Impacts of university education reform on faculty perceptions of workload

Since the corporatization of national universities, the environment surrounding Japanese universities has dramatically changed in various respects. A series of government-led attempts have intended to support the domestic colleges and universities in gaining a competitive edge by improving the quality of teaching and research as well as guaranteeing the international validity of the country's higher education system. Impacts of all the challenges that have been tackled with internal efforts in the last few years could be enormous on the personnel workload. However, little is known about the impacts of Japan's recent university education reform, particularly on the changing workload of the faculty who engage at the forefront in student teaching and advising, administrative roles as well as research activities. Using results from individual faculty interviews, this paper attempts to link the changing workload of Japanese professors with specific reasons that are rooted in the country's recent university education reform. Reviewing the effects of the reform on faculty workload provides us with important insights for the long term and guides us to prevent the derailment from the endeavour to which a significant amount of resources have been dedicated by the country.     

中国高校女教师队伍发展的现状分析

This paper examines the changing status of women faculty through an analysis of statistics on China’s universities from 1994 to 2004. This paper first presents the trend of a drastic increase in women faculty members in recent years. Further details on the academic ranks of women faculty, their age and highest degrees obtained are also presented. A comparison of female representation in faculty ranks is made between China and a few selected countries. Lastly, this paper attempts to account for the low percentage of female professors in higher education. Recommendations for the professional development for women faculty are made in the end.      

Undergraduate students as partners in new faculty orientation and academic development

Addressing both the increasingly complex process of becoming an educator at the tertiary level and the growing recognition of the importance of student engagement, student–faculty partnerships have emerged as one way of fundamentally rethinking academic development. Participant reflections suggest that the over-time, partnership approach to orientation and development presented in this article effectively supports new faculty as they develop their academic identities. The approach includes opportunities for dialogue and collaboration with students offered before new faculty arrive on campus, as part of orientation before classes begin, during the first semesters of teaching, and in subsequent semesters.     

美国大学教师的学术自由权利:历史的视角

美国大学教师的学术自由权利经历了"学院时代"与"大学时代"两大历史时期的发展。美国大学教师学术自由权利的争取过程,同时也是赋予学术自由权利以认识论和政治论意义的过程。历史证明,学术自由权利是保障大学教师从事知识创新与探索活动的基本权利,是保护教学与研究工作免受各种不合理干扰和限制的必要权利,是赋予大学教师适当社会地位和必要经济保障的重要权利,也是一项与学术责任相伴生的有限权利。     

Personality-based faculty workload analysis

Faculty workload analyses have been with us for many years, but no study has ever grouped faculty by personality type or by academic rank. This paper examines the results of a study in which faculty at a large state university were classified according to Holland's theory of vocational choice. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that faculty members of the five Holland types not only differed on four self-reported measures of faculty effort, instruction, research, public service, instiutional-professional activities (all measured in hours per average week) but that the findings were supportive of Holland's theory. In addition, analysis by rank showed that while total hours per week were not statistically different among the ranks, hours in instructional and institutional-professional activities varied greatly but hours in research and public service did not. The conclusion is that changes in instructional workload will not affect research or public service activities of faculty members.     

高校教师聘任制中的若干关系

高校教师聘任制涉及社会生活、社会文化的方方面面,牵一发而动全身,必须认识和处理好其中的若干关系。制度约束行为,思想规导制度,首先要厘清规导教师聘任制的相关理念。实施教师聘任制具有学术和效率双重目标,但学术目标是大学坚守的生命线,效率目标应为学术目标服务。由于学术职业的特殊要求,教师聘任制中要形成甄选机制,以达到优化的目的。在聘任制过程中应处理好应然和实然的关系,逐步从实然达到应然。     

Predicting faculty job satisfaction in university departments

This study attempts to examine the relationships between several dimensions of organizational climate and faculty job satisfaction in university departments which offer Ph.D. degrees. The three dimensions of organizational climate examined are: power perception, the perceived organizational goals, and the assessment of rewards. The major findings of the study are:(1) Nonresearch perceived organizational goals are by and large weakly related to job satisfaction in both the physical and social sciences. (2) Power perception is a strong determinant of job satisfaction in the social sciences and considerably less dominant in the physical sciences. (3) The assessment of rewards is the strongest predictor of faculty job satisfaction in both the physical and social sciences. The major conclusion of the study is that the organizational climate is one of the keys to understanding faculty job satisfaction. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

