Recruiting faculty for first-year seminars: A review of the literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.6.1.7Keywords:
First-Year Seminar, First-Year Experience, Undergraduate Education, faculty recruitment, faculty support, motivatorsAbstract
The majority of universities and four-year colleges in the USA currently offer first-year seminars in at least one format. These programs often pride themselves in recruiting from among their institutions’ best teachers to lead the seminars. In reality, this process of recruitment to teach in the program, as well as retention of faculty members who have received training and gained experience in the program, requires thoughtful strategies. Among other challenges, well-regarded faculty members often have many demands on their time already, including teaching and research. Department chairs may pressure them to focus on teaching courses that are seen as more crucial to their departments’ missions. Many institutions have found that appealing to potential instructors’ intrinsic motivations and building a strong sense of community among instructors help to recruit and keep groups of high-quality instructors. Those instructors are still prey to the challenges of extrinsic motivations, however. This article outlines and summarizes findings on both motivations and challenges shared by institutions across the USA.
Metrics
References
Barefoot, B. O., Warnock, C. L., Dickinson, M. P., Richardson, S. E., & Roberts, M. R. (1998). Exploring the evidence: Reporting outcomes of first-year seminars. The first-year experience. (Vol. 1). Columbia, SC: National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
Barton, A., & Donahue, C. (2009). Multiple assessments of a first-year seminar pilot. Journal of General Education, 58(4), 259–278.
Brown, T., & McPhail, C. J. (2011). Developing and engaging educators to support first-year student success. In T. Brown, M. C. King, & P. Stanley (Eds.), Fulfilling the promise of the community college: Increasing first-year student engagement and success (pp. 67–82). Colombia, SC: National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (2008). Strengthening pre-collegiate education in community colleges: Project summary and recommendations. Stanford, CA: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Carstens, L., & Howell, J. B. (2012). Questions that matter: Using inquiry-guided faculty cevelopment to create an inquiry-guided learning curriculum. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (129), 51–59.
Dolinsky, B., Matthews, R. S., Greenfield, G. M., Curtis-Tweed, P., & Evenbeck, S. E. (2007). Assessment Is Essential for Implementing Successful First-Year Experience Programs. Assessment Update,19(6), 9–11.
Erickson, B. L., & Strommer, D. W. (2005). Inside the first-year classroom: Challenges and constraints. In M. L. Upcraft, J. N. Gardner, & B. O. Barefoot (Eds.), Challenging and supporting the first-year student: A handbook for improving the first year of college (pp. 241–256). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Evenbeck, S. E., & Jackson, B. (2005). Faculty development and the first year. In M. L. Upcraft, J. N. Gardner, & B. O. Barefoot (Eds.), Challenging and supporting the first-year student: A handbook for improving the first year of college (pp. 257–274). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fidler, P. P., Neururer-Rotholz, J., & Richardson, S. (1999). Teaching the freshman seminar: Its effectiveness in promoting faculty development. Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, 11(2), 59–74.
Friday, R. A. (1989). Training Freshman Seminar Faculty. Journal of the Freshman Year Experience, 1(2), 57–80.
Gordon, L., & Foutz, T. (2015). Navigating the first-year program: Exploring new waters in a faculty learning community. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 27(1), 81–93.
Groccia, J., & Hunter, M. S. (2012). Instructor training and development. The first-year seminar: Designing, implementing, and assessing courses to support student learning and success (Vol. 2). Columbia, SC: National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
Jackson, B. (2000). Faculty development and learning communities. In Jackson, B., Levine, J., & Patton, J. (Eds.), Restructuring for urban student success: Essay collection (pp. 139–155). Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442922.pdf
Jedele, R., & Tinto, V. (2011). Learning communities and community colleges: The challenges and benefits. In T. Brown, M. C. King, & P. Stanley (Eds.), Fulfilling the promise of the community college: Increasing first-year student engagement and success (pp. 141–154). Colombia, SC: National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
Liao, M.-K., & Worth, S. (2011). Lessons learned by a philosopher and a biologist in team teaching a first-year seminar on “Disease and culture: Why you are a walking petri dish.” In K. M. Plank (Ed.), Team teaching: Across the disciplines, across the academy (pp. 37–53). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Padgett, R. D., & Keup, J. R. (2011). 2009 National survey of first-year seminars: Ongoing efforts to support students in transition. Columbia, SC: National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
Purdie II, J. R., & Rosser, V. J. (2011). Examining the academic performance and retention of first-year students in living-learning communities and first-year experience courses. College Student Affairs Journal, 29(2), 95–112.
Soldner, L. B., Lee, Y. R., & Duby, P. B. (2004). Impacts of internal motivators and external rewards on the persistence of first-year experience faculty. Journal of the First-Year Experience, 16(2), 19–37.
Wanca-Thibault, M., Shepherd, M., & Staley, C. (2002). Personal, professional, and political effects of teaching a first-year seminar: A faculty census. Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, 14(1), 23–40.
