I never expected to begin teaching college biology when I did.
At the time, I was teaching secondary science and trying to build a marine science course for my high school students. I reached out to a local community college simply asking whether they had any preserved marine specimens I might be able to borrow for instructional purposes. I had no formal marine science background, so I spent much of that summer teaching myself content, lesson planning, and trying to gather as many resources as possible before the school year began.
Then a hurricane displaced several people in the area, and an adjunct biology position unexpectedly opened.
Instead of specimens, I was offered the opportunity to teach introductory biology at the college level.
In many ways, it felt surreal. Teaching college had always been something I hoped to eventually do, but I never expected the opportunity to arrive that way or that quickly.
I immediately accepted.
I remember walking into my first lecture genuinely excited. I spent hours preparing for it. I introduced students to the scientific method, discussed the structure of the course, and tried to create the kind of intellectually engaging classroom environment I remembered from my own experience attending community college years earlier through the City University of New York.
When I got home that night, my wife greeted me with a celebratory bottle of Cabernet and a cigar. She asked how the first class went.
And honestly, I felt disappointed.
Not because the lecture itself had gone poorly, but because something felt very different from what I had imagined higher education would be.
The College Experience I Expected
When I attended community college, my classmates and I spent time outside of class debating ideas, discussing theories, and asking professors questions long after lectures ended. We studied together in hallways and cafeterias. While it was not an elite institution, there was a strong culture of intellectual curiosity that shaped my perception of what college learning looked like.
I assumed students entering introductory biology courses, particularly students pursuing pre-medical or research-oriented pathways, would arrive with similar habits and motivations.
Instead, I quickly noticed a disconnect between my expectations and reality.
Many students sat silently scrolling through phones between taking notes. Attempts at discussion were often met with blank stares. Attendance steadily declined unless quizzes or mandatory activities were attached to class meetings. Foundational scientific concepts I assumed students already understood frequently had to be revisited repeatedly.
At first, I internalized those experiences personally. I wondered whether I simply was not prepared for higher education teaching or whether I was somehow failing to engage students effectively.
But over time, I realized something important: many first-time college instructors experience the exact same shock.
Realizing I Was Not Alone
Curious whether these experiences were unique to me, I posted a question in several online communities for adjuncts, professors, and educators:
“What realities caught you most off guard during your first semester teaching in higher education?”
The responses were immediate and overwhelming.
What struck me most was how many instructors described similar frustrations, anxieties, and realizations during their transition into college teaching. While the details varied, several major themes consistently emerged throughout the discussions.
The Emotional Labor of Teaching
One of the strongest recurring themes involved emotional labor.
Many instructors explained that they initially believed lecturing or content expertise would be the hardest part of teaching college. Instead, they found themselves overwhelmed by the constant communication, grading, accommodation requests, and emotional energy required to manage a classroom.
One adjunct summarized it perfectly: “I think a lot of people enter teaching imagining the hardest part will be expertise or lecturing. But the emotional labor, constant communication, grading load, and mental energy management seem to surprise many professors more.”
That statement resonated deeply with my own experience.
Every week, I received emails explaining absences, transportation problems, scheduling conflicts, family emergencies, work issues, and requests for extensions. Even after clearly outlining attendance and assignment policies in the syllabus, there was a constant negotiation occurring between institutional expectations and students’ lived realities.
Several instructors also described how emotionally exhausting grading can become, particularly in writing-intensive or introductory courses with large enrollments. Others discussed the frustration of repeatedly addressing plagiarism, disengagement, or AI-generated work.
What many respondents emphasized was that teaching college often requires far more emotional management than people initially expect.
The Lack of Onboarding and Guidance
Another major theme involved the lack of preparation many instructors receive before entering higher education classrooms.
Multiple adjuncts described being assigned courses only weeks before the semester began with minimal guidance beyond a textbook and a course shell.
One instructor wrote: “For me it was the total lack of guidance. You kind of just get assigned a class two weeks before the start date and the admin doesn’t care about anything else except that you get final grades in on time.”
Another instructor described higher education as “learning a whole new language” without anyone recognizing how many systems new instructors are simultaneously trying to learn.
Learning management systems, accommodation procedures, grading expectations, syllabus construction, institutional policies, and department culture often become things instructors are expected to figure out independently.
Several respondents stressed how important mentorship becomes during this stage.
One instructor wrote: “Find your person. You’ll have a lot of questions. And after a few years, be that person so others can turn to you.”
That idea appeared repeatedly throughout the discussions. Many adjuncts described feeling professionally isolated and disconnected from departments, colleagues, and institutional support systems.
Unlike K–12 environments where teachers often collaborate closely within departments or teams, adjunct instructors frequently operate independently with little formal support.
Pedagogy Versus Content Expertise
Another fascinating tension that emerged involved the relationship between pedagogy and content expertise.
