Recent hire doesn't actually know the material

[Caracal]

Two more issues come to mind, like it or not from my own personal experiences:

1) if the adjunct is teaching a fl in one of those one-size fits all 'Global Languages/ World Languages' type depts, it may well be that there is actually no regular ft tt faculty member who actually does that language, rendering it much much more difficult to evaluate the competence of the adjunct in question

2) if the decision is made to require adjuncts to use a set syllabus they did not create, nor have any authority to modify, the dept, not the professor, really is the one responsible for complaints and other headaches associated with that syllabus and its use

There's often a lot of standardization in language classes though, right?

[mleok]

To me, there is no reason why a language class needs to be built from scratch, just provide the new hire with the course materials from when the class was previously taught.

[mamselle]

I've never been asked for mine, and never been given my predecessor's.

It wouldn't have mattered, anyway, the department had changed textbooks over the summer, so I'd have had to sort out chapter and exercise assignments, vocabulary quiz dates, exam dares, and oral recitation dates for that term anew, anyway.

It's actually not very standardized: if you come from Middlebury's immersion mindset, you do things totally differently from those who stick to the old New York Board of Regent's style. I bland them with fold dance and art history as well, so...

M.

[clean]

I agree that you are micromanaging. Have you heard of academic freedom?

Bullshit.
this has nothing whatsoever to do with Academic Freedom! 
If your materials and tests are wrong to start with, or not appropriate for the class at hand (not covering the material on the standardized syllabus), then someone needs to step in and salvage the problem. 
If they then refuse, then fire them! (dont renew them).



2 instances to relate:

1st.  Hired a new faculty member and told them at the interview that there was a course coordinator so that all of the classes covered the same topics at roughly the same time.  Candidate was ecstatic that we were going to be involved in getting him/her started with teaching here and promised to work with the coordinator.  Once the job was landed, then all of a sudden "I have academic freedom to change the book, to drop these projects (hu didnt want to grade).... Fast forward a few years....  She/he has been at loggerheads with the coordinator for a few years, and comes to me to ask if I was going to support him/her for tenure.  I replied, "I have not decided yet, but I can say that I am disappointed that all I have heard almost from the day you got here was how you dont want to cooperate and are unwilling to work with the course coordinator, and if you are untenured and uncooperative, why do I want to support such a person with a job that will haunt ME for the rest of MY life here?"   (This person took a job elsewhere quickly).

2nd.
Have a new hire that is excellent in his/her area of expertise. Unfortunately, they are in a position at a satellite campus where he/she is supposed to be a utility player.  Hu has decided that hu is not good at ALL of the elements of the job, so tries to teach some of the their assigned classes as modifications of hu's preferred area.  THIS IS NOT ACADEMIC FREEDOM! 
Relatively newly hired senior faculty member then says, "He/She is an expert.  Hu can pick the book that they want. They have that ACADEMIC FREEDOM" 
BULLSHIT!!  You can not teach Physics with a Real Estate Book by claiming that you have academic freedom to select the book!  (and this is only a slight exaggeration of what is going on).  There is a Standardized Syllabus for all classes and a course catalog. Our accrediting body has required us to list the goals and objectives of the courses that are taught, and we do not have the choice to change those during the course! (We can change the catalog, and we can change the standardized catalog with approval and action of the entire department, not unilaterally!)
(Also newly hired senior faculty has his/her own issues with the chair by changing texts for common core courses that have a common  syllabus !  Sorry, but when you make agreements to teach a class that is common, you agree to the commonalities that go with it, and NONE OF THIS is an ACADEMIC FREEDOM issue!) 

Rant over.
The universal cry "Academic Freedom" often hits me the wrong way, because those crying it often misunderstand what it really means!

[lightning]

We had to do a last-minute hire in my department last month. The individual is teaching two courses as an adjunct. They just graduated with the MA in their field, which we assumed meant that they knew the material for the beginning level.

They do not. They know some, yes, but they fumble their way through the rest. Our good students in the upper-level courses could easily correct the materials this instructor uses to teach.

We have spoken to the person. They are intransigent and insist that they've never been told that they had a problem before, that we are micromanaging. They refuse to submit materials like quizzes to us ahead of time so we can correct them. Instead, they are using materials riddled with errors. Embarrassingly bad errors.

I fear that they are doing real damage to the trajectory of the students in these sections.

Is anyone here aware of a similar instance? Any advice?

First of all, your department screwed up. If your department thought that the MA means that the instructor knows their content, and you didn't bother to do any other type of screening (like reference checks, asking a few questions about content & curriculum, in the interview, etc.). Also, not all MA s are equal. You know that.

You can fire them at the end of the semester.

