Boardman et al. !

Quincy Boardman, Rachel Gagon, Emily Rathburn

Jennifer Courtney
27 February 2016

Addressing the Changing Dynamics In Higher Education Classrooms

Between Student and Teacher

Bettinger, E. and B. Long. "Help or hinder? Adjunct professors and student outcomes." Whats
Happening to Public Higher Education (2005). Web.
With the increased use of non-tenure-track faculty throughout universities across the United
States, there is a need to better understand the effect of part-time employees on the student
body. Bettinger and Long use enrollment and faculty data to show the dropout rates of
students who have had an adjunct-heavy first semester opposed to those who do not.
Interestingly, Bettinger and Long also highlight the personal touch adjuncts have in helping
students navigate their future schooling decisions. With lower commitment levels seen by the
faculty, there will be lower commitment levels on behalf of the student body as well.

Cheng, Dorothy A. Effects of Professorial Tenure on Undergraduate Ratings of Teaching

Performance. Education Economics 23.3 (2015): 338357. EBSCOhost. Web.
Dorothy Cheng conducts a study to analyze the effects professsorial tenure have on teaching
performance. She utilizes student surveys used for course evaluations following a semesterlong class for her determining data. She does find promotions to the tenure track do not
necessarily coincide with favorable ratings as an assistant professor. On the other hand,
tenure does not appear to have much affect on student ratings of the professors performance,
which seems problematic.

DeAngelis, Catherine D. "Professors Not Professing." The Journal of the American Medical
Association 292.9 (2004): n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
<http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=199338>.
This article focuses on medical schools, yet still discusses the broad topic of professors not
teaching. This is partly because time spent teaching in a classroom deducts from time spent
conducting research, as many universities are becoming much more research-centered. It is
the belief of many medical schools that research is more valuable than time spent in the
classroom and it is better funded by the universities as well as corporate agencies. This will
help demonstrate our thesis because it shows that medical schools are progressively spending
less time in the classroom. Thus, professors are not teaching.

Dolinsky, Rebecca. The Effects of Contingency on Student Success and the Professoriate. Peer
Review 15.3 (2013): 1316. Print.
Rebecca Dolinsky highlights many of the problems facing non-tenure-track faculty and why
these problems create issues for the students they teach. Factors such as mandated work-hour
limitations, lack of resources on campus, and a clear divide between non tenure and tenured
faculty support her argument that a growing contingent sector within the teaching faculty is

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negatively impacting student experience and outcome. This gives a broader understanding of
the changing relationship between professor and student.

Gardiner, Lion F. "Designing a College Curriculum." The National Academy for Academic
Leadership:. The National Academy for Academic Leadership, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
This discusses how curriculums are made. It lists specific things required for each class such
as having a clear purpose for the class, continually checking the progress of students to make
sure they are grasping each concept, making sure what is being taught has been researched
and is correct information, etc. This is helpful because showing what information goes into
making a curriculum and what things are required to be put in it will help us know what the
professors have to work with and what is a basic outline for all classes.

Hacker, Andrew, and Claudia Dreifus. "Are Colleges Worth the Price of
Admission?" The Chronicle of Higher Education (2010): n. pag. Chronicle. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
<http://chronicle.com/article/Are-Colleges-Worth-the-Price/66234>.
This article illustrates that the main goal of educating students has been lost. Professors must
reach out and show that they actually care about what they are doing. It also introduces the
issue of tenure and how that negatively impacts students because there is so much job
security that professors do not need to seek out ways to improve their practice. Students,
therefore are at a disadvantage.

Kezar, Adrianna. Examining Non-Tenure Track Faculty Perceptions of How Departmental

Policies and Practices Shape Their Performance and Ability to Create Student Learning at FourYear Institutions. Research in Higher Education 54.5 (2013): 571598. EBSCOhost. Web.
In this study conducted by Adrianna Kezar there is a focus on non-tenure-track faculty and
their teaching performance. Kezar analyzes the argument from NTTF that it is the lack of
departmental support which creates a decline in the learning experience, not necessarily their
quality of teaching. Her main point is demonstrating the need for departmental policies which
better guide and support the non-tenure-track faculty and thus improve their working
conditions. While she does compare tenure track to non-tenure track faculty, its brief and
clearly not part of her argument. She helps steer the conversation of a changing dynamic in
the classroom towards a source.

Kezar, Adrianna. Spanning the Great Divide Between Tenure-Track and Non-Tenure-Track
Faculty. Change 44.6 (2012): 613. EBSCOhost. Web.
This essay seems to be written during Adrianna Kezars resarch for the above essay. She
effectively describes the reality of the higher education professoriate. There is a distinct
divide found in the faculties of universities across the country and Kezar has honed in on the
problems with such a divide. Like her essay above, she outlines the working conditions and
poor treatment of the non-tenure-track faculty as a major part of the problem faced within
colleges. This seems to have become her battle cry. This research validates the effects of
seperation between full-time and part-time faculty on both the students and non-tenured
faculty.

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Kinzie, J. (2005). Promoting student success: What faculty members can do (Occasional Paper
No. 6). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.
This is talking about what different things professors can do to improve student success. She
points out that students who do more service learning and more interactive learning do better
throughout school. She also points out how teachers need to be organized and keep up on
their part so the students do not lose interest. She discusses the importance of preparing the
students for the real world and really teaching them what they will need to know. She also
discusses what the students need to learn and what they do to help their own college
education be successful.

