In previous articles we have discussed ethics and planning as each relates to faculty recruiting. We now focus on the place of teaching in the hiring process. An Emphasis on Teaching Makes Sense To maintain and improve the quality of teaching, recruitment committees must emphasize teaching ability as a selection criterion.
Good teachers motivate students, recruit majors, and represent a discipline in the classroom.
In addition, the hiring and retention of good teachers need not be antithetical to hiring faculty who are also good scholars or artistic performers. A successful faculty recruitment requires the identification of good teachers through a process of obtaining teaching information from applicants and assessing it. Let us assume that you are ready to hire and support a good teaching faculty member. You may find that the potential to teach well is more difficult to judge than scholarly potential. We suggest focusing on what good teachers do and learning as much as possible about a candidate's teaching.