Case+1+-+HLC+and+Mid+Michigan+Community+College



Policy Document:
 * Relevant text is found on pages 38-40 and 48-52



Artifacts:



**__Overview __** Adjunct faculty members represent an important segment of the teaching force at Mid-Michigan Community College because they are responsible for teaching the majority of course sections offered by the college. It is unlikely that they will rank proportionately lower in number compared to full-time faculty numbers any time soon, especially if the college’s reliance on them is a cost-saving measure in the era of declining budgets. What is more, the college is already seeing increasing racial, ethnic, educational, and generational diversity among the students it enrolls, and this trend toward diversity is likely not going to decline in the coming years. As higher education becomes more and more important for more and more students, they will likely turn increasingly toward community colleges to meet their educational needs and goals. Finally, various local, state, and federal stakeholders are increasingly questioning student learning outcomes at levels unheard of in the past. Community colleges, in other words, need to show that they are providing evidence of student learning and quality teaching and learning environments. All community college instructors, then, will need to be equipped with the dispositions necessary to teach effectively in this context. Therefore, it is essential that these faculty members be evaluated in ways that support and foster the development of teaching dispositions that these faculty members will need to facilitate their students’ learning.

__**Class Findings: **__ The institution is committed to the students and identifies itself as a teaching institution.

However, there is not a pedagogical foundation required. Instead, there is more of a focus on content knowledge.

In the artifact that we viewed (Adjunct Faculty Classroom Observation Form):

There was a focus on Organization, Knowledge of Content, Differentiation of Instruction.

It is stated that the demographics is changing at the school but only one of the items addresses the ability to make course material relevant to students’ lives.

It cannot be one catch all form. It needs to be department specific.

It can be compared to a principal walking by the classroom and stopping to see if the room is quiet and the objective is written on the board.

Since there is only one person observing what happens with personal conflicts. Is the ONE view the valued view of the collective organization? According to whom?

**__Evaluation of Adjunct Faculty at Mid-Michigan Community College __**

The HLC does specify that “The organization evaluates teaching” (p. 38). Adjunct instructors at Mid-Michigan Community College are evaluated every semester by either the adjunct faculty coordinator or the dean of the particular division in which the adjunct faculty member is teaching. The evaluation process consists of two parts: student evaluations and administrative evaluation through classroom observation. Students are asked to respond to a list of sixteen statements about their instructor, on a continuum from “strongly agree” through “strongly disagree” to “does not apply.” Each statement is based on the students’ perception of their instructor’s performance in class, with subject matter, and with grading, among other qualities. There is also space for written comments.

The administrative evaluation process consists of a classroom observation on the part of an administrator, along with a follow up with the faculty member. During a classroom visit, the observing administrator responds to eighteen statements and rates each on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being “exceptional,” the highest possible rating. There is also space on the form for narrative comments and a summary of the observation including recommendations for improvement. There is a space to indicate through a check mark whether the instructor’s syllabus or other relevant teaching materials have been reviewed. As a follow up to the classroom observation, the evaluating administrator and the instructor being evaluated may meet to discuss comments and any recommendations for improvement the administrator deems necessary. Results of the observation may be communicated through writing, instead, if the administrator chooses to do so. The form is then signed by both parties and is placed in the instructor’s personnel file in the Human Resources Department. The process is repeated during any subsequent semester the instructor teaches at the college.

The regular semester by semester process of evaluating the teaching effectiveness of adjunct instructors is in line with HLC policy, but there are problems with the language on the form itself regarding what kinds of dispositions are being measured. There seems to be some tension between what the form is attempting to measure and the kinds of teaching dispositions the research says are necessary to fostering effective learning environments.