Many respondents argued that K–12 educators often enter higher education with stronger classroom management and instructional scaffolding skills than university-trained faculty. Several described former high school teachers as highly organized, structured, and skilled at maintaining engagement and pacing.
One instructor observed: “Former high school teachers are the BEST at classroom management.”
Others argued that many university instructors possess strong disciplinary expertise but relatively limited pedagogical training.
One response bluntly stated: “Professors are woefully ignorant of actual pedagogy.”
At the same time, some respondents criticized K–12 systems for becoming overly data-driven or excessively focused on measurable outcomes.
What became clear throughout these conversations was that secondary and postsecondary education often prioritize very different instructional skill sets.
In K–12 education, teachers frequently receive formal preparation in:
- classroom management,
- scaffolding,
- differentiation,
- assessment design,
- engagement strategies,
- and developmental learning theory.
In higher education, disciplinary expertise is often treated as the primary qualification for teaching.
Yet many instructors pointed out that expertise alone does not automatically translate into effective instruction.
One particularly revealing comment came from an instructor who suggested scaffolding a research paper assignment because some students had never written one before. The response they received from another professor was: “The defects of their primary and secondary education are not our problem.”
That comment revealed a broader tension that appeared repeatedly throughout the discussions: the question of how much responsibility higher education should assume for supporting students who arrive academically underprepared.
College Students Still Need Structure
One of the most interesting themes throughout the responses was how many instructors realized that college students still require substantial structure and guidance.
Many instructors admitted they originally assumed college students would naturally:
- manage deadlines independently,
- ask questions proactively,
- regulate their attention,
- and maintain consistent motivation.
Instead, many found themselves reintroducing strategies they previously associated with younger students.
One instructor described beginning every class with reminders about deadlines and assignments. Others discussed using check-for-understanding discussions, structured scaffolding, whiteboards, cold-calling, and repeated instructions to maintain engagement.
Another instructor reflected: “I thought they would be annoyed I’m treating them like kids. But my evaluations improved and students said things felt clearer.”
That observation stood out because it challenged the common assumption that adult learners automatically function as fully self-directed learners.
Several instructors noted that many students benefit from explicit structure regardless of age.
As someone simultaneously teaching high school and college students, I found this especially interesting because the distinction between secondary and postsecondary learners sometimes appeared much smaller than expected.
The Structural Challenges of Adjunct Teaching
Beyond classroom instruction itself, many respondents highlighted broader structural concerns within adjunct teaching.
Several instructors described:
- inconsistent course assignments,
- low pay,
- lack of benefits,
- limited institutional recognition,
- and the expectation to perform significant unpaid labor outside of teaching hours.
One instructor summarized the issue bluntly: “The salary proves that even the education system doesn’t respect and appreciate the profession.”
Others described the instability of being assigned entirely different courses every semester or teaching across multiple campuses simultaneously.
Another recurring concern involved the increasing “students as customers” mentality within higher education. Some instructors felt pressure to prioritize student satisfaction over academic rigor, while others expressed frustration about administrative responses to complaints and accommodations.
Despite these frustrations, many respondents also acknowledged the freedom and autonomy higher education can provide once instructors become comfortable navigating the environment.
What These Conversations Revealed
Reading through hundreds of responses ultimately changed how I think about higher education teaching.
What became clear was that many first-time instructors are not struggling because they lack intelligence or disciplinary expertise.
They are struggling because teaching itself is far more complex than many institutions acknowledge.
Teaching college is not simply delivering content to adults.
It involves:
- communication,
- mentorship,
- emotional regulation,
- scaffolding,
- instructional design,
- assessment literacy,
- classroom management,
- and the ability to balance rigor with humanity.
For many new instructors, especially adjuncts, these realities are discovered only through experience.
Looking back now, I realize my disappointment after that first lecture was not really about students.
It was about the collision between my expectations of higher education and the actual realities of modern college teaching.
I imagined classrooms driven primarily by intellectual curiosity and independent motivation. What I encountered instead was something much more complicated: students navigating distraction, stress, uneven preparation, financial pressures, and uncertainty while instructors simultaneously navigate emotional labor, institutional ambiguity, and increasing instructional demands.
Ironically, many of the instructional strategies sometimes dismissed as “high school teaching techniques” eventually became some of the most effective practices in my college classrooms.
More importantly, these conversations reminded me that many instructors quietly experience the same uncertainty during their transition into higher education.
Perhaps the problem is not that new instructors are individually unprepared.
Perhaps higher education as a system still underestimates how complex teaching itself actually is.
Christopher Morales is a high school science teacher in Southwest Florida and an adjunct professor of biology at Florida SouthWestern State College. He holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership at the American College of Education. His work focuses on student attention, learning environments, engagement, and instructional practice across secondary and postsecondary education.
