Non-tenure-track professors are better teachers of introductory courses

[NJSue]

<p>This does not surprise me at all. Adjuncts who teach the same intro class over and over again are going to get pretty good at it. Tenured professors rarely teach intro classes if they can avoid it; when they do so, they are often just fulfilling their department service rota or something. Keep in mind that adjunct faculty and tenured faculty do not have identical jobs or responsibilities within the institution.</p>

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And even to the extent teaching is considered in the hiring and retention of tenured/tenure-track faculty (and it is, at every institution I’ve ever been associated with), it’s not necessarily success in teaching introductory undergrad courses that counts the most; the ability to teach advanced courses and graduate seminars on arcane topics in the faculty member’s own areas of scholarship and expertise may often be of equal or greater importance.

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<p>I agree with this completely. Good teaching takes a lot of time and effort. There is little institutional incentive, however, for tenure-track and tenured faculty who want promotion to knock themselves out over the 101-level service class. It won’t get them anywhere.</p>