Page 308 - Crisis in Higher Education

278 • Crisis in Higher Education

1. To have better, faster, and more efficient education, it is essential to
prepare faculty so they are knowledgeable in content, pedagogy, and
assessment of learning.
a. All types of faculty should be subject to evaluation by students as
described in Chapter 7, be supported by centers for teaching, par-
ticipate in teaching seminars as part of their work requirements,
and have access to teaching improvement funds.
b. Full-time, tenured faculty must have the education and skills to
teach effectively and this begins in the PhD program. In addition,
the teaching performance of all faculty candidates is assessed
during the hiring process, and newly hired faculty members are
assigned to master teachers and together they create a continuous
improvement plan.
c. Full-time, contractual faculty would follow a similar process, but
adjustments would be made for faculty who have not earned a
PhD and have little if any teaching experience.
d. Part-time contractual faculty, especially those with limited teach-
ing experience and a full-time job that takes priority, may be
reluctant to participate in teaching improvement efforts. There are
two options, stop hiring part-time faculty with limited teaching
experience or pay them more for the first two or three times they
teach to cover start-up costs.
e. Graduate teaching assistants would participate in an assessment
of their communication skills, including language; have regular
teaching evaluations; and work with mentors. They would be
carefully supervised as they teach.
2. It is important to identify the capabilities of different faculty types,
know the instructional needs for courses, and match these to get
the best outcomes, meaning both high quality and low cost. This is
summarized in Table 12.1.
3. General education and interdisciplinary core courses tend to gener-
ate substantial surpluses, which are used to subsidize other under-
graduate courses as well as courses in masters and PhD programs.
State governments should create a HEC to examine these issues.
4. It is vital to improve faculty productivity by investing in sophisti-
cated, top-quality methods for communicating knowledge and
supporting faculty so they create innovative and efficient ways to dis-
seminate knowledge to students. Universities and faculty must move