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How do tenure committees evaluate candidates

The tenure review process may be one of the most mysterious performance review processes in any industry. In most cases, there are vague guidelines and unclear expectations. As I went through the tenure process, I felt like I had done enough, but you never really know.  In large measure, the lack of clarity stems from a fear of establishing legally binding precedent as well as an attitude of “I did it this way, you can too” on the part of senior faculty. In today’s post, I want to pull the curtain back and answer the basic question: How do tenure committees evaluate candidates?

To be sure, each department, school, and institution vary somewhat on what they’re looking for and how they evaluate pre-tenure candidates.

While the relative weight of each of the 8 aspects I identify vary, I want to suggest that these are the primary criteria considered by colleges and universities across the country— no matter their size, research mission, or prestige.

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Intentionally Designed Activities to Engage Students

Everyone who teaches wants engaged students. But how do we do this? There are so many buzz words out there about flipped classrooms, active learning, and grit. The research literature examining effective teaching practices has grown, yet it is largely inaccessible.  Over 700 different journals address college teaching in various forms. How can instructors wade through this to find the most effective strategies. In today’s post, I will share a few helpful formulas and strategies to create intentionally designed activities to engage students.

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Across different disciplines, there are a multitude of instructional approaches from lecturing to discussion to peer teaching. No matter which approach is used, students learn best when they are engaged with the course content.

Engagement doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentionally designing class to foster learning.

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5 things to do before applying to a Ph.D. program

Few academic decisions are as momentous as selecting where to pursue your Ph.D. degree. In fact, I would argue that deciding where to get your Ph.D. is more influential for your academic and professional career than the decision regarding your undergraduate institution. Yet, I’m constantly surprised that more prospective Ph.D. students don’t do better homework before jumping in to a Ph.D. program. In today’s post, I share 5 things to do before applying to a Ph.D. program.

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Applying for a Ph.D. program can easily be a five to seven year commitment. The quality and prestige of your program will also determine your career options and opportunities after graduation.  Moreover, even your chances of graduation can be influenced by your choice of program.

As a result, you need to do your due diligence before committing to a program. In fact, I would suggest you need to do work before even applying to a program. Specifically, I recommend you do the following 5 things before applying to a Ph.D. Program.

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Higher ed books you should read in 2016

As the calendar turns over, it is time to make plans and New Year resolutions. One of my favorite things about resolutions is coming up with new books to read.  If you’re looking for higher ed books to read this year, I would recommend these to you.  I’ve included a mix of some older and newer titles.  I’d love to hear your recommendations as I plan my own list.

Photo credit: Michael D Beckwith

Higher Ed Professor’s 2016 Book Recommendations

1.  Life on the Tenure Track:  Lessons from the First Year by James Lang

I often use this book when teaching faculty and academic governance.  I’ve found no better book at pulling the curtain back on the life of a faculty member. An engaging and quick read, Lang’s book narrates his first year on the tenure track and shows the highs and lows of faculty life.

2.  The New Science of Learning: How to Learn in Harmony with your Brain by Terry Doyle and Todd Zakrajsek

In an accessible way, this book addresses the growing body of research on how people learn.  Both students and faculty will find useful and concrete suggestions for how to improve teaching and learning.

3.  Big-Time Sports in American Universities by Charles T. Clotfelter

Big-time sports are a significant yet often problematic aspect of higher education. Clotfelter’s book on the subject is among the most well-researched and definitive treatments of intercollegiate athletics.

4.  Degrees of Inequality:  How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream by Suzanne Mettler

Unlike most books that call for higher education reform, Mettler rightly argues to return to the days where higher education was supported and successful. Her books explains what went wrong and calls for using higher education to reduce socioeconomic inequality.

5.  Deep Work:  Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

I am increasingly convinced that the difference in productivity is focusing on deep work, the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. In this book, Newport argues for focusing on deep work and eschewing shallow work (what we tend to focus on with email and other less significant activities).