浙江高校教师苦乐源调查与分析

本文通过对浙江省高校教师与其他职业人群苦乐源的调查分析,发现了一些以往鲜为人关注的“矛盾”现象:一是工作同为高校教师快乐与痛苦的主要来源,显示出目前高校体制转型中不同教师对职业适应状况的较大差异;二是看似自由支配时间多并拥有寒暑假的教师职业,闲暇缺乏的痛苦却大于社会其他职业人群的平均水平;三是社会上普遍认为收入较高的高校教师,其对收入的苦乐感反应却比其他职业人群更为强烈,满足度反而较低。     

Academic inbreeding and publication activities of Russian faculty

The literature on the consequences of academic inbreeding shows ambiguous results: some papers show that inbreeding positively influences research productivity measured by the quantity and quality of publications, while others demonstrate the opposite effect. There are contradictory results both in the studies of different countries and within countries. This variety of results makes it impossible to transfer the findings from one academic system to another, and in Russia this problem has been under-explored. This paper focuses on the relationship between inbreeding and publication activity among Russian faculty. The research was conducted using data from the ‘Monitoring of Educational Markets and Organizations’ survey. The results show that there is no significant effect of academic inbreeding on publication productivity: no substantial and robust differences in publication activity between inbreds and non-inbreds have been found. The paper finishes with a discussion of possible explanations inherent in the Russian academic system.     

论大学教师的教学责任

随着大学功能的扩展,大学教师的责任出现多元化趋势。由于重科研、轻教学的制度与政策导向,大学教师作为研究者的责任不断强化的同时,教学失责问题也不断凸显。实践证明,通过扩展学术的内涵、推动教学学术运动是大学化解教学与科研冲突的有效途径。我国大学教师失责问题是多种因素影响的结果,当务之急是要通过改善大学发展环境、改革教师评价制度、建立有效的管理体制等方面的制度创新来提升大学教师的教学责任。     

When a practitioner becomes a university faculty member: a review of literature on the challenges faced by novice ex-practitioner teacher educators

It is challenging for ex-practitioners beginning to teach in higher education settings due to their long experience in other fields. In this paper, as an example of a nexus of practitioners and academics, the focus is the issues of novice teacher educators at the beginning of their careers and support programmes for them. Three factors were identified as causing the most distress: difficulty in changing their identities, adjusting to the new work environment and fear of research. These problems align with the cognitive, social and ethical aspects of learning. To overcome these problems, various potential platforms exist, such as traditional mentoring, peer mentoring, joint reflection or self-study. With support programmes, regardless of platform, novice teacher educators’ struggles can be opportunities to learn more about the three aspects of their new jobs.     

Antecedents of organizational commitment among faculty: an exploratory study

Faculty are the main asset of a university and determine its success. The attitudes of faculty toward their institution play an especially important role in the academic profession. This study examines the specific antecedents of affective, normative and continuance commitment of faculty to their university. This study is an online survey of 317 faculty of Russian higher education institutions. The results of the regression analysis showed that being an undergraduate inbred (i.e. working at the university from which one graduated) predicted affective and normative commitment toward the university, while having a post at another higher education institution predicted only affective commitment. Faculty who work at several universities have lower levels of emotional attachment to the primary university.     

高校教师聘任的制度设计——基于学术职业管理的研究

高校教师职业是学术职业,高校教师聘任的制度设计,要遵循学术职业的特点。在教师聘任的制度设计中,要根据学术发展的需要设置岗位;根据学术职业的特点,将"有固定期限"聘任和"无固定期限"聘任作为一种制度设计,建立学术职业"准入"制度;根据学术自由的要求,在评价考核中,采取发展性评价,改进学术评议机构,保证学术评议的独立性;根据学术平等的要求,采用集体合同与契约合同相结合的办法,依法规范教师聘用合同;根据学术公正的要求,建立一个"中立"的、组织健全的争议处理机构,协调教师之间、教师与学校之间的争端,维护教师的权益,推进学校的发展。     

