Teacher ratings in the validation of Guglielmino's Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale

The complexity of life and the increasing importance of learning across the lifespan puts an added emphasis on self-direction in learning. Guglielmino's Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) is one of the most frequently reported instruments designed to measure self-directed learning readiness. Therefore, the validity of the instrument is an important topic. This is the second study by the authors that is designed to contribute to knowledge of the validity of the SDLRS. In the first study, the authors concluded that general findings support the validity of the instrument. Questions generated by the lack of association between faculty ratings on self-direction and student scores on the SDLRS, however, needed further study.The second study, reported here, was specifically designed to examine the effects of two teacher rating scales as used in the two investigations. The extremely low(0.03) correlation between faculty ratings and the SDLRS scores noted in the first study is compared to the findings in the second study. A correlation of 0.20, significant at the 0.056 level, was noted in this study. It is concluded, therefore, that the rating scale as used in the first study may have been seriously flawed. A persistent tendency of the faculty to rate black students lower in self-direction and older students higher in self-direction raises additional questions concerning faculty rating procedures. Other findings reported in this study are similar to those reported in the earlier study     

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.      

The localization,diagnostic, and monitoring functions of student ratings in a model for improving university teaching

A diversity of student questionnaires are used by colleges and universities to provide data on faculty teaching performance. Yet the purposes for collecting this data are frequently unclear, and at times superficial. Rarely is student rating data used as a tool to improve faculty teaching. A more relevant approach incorporates a variety of types of student ratings into a model for improving university teaching. One type of student rating data is used to identify broad instructional problem areas. Another type pinpoints probable causes and solutions for the instructional problems. Instructional improvement procedures are designed on the basis of this data. A third type of student rating data evaluates the instructional improvement procedures and indicates when modifications are needed. In addition to these three types of student ratings, and the generation of appropriate questionnaires, this paper presents an overview of the teaching improvement model and discusses its effectiveness.     

Breaking the tyranny of office hours: Overcoming professor avoidance

ABSTRACT

Studies have found that Faculty–Student Interaction (FSI) has many positive benefits for students including academic support, professional development, mentoring, and career planning. Research-intensive universities exhibit the lowest levels of faculty–student interaction within higher education. This article utilises qualitative methods to explore faculty, student, and staff perceptions of faculty–student interactions, particularly those that take place out of the classroom, at a research-intensive public U.S. university. We identify social distance between faculty and students based on unequal status within a rigid, hierarchically-organised culture as a key barrier to FSI. We then discuss methods that some of the faculty in our study used to mitigate their social distance with students in an effort to increase FSI.     

The participation of women faculty in Chinese universities: paradoxes of globalization

This paper contributes to a discussion of how globalization is affecting women faculty in different countries around the world. It reports on a collaborative, international research project designed to understand the participation of women faculty members in Chinese universities, sketching the historical context necessary for understanding women's place in universities in China, describing the process of surveying university faculty on gender issues and reporting the findings of the survey for universities that prepare secondary school teachers. The paper concludes that in China, ‘gender consciousness’ is a major barrier preventing women's full participation as faculty. As a result, women are likely to increase their disadvantage in the next few years as Chinese universities expand, diversify, emphasize research and broaden their links with the rest of the world.     

开放大学师资队伍建设策略探析

师资队伍建设是开放大学发展战略的重要组成部分。针对目前开放大学师资队伍现状以及存在的问题,分析了专职教师队伍的引进、聘任和在职培训,探讨了兼职教师队伍的建设策略以及师资队伍建设的制度保证和政策激励。     

An Evaluation of Factors Regarding Students’ Assessment of Faculty in a Business School*

Student faculty ratings are used at most institutions of higher learning for three important reasons. First, the ratings provide direct feedback to the faculty, and this enables faculty to adjust their teaching styles. Second, the ratings provide the administration with information intended to assist in guiding and mentoring faculty toward more effective pedagogical performance in the classroom. Third, the ratings also provide the administration with information to be used in the reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes, as well as for assignment of salary range adjustments and teaching awards. To be of real value, however, all of this is predicated on the use of a valid and reliable faculty‐rating instrument along with a system designed to provide both the faculty and the administration with norming reports that allow for appropriate comparisons of ratings. This article reports such a study conducted within a large department of a business school and recommends that the process used be adapted by other business school departments and other academic units across the university and at other universities to ensure a more universally appropriate usage of students’ ratings.     