6.  The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton

Clifton, chairman of Gallup Polling, argues that job creation and entrepreneurship are the world’s most pressing challenge.  He suggests that big cities, great universities, and powerful local leaders will create the next big breakthrough.  I find his argument quite compelling and it is driving some of my own research on cities and higher education this year.

7.  College (Un)Bound:  The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students by Jeffrey Selingo

Different than many books in the reform genre, Selingo takes a critical stance on higher education, but backs up his argument well.  He argues that MOOCs, hybrid classes, and unbundling of higher education will increase access to higher education.  While I disagreed significantly with much of his argument, I appreciated the care and thought behind the work.

8.  Academic Leadership and Governance of Higher Education:  A Guide for Trustees, Leaders, and Aspiring Leaders of Two- and Four-Year Institutions by Robert Hendrickson, Jason Lane, James Harris, Richard Dorman, and Stan Ikenberry

This is another book I use often when teaching higher education governance. As the title suggests, this book is a useful guide for understanding how higher education works for everyone from new department chairs to trustees.

9.  How to Write A Lot by Paul Silvia

As longtime readers know, I spend a great deal of time thinking about how to improve writing and writing skills.  Silvia’s book is a great accessible read that emphasizes specific steps to improve one’s writing.

10.   Teaching for Learning: 101 Intentionally Designed Educational Activities to Put Students on the Path to Success by Claire Major, Michael Harris, and Todd Zakrajsek

Self-promotion alert… if you haven’t read Teaching for Learning yet and you teach college students, I recommend you get a copy. It is an easy to use guide with specific activities that you can immediately use in your classroom.

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Teaching and learning in a market-dominated environment

The question before those engaged in supporting general education is how to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by the market. What do good teaching and learning look like in an institution operating in a deregulated and decentralized marketplace with students demonstrating consumer tendencies? How can we foster a supportive environment for general education when student consumers are fueled by a desire for vocational training for economic gain?

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First, we should acknowledge that student consumerism and a focus on the vocational private economic good of higher education are not simply going to disappear.

These trends are ingrained in our students and the larger society, and the time for reversing these ideas is seemingly past.

Rather, what higher education must accomplish is the incorporation of general education principles within the specialized nature of teaching and research.

This is critical for responding to consumerist attitudes among students as well as the capitalistic actions of faculty (Bok, 2003; Slaughter & Leslie, 1997).

We should be addressing critical thinking, ethics, creating a logical argument, writing, and an appreciation of differences across the curriculum.

This type of approach to courses ostensibly designed for vocational purposes is possible, if not necessary, for achieving the proper professional training of vocational programs.

Viewed in this light, instruction can address the fundamental principles and benefits of general education while at the same time acknowledging the demands for job training on the part of students, parents, policy makers, and the business community.

This new conceptualization of general education is helpful in responding directly to the desires of internal and external stakeholders (while remaining true to the liberal education ideal), yet this does not fully respond to the demands of the business and political communities that often cite the graduate who is not prepared to enter and succeed in the corporate setting.

In order to respond to the concerns of the business community and the growing demands of the marketplace, students need to understand the broader contexts of their work.

As Grubb and Lazerson (2005) suggest: “One goal is to teach in more constructivist, meaning-centered, and contextualized ways, following the idea that students need to be better prepared to understand the deeper con- structs underlying practice” (p. 17).

The business community contends that too often the graduates they employ were trained in universities devoid of practical concerns and dominated by research-centric curricula and faculty.

As critical stakeholders in the future support of colleges and universities, political and business leaders are demanding the creation of a competently trained workforce.

This is achievable with an improved nexus between theory and practice.

General education concepts judiciously brought to bear through the use of interdisciplinary courses, service-learning classes, and pedagogical innovations can bridge the gap between the purely intellectual and solely practical.

A renewed approach to problems in this way leads to satisfying the concerns of the market and its consumers.

Furthermore, it solidifies the role of liberal education as part of the solution.

Excerpt from Out out, damned spot: General education in a market-driven institution