September 2005

Lead article: Practices used by quick starters can help all faculty use time well

According to a University of Pennsylvania sociology professor, Dan Bernstein’s illustration that is based on a faculty member working 50 hours a week (see page 2) is almost on target. Jerry A. Jacobs found that, regardless of faculty rank, the average full-time faculty member works more than 50 hours a week. About 35 percent of faculty members reported working over 60 hours a week. Jacob’s analysis was based on a U.S. Department of Education survey of more than 10,000 faculty members at four-year institutions (Wilson).

This issue of Teaching Matters focuses on how faculty members can best use the hours they devote to teaching. Many recommendations mirror those offered by Robert Boice, who has studied new faculty members for 20 years and identified key practices used by those who are most successful (whom he calls quick starters). Boice suggests that new faculty “look for simple, effective strategies that allow [them] to work efficiently amid a seemingly overload of demands for their time and energy” (p. 15).

One particular approach to shun is what Boice calls the graduate seminar method of teaching. This is characterized by “extensive, painstaking preparation with a focus on understanding and covering everything—especially on avoiding criticism about a lack of comprehensiveness” (p. 12–13). Boice notes that this approach is not only time consuming but also includes too little concern about how students learn. It creates too much material to cover, too fast a pace of presentation, and exhaustion for both students and teachers. If you extend this pattern to classes that meet repeatedly, you can see “possibilities for inefficiency at a world-class level” (p. 13).

Boice’s book, Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus, contains specific ideas useful to teachers of any rank.  Like much information about teaching, he has found that discovering and implementing effective strategies “takes less time and energy than expected and they soon save more of both than they cost” (p. 16). Taking time now to be planful and purposeful in teaching can save many hours later and result in deeper understanding and more effectual learning for students.
—JE

References:
Boice, R. (2000). Advice for new faculty members: nihil nimus. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Wilson, R. (2004, November 5). Are faculty members overworked? The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A14.