Using Lower-Division Developmental Education Students as Teaching Assistants

There has been little research on the experiences of undergraduate teaching assistants, and this small body of information is usually tightly focused on traditional disciplinary concerns like sociology, psychology, and communications. Additionally, undergraduate teaching assistant research tends to focus on upper-division students. This article explores the benefits and drawbacks of using lower-division developmental education students as teaching assistants in developmental social science courses. Included are comments from students enrolled in a course staffed by a sophomore as the teaching assistant. Employing developmental education students as teaching assistants can be beneficial to instructors, students, and the teaching assistants themselves

Changes in Faculty Composition Within the State University of New York System: 1985-2001

[Excerpt] The last two decades of the twentieth century saw a significant growth in the share of faculty members in American colleges and universities that are part-time or are full-time without tenure-track status. Growing student enrollments faced by academic institutions during tight financial times and growing differentials between the salaries of part-time and non-tenure track faculty on the one hand, and tenured and tenure-track faculty on the other hand, are among the explanations given for these trends. However, surprisingly, there has been no recent econometric evidence to test whether these hypotheses are true. Our study uses institutional level data provided to us by the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis of the State University of New York (SUNY) System to begin to address these issues. In the next section, we present background data on how the ratios of full-time lecturers to full-time professorial faculty and of part-time faculty to full-time faculty changed at SUNY during the fall 1985 to fall 2001 period. Counts of faculty numbers tell one little about who is actually teaching undergraduate students and so we also show how the share of undergraduate credit hours taught by part-time and non-tenure track faculty members increased during the part of the period for which we had access to credit hour data. Section III presents a simple conceptual framework that illustrates why an institution’s usage of part-time and non-tenure track faculty members should depend upon both the revenue per student received by the institution and the relative costs to the institution of the different types of faculty. While we have no data on the costs of part-time faculty members, we do have institutional level information for SUNY institutions for an eleven year period on the average salaries of tenured and tenure track faculty on the one hand, and of non-tenure track faculty on the other hand, as well as information on the revenue per student received by each institution each year. This enables us in section IV to estimate the roles that average salaries of both types of faculty members and revenues received by institutions play in explaining the observed changes in faculty composition

Rethinking the Professoriate

[Excerpt] The American higher education system faces tremendous pressure to enhance access and graduation rates. In a period of increasing financial difficulties, how will our nation’s higher education institutions achieve these goals and how will they recruit faculty and staff their classes in the future? The answers to these questions, which are the focus of my paper, will likely vary across different types of higher education institutions and will reflect the nature of the classes that they offer and the types of students that they educate

Course-based Science Research Promotes Learning in Diverse Students at Diverse Institutions

Course-based research experiences (CREs) are powerful strategies for spreading learning and improving persistence for all students, both science majors and nonscience majors. Here we address the crucial components of CREs (context, discovery, ownership, iteration, communication, presentation) found across a broad range of such courses at a variety of academic institutions. We also address how the design of a CRE should vary according to the background of student participants; no single CRE format is perfect. We provide a framework for implementing CREs across multiple institutional types and several disciplines throughout the typical four years of undergraduate work, designed to a variety of student backgrounds. Our experiences implementing CREs also provide guidance on overcoming barriers to their implementation

Continuing professional development in learning and teaching for Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs): An institutional response

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are being employed in higher education in a number of roles and with a number of responsibilities regarding learning and teaching and enhancing the student experience. This is in addition to their primary role as researcher. Research training is being provided variously at national, university and departmental levels. Support for GTAs’ learning and teaching role and for their further development in this role is often provided in an ad hoc manner at departmental and university levels (though increasingly also through the support of Higher Education Academy subject centres). This paper outlines the approach that a large research-led university has taken to the continuing professional development of its GTAs. This is examined in terms of the initial support provided to GTAs as well as a more advanced level of support, encapsulated in an accredited Masters level course. The paper concludes with a proposal for research into the learning experience of the GTAs as well as for further research which will examine ways in which the university may support a larger number of GTAs in addition to other staff on hourly paid contracts

Recruitment, Preparation, Retention: A case study of computing culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Computer science is seeing a decline in enrollment at all levels of education, including undergraduate and graduate study. This paper reports on the results of a study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which evaluated students attitudes regarding three areas which can contribute to improved enrollment in the Department of Computer Science: Recruitment, preparation and retention. The results of our study saw two themes. First, the department's tight research focus appears to draw significant attention from other activities -- such as teaching, service, and other community-building activities -- that are necessary for a department's excellence. Yet, as demonstrated by our second theme, one partial solution is to better promote such activities already employed by the department to its students and faculty. Based on our results, we make recommendations for improvements and enhancements based on the current state of practice at peer institutions.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures. For better quality figures, please download the .pdf from http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/research/techreports.php?report=UIUCDCS-R-2007-281

Independent Colleges and Universities in a Time of Transition

[Excerpt] I am going to discuss the stresses that the American higher education system is now under, the changes that we have seen in American higher education over the last three decades - many which predate the great recession - and how CIC members have responded, and might respond in the future, to these changes. A message that I hope you will take away is that I believe you have a unique advantage relative to your public sector counterparts because of the difference in the governance structures and financial models under which you operate. I will conclude by speculating a bit about what the future will hold for all of us