Can someone find me an excuse...?

[mandarin.orange]

That said, if you don't have good teaching evals at a SLAC or communty college, you'll be asked to leave. While some might say that anyone can learn to teach, it turns out that not everyone can. I have seen it happen before and probably will again in the next few months. A few bad evals in one course isn't enough. But a pattern of bad evals, even with top-notch research, will get you booted from a lot of SLACs. The expectations are completely different at SLACs, particularly about faculty availability. It isn't just do some research, teach your 2-3 courses per semester, serve on a committee, and go home. You're expected to be available, which means being in your office even outside your regular office hours. 

 

Thanks for this reminder. I went to a SLAC myself and the bonds I formed with professors, as well as short-term research projects, definitely were my #1 takeaway from the four years there. I would have been lost without these formative experiences and relationships. It's a good reminder that SLAC profs can't skate by, or be unavailable, in the way I've seen teaching get short shrift at my current, huge, R1 institution. This was not have this situation in mind, though, when I originally posed the question about consequences re. bad evaluations, but rather some of the earlier examples in this thread. I.e. if a grad student schedules office hours to be structurally inconvenient to the students so as to get a paper done that term (TMP's example), is there really a consequence for that grad, who is part of the more transient labor of the university? I personally have never had a debrief or so much as a peep from my superiors about teaching evals. Is a tenured professor at an R1 going to have consequences for just not being in the office half the time, during regular office hours (which I've seen several examples of)? 

 

I spent a bunch of time in the Teaching Center at my PhD University learning from the experts (PhDs in Instruction or Assessment) how to teach well, how to devise assignments, etc. I even took a graduate seminar they taught, had them review my teaching philosophy for the job market, went over teaching demos for campus visits with them, and ran lesson plans by them when I was TAing. It was an incredibly valuable resource. As someone that flailed when I first taught, doing those things and being able to talk about it in application materials made a huge difference (I've been told). Why? Because as much as I wanted to be a good teacher, I wasn't good at it. I had to figure out what works for me as a teaching style and how to translate what I do well into the classroom. That isn't always the most natural thing and it looks a lot different for me than it does for some of my colleagues and mentors. For those still in graduate school, I encourage you to take advantage of the Teacher Center at your university. It can really make a huge difference, especially if you're looking for a job at a SLAC or more teaching-intensive institution.

 

This is also a good reminder of just how many resources are available to improve pedagogy and teaching schools. I love pedagogy, discussions with other educators, designing curriculum and training seminars, and I get very stuck on "doing things right" -- interesting lessons, PowerPoints, extra office hours, long commentary on paper drafts, rewriting and updating curriculum, rewriting tests to make versions I felt were fair. It can be an absolute rabbit-hole in terms of time, leaving way too few working hours available for effectively progression on research. At this point (4 years of the PhD) I find myself very guarded with my time, and reluctant to "go there" with deep conversations about pedagogy, curriculum overhaul, and additional teacher trainings. I had two meetings this week to talk about student writing and I couldn't help it; resentment welled up that I had to do these things and set aside sample prep in lab, or wrap up data analysis, to go to a building I don't normally visit on campus for a 30 min meet re. discussing student learning in the abstract. I may punch a wall if I hear the term "microteaching" again this term. So, y'all are likely seeing that undercurrent in my posts above of where I'm at right now. 

 

** Could someone please explain what doing a crappy job at teaching means exactly? Not preparing enough materials? Not grading in time or giving minimal comments? Not being familiar with the material?  

 

This term, I have very small sections, am TAing a course for the second time around, and am reaaallly feeling the pressure of wrapping up research tasks. I find myself 1) scheduling office hours on Monday, in part because there are multiple university holidays where I won't have to do them, 2) letting my sections out early, 3) doing majority of my grading during section while students work on other tasks, 4) not looking at lesson plans until the very last minute, or deciding not to go through the effort to change that thing I know didn't really work last year. I'm not quick on the draw with their (rather basic) questions and have to look things up, or I will Romney them with, "I'll get back to you on that." These are things I would have never done before, but...my research is going well. 

 

Same as lifealive, I've also seen peers spend way too much time on teaching...not just prep for the sections they need to do as part of their univ support, but taking on adjuncting, volunteering for classes (despite already having research-only funding) in the name of teaching experience, or take shitty adjunct/summer positions in the name of money, when they may have been better served in the long term by taking out a loan to bang out the dissertation, or a manuscript. I mentioned Karen Kelskey earlier, and I like her point that offering up our labor eagerly and willingly to our department and the university in the name of student care can be a dangerous trap, with potential to derail otherwise promising careers. 

 

In the end, I think everyone -- grads, early-career professors and beyond -- must make their own cost-benefit analysis on how to spend their time. This may very well change from term-to-term, perhaps dramatically, due to all sorts of factors...class assigned, demographic of students enrolled in that class, what's going on with research and dissertation at the time, personal life and finances, etc. 

Edited January 23, 2015 by mandarin.orange