A study of professional development of part-time faculty at Eastern Community College

Abstract

This study focused on the professional development of part-time faculty at the Bonavista, Burin and Clarenville campuses of Eastern Community College. Specifically, the study investigated the occurrence of pre- and in- service professional development for part-time faculty, their satisfaction with and importance which they attributed to it. -- The sample consisted of 215 part-time instructors who taught at Eastern Community College during the period September 1987 to June 1991. The study concentrated on two major areas of professional development: pre-service orientation and in-service development. -- Data were collected using the mail-back questionnaire technique. The instrument contained specific questions about certain components of pre- and in-service as well as open ended questions to allow respondents to think freely, offer suggestions and clarify their points of view. -- The researcher found that there was a need to provide more extensive professional development to part-time faculty and to improve presentation in many areas. Regarding pre-service orientation, it was found that, overall, instructors who responded to the survey were satisfied with their pre-service orientation. Certain professional development components occurred for less than 50 % of the instructors. In the section on "conditions of employment", for example, explanation of evaluation procedures occurred for only 30.3 % of the respondents. Much improvement was needed in the area of "policies and procedures" because three of the eight areas surveyed had an occurrence rate of less than 20%. Findings from the section on "the college and its students" showed an occurrence rate of less than 50% in five of the six items and exactly 50% in the other item. Considering the importance that instructors gave to these items, extensive work in this area would seem prudent. -- The college fared better on the "in-service development" component of the questionnaire, however, in the section "support for teaching", three of the seven items showed a positive response for more than 80% of the participants. The section on "professional work environment" also showed promise with only two of the seven items indicating less than 50% in occurrence. The category where the college really needed to improve was "professional growth opportunities" where five of the eight items occurred for less than 50% of the respondents. -- The study resulted in a number of recommendations to deal with the deficiencies in an effort to bring about some real improvement in the professional development of all part-time faculty at Eastern Community College.