美国大学非终身教职教师权益保障研究——基于美国大学教授协会的经验与反思

20世纪70年代以来美国大学非终身教职教师权益保障已成为困扰美国学术职业发展的重要问题。非终身教职教师无法享有与终身教职教师平等的地位和待遇,影响了他们教育教学工作的积极性和人才培养质量,引起人们对高等教育师资水平和教学质量下降的担忧。美国大学教授协会通过引导高校规范大学非终身教职教师聘任标准和程序,公布谴责名单制裁高校侵权行为,建立教师学术共同体进行集体维权等措施,在保障非终身教职教师的权益及维护高等教育质量方面发挥了重要作用。美国大学教授协会的经验值得我国参考和借鉴。     

An examination of the relationship between technology problems and teaching evaluation of online instruction

To address faculty members' concern that teaching evaluation in the online environment might be lowered because of technology problems students experience in online courses, a sample of 202 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory statistics course in a college of business administration was surveyed. Students' evaluation of their instructors and the course and their experiences with technology problems when taking the course were measured. As expected, a negative correlation between teaching evaluation and experience of technology problems was observed. Based on the finding, it is suggested that, to encourage faculty members to teach online, universities need to examine the relationship between teaching evaluation and technology problems experienced by students in the online environment and adjust the evaluation skewed by problems that are out of instructors' control. Measurement instruments used in the study and a suggested formula for adjusting teaching evaluation are provided.     

大学教师发展中心运行机制研究及其启示——以澳大利亚南澳大学为例

大学教师发展中心是大学教师发展的发动机。大学教师发展中心运行机制研究对提升大学教师内涵式发展具有重要意义。鉴于澳大利亚南澳大学在在线教学和教学模式改革等方面取得的重大成就,选取南澳大学教师发展中心的运行机制进行案例分析,并分别从管理机制、激励机制和质量监控机制以及反馈机制等几个维度探讨南澳大学教师发展中心运行机制的实然状态,以期对我国大学教师发展中心运行机制的改革提供借鉴。     

Individual Differences in Faculty Research Time Allocations Across 13 Countries

In research universities, research time is often too scarce to satiate the wishes of all faculty and must be allocated according to guidelines and principles. We examine self-reported research hours for full-time faculty at research universities in 13 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, UK, USA, and Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous special administrative region of China). We examine the level of variation in individual faculty research time and the factors associated with individual differences, including differences in: (a) university policy regarding the allocation of working time for research between individual faculty members, (b) individual motivation towards research, and (c) family commitments. Our results suggest that the factors associated with additional research time vary across countries, but individual motivation towards research (relative to teaching) is a significant in all countries. University policies towards research and the research status of individual faculty, are relatively weak predictors of individual research time, though stronger effects are generally found in English-speaking countries. Research hours typically decrease with age, but plateau or increase in the oldest cohorts. Family and gender are weak predictors of research time amongst full-time faculty.     

石油类高校大型仪器设备开放共享的探索与思考

随着网络信息的快速发展,在互联网+的助力下,在生态文明理念的驱使下,共享发展成为社会发展的新型方式。高校实验室是培养人才的摇篮,如何在大学实验室中高效、科学地推广大型仪器设备的使用是实验室管理中的一个重要问题。目前,各高校正在积极推进大学实验室中共享和使用大型仪器设备,但是,由于诸多客观因素,石油高校大型仪器和设备的使用过程中仍然存在效率低下和开放不足等问题。现以中国石油大学(华东)为例,研究分析了大型仪器设备的现状。在此前提下,探索和研究如何更好地管理和使用大型仪器设备。     

Research productivity of foreign- and US-born faculty: differences by time on task

Similar to trends in postsecondary education across the world, today’s US universities are an increasing mix of native and foreign-born scholars. US institutions are experiencing a growing number of international faculty members, but there is limited literature examining foreign-born faculty who work in US institutions and how outputs from foreign-born faculty compare to US-born natives. Using data from the 2004 National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:04), this study examines difference in faculty members’ research productivity at doctoral-granting institutions by foreign/US-born status controlling for select individual and institutional characteristics. Findings show that foreign-born faculty members spend more time on research and less time on undergraduate instruction than US-born peers, and this may contribute to their higher levels of production. Implications are discussed that consider how to ensure diverse faculty communities that lead to strong research and knowledge production.     

