What is happening?
Why is it so difficult for faculty to see themselves serving more than the teaching role? many seem to know they are mentors and provide students care and attention and others...feel they do not need to add extra time to their day. What is happening?
I agree that the hiring process is the first step in identifying a knowledgeable, caring instructor. I have been teaching for 20 years, and have met all different types of instructors. Their personality is the key. Some people really like to help, and feel rewarded by doing so. Others have an inflated ego, and only are rewarded by their paycheck. Those types don't last too long, thanks to the student evaluation process.
Role play is a great teaching technique when not over-used. We have a Hospitality instructor who starts most class meetings wih a shourt "customer service" role play. He plays the customer and each student gets a turn solving the problem. The students get a lot better during the term.
I was under the impression that "role playing" was a tool utilized by certain teachers. It has it's place to re-inforce concepts that may not appear to be tangible. I.E. handling customer service complaints. To physically participate in a scenario adds to the learning goal of being succsessfull in their future position in the job market.
The place where the "contract" attitude you describe above can best be dealth with is in the hiring and orientation processes. Colleges need to set participation and service expectations and not the contract get in the way or become the behavioral standard.
Sometimes instructors are given more in their plate than what was first given to them and what is written in their contract. There are instructors who would flatly say no to anything extra and there are others that would be glad to put in more time.
Jeremy,
Jeremy,
Good question. We do not want to have our students blindsided when they get to their first career position.
One way to address this is to talk to the class about the types of enviroments they may experience, and then to take the students out into the envirnment. They can see and experience the atmosphere before they get to the job.
Once they return to campus, hold a discussion about atmosophere at various work places and accepted behavior in different types of work environment. Role play works well here.
The fact that a selected field may operate in a rough environment does not mean the campus has to. Students need to know what is acceptable in some environments is not acceptable in others.
But what happens when they are learning a trade that is a little rough?
Amy,
Thank you for this post. We need to always treat our students with respect. If the field they have chosen to go into is a little "rough" in terms of how individuals are treated, we need to communicate that fact without duplicating that environment.
This can be a tough thing to do. Any ideas?
I believe it's important for faculty to give students an idea of how they will be treated in the workforce but that does not mean that teachers have to treat students as though they are our employees.
Deborah,
I think the best way to address this is through the hiring process. Somehow, we need to identify the attitudes we are looking for and ask questions that require our candidates to describe actual times when they have demonstrated those attitudes. It is not easy, but the extra time spend identifying and searching for the attitudes we want will pay off.
You may want to consider taking a look at the course on faculty hiring.
