Factors explaining faculty technology use and productivity

This study examines factors related to technology use in teaching by university faculty. An EFA analysis of multiple questions of technology use in the classroom found two factors: one loaded with Web use and the second with email use. Therefore, three research questions were asked: What factors explain faculty use of the Web or email? Are these factors the same for both Web and email use? What is the relationship of technology use to faculty productivity? The sample included full-time faculty at doctoral and research institutions selected from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty:1999 (NSOPF:99) dataset. Independent variables included measures of teaching, research, and service productivity, along with other contextual, demographic, and professional variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to prepare eight models (email and Web use for Doctoral I, Doctoral II, Research I, and Research II institutions). Results confirmed that age and Internet access were important factors related to faculty technology use. The relationship between email and Web use to teaching productivity in particular is intriguing and may indicate that productive faculty use technology to help them be more productive or that technology use impacts productivity. Research and service productivity also exhibited distinctive patterns with email and Web use.     

Tenure and research productivity

Published research productivity of 97 sociologists from a variety of types of institutions is evaluated quantitatively for both the pretenure period and the post-tenure period in the person's career. Data consist of vita and supplementary information, coded into a weighted index that takes journal prestige into account. Time-adjusted pre- and post-tenure publication rates are compared within categories of type and prestige of current institution, type and prestige of institution at which tenure was first granted, prestige of Ph.D. institution, and other controls. There are substantial differences between the two career stages, with pretenure output being of greater magnitude in most instances. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed.     

加强园林教学研究 正确解释园林文化

由于缺乏对园林建筑和和文化的整体研究,特别是缺乏对园林文化的正确解释,导致教学滞后,实践中误讲、误用现象严重,为此就如何写出一本能够适应中国旅游专业和建筑园林专业都需要的园林文化的教科书,在研究我国学术研究与教学现状前提下提出了若干看法。     

Age and research productivity of academic scientists

Age-publishing profiles are estimated for four fields of science using data from the 1977 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. The five measures of publishing activity used allow for analysis of the sensitivity of the age-publishing relationship to output measure. Results are presented separately for graduate faculty and faculty at nongraduate departments. Although age is found to be a fairly weak predictor of performance, in physics and earth science older scientists publish less than their youngest peers and in physiology and biochemistry older scientists publish less than their middle-aged colleagues. Given the time frame of the data, the results suggest that the graying of America's scientific community was accompanied with slowed rates of research in higher education.     

Research assistantship experiences and subsequent research productivity

This paper is an examination of one component of research training programs, the research assistantship. Data are presented from a national study of the topic. Results of a survey with 3,963 respondents showed that genuine research assistantship experience is positively related to subsequent research involvement and productivity. More intensive data collection from the 50 most productive researchers and 50 nonproductive respondents resulted in identification of 35 variables that discriminate between the two groups (4 structural, 19 experiential, 4 supervisor-assistant interactions, and 8 perceptual). Clusters of variables resulting from factor analysis are presented and nondiscriminating variables are discussed. Recommendations are offered for designers and directors of programs in colleges and universities for use in training educational research personnel.     

科研成果与大学教师教学效果的关系研究

As an empirical study based on undergraduate ratings of 2364 teachers lecturing in different courses during four semesters in Beijing Normal University, this paper studies the relationship between teaching effectiveness and research productivity. The results show that both of them are positively correlated, that is to say, teaching effectiveness benefits from research productivity. Translated from Xinli Fazhan Yu Jiaoyu 心理发展与教育 (Psychological Development and Education), 2006, (2): 85–88     

Does research productivity decline with age?

The research productivity of psychologists holding appointment in British universities was studied within a cross-sequential design. Publication rates in 1968–1970 and 1978–1980 were compared across groups differing in terms of chronological age and date of birth. At both times of measurement psychologists above 45 years of age published less frequently than younger psychologists. Psychologists who held appointment in 1980 as well as 1970 published less frequently in 1978–1980 than in 1968–1970, irrespective of their age in 1970. Although productivity dropped with age, there was considerable variability in output between younger and older psychologists. Further, a person's publication rate in 1978–1980 was better predicted by their past productivity (publication rate in 1968–1970) than by their age. These results are discussed in the context of factors that affect research productivity, as well as changes that will occur in the age distribution of British academics over the next 20 years.     

