Equity theory and students' commitment to their college

The present study tested the power of equity measures to predict students' commitment to college. Different patterns of results were observed across three academic disciplines (physics, economics, and political science), which are characterized by different levels of environmental uncertainty. Equity was found to be a more relevant predictor of students' behavior and attitudes in fields with a high level of paradigm development. In political science, the major predictor of students' commitment was the comparison of one's group with another. The dominant independent variable in economics was the comparison within the membership group, while in physics the main predictor was the internal standard. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Predicting faculty success in university graduate departments

This study tests a model of predicting faculty success in the different fields of chemistry, physics, sociology, and political science. The main hypotheses tested and confirmed are:

1. In a field with a low technological development, professional age is more important in predicting faculty success than in a field with a high technological development.
2. In a field with a high technological development, articles are more important in predicting faculty success than in a field with a low technological development.
3. In a field with a low technological development, books are more important in predicting faculty success than in a field with a high technological development.

These hypotheses are tested separately for the tenured and the nontenured faculty groups. The policy implications of this model in regard to the management of graduate departments have been discussed and explored.     

Determinants of students' satisfaction with course work: An international comparison between two universities

The present study attempts to develop a scale of students' general satisfaction with college instruction, to empirically assess the dimensions behind the scale, and to examine four predictors (sex, major, school year, and academic performance) which may affect the various factors of student's satisfaction with instruction. The study was conducted in two universities, one in Israel and one in the United States. The findings of this study indicate that the concept of students' satisfaction is composed of four factors and that each of these factors is best predicted by a different combination of the independent variables. However, academic performance is a dominant predictor of all four factors. The pattern of the findings is similar for both countries.The policy implications of these findings for university decision making and institutional research are discussed and elaborated.     

Predictors of funding in academic fields

This study assesses the relative salience of various predictors of funding in different academic fields. Predictors of funding include the various dimensions of past research performance: articles, articles in leading journals and books. Articles predict quite accurately funding decisions in chemistry (r=0.58; p<.001). Books, on the other hand, are not the dominant predictor of funding in either the social or physical sciences. The implications of these findings for higher education are discussed and elaborated.     

The perception of power in university departments: A comparison between chairpersons and faculty members

This study analyzes differences in power perception across hierarchical levels in university departments and their consequences on studying the power structure of universities. The study's major variables include the holder of power and the nature of decisions involved, controlling for the field and the prestige of the department. Two perceivers were the subjects of the study, chairpersons and faculty members. Comparison between the two perceivers yields considerable differences. The different patterns of power observed by faculty members and chairpersons and the various areas of agreement and disagreement between the perceivers are discussed and analyzed.     

The appearance of literacy in new communicative practices: interrogating the politics of noticing

ABSTRACT

This conceptual article examines how ready-made assumptions about literacy both frame and limit understandings of new communicative practices in educational contexts. Proposing a tripartite heuristic that interrogates the appearance of literacy in terms of emergence, semblance and performance, it uses stories from a study of touchscreen tablets in one early years setting to illustrate the social-material arrangements associated with moments when tablets became texts to be looked at, shared or made. The authors argue that a sociomaterial sensibility can not only sensitise researchers to new communicative practices, but also to the ways in which sociomaterial arrangements help to construct habits of noticing often active in accounts of literacy practice and research. It is their contention that exploring the relations between emergence, semblance and performance is particularly valuable at a time when conceptualisations of literacy are being challenged in response to diversifying communicative practices.     

An organizational behavior model of students' evaluation of instruction

The present study develops and tests an organizational behavior model of students' evaluation of instruction outlining the causal relationships among levels of instruction, feedback, goal-setting, student's accomplishment, and student's instructional evaluation.The major findings of this study are: (a) The organizational behavior model is one of the strongest predictors of student's overall instructional evaluation. (b) Student's accomplishment, while controlling for the effects of other independent variables, does not contribute to predicting overall evaluation of instruction. (c) Feedback and goal-setting are the most powerful predictors of overall evaluation of instruction. (d) The means, standard deviations and reliability coefficients of the various variables and the interrelationships among the various variables are similar at two points of time (mid-semester and end-semester). The implications of these findings are discussed and elaborated.     

Perceptions of the teaching-research nexus: a framework for analysis

This paper reports on the perceptions that senior academic administrators hold on the relationship between the research and teaching components of academic work. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with senior academic administrators from the humanities, sciences, social sciences and professional areas. The findings indicate a strong belief in a symbiotic nexus between teaching and research. Indeed, the data reveal many important, but often subtle, interconnections between these two components of academic work. A three-level nexus between teaching and research is suggested: the tangible nexus, the intangible nexus and, the global nexus. These findings form part of a wider investigation into the nature of academic work in Australian universities and are proposed as a suitable framework for further research.     

Task characteristics of faculty in medical school departments

Perceived characteristics of research, teaching, and patient care tasks of faculty members and administrators in five medical schools were found to differ significantly among departments representing different scientific and medical specialties. These differences correspond to state of development of the field and nature of the work done in the different departments. The basic science departments, which as a group represent a higher state of scientific development than the clinical departments, were more homogeneous in reported task characteristics than were the clinical departments. In light of these differences, it is argued that it is dysfunctional to apply the same set of organizational policies and practices, such as criteria for rewards and promotions, uniformly to all departments.