Learning to teach with the web: Factors influencing teacher education faculty

Professional development at postsecondary institutions has primarily been supported through a central faculty development center. With purposive sampling, this small case study explored the ways in which teacher education faculty members were influenced to participate in decentralized professional development focused on learning to teach with WebCT. Results suggest that university faculty were influenced by both intrinsic factors (including convenience, comfort, common interests, and future purposes) and an extrinsic factor (external pressures). This research suggests that these factors also contributed to the faculty's satisfaction with the professional development. A follow-up interview explored how faculty coped with budgetary limitations and encouragement to pursue other distance education technologies.     

An Electronic Lifeline: Information and communication technologies in a teacher education internship

Practicum experiences in preservice teacher education are often characterised by disconnection. Preservice teachers are typically disconnected from university faculty and from their peers. Traditionally, university-based supervisors work to bridge the school and university contexts of preservice teacher education and facilitate learning to teach by visiting preservice teachers in their schools. This situation places high importance on the value of face-to-face interaction. The research reported in this paper explores the possibilities of utilising information and communication technologies (ICT) in the practicum component of preservice teacher education. It investigated the use of electronic discussion groups by preservice teachers and university lecturers while the preservice teachers were completing an internship towards the end of their teacher preparation programme. The paper discusses the benefits and challenges as reported by the participants in interviews, draws on the actual text of the electronic communication, analyses the findings, and draws implications for all participants in the preservice teacher education practicum. The study highlights the potential of ICT in providing new learning spaces that enable personal and professional networking and support, and points to reconceptualised notions of university supervision focussing on facilitating learning to teach and promoting reflective practice within the context of a professional learning community rather than as 'check-up' trips to schools.     

Dimensions of faculty members' sensitivity to job satisfaction items

Researchers have suggested that questionnaire item sensitivity may be a possible source of response bias in investigations using mail surveys. In conducting job satisfaction studies of faculty members in higher education, investigators have assumed that job satisfaction items are not highly sensitive to faculty members and do not vary in their degree of sensitivity. The purpose of the present research was to assess the degree of sensitivity of various job satisfaction items to faculty members and to identify dimensions of faculty members' sensitivity to these items. Results from a questionnaire returned from 354 faculty members at a large university showed that their sensitivity to job satisfaction items centered primarily in three areas: (1) concern with extrinsic job factors, (2) concern with department head actions, and (3) concern with promotion and salary. On the whole, item sensitivity appeared to be rather low. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

What drives students to complete online courses? What drives faculty to teach online? Validating a measure of motivation orientation in university students and faculty

Although online student enrollment has shown double digit growth for almost a decade and academic leaders recognize that online education is necessary for enrollment growth, little is known about what motivates students to enroll in or faculty to teach face-to-face (F2F) versus online courses. The psychometric properties of a motivation scale were examined with students (n = 235) and faculty (n = 104) at a large, public, urban university in the southeastern USA. Analyses revealed that the scale was reliable as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for online and F2F courses were similarly constructed for students and faculty; additionally, results revealed that motivations for online and F2F education are distinct concepts. Findings also demonstrated that online extrinsic motivation predicted the number of online courses students completed, while F2F intrinsic motivation negatively predicted the number of online courses a faculty member had taught. These results address several limitations with existing motivation measures and enhance the ability to predict student and faculty outcomes in online education.     

Faculty members’ perceptions of online program community and their efforts to sustain it

This study investigated faculty members’ perceptions of program community and what they do to support it in online graduate programs. Researchers developed and administered an online survey to ascertain perceptions of program community among education and engineering faculty members at United States, land-grant, research-extensive universities. Three hundred forty-four faculty members responded. Most participants thought that fostering community beyond courses was important. Faculty members used a variety of strategies to accomplish this task, including social media, synchronous communication and advising, face-to-face socials and orientations, and cohort models. Yet, many also relied on classroom strategies. Several participants indicated that they and their students lacked the time, resources or interest to pursue program community and that geographical distance and university reward policies complicated its establishment. Differences via discipline, gender and years of online teaching experience were also reported.     

How has Mexican faculty been trained? A national perspective and a case study

This article depicts how faculty members at Mexican higher education institutions have been prepared in order to assume their professional responsibilities. It relies on three elements: First, a secondary analysis of a national faculty survey composed of 3,861 faculty members from 65 institutions; second, 34 interviews conducted in eight higher education institutions; third, a primary analysis of an institution faculty survey in a public autonomous university. Results are presented regarding the following issues: first, the central traits of anticipatory or formative in-site faculty socialization; second, the changes in the highest degree faculty obtained at entry into academic life as compared to the obtained degree at the time of the survey; third, the formative time patterns during faculty’s higher education training, fourth, the conditions of study under which faculty members obtained their graduate degrees; and fifth, the academic inbreeding phenomenon.     

