STLHE 2016 SAPES

What shapes the teaching of early career faculty? How is their teaching influenced by their teacher identity, organizational sense of belong and self-efficacy? Is this influence different for full-time and part-time faculty? These questions are examined through a proposed a model of early career work engagement, the relationships between teacher identity, organizational sense of belonging and teaching self-efficacy, and the impact of these factors on approaches to teaching for full and part-time teaching faculty. Although these factors have been studied in some higher education contexts (Gibbs & Coffey, 2004; Postareff, Lindblom-Ylanne, & Nevgi, 2007), no one has combined these important factors related to transitioning into the role of teaching in higher education, or compared the measures of these constructs between the groups of full or part-time faculty. We know when faculty adopt teaching practices with a student-focused approach students are more likely to engage in deep learning which leads to better learning outcomes (Gibbs & Coffey, 2004). In addition, more highly engaged faculty have been associated with more engaged students (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2005). By investigating the characteristics that predict teaching engagement and approaches to teaching we can learn how these factors contribute to the early career development of community college teachers as they transition from content expert to educator, and subsequently develop faculty professional learning opportunities that support the development of these characteristics.


Session participants will relate their experiences as, or with, new faculty members to the proposed model. Through interaction with various measurement tools used to gather data about identity, belonging, self-efficacy and teaching engagement, session participants will explore how these factors combine to impact approaches to teaching, and how full-time and part-time instructors may vary in their work engagement.