Faculty ratings as a measure of departmental and administrator quality

This study examined the usefulness of faculty ratings as a measure of departmental quality. Two hundred and thirty-three faculty members from six departments responded to two questionnaires relating to the department—the Department Evaluation Survey (DES)—and to the department head—the Administrator Evaluation Survey (AES). A factor analysis of the DES revealed three underlying dimensions: Satisfaction with the Department's Academic Environment, Satisfaction with the Department's Governance and Operating Procedures, and Satisfaction with Student Quality. The factor analysis of the AES identified only one underlying dimension. Both the DES and AES were found to be highly reliable and effective in discriminating among departments. Very high positive correlations were also found between selacted DES and AES items suggesting that the performance of the head plays a very important role in faculty perceptions of the departments, and vice versa. Faculty ratings would appear to be a useful initial criterion in evaluating a department or head.     

Expanding educational access in Eastern Turkey: A new initiative

The Eastern Anatolian project extends opportunity and access to quality education. The study examines the selection and learning systems adopted within the framework of gender equity, family background and higher order skills. Performance data on a range of selection measures and the initial programme are analysed. Results show that selection was successful in choosing high achievers and establishing equitable occupational and gender access. Girls out-performed boys in skills-based selection measures, showed greater relative gains in language learning, and evinced better higher order skills, reversing the trend in state examinations.     

Visual annual reviews: how to include pupils with learning difficulties in their educational reviews

The challenge for schools, following the Green Paper Every Child Matters (HM Treasury, 2003) and the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (DfES, 2001), is to enable young people to give their views about matters affecting their lives. Whilst these recommendations are a welcome step to enable the effective inclusion of all young people, whatever their needs, there is little information on how this can be done, particularly in terms of making a young person's presence at a meeting meaningful and one where there is genuine regard for their views. The challenge increases if the young person has limited communication or significant learning difficulties. In this article Julia Hayes describes the development of the visual annual review, a practical, child‐centred planning tool to use in a review at a time of transition for those who may have limited understanding or language. The effectiveness of this method was evaluated following a review. The response was very positive from the staff, the pupil and the parent involved in the study. They felt that it was child‐centred, fun and accessible, whilst ensuring that all professionals had the chance to speak and chart the young person's progress.     

Engaging Undergraduates in Science Research: Not Just About Faculty Willingness

Despite the many benefits of involving undergraduates in research and the growing number of undergraduate research programs, few scholars have investigated the factors that affect faculty members’ decisions to involve undergraduates in their research projects. We investigated the individual factors and institutional contexts that predict faculty members’ likelihood of engaging undergraduates in their research project(s). Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute’s 2007–2008 Faculty Survey, we employ hierarchical generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 4,832 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty across 194 institutions to examine how organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory relate to mentoring students in research. Key findings show that faculty who work in the life sciences and those who receive government funding for their research are more likely to involve undergraduates in their research project(s). In addition, faculty at liberal arts or historically Black colleges are significantly more likely to involve undergraduate students in research. Implications for advancing undergraduate research opportunities are discussed.     

College Science, Mathematics, and Methods Teaching Faculty Talk About Science and Mathematics: An Examination of Faculty Discourse in a Reform-Based Teacher Preparation Program

In this study discourse and conversation analyses were performed on talk by science and mathematics teaching faculty participating in reforming content courses for teacher candidates participating in a mathematics and science teacher preparation project (upper elementary and middle level). The context of the study was the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP), a National Science Foundation funded project in the USA. The study's goal was to explore the use of discourse and conversation analyses as ways to understand faculty beliefs concerning mathematics and science, two disciplines the MCTP project aimed to connect. Discussion focused on two areas: (1) the comparison of the discourse on science and mathematics by the science, mathematics, and pedagogy content specialists, and (2) the impact of collaboration on the science and mathematics teaching faculty's conversation on science and mathematics. An implication of this study is to promote the analysis of talk as way to inform and direct faculty transformation in science and mathematics teacher education programs. Future research is recommended.     

Shared Governance among the new Majority: Non-Tenure Track Faculty Eligibility for Election to University Faculty Senates

Non-tenure track faculty members (NTTF) constitute what has been referred to by scholars as the new faculty majority. The growing numbers of NTTF have led to debates about the role they should play in shared governance. Currently, however, an overall lack of empirical knowledge exists regarding the status of their involvement in institutional governance. Using data from highest research activity doctoral universities, this study investigated current standards related to NTTF eligibility for election to institution-wide faculty senates. We also explored what these faculty governance standards and criteria reveal about the status and position of NTTF within the professoriate.     

Science Faculty Belief Systems in a Professional Development Program: Inquiry in College Laboratories

The purpose of this study was to investigate how science faculty members?? belief systems about inquiry-based teaching changed through their experience in a professional development program. The program was designed to support early career science faculty in learning about inquiry and incorporating an inquiry-based approach to teaching laboratories. Data sources for this qualitative study included three semi-structured interviews, observations during the program and during faculty members?? implementation in their courses, and a researcher??s journal. In the first phase of data analysis, we created profiles for each of the four participants. Next, we developed assertions, and tested for confirming and disconfirming evidence across the profiles. The assertions indicated that, through the professional development program, participants?? knowledge and beliefs about inquiry-based teaching shifted, placing more value on student-directed learning and classroom inquiry. Participants who were internally motivated to participate and held incoming positive attitudes toward the mini-journal inquiry-based approach were more likely to incorporate the approach in their future practice. Students?? responses played a critical role in participants?? belief systems and their decision to continue using the inquiry-based format. The findings from this study have implications for professional development design.     