演化博弈视域下的高校教师合作浅析

当前高校教师合作存在着一些问题,主要包括合作愿景与有效的共同目标的缺位,派别文化的存在影响到合作成员的价值认同,不当的合作评价和利益分配机制影响到合作知识和信息的共享,进而挫伤了合作成员参与的积极性。本文对博弈理论进行了简单梳理,并撷取演化博弈的部分理论,尝试从该视角来分析当前高校教师合作的部分行为,并对其存在的问题进行探讨,在此基础上提出构建合理有效的高校教师合作机制的建议。     

Responding to mission creep: faculty members as cosmopolitan agents

Across the field of U.S. higher education, regional teaching and comprehensive universities are striving for national research status. This tendency has most often been explored at the organizational level, but in this paper, the views and actions of faculty members are the unit of analysis. Based on qualitative data, I put forward a three pronged frame-work that organizes overarching faculty responses to one university’s transition. I focus most specifically on one faculty response, which I call operationalizing in order to show how faculty members take agency in a moment of complex change that illuminates tensions between faculty, university leaders and the field of higher education, more generally. Contributing to the literature on faculty agency, mission creep/striving and change in higher education, I unpack specific ideas and practices that faculty used as they took agency over their careers.     

美国大学教师评价中的同行观察初探——以德克萨斯大学为例

美国大学的教师教学评价主要由学生评价、教师自我评价、系主任评价和同行评价等方式组成。同行观察是同行评价的主要方式。本文以美国德克萨斯大学同行观察为例,介绍了美国大学教师评价中的同行观察的内容、形式和工具,总结了同行观察的特点,讨论了有效进行同行观察的注意事项。     

University faculty members’ and students perceptions of university academic systems

There are no provisions for routine evaluations or rankings of the universities in the Federal Republic of Germany. Consequently, it has become a matter of magazines to carry out inquiries into the opinions of students and faculty members in order to assess the quality of education at German universities. One of the first studies of this type was carried out by one of Germany's most respected magazines, Der Spiegel. The results of this study, particularly the questionnaires and validity of the given response categories, were subject to vehement criticism. In this context the exploratory study described in this chapter was conceived. Students and faculty were asked to give their personal and individual views about the academic system at their given universities. In order to guarantee the subjectivity of each individual's frame of reference, the responses of students and faculty were recorded, analyzed, and compared by means of computer-assisted content analysis. The results will be used to validate quantitative instruments of inquiry and to formulate proposals for their improvement.     

Audio‐conferencing in graduate education: A case study

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a study that examined the relationship between distance teaching and the faculty reward system. Using a qualitative approach, the study sought to understand how distance teaching is valued, rewarded, and accommodated within the institutional reward structure. Based on interviews with faculty members, distance education program administrators, and the chief academic officers at four research universities, the study describes a reward culture that is not accommodating to and rewarding of faculty work in distance education. The study finds that: 1) distance education occupies a marginal status, 2) distance teaching is neither highly valued nor well‐rewarded as scholarly activity, 3) distance teaching is not highly related to promotion and tenure decisions, and 4) rewards for distance teaching are dependent on the academic unit's commitment to distance education.     

Faculty vitality in the comprehensive university: Changing context and concerns

Much of the current research on faculty vitality—including studies of faculty workload, reward structures, and morale—are focused on research universities and liberal arts colleges. Results of two surveys of faculty vitality at DePaul University, administered in 1986 and 1992, suggest that the earlier models of faculty vitality, although useful, need to be reexamined for comprehensive universities. This case study suggests that nontangible correlates, particularly institutional direction and mission articulation and their relationship to faculty workload and the reward's structure, play an important role in ensuring a balanced effort at promoting faculty vitality at comprehensive universities.