universities by phone, letter or e-mail and finally, and
certainly not insignificantly, thought ­ lots and lots of thought. Beyond
this faculty must produce and grade examinations and, perhaps even more
daunting, assign and grade papers and insure that the papers are not
plagiarized.  These jobs are likely to be far more time consuming and
difficult for brand new faculty than veterans, although there is a lot of
work in either case.
 
      In addition to time in class and time to prepare for class, faculty
are must also advise students.  This is generally not limited to formally
required  office hours but may well involve commitments throughout the day
and evening electronically.  The quality of this activity may make the
difference in the success of students and its importance cannot be
over-emphasized.  
 
      In addition, each faculty member is expected to be a part of several
different communities.  A college or university works only if faculty are
involved in departmental committees and governance; in college-wide
committees and governance, and with the townıs community.  Each of these
three activities is both important and time consuming.  Many faculty are
also heavily involved with student clubs, honor societies and professional
societies from their own disciplines.
 
      Many new faculty also want their own research programs.  In fact one
of the most severe frustrations of new faculty is their inability to find
adequate time to do a quality teaching job and do the research needed to
generate papers and presentations viewed as required for their advancement.
Many new faculty even have difficulty finding time to finish writing their
completed dissertations for publication or presentation.
 
      Responding to pressures to be not simply acceptable but excellent in
these activities is hard.  No doubt as new faculty gain experience they
learn some short cuts; they get to know the system in the department and on
their campus; in short, they learn the ropes and things become easier.  If
early problems are not addressed the following conclusions are likely:
discouragement and further increasing anxiety and decreasing motivation;
poorer teaching performance resulting in poorer courses in turn resulting in
negative student outcomes ranging from lack of learning to increase rate of
transfer; a higher turnover and a reduced coherence among faculty; hence, a
poorer college.
 
      Can something be done to help?  Is a college doomed to exhaust its
supply of new faculty and replace them with tired, worn-out, burned-out
relics?  One partial solution may already be at hand. The union has
negotiated a reduced teaching load for those faculty involved in more
demanding efforts. This has been interpreted as heavy research demand,
designing a new course, or excessive committee work. I believe that a strong
case could be made that the very fact that a new faculty member is new to
teaching on his or her own, not familiar with his or her department, does
not the way around the intricate network that is the college, that all of
these obvious deficiencies should permit the automatic reduction of the
teaching load by one course for the first year.  Such a reduction, while not
a cure, would surely help.
 
      Just as important, if not more important, is the required use of a
realistic mentoring program.  An experienced and concerned veteran faculty
member make the new faculty memberıs initial year a positive rather than a
negative experience.  Frequent contacts, a genuine interest would encourage
honest questions rather than unhelpful silence and a determination to do it
all oneself. Such arrangements certainly can prove beneficial to both the
member mentored and the mentor.  So, for example, if the new faculty member
finds that she is spending a lot of time in the first couple of days of the
semester with the mechanics of adding new and replacing those students
dropping or not showing up, an older hand could suggest ways to bring the
newer students up to speed more quickly, could suggest ways to produce a
better prospectus for the course, could suggest a variety of short cuts that
would preserve course quality but save wasted time.  One note of caution.
The motives of some prospective mentors may be questionable.  Some faculty
may have more of a need to satisfy their own ego needs to impress a younger
faculty member with their own knowledge than their honest desire to help
someone who needs help.  It would, therefore, probably be a good idea to
have the new faculty member choose a mentor after he or she has gotten to
know a few of the faculty who have been around a while. If that is done, a
temporary mentor would have to be assigned by the department chair during
the interim.
 
      New faculty could be encouraged to take advantage of special workshops
of particular interest to them.  They might also be encouraged to attend
some recurring groups such as, for example, The Teaching Breakfast.  They
could be encouraged to speak to many of the older faculty not just in their
own departments, but in other departments as well.  They can explain to
their chair what they need to make their teaching and their lives better.
 
      The suggestions in the above paragraph, while positive, are not by
themselves enough.  The following two suggestions together with others I
have made and still others to be suggested, could make a real difference.
First, I recommend that each new faculty member and any other faculty member
who wishes one be given a copy of a book on effective teaching.  There are a
host of such available and many different colleges and universities have a
practice of providing such assistance.  At the close of this note I list a
few of these books.  Second, and most important, I hope that the faculty
will act to have a new and a truly faculty-oriented Center for Teaching
Excellence established.  I fully realize that a teaching center was
established several years ago and it was closed after a year or two.  A new
center would stand a better chance of succeeding if it was set up through
faculty initiative. Clearly, such a center must be directed by a person
knowledgeable in faculty development and committed to helping to meet the
needs of faculty.
 
Suggested list of excellent books for the new faculty member.
 
The Missing Professor by Tom Jones
 
What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Baine.
 
Tools for Teaching by Barbara Davis
 
Discussion as a Way of Teaching by Stephen Brookfield
 
Beyond Discipline by Alfie Kohn
 
Teaching Tips by Wilbert McKeachie
 
A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education by Fry, Ketteridge
and Marshall
Teaching with Style by Tony Grasha
 
Teaching for Quality Learning by Biggs
 
The Skillful teacher by Stephen Brookfield
 

Preparing to Teach by Graham Gibbs and Trevor Habeshaw
                   
The Way of the Teacher by J. M. Haile
 
The Joy of Teaching, by Peter Filene
 
A handbook for adjunct/part-time faculty and teachers of adults. By D.
Greive




Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library 
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820

email: [log in to unmask]
phone: 607-436-2701
fax:   607-436-3081
IM:  oneontatltc

"Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"

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