Gender equity in the academic labor market: an analysis of academic disciplines

This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to analyze the effect of human capital, structural characteristics of the discipline, and disciplinary labor market conditions on faculty salaries. Faculty in disciplines characterized by relatively low demand, high teaching loads, and low amounts of research funding earn less than do faculty in other disciplines. Additionally, even after controlling for an array of individual and disciplinary characteristics, women faculty members earn less than their male peers.     

Sex differentials in faculty salaries

Affirmative action and other efforts to combat sex discrimination in higher education have focused on rank and salary differences within institutions. Academic women, however, tend to receive relatively low pay in part because they are concentrated in the lower-paying institutions. Since multivariate controls of factors such as institutional type, control, size, selectivity, and curricular emphases do not eliminate this negative relationship, the hypothesis of a direct link between institutional pay scales and faculty sex ratios is strengthened. These results suggest that eliminating sex bias in faculty pay within individual institutions will not achieve salary parity for academic women until higher-paying institutions recruit more women faculty, or until institutions with higher proportions of women faculty upgrade their pay scales.     

The measurement of administrative effectiveness of the academic department head

A total of 103 academic department heads in four universities rated a set of 15 administrative activities as to their importance. Faculty members in these departments (totalN=1,333) used the same set of activities to rate both the importance they should be given by the department head and the effectiveness with which the head performed each set during the previous 12 months. Tests of reliability revealed that faculty ratings of both importance and performance were made with reasonable internal consistency. Three tests of construct validity showed that each of the three types of ratings were made with at least minimal validity. A principal components analysis of faculty ratings of performance suggested that the department head has three major types of responsibility: personnel management; departmental planning and development; and building the department's reputation.     

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。     

Faculty behavior in low-paradigm versus high-paradigm disciplines: A case study

The notion of academic disciplines being characterized as high- or low-paradigm technologies was developed by Lodahl and Gordon from Kuhn's concept of a paradigm. Using this concept, the voting pattern of high-paradigm faculty (chemistry, physics, mathematics, and engineering) was compared to low-paradigm faculty (sociology, political science, history, and education) concerning a controversial campus issue to liberalize curriculum choices for students. It was found that high-paradigm faculty were not willing to grant students more latitude to select courses for degree requirements, while low-paradigm faculty members were in favor of giving students more latitude to select academic courses for degree requirements. The unique aspect of this study is that faculty behavior, as described in an actual case study, corresponds to theoretical positions supported by questionnaire data.     

关于奖惩制度与奖惩模式在体育游戏中应用的研究

通过问卷调查法抽取360名大学生进行调查,结果表明:大部分学生对体育教师安排的游戏并认为体育游戏的奖惩制度是有必要的。大部分学生喜欢集体趣味性游戏的奖惩模式,学生的认识和奖惩的模式及其难度对奖惩的实施、奖惩效果有着较大的影响。     

Communication in an academic context

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to investigate the most common communication problems from the views of faculty members at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. The sample of this study consists of 50 faculty members including professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and instructors from five largest departments representing five colleges at the Middle East Technical University. The data were gathered by utilizing interview method, including 19 interview questions which were developed by the researchers. The data collected through interviews were content-analyzed including the process of identifying, coding, and categorizing the primary patterns of data. The results of this study provide evidence that faculty members perceive a number of significant communication problem areas regarding work-related communication and overall departmental communication. Furthermore, although there are some similarities among the faculty members in identifying communication problems as well as the ways of solving these communication problems, some significant differences are also observed among the departments. In addition, analysis of the data revealed that there are some similarities and differences between hard science and soft science departments in defining communication problems and possible ways of solving these communication-related problems.     

Critique in academic disciplines and active learning of academic content

This article argues for increased theoretical specificity in the active learning process. Whereas constructivist learning emphasizes construction of meaning, the process articulated here complements meaning construction with disciplinary critique. This process is an implication of how disciplinary communities generate new knowledge claims, which is comprised by an interaction of roles – authors construct claims and peers critique them. Because disciplinary critique drives and shapes generation of knowledge claims, specialized features of these claims both justify and define their meaning. Here science is offered as an example, in which critique drives measurement of key concepts, thereby anchoring their meaning in operational definitions. The account of active learning proposed sheds new light on both historical and contemporary characterizations of active learning in terms of taking a critical stance toward content, in which the learner questions and challenges content. Thus students, rather than teachers, should actively challenge their emerging understanding of content.     

Salary increases and teaching effectiveness

The relationship between salary increases and student ratings of teaching effectiveness was studied for a sample of 266 faculty members at Kansas State University. Three measures of teaching effectiveness (student progress in meeting relevant course objectives, liking the instructor, and appreciation of the field of study) and two salary criteria (percent and dollar increases) were used. Several measures of the emphasis on the teaching function were used to determine if this variable moderated the relationship between salaries and student ratings. The effect of discipline was also examined.In general, there was a modest but significant correlation between ratings of teaching effectiveness and percent salary increase. The amount of emphasis given to the teaching function was a significant determinant of the strength of this relationship. Correlations were generally more pronounced in social science and humanities than in the science areas. Student motivation was highly correlated with effectiveness ratings, but was not regularly taken into account in salary recommendations.     

