Teaching support for sessional staff

What kind of development programs could inspire and enable academic teachers to take a leadership role in teaching teams with respect to planning and implementing sessional staff professional development programs?

The sessional staff of many universities incorporate a wide variety of academic backgrounds and in particular, teaching experience. Many of the sessional staff are also postgraduate students who are seeking to develop their teaching repertoire whilst they complete higher degrees.

The level of support for these staff is quite varied across Institutions. As much first year teaching is completed by sessional staff due to high student numbers in initial intakes, it is not uncommon to find that first year students spend a majority of their contact hours with sessional rather than full-time staff.

These teachers have the capacity to make a marked difference upon early retention rates as they monitor and guide the transition students make into tertiary education. These are the teachers who have the potential to enthuse and capture the imagination of students from the beginning - to motivate them into achieving well in their chosen field of study.

Over the last two years, a range of different professional development programs were introduced into the Faculty of Science and Technology at Griffith University for sessional teachers and postgraduate students. Details of the type and purpose of these programs will be reported as well as some personal reflections on strategies for developing support for their implementation and perpetuation.