-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy Usher [mailto:tusher@CSUSB.EDU]
Sent: Monday, April 19, 1999 1:24 PM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Accounting of teaching hours
Not surprisingly, the major concern of the faulty was heavy teaching loads.
In considering the question,
it became clear to me that the experimental sciences are getting the short
end of the stick in current
accounting procedures for teaching hours. Even more disturbing is that
traditional lecture is weighted
more heavily than other activities like laboratory time and undergraduate
research,
which current studies indicate may be more beneficial from a learning
standpoint.
Is anyone aware of some alternative accounting procedures which have been
implemented? Please be as specific as
possible.
Reply:
Lab science faculty at Randolph-Macon have teaching loads evaluated in
"contact hours" rather than by counting courses. We teach a normal load of
24 contact hours per year, with labs counting the same as lecture. This is,
of course, an institutionalization of a heavy load, since non-lab faculty
teach 7 courses, typically 21 contact hours.
Yes, we get the short end of the stick.
Supervision of undergraduate research in the context of a course is
typically undercounted, since we do not have the resources to replace that
time with adjunct or other faculty.
************************************************************************
"The realities of nature surpass our most ambitious dreams."
- Rodin
***********************************************************************
George Spagna
Department of Physics
Randolph-Macon College
P.O. Box 5005
Ashland, VA 23005-5505
phone: (804) 752-7344 FAX (804) 752-4724
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu http://www.rmc.edu/~gspagna.html