Ranking Romanian academic departments in three fields of study using the g-index

The scientific performance of 64 political science, sociology and marketing departments in Romania is investigated with the aid of the g-index. The assessment of departments based on the g-index shows, within each of the three types of departments that make up the population of the study, a strong polarisation between top performers (very few) and weak performers (much more numerous). This alternative assessment is also found to be largely consistent with an official ranking of departments carried out in 2011 by the Ministry of Education. To conduct the evaluation of departments the individual scientific output of 1385 staff members working in the fields of political science, sociology and marketing is first determined with the aid of the ‘Publish or Perish’ software based on the Google Scholar database. Distinct department rankings are then created within each field using a successive (second-order) g-index.     

新中国成立前后高校解决师资难题的路径探析——以唐山工学院为例

新中国成立前后,我国高等教育亟待蓄力起步,而高校作为高等教育的实际承担者,如何解决师资不济之难题,是高校能否有序开展教育、培养国家建设人才的关键所在。在师资延聘过程中,唐山工学院通过留聘旧教员、向上级和其他单位部门申请调聘所缺师资、留聘毕业生、充分利用社会关系延聘师资及加强师资延聘宣传工作等一系列卓有成效的举措,在一定程度上克服了师资短缺的困境,为学校开展教育教学及科学研究提供了保障,同时也为当代高校延揽人才积累了宝贵经验。     

Leadership situations in academic departments: Relations among measures of situational favorableness and control

Measures of attributes of leadership situations faced by chairmen in academic divisions and departments were theoretically and empirically related. Measures of task structure and member relations were derived from Fiedler's (1967) Contingency Model of Leadership, and measures of total control and relative control were derived from Tannenbaum's (1967) Control Graph Theory. Two correlational studies using samples of community college divisions and university departments indicated that hypotheses derived from research undertaken in business and military settings were not generally supported in higher educational settings. Consistent findings across both studies indicated that high task structure (faculty homogeneity and academic task structure) is associated with better member relations and greater cooperation on administrative matters. Implications for administrators are briefly discussed.     

The scholarship of teaching: A comparison of conceptions held by experts and regular academic staff

Over the past decade the scholarship ofteaching has received considerable attention inthe higher education literature as a reactionto the widely cited Carnegie Foundation'sreport ``Scholarship Reconsidered'; however, theconcept has remained devoid of a unifieddefinition. A recent Delphi study conductedwith a selective group of scholars whoseexpertise lies in the area of universityteaching and learning indicated the extent towhich these ``experts' agreed with each other onimportant features and unresolved issues theyassociate with the scholarship of teaching. Building on the results of the Delphi study,the present article discusses the results of asecond survey comparing these ``experts' 'conceptions with those of a larger group ofscholars whose expertise lies in a differentacademic field (``regular academic staff'), inorder to identify the similarities anddifferences in the conceptions of thescholarship of teaching held by each of the twogroups. While regular academic staff werefound to associate the scholarship of teachingmore with good or effectiveteaching ``experts' pointed to notions such aspeer review and scholarly standards. Thediscussion of the results focuses on the notionof consensus reached within and betweenthe two groups. It is argued that in order topromote changes in policy with respect to whatis to count as scholarship, identifying andreporting ``experts' ' conceptions, thoughclearly necessary for promoting moreenlightened discussions on the issue, willremain insufficient. Policy change in academeis more likely to ensue as a result of thewider academic community reaching consensus onthe meaning, and nature, of the scholarship ofteaching. The wider academic community includes``experts', as well as colleagues in departmentsand disciplinary associations. The articleconcludes by exploring the notion of consensusthrough the lens of critical social theory.     

大学教师:大学文化的守护者

大学教师是大学文化传承与发展的守护者。大学教师不同的大学精神选择对大学文化的守护和传承产生不同的影响和作用,以知识为志业的知识人抉择守护着大学文化,以政治为志业的政治人抉择偏离了大学文化,徘徊于知识人与政治人之间的冲突性角色知觉到了大学的本真文化精神。为守护大学文化,大学教师应该回归本位,实现知识人与政治人角色的整合性认同。     

美国国家教师发展和多元化中心建设的探究及启示

美国国家教师发展和多元化中心是一个独立于高校之外的服务于高校教师发展的机构,它为美国诸多学校的教职员、博士后及研究生提供专业的培训。对该中心的理念、服务对象、人员设置以及开展的项目活动进行介绍和分析,总结归纳其特点和优势,可以从中学习借鉴其发展经验,吸收其良性运营的精髓,为完善我国高校教师发展中心的建设提供有益启示。     

大学学部制改革四问

目前,大学学部制改革仍处于探索阶段,尚有一些重要的理论和实践问题有待深入研究,在改革的必要性、学部职能的定位等关键问题上还存在诸多争议。基于此,文章试图就大学学部制改革探讨四个问题,即＂改革是否必要？＂、＂学部职能如何定位？＂、＂改革成功的关键是什么？＂以及＂改革需要克服哪些障碍？＂。     

关于高校师资队伍国际化建设的几点思考

高等学校师资队伍国际化是高等教育国际化的核心。国家公派出国留学规模的扩大,省际出国留学项目的相继出台,为高校加强师资队伍国际化建设提供了良好的机遇,但是高校依然存在诸如师资队伍国际化程度不高,人才流失等一系列问题。高校应当结合国家和高校发展的需求,采取一系列措施,引进和培养国际化人才,加强师资队伍国际化建设。