Research University STEM Faculty Members’ Motivation to Engage in Teaching Professional Development: Building the Choir Through an Appeal to Extrinsic Motivation and Ego

This paper reports on a qualitative, grounded-theory-based study that explored the motivations of science and engineering faculty to engage in teaching professional development at a major research university. Faculty members were motivated to engage in teaching professional development due to extrinsic motivations, mainly a weakened professional ego, and sought to bring their teaching identities in better concordance with their researcher identities. The results pose a challenge to a body of research that has concluded that faculty must be intrinsically motivated to participate in teaching professional development. Results confirmed a pre-espoused theory of motivation, self-determination theory; a discussion of research literature consideration during grounded theory research is offered. A framework for motivating more faculty members at research universities to engage in teaching professional development is provided.     

A game theoretic analysis of faculty competition and academic standards

Grade inflation, particularly but not exclusively in higher education, is a serious concern of educators, educational policy-makers and researchers. It has been suggested that student evaluations of faculty are among its principal causes because students tend to give favorable evaluations to professors who give high grades, and that these evaluations are used by university administrators as part of the criteria for promotions, salary increases and similar faculty benefits. This explanation suggests that faculty members compete for favorable student evaluations. It can be generalized to state that faculty members cooperate and compete not only for favorable evaluations, but also for the enrollment of students in the courses they teach. The relevance of faculty cooperation and competition suggests that the Theory of Games could be a useful instrument to analyze the interactions among university professors. The object of this paper is to present a model based on these assumptions and to analyze the consequences that can be derived from it that are relevant for university policy decisions.     

Self-Expression,Social Roles,and Faculty Members’ Attitudes towards Online Teaching

There is a widening gap between administrators’ and faculty members’ attitudes towards online education. This post-positivist grounded theory study explored features of the experiences that shaped sixteen faculty members’ attitudes towards online education. Two features are identified: (a) they strived to express subject matter of personal significance, and (b) they strived to take on various social roles. The degree to which these efforts were facilitated – or thwarted – shaped their attitudes towards online education. This analytical focus recognizes that online education changes not only how faculty members teach; it also introduces new activities that affect the meaning of teaching for faculty members.     

Seven strategies for enabling faculty success in distance education

Many challenges associated with distance education and technology integration initiatives focus on faculty issues and concerns. This article analyzes these difficulties by identifying from the literature current trends affecting faculty, faculty motivators, and faculty challenges. Then, following this review and analysis, the article presents seven strategies for university administrators and faculty to consider as part of their own strategic plan to mitigate faculty concerns and ensure program success. The seven strategies discussed include the following: (1) enable colleges and departments to accept more responsibility for distance education activities; (2) provide faculty more information about distance education programs and activities; (3) encourage faculty to incorporate technology into their traditional classrooms; (4) provide strong incentives for faculty to participate in distance education; (5) improve training and instructional support for distance education faculty; (6) build a stronger distance education faculty community; and (7) encourage more distance education scholarship and research.     

远程教育教师发展途径的成效分析

随着远程教育的快速发展,教师发展问题已经受到远程教育机构越来越多的重视。如何更好地促进远程教育教师的发展,即教师发展途径的问题,在理论和政策上已有诸多探讨,但这些探讨大多是从应然的角度对远程教育教师和教育机构提出的理想化要求,并没有切身关注教师的实际需求、期望和实效。以这一研究视角为切入点,通过调查某开放大学全体专职教师对教师发展途径实效的看法,结果发现：在我国远程教育系统目前主要存在的8种教师发展途径中,＂学历深造＂的认可度最高,＂自我反思＂是最具弹性和自主化的发展途径,＂同行交流与互助＂比＂专家指导＂具有更大的实效,＂校外培训＂比＂校本培训＂的实效更好,＂教研活动＂的实际帮助程度较低,＂竞赛和公开课＂的实效最低。为了促进远程教育教师持续而系统的发展,远程教育机构应积极探索新的远程教育教师发展系统,既要明确身份和定位,从制度和组织层面进行系统规划,又要为教师发展途径的选择提供弹性和灵活性,更要注重教师发展途径具体的实践性和情境性,以此来重构、重组和优化远程教育教师发展系统的可能空间。     

Blogging pragmatics and pedagogy: An adventure in faculty development

As university faculty are increasingly called upon to ‘do more with less,’ particularly to teach more students with fewer resources, technology can provide viable solutions to pedagogical dilemmas. Faculty developers are frequently tasked with introducing faculty to or coaching them in the use of technological solutions. With respect to blogs, the typical show-and-tell approach to technology awareness that our faculty development center uses seemed inadequate, given the complexity of blog design, implementation, and maintenance. Instead, we found the best way to instruct university faculty in the use of blogs is to give them an opportunity to participate in a blogging community as part of a Course in College Teaching (CCT). We experimented with two different approaches in two different sections of our CCT. This paper reports on the current blogging culture in higher education, describes our specific context for utilizing blogs, shares implementation decisions and learning affordances, and forwards a set of ‘lessons learned.’     

Daily Life: A Pre‐Service Art Teacher Educator and Her Work

This paper reports on a case study of the daily life of an art teacher educator. It examines the intellectual, moral, emotional, and physical undercurrents of this work and how these qualities are reflected within the daily context of the pre‐service university — or college‐level classroom environment. To date, few research studies have examined the daily practices of university or college‐level faculty members who prepare art teachers and how these faculty members go about their jobs. The author spent an academic term as a participant observer and researcher in the art teacher educator's secondary art education methods course. Examples and narratives from this study are forwarded, as well as a discussion on the importance of this form of inquiry for art teacher education today.     

