unprepared instructors
we see this quite often whether the instructor has taught the same course or a new course class prep time is very important and necessary to first keep yourself up to date second to be able to hold accreditbilty in your class if you put out false or misleading information your reputation could be damaged it's one thing to be wrong and try to correct it. It's another to be wrong knowing that you don't know and try to wing it
Getting enough prep time is important to me. I need more than 30 minutes a day to prepare for my class, especially whenever I need to do some research to give my students updated information on evidence based practices or whatever to keep things interesting.
i agree, with our previous PD we would take a evaluation exam every 90 days that would determine if you were still capable of covering the curriculum.
Elba--
Totally agree with you! I always thought it would be interesting to have a requirement that faculty volunteer 40 hours a year in the workplace so they would have some current experience. Never got too far with that one, however.
Susan
think it's very important to encourage full-time faculty to stay current in their discipline. This requires management to support professional development opportunities
i don't understand if a person does not know the subject why is he teaching it. i see intructors put in class rooms that they had no experince from the field. yes a engine is a engine no matter what manufactor but speaking from experince is so much better.
I have developed lesson plan books. Every instructor is required to use the books as a quide. The have times,materials,discussion areas,quizzes,etc... All campuses are now using the same materials. Any instructor can travel to another campus and pick the book up and teach. However on the side note of personal experiences,instructors need to be knowledgeable and prepared. This is their greattess weakness.
Paul--
Right you are...being prepared to teeach is very important and takes considerable time. And when done correctly, seems like it is just very smooth. Done poorly, students are quick to shut down.
Susan
I have found that when I don't take the time to review the material I am covering for the day and make sure that any demo's that I may be doing are set and ready, that you can lose a class very quickly. Having smooth transitions through your day keeps the focus of the students and doesn't give them the opportunity to wander.
Frank--
That is a fascinating idea. I would certainly hope that the number of faculty who cannot pass it is extremely small.
Susan
Faculty should go through the final exam, ... and be able to pass it. Very interesting results occur when they cannot.
Rick--
Great point, and I would suspect many faculty don't actually do the exercises--I know I often just gave a cursory glance. This is an excellent suggestion to us all.
Susan
I firmly believe that as an instructor you must know what your students are encountering with the course material. The best way to achieve this is to make sure you go through all the course material and exercises yourself. When an Instructor assigns an exercise and answers question concerning the exercise, the details included in that exercise must be known. I saw the term "wing it" used in some of the forum posts. To often I am afraid instructors wing it.
Raul--
There is fine line, I think. Management should ensure that all course objectives are met in each class. That allows all students, regardless of instructor, to achieve the same learning outcomes which are necessary as students advance.
How the faculty achieve those objectives, can vary (but don't have to). Allowing individuals who are experts, but have different experiences, to determine what supplemental material, examples, etc. are included can be very helpful.
The bottom line is that the students need to come out of that class with the same skill sets regardless of who taught the material.
Susan
Regarding point 1.(not enough control by management of what is actually in the classrooms) I believe the control should be on a daily basis and through a written format, this way the quality of the instruction is built-in at the same the course advances.
Eileen--
You bring up an extremely important point about orientating the instructors! Many institutions neglect this portion and it impacts retention.
The more prepared and knowledgeable the instructor is, the more helpful they can be to students both academically and professionally.
Susan
When we have new instructors on board, it is important to make sure that they know what is expected of them and that they will be evaluated regularly based on these expectations. Being prepared is definitely an item that is included in the evaluations.
It's surprising to see that the students do recognize when an instructor is not prepared. We know to expect low scores for the newer instructors since they are getting use to the school and program, but when we see just mediocre scores from seasoned instructors, we definitely address the issue right away.
Hector--
You are absolutely correct! Not that teaching is easy, but that both the faculty and the students need to prepare.
Faculty to do this make sure a huge difference for students. It builds their confidence in everything the instructor presents (credibility is extremely important) and reinforces the importance of the subject matter. All of this makes a positive impact on retention.
Susan
I usually tell my instructors (tongue in cheek, of course), teaching is easy, it’s preparing for it that’s the tough part. If we expect our students to devote one hour of research time for every one page that they write, then we should devote as much time to prepping for our classes. It also does not matter where you got your degree or what you studied, if you seem unprepared and unorganized, your class will not respect you.
Instructors are only as good as the effort that they put in.
You need to love your job in order for you too put your best foot forward
