Everything That New And Adjunct Business Faculty Members Should Ask About Teaching, But Dont Know Enough To Ask

Abstract

This paper is a user-friendly manual designed to minimize the growing pains associated with college-level teaching. Specific topics include syllabus development, classroom teaching methods, proper use of the initial class session, and advice related to answering student questions. Many new and adjunct instructors are met with unexpected challenges in the classroom. This manual will help them anticipate those challenges, improve the quality of instruction, and allow the instructor to better meet the course objectives.

The 21st-Century Syllabus

“…Overwhelmingly, extant literature about syllabi and their use focuses on operational course norms—what to include, policies to be delineated, and structural aspects to be covered (Berschback, 2010; Cunningham & Omolayole, 1998; Filene, 2005). While SOTL literature has made great advances in our understanding of how learning might best occur, the syllabus as a teaching and learning tool appears to have been almost completely left out of the developmental conversation.…”

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) – Higher Education’s Role In Developing Education Professionals: An Evaluation of the Network for Instructional Support and Enhancement (NISE) Program at the University of Central Missouri

“…This lack of experience is primarily due to the emphasis placed on research within doctoral programs, as opposed to pedagogical practice. Balkin and Mellow (2012), Berschback (2010), Jones (2008), and Madhavaran and Laverie (2010) highlighted the absence of teaching within doctoral programs; thus, creating a need for the hiring institutions to fill this "void" (Madhavaram & Laverie, 2010). Collins and Pratt (2011) articulated five perspectives on teaching (transmission, apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, and social reform) as captured in the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI), a self-scoring inventory used to assess the value of a pedagogical approach, as well as defining the relationship between an instructor's beliefs about teaching, intentions held, and resulting actions taken in the classroom.…”

Higher Education Support for Adjunct Faculty on Institutional Websites

“…In many cases, a new adjunct faculty member is brought into a teaching situation with little or no readily-available information about what is expected from or available to them as adjunct faculty. However, the learning curve could have been shorter (Berschback, 2010).…”