Attitudes of higher education faculty toward distance education: A national survey

Abstract

Although distance education is growing in importance in the United States, little research has focused on the attitudes of American college and university teachers toward college‐level distance education and toward the use of specific media in distance education provision. The attitudes of both participating and nonparticipating faculty toward distance education need further examination, since teaching innovations cannot succeed without their support. This study examines the receptivity to college‐credit distance education of faculty members in two‐ and four‐year higher education institutions. The research questions focused on general receptivity to distance education, the relationship between professional characteristics and attitude toward distance education, the connection between previous distance education experiences/ familiarity and receptivity, and on attitudes toward different distance education media and methods.     

Transformational Journey of Educators in Technology: A Study of Tenured Business Faculty

ABSTRACT

Recent statistics show faculty in higher education question the value and legitimacy of online education as a viable educational format and are, therefore, less accepting of online degrees. The focus of this study was on business faculty and online education through the theoretical framework of transformative learning. Specifically, tenured faculty members who were initially resistant to teaching online – changed their perspective – and came to value and teach online business curriculum. To examine this phenomenon, a survey was distributed to business faculty worldwide. Qualified responses were received from 206 survey participants. The findings suggest that while business faculty, including those tenured, are resistant to teaching online and prefer to teach in a face-to-face environment, a perspective change toward teaching online resulted after spending time reflecting on various factors considered key to a successful entry to online teaching.     

Preparing Instructional Designers for Game-Based Learning: Part 1

Like many rapidly growing industries, advances in video game technology are far outpacing research on its design and effectiveness. Relatively little is understood about how to apply what we know about teaching and learning to optimize game-based learning. For the most part, instructional designers know little about game development and video game developers may know little about training, education and instructional design. In this three part series of articles, four recognized and emerging experts in instructional game design discuss their perspectives on preparing instructional designers to optimize game-based learning. In Part I, we set the context for the series of articles and one of four faculty members who teach a graduate level course on game design discusses what he believes instructional designers should know about instructional game design based on his experiences. Part II will present alternative perspectives from two additional faculty members who teach courses in instructional game design, and Part III will present a fourth perspective along with conclusion that compares the four views.     

Research productivity and scholarly accomplishment of college teachers as related to their instructional effectiveness: A review and exploration

This analysis reviews the research that has been done on the connection between research productivity or scholarly accomplishment of faculty members and their teaching effectiveness (as assessed by their students). On average, there is a very small positive association between the two variables. To understand this relationship better, extant research was explored for factors that might mediate either positive or inverse associations between research productivity and teaching effectiveness and those that possibly could be common causes of them. Pedagogical practices and dispositions of faculty members, as well as certain course or class characteristics (size of class, electivity of course), were examined as potential mediating factors. Potential common causes investigated were academic rank and age of faculty members, their general ability, their personality characteristics, and the amount of time or effort they spend on research activities. The association between research productivity and teaching effectiveness was explored further by considering whether its size and direction varies by career stage of faculty members, their academic discipline, and the type of college or university in which they teach.     

Perceptions of effectiveness and the actual use of technology-based methods of instruction: A study of California criminal justice and crime-related faculty

The field of criminal justice/criminology has few studies that examine faculty opinions regarding the use of technology as a replacement and supplement to traditional classroom instruction. Using a sample of criminal justice and crime-related higher education faculty members in the state of California, this study examines perceptions of effectiveness and the actual use of various classroom-based technologies. The results reveal that while most faculty members hold positive views toward the use of technology, far fewer are actually integrating technology-based methods of instruction into their courses. Meanwhile, most faculty members do not perceive the presence of adequate administrative supports or incentives at their institutions for the development of distance learning courses. Overall, support for the integration of technology into criminal justice education appears to be greatest when it is used as a supplement rather than a replacement for face-to-face classroom instruction.     

21st Century Competencies for Doctoral Leadership Faculty

Graduate and post-graduate programs were initially developed by universities to increase discipline-specific mastery. Faculty members impact both the content and quality of such programs as they are responsible for making it relevant in the current climate while also addressing the changes envisaged for society tomorrow. Although studies exist regarding faculty competencies in various disciplines and for preparing future faculty members, there is a paucity of research specific to competencies necessary for faculty members who currently teach in doctoral leadership programs. This Delphi study explored 21st century competencies required in the next decade for faculty who currently teach in doctoral leadership programs in U.S. institutions.     

Student Questioning and Multidimensional Literacy in the 21st Century

Schools of education increasingly are using contingent faculty members to instruct students. Contingent faculty members bring expertise and knowledge. However, because they often are less aware of university expectations, their instruction can magnify program weaknesses and overshadow strengths. To strengthen program infrastructure, the roles and expectations of contingent faculty members must be defined clearly and recognized by all school of education faculty members and university administrators.