3/07/2006

Fostering Learning: An Adjunct Faculty Development Model

Technorati Tags: Wow! Some schools have a lot of adjuncts. then again, when I was adjuncting, there were some pretty high numbers of adjuncts in the schools where I worked.

Good idea: professional development evenings once per quarter (with dinner!!) so that they get at least some faculty development. Also a good way to get folks introduced to support personnel on campus.

Best practices in development: Feed them, pay them, have mentors, have online resources, treat the same way as Ft, workshop funds, website, target them MORE, put announcments in mailboxes.

Challenges for development: Time, pay, institutional commitment.

Process for adjunct advancement.
Orientation every quarter. (letter in contract)
Workshops every quarter.
Virtual faculty lounge.
Self-development plan for adjuncts (encouraged but not required)
THEN they may be eligible for promotion (more $$$$)

Professional development plan is developed in first quarter and implemented in second quarter.

What works:
orientation (especially for bonding reasons; lateral network)
workshops
learning commons
assimilation into institution (I think we do a good job abou that anyway)
Virtual faculty lounge (wouldn't it serve our adjuncts well if we could do this on a statewide shared level?)

Proposals:
Online new adjunct oreintation
Adjunct fauclty virtual lounge

Thats' what I love about this experience: I always get great collaborative ideas!

Thanks Cathy and Brenda!

1 Comments:

At 9:46 AM, March 07, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I found this session to be extremely helpful, because it answered the question "what might that look like" for an organized process to provide support and professional development to adjunct faculty (which my campus does very poorly).

I especially liked the proposal at the end of the presentation that we collaborate to create a statewide virtual faculty lounge for use by adjuncts, as well as other possible support functions for adjunct faculty in the statewide virtual environment. Let's do it!

 

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