One type of tension is the privileging of certain kinds of dispositions on the form over others. Of the eighteen statements on the form, five (numbers 6, 7, 11, 12, and 16) are geared toward dispositions of content knowledge. This seems consistent with the kinds of dispositions that Nieto (2003) and Thornton (2006) found problematic: those that limit teaching to skill with content. Four of the statements on the form (numbers 1, 2, 13, and 14) are geared toward dispositions of organization. These statements attempt to measure the instructor’s ability to organize delivery and connection of content to students’ knowledge and experiences, which, like the dispositions toward content knowledge, are teacher centered. Four additional statements, numbers 5, 9, 10, and 17, attempt to measure the instructor’s differentiation of instruction. Differentiation is defined on the form in various ways, including speaking in a way that students can follow, being flexible to accommodate different learning styles, answering questions, and using technology. There is one statement on the professional appearance of the instructor, one on safety in the classroom, one on connecting with students, and one on enthusiastic and positive attitude.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In spite of satisfying HLC requirements for regular evaluation of teaching effectiveness, the artifact used to evaluate adjunct teaching privileges teaching dispositions that centers on the teacher and marginalizes other dispositions that could foster and sustain student learning and engagement in a positive learning environment. This is clearly at odds with the college’s mission and vision statements. In fact, one could go as far as to say that the form is the equivalent of <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">a principal walking by the classroom and stopping to see if the room is quiet and the objectives are written on the board. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">However, some dispositions that can achieve these outcomes are present, including enthusiasm, making material relevant to students’ lives, and accommodating students’ varied learning styles, but these are quite secondary to dispositions of content knowledge and classroom control and management. As stated earlier, students attending community colleges are becoming more and more diverse; therefore, dispositions appropriate for teaching in such a context need to be carefully defined and evaluated so that the instructors teaching the majority of the college’s students can develop and sharpen them.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">In addition to privileging a teacher-centered conception of teaching and classroom management, the observation form is problematic for more reasons. First, it seems to function as a way of providing grounds for dismissing potentially problematic adjunct instructors. These would be ones who do not maintain control in the classroom and who do not demonstrate content knowledge at the time they are observed. The punitive potential of the form is problematic, given the HLC’s emphasis on continuous institutional self-study and improvement. Second, because teaching looks different in various disciplines, the one-size-fits-all nature of the form might not be appropriate for assessing the teaching in all departments. Finally, since only one person is charged with observing and evaluating the instructor, and since the statements on the form can be interpreted with a high degree of variability, it seems problematic to assume that a fair assessment will result from just one visit during the semester by one evaluator. The question arises as to whether one person’s view represents the view of the entire organization.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Although student observations of teaching effectiveness are essential to the evaluation of college teaching faculty, both full time and adjunct, the recommendations contained in the next section are concerned with administrative evaluation of adjunct faculty. This is due as well to the language of the HLC, which emphasizes that the organization must foster teaching effectiveness, evaluate it, and sustain it as a result of institutional self-study. Therefore, recommendations geared toward the administrative evaluation process seem to be the logical place to start when it comes to fostering and sustaining teaching dispositions of adjunct instructors. Student observations have their place at the back end of the process; students should be observing and evaluating the dispositions in action (Thornton, 2006) that they witness in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**Recommendations:**__


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tabstops: list .5in;">//Institutional commitment to teaching//
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Definition of dispositions consistent with mission and vision //
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Change evaluation form as needed //
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Implement a team of evaluators //
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Communicate dispositions to adjunct faculty prior to hiring //
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Professional development opportunities designed to foster teaching dispositions //
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Align evaluation of adjunct faculty with HLC policy //

**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Conclusion __** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Teaching in the community college context is taking on greater importance as a growing body of diverse students who require some form of postsecondary education for their futures are choosing to attend a community college. Accrediting bodies are currently asking that these institutions provide evidence of effective teaching and of effective learning environments as part of the accreditation process. The teaching force in community colleges is made up of a contingent group of part-time instructors, who might or might not have had any classroom experience beyond their own as undergraduate and graduate students in a university. Mid-Michigan Community College does not provide an exception to this trend of relying on adjunct faculty members to instruct the majority of its students. Although the college regularly evaluates the teaching of its adjunct faculty members, which is consistent with Higher Learning Commission policy, the artifact used to measure teaching dispositions is problematic because it privileges certain dispositions that research indicates are likely not conducive to effective teaching and learning (Thornton, 2006; Sockett, 2009; Lund, et al; 2010). What is more, institutional conversations about effective teaching and student learning are rather quiet or missing altogether in some segments of the college, and adjunct faculty members are not being given the opportunity to develop these dispositions toward teaching, which research says can be learned (Dewey, as cited in Thornton). The evaluation mechanism used for the majority of the teaching faculty needs to be improved so that teaching dispositions can be fostered and sustained, therefore leading to greater teaching and learning at Mid-Michigan Community College, a college whose mission and vision statements define it as a teaching institution.