Women academics and research productivity: an international comparison

In the prestige economy of higher education, research productivity is highly prized. Previous research indicates, however, a gender gap with respect to research output. This gap is often explained by reference to familial status and responsibilities. In this article, we examine the research productivity gender gap from an international perspective by undertaking a gendered analysis of the Changing Academic Profession Survey. We suggest that family is not, in all cases, operating as a form of negative equity in the prestige economy of higher education. In addition, we argue that an over-reliance on an explanatory framework that positions family-related variables as central to the research productivity gender gap might well be drawing our attention from significant structural and systemic discriminatory practices within the profession.     

Revisiting size effects in higher education research productivity

The potential occurrence of variable returns to size in research activity is a factor to be considered in choices about the size of research organizations and also in the planning of national research assessment exercises, so as to avoid favoring those organizations that would benefit from such occurrence. The aim of the current work is to improve on weaknesses in past inquiries concerning returns to size through application of a research productivity measurement methodology that is more accurate and robust. The method involves field-standardized measurements that are free of the typical distortions of aggregate measurement by discipline or organization. The analysis is conducted for 183 hard science fields in all 77 Italian universities (time period 2004–2008) and allows detection of potential differences by field.     

Proving is convincing and explaining

In mathematical research, the purpose of proof is to convince. The test of whether something is a proof is whether it convinces qualified judges. In the classroom, on the other hand, the purpose of proof is to explain. Enlightened use of proofs in the mathematics classroom aims to stimulate the students' understanding, not to meet abstract standards of rigor or honesty.     

Faculty research productivity: Some moderators of associated stressors

Using person environment-fit theory, stress measures were developed on 894 faculty, a subgroup of the 3,972 faculty in the 1988 NCRIPTAL national survey. Within three institutional groups, three fields of study (humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences), three research output variables, and eight moderating variables (singly and collectively) were correlated (direct and partials) with two measures of stress. The findings lend support to the theoretical model. The outcomes also show that moderate levels of stress can be appreciably and significantly mitigated by some selected personal variables. The environmental variables were generally ineffective in moderating the correlations between stresses and productivity. Sex differences exist. Research self-competence is a strong modifier for both sexes and is exceptionally potent for women.     

Publication productivity in doctoral research departments: Interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary factors

Examination of a national data set reporting departmental levels of publication productivity in 23 disciplines revealed very large differences between disciplines, with the mean departments in the most productive disciplines averaging more than 10 times the number of publications of the mean departments in the least productive disciplines. The differences within disciplines were also very large. Analyses of the characteristics of departments associated with productivity showed great variation across disciplines. Regression analyses indicated the importance of size and internal university support rather than federal support. Similar results are reported for the number of citations to the work of departments. The implications of these results for program review and the reputations of departments are reviewed.     

An investigation of research self-efficacy beliefs and research productivity among faculty members at an emerging research university in the USA

The purposes of this study are to add to the existing knowledge base on research self-efficacy beliefs of faculty members and their influence on research productivity, and to inform higher education administrators about the relationship between research self-efficacy beliefs and research productivity. A theoretical framework of social cognitive theory underpins the study in which 109 faculty members completed the Research Self-Efficacy Inventory and Research Productivity Index. Quantitative analysis indicated that there is a significant but small correlation between research self-efficacy and productivity.     

Institutional research productivity and the connection to average student quality and overall reputation

We posit that institutions of higher education attempt to maximize their reputation, and that an institution's reputation, research output, and average student quality are determined simultaneously. Because these outputs are produced jointly, three-stage least squares is used to estimate the parameters of the model. We find that faculty research productivity is positively related to reputation but negatively related to student quality at research universities, but that reputation and student quality have little impact on research productivity at liberal arts colleges.