There is a shortage of qualified community college technical instructors in new and emerging technologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the barriers that may affect the decision of semiconductor specialists to teach part-time at community colleges. The desired outcome is to enable community colleges to increase the pool of part-time faculty from the semiconductor industry. This study identified four primary barriers that could affect an individual's decision to teach: (a) interest in teaching, (b) self-efficacy, (c) awareness of teaching opportunities, and (d) faculty development. As community colleges seek to fill the increasing demand for part-time technical instructors, industry seeks to increase its ranks of technical employees. A survey of technical specialists from the semiconductor industry showed high levels of professional experience, interest in teaching, and various experiences in teaching. An important finding of this study, however, was the overwhelming lack of awareness (83%, n=76) of teaching opportunities at community colleges. If community colleges are to increase their pool of part-time technical faculty, it is necessary for technical specialists to be aware that part-time teaching positions are available. If industry is to fill its growing need for qualified technical specialists, it should be willing to share some of the talent of its best employees with the community. / Graduation date: 1997

Though professional development interventions are widespread in higher education, administrators often do not formally assess their effectiveness, particularly in relation to teacher self-efficacy. The purposes of this study were to determine if any statistically significant difference existed between the self-efficacy scores of adjunct faculty participants in a community college’s professional development program and nonparticipants and to identify the variables with a statistically significant relationship with self-efficacy. A modified version of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) was administered to 21 adjunct faculty participants in Lone Star College’s Adjunct Certification Program (ACP) and 312 adjunct faculty not currently participating in the program. A demographic questionnaire development by the researcher was also administered. Independent variables of the demographic questionnaire included gender, ethnicity, age, K-12 teaching experience, highest degree earned, subject taught, years of college teaching experience, and number of courses taught each semester. Paired t-test results indicated statistically significant differences in Efficacy in Instructional Strategies for adjunct participants in the ACP program. No significant differences were found for Efficacy in Student Engagement and Efficacy in Classroom Management. Multiple regression analyses indicated that gender has a statistically significant relationship to Efficacy Instructional Strategies. A statistically significant relationship was found for race for Efficacy in Classroom Management. Finally, analysis also indicated a positive relationship between race and gender for Efficacy in Student Engagement. No other statistically significant relationships were found across the other demographic variables. Findings of this study revealed that the ACP increased teacher self-efficacy across two of the three dimensions of the TSES indicating that the professional development intervention had a positive effect on the efficacy of its participants. The present study contributes to the research on teacher self-efficacy, adjunct faculty and professional development interventions.