McAlpine, Lynn, and Cynthia Weston. "Reflection: issues related to improving professors'
teaching and students' learning." Instructional Science 28.5 (2000): 363-85. Springer Link. Web.
19 Feb. 2016. <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1026583208230>.
The focus of this article is to highlight the best teaching strategies by gathering research from
six esteemed professors so see what makes them so successful. It is explained as a flow of
knowledge, decision making, action, and monitoring which is tied together with tolerance.
By finding the best ways to teach, it will help us with a counterargument, and to show how
poor professors could improve. By touching on some of the best, it highlights the negative
qualities of others.
McKinnion, Joe W., and John W. Renner. "Are Colleges Concerned with
Intellectual Development?" American Journal of Physics 39 (2005): 1047-52. AIP Scitation.
Web. 19 Feb. 2016. <http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/ajp/39/9/10.1119/1.1986367>.
This article questions the integrity of colleges by acknowledging the irrelevant things done in
a classroom. It notes than many students follow a curriculum that is not helpful and they are
loaded with busywork when they could be doing something much more profound. It also
emphasizes that students need to be taught to think logically, which is up to professors to
teach. There is a huge number of students who do not have this cognitive thinking ability
upon entering college, according to a study, and many are not being taught this, either.
Miley, William M., and Sonia Gonsalves. "What you don't know can hurt you:
students' perceptions of professors' annoying teaching habits." College Student Journal 37.3
(2003): 447+. Academic OneFile. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
This article portrays a study done on students in which they listed the annoying qualities of
professors. They listed qualities and rated them on a scale ranging from greatly enhanced to
greatly detracted from the lesson. This created a wide array of results of different things that
may be off-putting or distracting in a classroom and take away from the education. One big
issue students had was that professors evaded answering questions. The main problem, was
that the negative qualities listed between professors and students did not line up. Therefore,
many professors do not see their own negative qualities as problematic.

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Murray, Bridget. "Professors' Most Grating Habits." American Psychological Association.

American Psychological Association, Jan. 2000. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
This talks about the annoying little things that professors do that can take away from the
learning environment, such as repeating themselves, blocking the screen, talking too softly or
quickly, etc. It talks about a study that was done on how professors can improve their
teaching skills. Most of the things listed are not big things, but they all take away from the
overall learning experience. This will show us what professors should not be doing because it
takes away from the classroom, which in turn will help us know what sorts of things are
helpful to the learning environment.

Myers, Scott A., et al. "The Relationship Between Perceived Instructor

Aggressive Communication and College Student Involvement." Communication Education 56.4
(2007): 495-508. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 19 Feb. 2016. <http://www.tandfonline.com/
doi/full/10.1080/03634520701466398>.
This article demonstrates the importance of communication. In a survey of two hundred
eighteen students, the majority claimed that communication which seemed aggressive made
students less likely to ask questions, seek more information, or become involved in and out
of the classroom. This is a detriment to their education and thus, professors must be more
open and eager to help.
Railsback, Bruce. "What Professors Do." What Professors Do. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
This also discusses what professors need to do in order to be a productive teacher. It talks
about the different things professors should be doing both in and outside the classroom, not
only for the students academically, but also to help them learn important life lessons. He says
professors need to be able to keep up with things that are happening in the world today and
be able to incorporate it into their current lessons. We could use this to back up some of the
claims that we have as to what we expect from professors.

University, Oregon State. "Academic Affairs." Faculty Handbook: Promotion and Tenure
Guidelines. Oregon State University, 5 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
This is the Oregon State Faculty Handbook. It discusses not only what is required of the
faculty but what is required of the professors when they teach, such as respect students, have
honesty and self-discipline, be able to correctly judge how to go about teaching certain
topics, etc. I think that this will help with the project a lot in that it describes exactly what
rules and regulations teachers have to follow and how they should go about teaching. It will
help us know what is expected of teachers so that we can know if they are fulfilling their
responsibilities.

Weimer, Maryellen, PhD. "What Students Expect from Instructors." Faculty Focus. Magna
Publications, 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
This is an article I found online talking about what students expect from their professors. It
goes hand in hand with my first source, but now it is from the students perspective. They
give specific examples of what they expect in terms of communication, organization, and

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teaching skills. This can show us how that contrasts from what the faculty and professors
except from themselves and see how similarly they are tied together. I think having it from
multiple perspectives is really helpful and we can compare and contrast how each side sees it.

Wolverton, Mimi. Treading the Tenure-Track Tightrope: Finding Balance Between Research
Excellence and Quality Teaching. Innovative Higher Education 23.1 (1998): 6179. Print.
Mimi Wolverton examines how pressures on public universities to focus on research has
negatively affected teaching at undergraduate studies levels. Because research is so
highly rewarded in our day-in-age, tenure-track faculty are wrongly motivated towards
the all mighty dollar. Because of this pull, students in the undergraduate studies, the
liberal-arts courses found at the essence of a university education, suffer. Wolverton calls
for a more well-balanced approach to research and teaching.

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