Publication Date

2015

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Rose, Amy D.

Degree Name

Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)

Legacy Department

Counseling, Adult and Higher Education

LCSH

Community college education; College teachers; Part-time--Rating of--Research; Community colleges--Faculty--Rating of--Research; Community college administrators--Research

Abstract

This study explored the current status of adjunct faculty teaching-performance evaluation at public community colleges across the United States and how the results of evaluations were used to make decisions pertaining to professional development, employment and recognizing excellence in teaching performance. This study also investigated whether the evaluations were used to review institutional policies pertaining to adjunct faculty members.;The research questions of this study were: (1) How do public community colleges evaluate adjunct faculty teaching performance?, and (2) How do public community colleges use adjunct faculty evaluation data?;Organizational learning theory guided this research. This study utilized cross-sectional, correlational, descriptive survey approach. Data were collected through the administration of online Surveys sent to 806 Chief Academic Officers (CAOs) from community colleges throughout the United States. Both descriptive and nonparametric statistics were used to analyze data. The response rate was 18.9%.;Findings suggest that almost all responding colleges evaluated adjunct faculty teaching performance; however, at some community colleges, the methods of faculty evaluations varied by departments. The study also found that the overall relationships between predictor variables (geographic location, institutional size, percentage of adjunct faculty teaching credit-bearing courses, and union status) and the selection of specified evaluation criteria and specified sources of evaluation data were not statistically significant. Classroom teaching was the most frequently used evaluation criteria in adjunct faculty evaluation while student evaluation of teaching and classroom observations were two most frequently used sources of data. Similarly, the study found that at many institutions, results of evaluations were used to make decisions pertaining to adjunct faculty professional development, employment, and performance recognition. Mentoring was the most frequently offered professional development opportunity and continuation of employment contract was the most frequently used reward to recognize excellence in teaching. Finally, the study indicated that responding public community colleges used results of evaluations to review institutional policies pertaining to adjunct faculty members.;Future avenues of research include extending the scope of this study to include evaluations of adjunct faculty members who teach online and noncredit courses, exploring the perspectives of adjunct faculty about evaluation practices, examining the methods by which community colleges use evaluations to inform various institutional decisions, and understanding the relationship between evaluation and organizational learning.

Comments

Advisors: Amy D. Rose.||Committee members: Sonya L. Armstrong; Murali Krishnamurthi; Thomas J. Smith.

Extent

248 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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