Training Practitioner Adjuncts: A Workbook for Increasing Educator Effectiveness

Copyright © 2014, Peg Jackson & Associates

All rights reserved.

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Peg Jackson & Associates

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All URL addresses and links listed in the workbook were correct at the time of printing.

Design and editing by Lauren Hauptman Ink, www.laurenhauptmanink.com

Training Practitioner Adjuncts: A Workbook for Increasing Educator Effectiveness / Paul C. Jackson & Peggy M. Jackson. 1st ed.

E-Book ISBN: 978-0-9962091-1-3

Print ISBN: 978-0-9962091-0-6

Table of Contents

Introduction

How to Use this Book

1. What’s a Practitioner Adjunct?

Who Are Practitioner Adjuncts?

Why Are Practitioner Adjuncts Important?

Correlation of Student Outcomes and Perceived Adjunct Effectiveness

What Is the Current State of Adjuncts in Higher Education?

Learning How an Institution Operates: Cultural Socialization

Teaching Skills

Technology and Learning

Participation and Assessment

Takeaways

2. Recruiting and Hiring Quality Practitioner Adjuncts

How to Effectively Recruit and Hire Practitioner Adjuncts

Important Considerations in Hiring Practitioner Adjuncts

The Value Proposition in Retaining Practitioner Adjuncts

Takeaways

3. The Jackson Model© for Practitioner Adjunct Faculty Development

How Does the Model Work?

Value Proposition of Practitioner Adjunct Faculty Development

Designing the Practitioner Adjunct Training Program: Worksheets

Takeaways

4. Institutional and Departmental Orientation

Comprehensive Orientation Program

Institutional Orientation

Departmental Orientation

Recommendations for Successful Orientations

Takeaways

5. Mentoring

Mentoring or Peer-Support Program

Department Meetings

Additional Faculty Development

Takeaways

6. Year-Long Training

Training Practitioner Adjuncts

Put What’s Important First

Techniques and Methods of Teaching

Online Training for Practitioner Adjuncts

Recognition for Completion of Practitioner Adjunct Faculty Training

Takeaways

7. Follow-Up and Continuous Improvement

Meaningful Follow-Up and Assessment

Match the Training to the Need

Focus on Adult Learners

Two-Year Update

Learning Community

Takeaways

8. Jumpstarting Your Plan

Effective Adjunct Faculty Development Programs

Takeaways

Appendix:

Worksheets: Designing the Practitioner Adjunct Training Program

Using the Worksheets

Structure of the Worksheets

Worksheet Objectives

About the Authors

References

Adjunct faculty members make up an increasing percentage of the faculty in higher education. By some estimates, the percentage may be as high as 70 percent. Many of these adjunct faculty members are practitioners: individuals who work full time in business, industry or government, or who have recently retired. Practitioners bring a great deal of experience, real-world knowledge and practical examples to classrooms, labs, studios and clinics. Additionally, they bring contacts with other people in business, industry, the arts and government. As adjunct faculty members, these practitioners are vital resources for programs that train students for immediate employment.

To be successful in the classroom, these practitioners need orientation and training to gain the tools and understanding of higher education needed to transfer their experience into effective teaching and learning. Preparing practitioner adjunct faculty is a key management issue for higher education. The cost of replacing practitioner adjunct faculty both in terms of hiring costs and lost expertise is significant. Properly training adjuncts can reduce this turnover. Additionally poorly trained practitioner adjuncts have the potential to diminish quality of teaching in both traditional and virtual classrooms. This is a cost to the entire academic community. Training this large segment of the faculty population is an essential part of promoting student success.

However, despite the high numbers and importance of practitioner adjunct faculty, development programs for them are far from comprehensive - if they exist at all.

This workbook presents a user-friendly model for a practitioner-adjunct faculty development program for higher-education institutions that will help these important members of the higher-education faculty become more effective educators.

The comprehensive Jackson Model© for Practitioner Adjunct Faculty Development:

Describes what should be included in a faculty development program for practitioner adjuncts

Is set up so institutions can use some or all components

Includes a discovery element designed for institutions to match training with their specific needs

Contains an evaluation section to measure the effectiveness of the training and ensure a case can be made for the value of the program

This faculty development model provides higher-education institutions with a complete training package to get new faculty off to the best possible start in their academic careers and, ultimately, improve student success.

How to Use this Book

The beginning chapters set the stage for using The Jackson Model© for Practitioner Adjunct Faculty Development.

The steps in recruiting and hiring practitioner adjuncts are somewhat different from generally accepted protocols for hiring tenure-track faculty.

The model is presented early on in the book (Chapter 3, p. 17), so action steps can be outlined in a streamlined fashion. The chapters following the presentation of the model contain information on the associated worksheets and links to the worksheets, which are presented at the end of the workbook. The icon for the worksheets (clickable in the e-book format) note the text’s associated worksheet. The worksheets are intended not only to map out the entire process, but also to facilitate a step-by-step action guide that can establish a timeline and set of deliverables for the overall training program.

The final chapter, Jumpstart Your Faculty Training Program (p. 41), offers recommendations for getting the program off the ground, as well as examples of excellent faculty training programs. Visualize how your training program will help practitioner adjuncts feel at home in your institution, and feel empowered to provide excellent curriculum delivery. Practitioner adjuncts are intellectual capital that provides tremendous added value to any academic department. Be there to support them and keep them as members of the institution’s faculty.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the faculty training model in this book is for practitioners: accomplished professionals who have a day job.