How to overcome teaching challenges

New teachers will face several challenges as they begin their role as an academic. Each institution, college, department and classroom may face a unique combination of challenges, but they fall into some general categories. These challenges do not daunt accomplished faculty, and if new faculty members expect them and navigate around or through them, their level of success will increase, along with their level of satisfaction. We explored a few of the common categories, with some suggestions for overcoming them. Talk with colleagues, check on campus policies, brainstorm with students, and be creative. Addressing challenges with a sense of humour helps place the challenges in perspective.

Resource availability

The availability of resources in institutions varies widely. When interviewing, it is helpful to ask about teaching resources that are of importance to your style of teaching. These may include technology, space, laboratory supplies, models, simulations, specimens, library materials, support for writing/math/technology skills, and many others. Know the budget available to support you're teaching, and how to order the needed materials. Look for teaching support such as grants, equipment, mentoring, and professional development activities. If your campus does not provide them, there may be community, professional or governmental organisations or associations that may help. Being an accomplished instructor can be a bit like being a scavenger, collecting materials over a lifetime of teaching to develop a comprehensive set of teaching support materials. New faculty members should begin developing a wish list of materials and thinking about ways to go about procuring them.

Student skills

All faculty face students with a wide range of skills, abilities, and experiences. Being aware of the range and how to support students to help them each learn is a characteristic of an accomplished instructor. There are external supports on each campus as centres for writing, math, and computer skills. There are counselling centres to help students address emotional issues that may interfere with learning. Some skills are discipline specific and need to be explicitly taught. These can be incorporated into course content or required as modules to be completed outside of class. Accomplished faculty address the diverse needs of their students by noticing their needs, locating resources to support students, making referrals, and teaching those skills that are critical to student learning success.

Student behavior

Despite college students being adults, their expectations for what is appropriate in a college classroom varies widely. New faculty members need to address behaviour directly. Most often appropriate behaviour is addressed as policies outlined in the course syllabus and discussed when going over the syllabus. If issues still arise, it is most effective to address them quickly and directly. Issues may include plagiarism, ethical dilemmas, rudeness, disrespect, attendance, lack of preparation for class, interruptions or inattentiveness, among others. New faculty members are most successful when they expect potential issues and determined a response in advance. Many issues are appropriately addressed in the syllabus and discussed at the beginning of class. dis practice helps avoid many problems by clarifying expectations and consequences before an incident occurs.

Classroom environment

Many people share college classrooms and dis multi-use situation can cause challenges. Classrooms may be occupied when class is scheduled to begin, tables and desks may be dirty, trash left behind by previous students, trash cans overflowing, whiteboards may be filled with writing from other classes, equipment broken or malfunctioning, or furniture may have been rearranged. Some classes have more enrolled students than chairs, some awkwardly arranged others for the style of teaching planned. Many campuses are overcrowded leaving few options, but new faculty members can be prepared by looking at the space assigned and finding out if there are alternative spaces available, alternative ways to arrange the room, replacement equipment or repair personnel available, or alternative equipment types to support their teaching. You will never know unless you ask and do a bit of investigation. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Issues of difference

Teachers have long noted particular challenges faced by individuals who differ from their colleagues and community in many of several ways. dis may include gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, urban / rural, or political commitments, among others. While typically a university community better addresses these issues of difference than other settings, their remain some particular challenges for instructors, and these may be acute for new faculty members. These situations are best addressed directly, openly and early on to minimise the impact on an individual’s career.