Faculty evaluation: A prickly pair

In this exploratory study reviewing an institution's faculty evaluation process, we found support for the judgmental aspects of appraisal, but a desire for greater focus upon development. The institutional culture supports a combined approach to the evaluations. Although this diminishes the focus of both forms of evaluation, it serves both the faculty and the institution.     

各国高校教师资格制度的现状及启示——高校教师资格:世界动向国际研讨会综述

高校教师资格:世界动向国际研讨会在日本举行,与会代表从高校教师的身份和地位、职务类别及其职责、资格证制度、培养方式、录用、职务晋升、能力开发、热点问题等八个方面,对十二个国家高校教师资格制度的现状进行交流和总结.各国在高校教师资格制度化建设过程中的一些举措值得我国借鉴:为研究生开设高校教师资格预备证书项目;开发旨在提高教师教育教学能力的资格证书项目;建立多样化的高校教师职务晋升评审标准.     

案例教学法在法学专科刑法教学中的运用

案例教学法是法学教育中的常用教学方法之一,在不同层次的法学教育中有不同的具体运用。专科层次的刑法教学,目的是培养学生的应用能力,因此,在教学方法的选择上应当以案例教学为主,其他教学方法为辅。案例教学的运用方法多种多样,教学中应根据具体的教学内容来设计相应的教学方法。为了增强案例教学法的实际效果,应建立与案例教学法相适应的学生学习效果评价体系,使最终测试结果能够体现学生的实际能力,能够给教与学以及时的指导。     

University Mathematics and Science Faculty Modeling Their Understanding of Reform Based Instruction in a Teacher Preparation Program: Voices of Faculty and Teacher Candidates

This study was conducted in a reform-based mathematics and science teacher education program in the USA, the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation(MCTP). The goal of the undergraduate program was to prepare upper elementary/middle level specialists in mathematics and science. One significant aspect of the MCTP was the expectation that the program's professors (in mathematics and science) would model a new vision of effective pedagogy based on reform-based recommendations. We determined, in general, that the program's mathematics and science content professors accepted the dual role of modeling effective instruction at the same time they were delivering content. However, this dual responsibility raised in their minds an ‘issue of appropriate balance’ between content and pedagogical foci in their courses. Previously, the professors' had not questioned a focus heavily tilted toward content coverage. We also determined that the program's teacher candidates believed that the mathematics and science professors modeled effective instruction. One of the primary reasons that the teacher candidates believed that their professors were modeling effective instruction was that the focus in the courses was primarily on conceptual understanding, not memorization. A major implication was that the professors' modeling of reform-based instruction prompted the teacher candidates to develop a new vision of mathematics and science teaching shaped by their professors' example.     

A departmental system for balancing the development and evaluation of college teaching: A commentary on Cavanagh

The frank identification of specific areas for improvement is a central feature of a program to develop teaching skills in college teachers, but the preparation of such statements is not encouraged in a strongly evaluative climate. A useful mix of developmental and evaluative activities can be generated by considering a longitudinal view of the process. When periodic evaluations are required, the several years of developing teaching should have provided substantive progress that can be formally evaluated. An effective version of such a program requires clear administrative boundaries and a willingness to reward effort without evidence of improvement during the interim period. The result can be a departmental system that combines the best influences of formative and summative approaches to quality college teaching.Daniel J. Bernstein is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received an A.B. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego, and his scholarly work has focused on human learning and motivation. He has been active in a number of projects aimed at enhancing the quality and standing of teaching in research universities. He is a member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Academy of Distinguished Teachers, and he is directing a campus-wide project on peer review of teaching.     

责任群体:教师群体中的一种可能存在

中国的教育改革需要大量教师参与,这种参与不仅是对教育改革的理解,而且要有相应的教育行为投入与教育行为改变。伴随教育改革的发展,脱颖而出一大批名师,并由此可能生成一种责任群体,且可能具备相应的责任表达。作为教师群体中的一部分,他们对教育改革的作用不容忽略,解读这类群体,或许对认识教师群体的诸多复杂有所裨益。     

Faculty in Transition: A Longitudinal Analysis of Perceived Control and Type of Institution in the Research Productivity of Newly Hired Faculty

The systemic changes facing postsecondary institutions today pose a threat to the quality of academic programs unless new faculty can be successfully attracted and retained. To be more competitive in the recruitment and retention of faculty, a better understanding is needed of the adjustment experiences of newly hired faculty. Our study examined the adjustment of new hires at the point of entry into their institutions using research productivity as one indicator of adaptation. It was expected that perceived personal control, age, gender, and type of institution would relate to research productivity. At the beginning of their first and second year, newly hired faculty in three different types of postsecondary institutions responded to a comprehensive questionnaire concerning their initial adjustment experiences. A path analysis indicated both direct and indirect linkages between the independent variables of interest and research productivity. Substantial direct paths were found between the institution type and research productivity, specifically for the research I and liberal arts/comprehensive institutions, and to a lesser degree, between age and research productivity. Age, the research I university, and the liberal arts/comprehensive universities had direct effects on two measures of perceived control and were linked indirectly to research productivity via perceived control. Perceived control resulting from the personal qualities of the faculty members was instrumental to research productivity, whereas perceived control resulting from activities initiated by faculty members were not related to productivity. Surprisingly, gender was not related to research productivity through either direct or indirect paths. If the adjustment of newly hired faculty is viewed in terms of research productivity, then these results suggest that perceived control, the milieu of research-oriented institutions, and age (to a limited extent), are important predictors of faculty performance.     

论高校系资料室的不可替代性

高校系资料室的特点、优势和工作性质决定了其在教学科研中的重要作用 ,高等院校应大力加强资料室基本建设 ,提高资料人员的综合素质 ,充分发挥资料室的作用 ,为教学科研更好地服务。