浅析日语专业学生职业能力培养

随着社会对于日语人才的要求也不断提升。社会不仅要求学生具有外语能力,还要求学生具备职业能力。本文从人才培养目标和方案的调整、课程体系建设、师资队伍建设、教学手段和方法的改进等方面探讨了日语专业学生职业能力培养策略。     

竺可桢的教师灵魂说及其现代价值

竺可桢的教师灵魂说体现的是一种师本位、学术本位的价值取向。教授是大学的灵魂。大学生的成长和大学的发展皆依靠教师、名师。这一理念与我国当前大学“官本位”、“行政本位”的价值取向大相径庭。在这一理念指导下,竺可桢把浙江大学从一个地方性大学建设成国内名牌大学。它对于我们今天的大学发展与师资队伍建设具有启迪意义和指导价值。     

Academic bullying among faculty personnel in Estonia and Finland

This comparative study focuses on the prevalence, nature, and manifestations of experienced bullying among faculty personnel, that is, both academic and management staff of universities in Estonia and Finland. A total of 1,191 respondents from Estonia (n = 864) and Finland (n = 327) responded to identical questionnaires. The results show that 27 per cent of respondents in Estonia and 18 per cent in Finland had experienced bullying within six months prior to the study. In Estonia bullying is most commonly straightforward and may include insulting an individual in the presence of colleagues, while in Finland people typically get indirectly slandered behind their back. In Estonia, work-related threats of blame, violence, humiliation and ridicule are typical, whereas it is more ordinary to make negative work-related remarks in Finland. The dissimilar factor models and the categories based on open-ended answers also confirm the presupposition of academic bullying as a culture-related phenomenon.     

Computer self-efficacy of university faculty in Lebanon

Faculty use of technology is a critical issue in higher education; administrators and students are expecting faculty instruction to incorporate technology in classroom and distance education. Competition is demanding technologically proficient graduates for schools and colleges. Research indicates that computer self-efficacy (CSE) may be one determinant of who uses technology and who does not. A survey of education faculty at the Lebanese University in Beirut, Lebanon, conducted in 2006, revealed varying degrees of CSE; of 127 respondents, 14 had low levels of CSE; 68 were at a moderate level, and 45 self-evaluated themselves to have high CSE. Although other barriers may deter the implementation of technology in teaching, strategies and techniques for increasing CSE should be developed. For those with low CSE, special attention must be given to enhancing their levels of CSE.

大学类型与教师智能结构的发展

大学可以分为研究型大学、教学型大学和社区服务型大学三种类型.研究型大学中教师发展以研究能力的提高为重点,教学型大学中的教师发展以教学能力提高为重点,而社区服务型大学的教师发展应以服务技能提高为重点.教师智能结构的发展促进系统包括形成共识、成立机构、依托项目、明确内容和保证制度,根据我国的情况,最为迫切的教师智能结构发展措施有经费保障、改革教师交流制度、安排继续教育课程和学术性休假.     

A study of the relationships between faculty characteristics,subject field,and course grading patterns

This paper describes an analysis of faculty grading patterns at a large public university. It introduces a methodology to both normalize and stabilize grade data by courses. Using this method, we report on grading patterns for over 1,000 teachers, giving more than 40,000 grades in approximately 2,000 courses. The findings indicate that the academic field of the course is strongly related to the types of grades assigned. Courses emphasizing quantitative and factual learning tend to have assigned lower grades. The higher grades are found in career-oriented courses, such as teacher training. This was shown in separate analyses for undergraduate and graduate courses. For undergraduate courses, lower grades were found in freshman and sophomore courses as compared with junior and senior courses. The academic credentials and personal characteristics of the teachers were only moderately related to grades. Temporary teachers had higher grades in their courses, but such personal characteristics as sex, marital, and minority status were not systematically related to grades given. There was a tendency in undergraduate courses that as class size increased, the proportion of higher grades decreased.     

美国大学教师工作量浅析

美国大学教师工作量问题的历史及其相关研究数据,显示大学教师工作量的构成包括教学、科研和服务三个部分。美国高等教育不同发展时期对此问题的不同认识和讨论,对于深刻认识大学教师的工作,科学合理地制定大学教师工作量及其评价标准,具有借鉴意义