{"id":4658,"date":"2014-11-04T12:24:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T17:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=4658"},"modified":"2014-11-04T12:24:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T17:24:24","slug":"cat-advice-dont-spent-too-much-time-on-your-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/cat-advice-dont-spent-too-much-time-on-your-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"CAT Advice: Don\u2019t Spend Too Much Time on Your Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What? The Center for the Advancement of TEACHING, is telling me to spend less time on my teaching?<\/p>\n<p>We all know that Xavier is a premier undergraduate university.\u00a0 This is largely in part due to the dedicated faculty who put teaching first in order to help students achieve their goals.\u00a0 However, we as faculty have goals too, and some of those goals extend from the classroom.\u00a0 It is our job to balance those goals and obligations so that each facet of our careers can thrive.\u00a0 So to that end, what are the best practices, and easiest pitfalls, that new faculty can fall into?<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Robert Boice, Professor of Psychology at SUNY in Stony Brook, NY, has done extensive research polling and following hundreds of faculty members across disciplines and institution types and then charting their success in the tenure and promotion process.\u00a0 Overwhelmingly, the most common problem among faculty was not spending enough time on scholarly writing (proposals and papers) but that was linked hand-in-hand with being <em>over prepared<\/em> for their classes.\u00a0 When faculty were reporting spending nearly 30 hours a week preparing for class, it is clear that some other aspect of their job was going to suffer for it.\u00a0 However, not all faculty suffered from this lack of balance.\u00a0 Boice identified 5\u20139% of new faculty as \"quick starters,\" who in their first few years were well on their way to promotion and tenure especially with respect to scholarship. Moreover, they also scored in the top quarter of peer and student ratings of teaching; so their scholarly success was not achieved at the expense of their students.<\/p>\n<p>You can read a brief article from <em>Chemical Engineering Education<\/em> summarizing his findings here:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www4.ncsu.edu\/unity\/lockers\/users\/f\/felder\/public\/Columns\/Boice.html\">http:\/\/www4.ncsu.edu\/unity\/lockers\/users\/f\/felder\/public\/Columns\/Boice.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And if you think this might be helpful, you can find Dr. Boice\u2019s book here (among other places):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Advice-Faculty-Members-Robert-Boice\/dp\/0205281591\">http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Advice-Faculty-Members-Robert-Boice\/dp\/0205281591<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, at Xavier, it can be quite easy to quickly achieve a balance.\u00a0 As I mentioned, one of our greatest assets, and your greatest resource, are our faculty.\u00a0 Here are some tips to leverage the resources you have in order to prepare a better class, in a reasonable amount of time, leaving sufficient time for scholarship:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ask for and accept help from senior faculty<\/strong>.\u00a0 If someone has taught a course that is new for you, odds are they are happy to share their notes, slides, test, etc.\u00a0 Certainly you will want to make the courses you teach your own, but there is no need to spend hours reinventing the wheel (or at least reinventing the diagrams on a PowerPoint slide).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Do not be afraid to protect your writing time. <\/strong>We all want to have \u201copen door\u201d policies to our students and be generally available to them, but that does not mean you need to be on call 24\/7.\u00a0 Do not fear your student evaluations suffering if you close your door sometimes to write.\u00a0 As long as you are available <em>without fail <\/em>for your classes and office hours as promised, no one will fault you for attending to other parts of your job. (I personally was reluctant to do this years ago, and speak from experience that there was no negative effect on my student evaluations.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Visit CAT. <\/strong>OK, you knew this one was coming.\u00a0 There are many faculty resources here in CAT including a staff that is eager to help you, not only with your teaching, but with incorporating your teaching into your job as a well-rounded (and successful!) Xavier faculty member<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>-Stassi DiMaggio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What? The Center for the Advancement of TEACHING, is telling me to spend less time on my teaching? We all know that Xavier is a premier undergraduate university.\u00a0 This is largely in part due to the dedicated faculty who put teaching first in order to help students achieve their goals.\u00a0 However, we as faculty have <a href=\"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/cat-advice-dont-spent-too-much-time-on-your-teaching\/\" class=\"more-link\">...continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \"CAT Advice: Don\u2019t Spend Too Much Time on Your Teaching\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[134,239],"class_list":{"0":"post-4658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-faculty-development","7":"tag-faculty-development","8":"tag-teaching","9":"h-entry","10":"hentry","11":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-1d8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21824,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/november-opportunities-at-catfd\/","url_meta":{"origin":4658,"position":0},"title":"November Opportunities at CAT+FD","author":"Jason S. Todd","date":"November 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As November arrives, I want to acknowledge both the richness and the intensity of this time in our academic lives. As faculty, we are juggling advising appointments, planning final projects, responding to crises both small and large, and somehow still finding ways to support our students through their own unique\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Director's Corner&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Director's Corner","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/directors-corner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21639,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/september-opportunities-at-catfd\/","url_meta":{"origin":4658,"position":1},"title":"September Opportunities at CAT+FD","author":"Jason S. Todd","date":"September 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that the chaos of August is past, September is a great time to invest in your professional growth. The energy of beginnings \u2014 new students, new courses, new colleagues \u2014 offers everyone an opportunity for exploring innovative teaching strategies, connecting with colleagues, and strengthening the practices that make your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Director's Corner&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Director's Corner","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/directors-corner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5475,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/cat-news-january-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":4658,"position":2},"title":"CAT News: January 2015","author":"Bart Everson","date":"January 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Celebrating Twenty Years This spring, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) continues to mark its 20th anniversary year. Since its inception in 1994, CAT has existed to fulfill its mission \u201cto advance the art and science of teaching and learning\u201d and has enjoyed broad faculty participation in its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Newsletter","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/newsletter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3877,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/cat-news-september-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":4658,"position":3},"title":"CAT News: September 2014","author":"Bart Everson","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This fall, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) is marking its 20th anniversary. Since its inception in 1994, CAT has existed to fulfill its mission \u201cto advance the art and science of teaching and learning\u201d and has enjoyed broad faculty participation in its services and activities. In celebration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Newsletter","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/newsletter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4783,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/pod-2014-leverage\/","url_meta":{"origin":4658,"position":4},"title":"POD 2014 Leverage","author":"Karen Nichols","date":"November 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Karen Nichols I attended my first POD conference last week and the theme was Leverage.\u00a0 POD is our faculty development organization and such a wonderful group of people. I returned with a number of ideas and tools, not only for online teaching, but teaching with technology and general faculty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1792,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/xula-online-real-faculty-real-learning\/","url_meta":{"origin":4658,"position":5},"title":"XULA Online:  Real Faculty, Real Learning","author":"Karen Nichols","date":"August 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Did you know that over 350 students participated in summer session I online courses? Not one online course had to be canceled this summer due to low enrollment\u2014students enrolled with very minimal on-campus advertising. Summer online courses give both students and faculty the flexibility and mobility to pursue other projects\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}