Ph.D. in Kinesiology - New Mexico Tech

D. Institutional Readiness
1. Teaching Readiness
The department of HPDR currently houses eight tenure-track faculty lines and two college
faculty lines. Given the credentials of the individuals who currently hold college faculty
lines, one holds graduate faculty status. Therefore, at the outset of the proposed program we
anticipate having at least nine faculty lines that we believe will be able to support graduate
teaching and advisement.
Each tenure-track faculty member currently teaches the equivalent of five 3.0cr-hr courses
per academic-year. The majority of these courses are undergraduate level; however, there
are a handful of graduate courses already approved, and typically offered as cross-listed
courses with senior level undergraduate courses (these courses were listed earlier in this
proposal).
This proposal suggests that graduate faculty can provide the necessary graduate coursework
by teaching at least one graduate course per year and/or one or more undergraduate courses
that are taught concurrent with a graduate course.
Under this paradigm, the department would be able to offer at least eight graduate level
courses per year, and an additional two to four courses that could be listed with
undergraduate courses. This should be sufficient to support the teaching needs of the PhD
program. PhD coursework will also include a minimum of 12.0 credit hours in research
methodologies (statistics and qualitative methods), and will include coursework in other
complimentary departments (e.g., Health Sciences, Biological Sciences, Psychology,
Counseling and Educational Psychology, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational
Management and Development, etc.)
The proposed paradigm, however, will require that graduate assistants now teach an
equivalent number of undergraduate courses, presently taught by graduate faculty members.
This is typical of Kinesiology departments around the country. Courses such as Introduction
and Foundations of Physical Education, Anatomy & Physiology I and II as well as Anatomy
& Physiology labs, Introduction to Athletic Training, supervision of student teachers, and
laboratory sections for other courses (biomechanics, motor control, exercise prescription,
etc) are among those that can be taught by graduate teaching assistants.
As the department realizes the expected growth in undergraduate enrollment, there is likely
to develop a need for additional instructional resources at some future point in time. Thus,
the department has proposed the addition of a college faculty line to assist with
undergraduate teaching needs. However, it should be stressed that the addition of this
position is not required to meet the needs of the PhD program. Rather, it is mentioned here
only to emphasize that an expected outcome of the PhD program is a general increase in the
popularity of the department’s programs overall. The college has positively received the
proposal, and since the department has experienced consistent growth over the last several
years, it is important that we continue to push for this additional position. At present this line
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