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Adhere To Your Style But Be Flexible While Transitioning From One Institution To Another

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Conference

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Honolulu, Hawaii

Publication Date

June 24, 2007

Start Date

June 24, 2007

End Date

June 27, 2007

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Tagged Division

New Engineering Educators

Page Count

15

Page Numbers

12.182.1 - 12.182.15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--1802

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/1802

Download Count

319

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Paper Authors

biography

Claude Villiers Florida Gulf Coast University

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CLAUDE VILLIERS is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Villiers is a McKnight Fellow. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Materials and Construction from the University of Florida in 2004. Previously Dr. Villiers was an Assistant Professor at The City College of New York. Prior to this position, he was employed by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) as a research engineer. Dr. Villiers also was employed by The University of Florida and worked on several projects sponsored by the FDOT and the Federal Highway Administration.

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Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Adhere to your Style but be Flexible while Transitioning from One Institution to Another: A Case Study in Assessment Teaching Style

Abstract

Adjusting to new and different institutional settings remains a challenge for young faculty members. It is argued that one should not change their teaching pedagogy, for instance, in the first year or two, to adapt to a new institutional culture. A literature review reveals some tips and advice to new faculty to be successful in academia. Oftentimes, these guidelines are general in nature and require interpretation to fit one’s actual needs and struggles. A civil engineering graduate of the University of University of Florida (UF), the author’s first academic post was at The City College of New York (CCNY). These two institutions differ in teaching atmosphere, research environment, history, demographics, and culture. In this paper, the author highlights the lessons he learned as a new faculty member while adapting to a new institutional environment. He believed that the use of visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations and video clips were a proven teaching method. However, most faculty members at CCNY were convinced that such an approach would not be effective given that all the graduate classes were held in the evenings and 90 percent of the students held full-time employment. Based on surveys conducted in four separate evening classes during four different semesters, both the author’s performance rating and student learning levels improved in quality while the method of teaching remained unchanged. The results of these findings were based on both student and senior faculty evaluations of the author’s teaching style. This paper represents a successful case study of the author’s struggles while transitioning into a new institution. Some measures, which are presented in this paper, may be helpful, especially to new faculty, to ensure smooth integration into a particular school’s culture.

Introduction

Adjusting to new and different institutional settings remains a challenge for young faculty members. There are helpful materials that are provided in the literature 2,3; however, they may not be specific enough to deal with one’s actual struggles. When a new faculty member joins a new institution, they may be pressured to adapt to that institution’s teaching style, research interests, and its cultural environment. This pressure may be driven by the administration and/or the individual may simply feel pressured to fit in. Graduating from the University of Florida (UF), the author’s academic career started at The City College of New York (CCNY). CCNY and UF differ in teaching atmosphere, research environment, history, demographics, and culture. The author believed that the use of visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations and video clips could be an effective teaching method as compared to the conventional method of lecture.

In this paper, the conventional method of teaching (CMT) is defined as a more verbal type of approach to teaching with very little or no use of multimedia supports. In other words, the instructors lecture and write on the board, whereas, the students listen, copy the materials, and take notes. At CCNY, the norm of teaching pedagogy is that CMT is encouraged. This

Villiers, C. (2007, June), Adhere To Your Style But Be Flexible While Transitioning From One Institution To Another Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1802

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2007 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015