That's really all you can do, other than replace them mid-semester with another instructor, if you can afford it. Micromanaging won't really help.

[the_geneticist]

At this point, you either fire and replace them now or just don't rehire at the end of the quarter (and pray their grading is reasonable).
As others said, you get what you paid for and your department has learned a hard lesson in why you shouldn't assume anything about skills or competencies. And you might want to think about a standard curriculum for this sort of lower level, offered every term sort of class.

[Caracal]

You can not teach Physics with a Real Estate Book by claiming that you have academic freedom to select the book!  (and this is only a slight exaggeration of what is going on).  There is a Standardized Syllabus for all classes and a course catalog. Our accrediting body has required us to list the goals and objectives of the courses that are taught, and we do not have the choice to change those during the course! (We can change the catalog, and we can change the standardized catalog with approval and action of the entire department, not unilaterally!)
(Also newly hired senior faculty has his/her own issues with the chair by changing texts for common core courses that have a common  syllabus !  Sorry, but when you make agreements to teach a class that is common, you agree to the commonalities that go with it, and NONE OF THIS is an ACADEMIC FREEDOM issue!) 

Rant over.
The universal cry "Academic Freedom" often hits me the wrong way, because those crying it often misunderstand what it really means!

Well, the principle is that instructors ought to be able to teach classes in ways that they think will enhance their skill set and meet their goals without unnecessary interference not required by the goals of the larger program.. What that means is really discipline and course specific. I shouldn't be forced to follow a set syllabus for an American History survey and cover certain prescribed topics because historians don't think that's how historical knowledge and skills work. Nobody is going to teach a 2000 level course that requires prior detailed knowledge of the military campaigns of the Revolutionary War or something. What's expected of me is that I provide a basic framework for students to think about American History and introduce them to historical thinking.

In Physics, you have classes in a sequence and particular skills and knowledge are necessary for the next class. You probably also have tutoring and other services set up in ways that won't work if there isn't a common syllabus and common assignments. I imagine the basic prohibition on unnecessary meddling still applies. Instructors should be able to teach the material in ways they think work well for them and shouldn't have to follow a script or anything.

But you're right, the requirements you describe aren't violations of academic freedom any more than it would be a violation of academic freedom to tell me that my History of the United States to 1877 course can't only be about Medieval Finland.

[clean]

Great, for the most part, we agree.

However, what some would see as 'interference', others may see as employee development... to help them improve to keep their job (and improve the students' learning experience)!  In the OPs example, failure to submit the error prone exams, and continuing to use error prone exams, would be cause for removal at the extreme, and non renewal at the other.


It is hubris/arrogance of an adjunct, no less, to scream 'Academic Freedom' in the face of the OPs situation where the instructor is incompetent. 
The good news is that if the job is painful for the adjunct to deal with, they may not want to continue, but either way, looking for a replacement NOW would be prudent! 

[AvidReader]

I'm curious about how many adjunct faculty get observed and how often.

Every time I've been an adjunct (n=6, in 2 countries and 4 US states) I've had a formal observation in my first semester and then annually for as long as I continued. This has not been the case for NTT full-time positions, although at my last school we were supposed to be observed annually, but they skipped observations because of COVID and used the student evaluations and pass rates instead.

Also noteworthy that in many of my humanities classes (including language) it has been common to have a set textbook for introductory courses so that teachers of subsequent semester classes in the same fields would know what had been covered previously. Courses I've taught that have been part of a sequence (e.g. American History I and II, as above) have also sometimes designated particular chapters to be covered in particular semesters, but this varies by school.

AR.

[jerseyjay]

In terms of instructor discretion and academic freedom, I think it does really depend on the discipline and the course.

I do not think it would be academic freedom to teach that the American Revolution from an introductory course on US history or to claim that the United States did not become independent from Britain. However, I think that an instructor has the right to discuss the causes and effects of the Revolution in ways that he or she sees fit (so long as it is not just crazy, like George Washington was a space alien.) At one college I taught for,  all US history was compressed into a one semester course. I personally spent very little time on the War of 1812 and more time on the Mexican-American War; I spent less time on Wilson and more time on F. Roosevelt. I spent more time on abolitionism than on diplomatic history. This is based on what I think are the most important things for students to know, which is based on my assessment, as a historian. That would fall under academic freedom.

Teaching there was no slavery in the U.S. would not be academic freedom. But I think a case could be made that teaching slavery was not the main cause of the Civil War--a viewpoint I disagree with strongly--would be covered by academic freedom.

