This is a topic that may (or may not) be of interest.
With some new administrators here, we are being put under pressure to
justify our smaller class sizes (24 rather than 40, 32 rather than 64, etc)
and also under some pressure about how labs are counted into faculty load.
Neither of these are directly the question though--just the background.
What we are really concerned about within a Chemistry/Physics department at
a small College is the fact that the time involved in teaching our courses
seems to have grown so much, that short of summers or sabbaticals there is
virtually no time to do research/scholarly activity. This wasn't the case
25 years ago even though the standard teaching loads then were 12/12
(contact hours) and are now 12/9 (I'm doing 13/13 which is more or less
typical for me. ;-)
What's happened in those 25 years? Are other science departments having the
same problem (seems not so bad in our Biology department or some other
departments on campus)? Are we doing something different or wrong?
Some suggested problems/reasons:
Increased College activity: Too many self-studies, strategic plans, new
gen-ed curricula, assessment studies, etc.
Increased numbers of recommendations: Most sophomores and juniors now are
doing summer research at other sites--requiring letters of recommendation.
This is in addition to normal senior letters.
TECHNOLOGY! This seems to rob us of time--good example, lists like this.
25 years ago we spent no time writing notes like this or responding to them.
But we also were fairly isolated with little professional contact with our
peers. Preparing classes for computer presentation, writing/using other
computer aids such as simulations, posting work to web based utilities such
as Blackboard, etc. all seem to take more time rather than less. Another
example: I just spent 2 hours preparing a Word document with the solutions
to the test my one class will take Friday so that after the test I can post
this on Blackboard. In the past, I would just slap up some hand written
solutions on the wall outside my office. When Blackboard first appeared, I
just scanned my hand-written solutions in a graphic that I posted. To be
sure--I could go back to either of those previous ways. The scanned posting
isn't as legible, but would serve. The wall posting demands time from
students to come stand outside my office and copy solutions--time THEY don't
seem to have! Are we now trapped into a system of presentation and
archiving materials that is robbing us of hours a week?
PEDAGOGY It takes a lot more time to craft a good class presentation taking
cues from some of the Physics Educational Research than to walk in a work a
few examples from the book. It seems that 'new' pedagogy is a more time
consuming pedagogy.
So...what do others think? Are you experiencing these problems at your
schools--I doubt we are unique, but then we could be. What are some other
possible causes? Are there solutions?
{We are also being asked to prove that smaller classes are superior to large
ones. Are they? Any research out there--especially in Chemistry--to
support classes based on one lab section rather than large classes with many
lab sections. Any other comments on this?}
Rick
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Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
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Free Physics Software
PC & Mac
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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