Enhancing Quality of Teaching and Learning in the US: Factors Supporting Involvement and Development of Part-Time Community College Faculty

1
Enhancing Quality of Teaching and Learning in the
US Factors Supporting Involvement and
Development of Part-Time Community College
Faculty

• Presented by Jamilah Jones

June 15-17, 2009 Golden Sands, Bulgaria
2
Index

• Research Purpose
• Background
• Literature Review
• Preliminary Data and Results
• Part A Teaching Techniques, Engagement and
  Satisfaction
• Implications
• Next Steps in Research
• Part B Student Outcomes

3
The Paradox of Quality

• The community college runs the risk of being
  unfairly judged in terms of quality because of
  its open access mission.
• 4-year Institutions Measures of Quality
• Prestige
• Selectivity
• Specialized Curriculum
• Research

4
Measures of Quality in the Literature

• Determinants of quality at the community college
• Institutional Resources
• Instructional and Management Processes
• Student Outcomes
• Value-Added Impact of Students
• Curricular Structure and Emphasis

5
Why include community college faculty(professors)
in discussions of quality?

• A salient feature in all standard measures of CC
  quality is faculty.
• Faculty (salaries benefits) are of the largest
  instructional expenditures
• regional accreditation perspective
• Shared governance model (decision making,
  budgeting, and decision making) assumes CC
  faculty participation
• The teaching and learning paradigm is inherently
  linked to faculty.

6
The Literature on Community College Faculty
Exposing the Gap

• Investigating leading peer-reviewed US journals
  of Higher Education
• 30 articles published on the community college
• 3 articles (14) addressed CC faculty as a
  central theme
• Investigating leading peer-reviewed US journals
  on Community Colleges (Twombly Townsend, 2008)
• 777 Articles on the community college
• Of those only, 11 discuss faculty as a central
  theme

7
The literature on Community College Faculty

• The utilization of part-time faculty is both a
  product and mandate of the open access mission of
  the community college.
• Industry needs lend to utilizations of industry
  professionals on a part time basis
• The use of part-time faculty at the community
  college is expected to continue to grow.
• Part-time (adjunct) faculty currently account for
  2/3rd of all US instructional faculty in the
  community college
• Teaching roughly 1/3rd of all classes

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Literature Continued

• Those studies geared at part-time community
  college faculty have largely focused on
  characteristics, satisfaction, working
  conditions, and suggestions for improving
  integration (Banachowski, G., 1996, Eagan, 2007
  Gappa Leslie, 1993 Jacoby, D., 2005 Townsend
  Twombly, 2007 Valdez Anthony, 2001).
• Studies that move beyond understanding general
  characteristic of community college part-time
  faculty, and seek to examine how the terms of
  their terms of employment affect student
  outcomes, are necessary.

9
Literature Continued.

• A few recent of part-time community college
  faculty negatively affect student success as
  measured by attrition, and success in sequential
  courses. (Burgess Samuels, 1999 Jacoby, 2006
  and Jaeger Eagan, 2009).
• What these studies do not measure are the
  specific mechanism by which reliance on part-time
  faculty reduces student graduation rates
  (Jacoby, 2006, p. 1098).

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This Study

• Purpose
• This study will investigate three variable of
  part-time faculty use at the community college,
  as potential mechanisms by which student outcomes
  are affected
• Teaching Techniques
• Level of Engagement with the Institution
• Satisfaction

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Conceptual Framework
Part A 2009
ENGAGEMENT
ENGAGEMENT
Part B 2010
Student Outcomes
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Purpose Part A.

• Our goal in this portion of the research project
  is to identify the prevalent teaching and student
  engagement initiatives and the factors that
  support their use by part-time community college
  faculty.

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Process/Methodology

• Single institution study
• Carnegie Classification Associates Public
  Suburban-serving Single Campus
• Campus Setting Rural Distant
• Title IV Participating Institution
• Non-residential
• Quantitative Study
• Survey Delivered Electronically to all part-time
  faculty

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About Northwest State Community College (NSCC)

• 77 acres, 5 buildings
• Programs
• Associates of Arts, Science, Applied Business,
  and Applied Science
• Accreditation by NCACS
• Student Populations 5,543 (73 - PT 27-FT)
• Tuition 136/ credit hour
• Employees FT Faculty -39, PT Faculty 156 ,
  Staff - 233

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Northwest State Community College Service Area
Counties Williams, Defiance, Paulding, Van Wert,
Putnam, Henry, Fulton
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Educational Attainment of Service Area
County Population (2008 Census Estimate) Population Change from 2000 -2008 Bachelors Degree Attainment (25)
Fulton 42,485 1 13.2
Defiance 38,637 -2.2 14.3
Paulding 19,096 -5.9 7.8
Van Wert 28,748 -3.1 12
Putnam 34,543 -1.5 12.9
Henry 28841 -1.3 11.1
Lucas 440,456 -3.2 21.3
Williams 38,158 -2.6 10.7
?12.91
US Census data http//quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/
index.html, accessed 5/27/2009
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Preliminary Case Study Data from Surveyed Part
Time Faculty at Northwest State Community College
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Descriptive 1 Degree Attainment
19
Descriptive 2 Teaching Experience
20
Descriptive Gender
21
Descriptive Division/College
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Descriptive Cross-Tab, Division/Longevity
Semesters 0-6 7-13 14-20 21-27 28-34 35-41
Arts Sciences 52.4 (11) 40.0 (4) 42.9 (3) 0.0 (0) 100.0 (1) 0.0 (0)
Allied Health Public Service 9.5 (2) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
Business 23.8 (5) 30.0 (3) 28.6 (2) 100.0 (1) 0.0 (0) 100.0 (1)
Career and Technical Education/Workplace Credit 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
Developmental Education 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
Engineering Technologies 9.5 (2) 10.0 (1) 28.6 (2) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
Nursing 4.8 (1) 20.0 (2) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
Total Counts 21(51.21) 10 7 1 1 1
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Descriptive Cross Tab, Feedback from
Dean/Longevity
Semesters Taught 0-6 7-13 14-20 21-27 28-34 35-41
Yes 42.9 (9) 40.0 (4) 71.4 (5) 0.0 (0) 100.0 (1) 100.0 (1)
No 57.1 (12) 60.0 (6) 28.6 (2) 100.0 (1) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
Total Counts 21 10 7 1 1 1
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Descriptive Cross Tab, Value and Appreciated/
Longevity
Semesters Taught 1-6 7-13 14-20 21-27 28-34 35-41
Yes 71.4 (15) 70.0 (7) 85.7 (6) 0.0 (0) 100.0 (1) 100.0 (1)
No 28.6 (6) 30.0 (3) 14.3 (1) 100.0 (1) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
Total Counts 21 10 7 1 1 1
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Conclusions

• Part-time faculty will be needed in the future.
• For the sake of quality, we must do a better job
  of assessing our part-time faculty.
• We must support, at the institutional level,
  maintain part-time faculty enthusiasm and
  satisfaction, while also arming them with the
  necessary tools and teaching techniques.
• The most inexperienced faculty are potentially at
  the most risk of isolation
• They report that there teaching is not being
  assess by senior faculty/deans(these reason
  should be explored)