In basic skills courses, I suppose academic freedom comes into it less. (You cannot just not teach the subjunctive or the quadratic equation because you don't like it.) That said, having taken various basic language courses, I have seen a wide spread of practices on: the importance of grammar vs. being able to speak; the relative importance of reading, writing, listening, and speaking; the role of using popular culture (music, television, movies) in instruction. So I think that an instructor in Spanish needs to teach the subjunctive, but how to do that, or how much of the class to focus on that varies. My Spanish professor focused quite a bit on grammar, while my Italian professor focused more on conversation. To some degree these are determined by the department, but to some degree they are based on the judgement and expertise of the instructor.

In terms of observation: I have taught at more than a dozen schools as an adjunct. Some observed me at least once a year. Others never observed me. Some observed me in my first semester and then never again. One only got around to observing me after teaching there for a decade. Some have formal observations with a right of reply, and others nothing is ever written up. At my current institution, we try to observe new part-time professors in their first semester, and then usually not regularly after that. We have some part-time professors who have been teaching for more than a decade.

[Ruralguy]

Some years ago, I was approached by a colleague who was teaching another section of a course I teach, and he said "We should be on the same page. We should do the same things in class. We need to talk about this." My reply: You are right, and you are cordially invited to teach your course exactly the same as me."

[huitz2020]

Write, freedom at academia is important. I are overjoyful then I and your all agree. Is that hard reading? O kay. Be cause these is the equal to which NH composites information for to send to students. I are not lying or exaggerations. If people likes puzzles, these is a dessert of chocolate to the people.

In other words, this whole dilemma has nothing to do with class structure or quality of materials. The problem is this basic... and this urgent.

Temporary solution: NH has begrudgingly agreed to some mentorship from a junior faculty member, who generously offered to help out. Mentorship in this case means running materials in the target language by the mentor before posting. NH refuses to admit that there is any real problem, insisting that no one is perfect and that the department can't expect perfection from them, either.

I thought I had seen pretty much most of the combinations that academia had to offer on personality quirks and varied attitudes about work, but this situation has me making faces that I only ever see on memes.

Edited to add: this is in no way intended to make fun of anyone who is attempting to learn another language, and I hope it hasn't come across that way. The issue is that the individual is claiming expertise where it doesn't exist.

[Ruralguy]

Not the first to fake his way into getting a job.

Probably best to let it go THIS semester if he is accepting help, bet let him know eventually that he isn't being re-hired.

[AvidReader]

NH refuses to admit that there is any real problem, insisting that no one is perfect and that the department can't expect perfection from them, either.

I have taught a language off and on for much of my career. Of course no one is perfect, and when a student points out a typo or error, I am always grateful, and I try to make that correction part of the learning process. We slip. I make mistakes in my native language sometimes. There's a huge difference between misspelling a word or having two words that don't agree and having entire sentences and paragraphs that are unintelligible. Students learning languages will use the provided materials as templates and models. If the templates are consistently flawed, they cannot learn the material.

I hope your instructor will also receive help with grading so that the students can have accurate feedback.

AR.

[jerseyjay]

You have to make a determination whether this instructor is (a) an ineffective teacher or (b) somebody who is doing active damage to the students. Somebody who is not a good teacher, who is not doing a good job explaining certain concepts, etc., is probably somebody with whom  you can live for the rest of the semester. Perhaps  you could mentor this person into shape, but likely this is not possible. If not, you can not rehire this person next semester, and in the meantime look for somebody who is effective.

If the person is doing active harm, then you may need to take drastic action, including replacing them mid-semester. I assume this entails various headaches (with the instructor, with the union, with dean, with whomever you need to press into taking over the class, and perhaps with the students, also). I would strongly suggest not doing this unless it is absolutely necessary.

I think perhaps one of the most effective ways of making this determination is to observe them in the classroom.

For what it is worth, my experience as a student is that most introductory language classes are mediocre. Many of the students do not really want to learn the language, or do not want to put in the effort. The professor is usually an overworked, underpaid adjunct who although (hopefully) competent, is stretched. Or they are a graduate student or a full-time professor who is focused on their research and not teaching boring concepts to bored students. I say this as somebody who has taken various introductory language classes and never learnt a language through them--what I know I learnt through immersion later. In retrospect, introductory courses were valuable because they laid a foundation that proved useful when I traveled and immersed myself, but it did not seem like this at the time. My point is not to disparage language teachers, but to say that you should be sure what damage is being wrought by this person before taking any action.

Beyond that, I want to reiterate what others have said: the main failure is probably not the new hire themselves. Rather it is the way that they were hired:

We had to do a last-minute hire in my department last month. The individual is teaching two courses as an adjunct. They just graduated with the MA in their field, which we assumed meant that they knew the material for the beginning level.

The OP's department hired somebody at the last minute, got somebody with the minimum qualification who never had any experience teaching, and probably do not pay them well. This is a recipe for disaster.