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The problem of this study involved identifying and ranking perceptions of the attributes of exemplary teaching of adjunct faculty of the Dallas County Community College District. Data was collected by a 75 item opinionnaire and a demographic data sheet which was sent to a population of 3,000 employees of the Dallas County Community College District and 100 exemplary faculty from 39 of the 50 United States. The five chapters were titled Introduction, Review of Literature, Methods, Presentation and Analysis of Findings, and Summary, Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations. Revealed through the findings of Chapter 4 was the order of attributes as a Grand grand rank found through the combining of the grand rank order of the Dallas County Community Colleges' employees and the rank order of the nationally recognized exemplary faculty. Findings disclosed that a rank ordering of items represented by Kendall's W at .9654 with a chi-square of 142.8815 at the .001 level of significance. These findings led to the rejection of three null hypotheses and the following related conclusions: (1) perceptions of importance of teaching attributes, can be rank ordered, (2) while a high level of significant values of W may be interpreted as meaning that the observers and judges are applying essentially the same standard in ranking the variables, their pooled ordering may serve as a standard, (3) ordering of perceptions of exemplary teaching attributes is possible, and (4) rankings of attributes provides a usable list of variables that can be employed in evaluation. Recommendations for further study include design of an evaluation instrument incorporating all or part of the attributes for use in adjunct classrooms, and creation of a staff development program designed to help those who are less proficient in the classroom.

The potential college students of the Odessa area need to know which type of school best suits their personal needs. The area around Odessa offers the highest paid secretarial Jobs in the state, with some 500 oil and oil supply firms employing from one to fifty full-time secretaries, with salaries ranging from $200 to 4325 per month. The opportunities for accountants, bookkeepers and auditors in the Odessa area is unlimited, and they earn from 4350 to $450 per month. The Odessa area also employs approximately 30 business teachers. 1 The. high school graduate is often at a loss as to whether to take advantage of a business course in a private business college in Odessa or whether to study business administration for one or two years at the local junior college, either in preparation for a job or for additional education at another college or university. A great deal of time and money may be wasted if a potential student attends the school that does not fulfill his needs. In view of the above, the purpose of this study is to make comparisons between the two types of schools in an effort to determine the type of school most suited for each student, and to pave the way for improvements in business education in that area. These facts will be helpful in planning the future curriculum and expansion of Odessa College and the possible establishment of a business school in connection with Odessa College.

This study is an investigation of the perceived attitudinal differences between administrators and faculty toward research and teaching at three Saudi Arabian universities, King Saud University (KSU), King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), and the Islamic University (IU). The researcher also investigated the effect of several variables, such as rank, university, and academic field on administrators and faculty members' attitudes toward teaching and research. Little Attention has been given to studies that examine the differences between faculty and administrators with regard to their attitudes toward the priorities of teaching and research in Saudi Arabian institutions. Also, little research has been conducted regarding the effects of rank and academic field on faculty attitudes in Saudi Arabian institutions. The author used a mail survey and collected 518 useable responses from a total of 710 questionnaires distributed. Factor analysis, MANCOVA, MANOVA, and ANOVA were the statistical methods employed in data analysis. Five attitudes were identified as a result of factor analysis: (a) attitudes toward teaching; (b) attitudes toward research; (c) mission; (d) promotion; and (e) interest. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between faculty and administrators regarding teaching and resea4rch. Administrators showed stronger attitudes toward teaching than faculty at all three universities. There were also significant differences regarding these attitudes in terms of rank, academic field, and university. Full professors had the strongest attitude toward a research emphasis compared to assistant professors. Assistant professors had the strongest teaching orientation. In addition, faculty members in the humanities had stronger teaching orientations preferences than did those in the natural and social sciences. Regarding the universities, faculty members at IU had the strongest teaching orientation preferences, whereas faculty members at KSU had the strongest research orientation preferences.

Groups of students or employees working together to solve problems, gain conceptual understanding, or create new approaches are expected to yield results significantly better than when working individually. Classroom collaboration leads to increased learning and retention, improved interpersonal skills, and enhanced appreciation for and commitment to the educational process. With the increased discussion of its benefits, there is more emphasis on including collaboration in the classroom. The challenge for today's faculty and students is to learn what their roles and expectations are in the successful collaborative environment. The purpose of this study was to design a curriculum for instructors in techniques for creating collaborative environments. In addition to reviewing the current literature to learn about collaborative environments in the college classroom, instructors were interviewed to learn about their experiences and successes with collaborative learning. Information from the literature review and the faculty interviews were used to propose the curriculum. Principles of collaborative learning evident through the literature and the interviews are that it requires trust, development of relationships, conversation, incorporating differences, the teacher as learner, and students be responsible for their own learning. The instructor must be able to create that environment by teaching social and collaborative skills, being willing to self-disclose, assessing where students are and by taking care of technical tasks such as preplanning, assigning students to groups, designing collaborative activities and evaluating results of the collaborative process, the group's product and the individual's contribution. Caffarella's (1994) interactive model for program development provided the structure for the development of the curriculum. Through the application of the model, curriculum ideas were explored and narrowed into the development of the program objectives. Transfer of learning activities incorporated into the curriculum are reliant upon intense practice of collaborative skills throughout the course. The learning is experiential.

This research explored 19 higher education faculty members' perceptions of satisfaction with their online teaching work, identified elements that enhance or inhibit these higher education faculty members' online teaching satisfaction, and provided a theoretical framework, higher education faculty online teaching satisfaction a conceptual model, to understand the relationship among these elements. The study participants represented eight different university campuses, three academic disciplines, and 10 online programs. Data was collected from multiple sources including an online background questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and public documents. Data was analyzed using the procedures for developing constructivist grounded theory proposed by Charmaz (2006). The researcher posits that the individual context component in this conceptual model affects, and is affected by the work context component as follows, online teaching work-related experiences are subjectively interpreted by individuals and groups of individuals, i.e., work-related perceptions, which affect, and are affected by individual(s) socially constructed and subjective interpretations of their online teaching work, i.e., individual(s) interpretations of work circumstances. The work-related perceptions and individual interpretations of the online teaching work circumstances reciprocally interact with each other, affecting and being affected by the first two components, individual context and work context, which also reciprocally interact and affect, and are affected by the faculty member(s) affective and cognitive evaluations of their online teaching work. These affective and cognitive evaluations result in a continuum of online teaching satisfaction. The resulting continuum of online teaching satisfaction can reciprocally affect, and be affected by any or all of the previously mentioned components of the conceptual model of this research.

The assessment procedures utilized in the Department of Biomedical Technology at Mangosuthu Technikon were critically reviewed. This revealed a rather narrow approach with an emphasis on traditional assessment methods such as tests and examinations that provide limited feedback that does not necessarily determine whether learning has taken place. This study was prompted by the realization that the existing traditional methods of assessment promote or encourage a surface approach to learning which makes it difficult for the students to transfer the theoretical knowledge that they have attained into the practical performance that is required in the workplace. The study was conducted over a period of four years using an action research approach, which revolved mainly around the use of the existing assessment methods and an evaluation of the participants’ perceptions regarding the introduction of portfolio assessment in the Department of Biomedical Technology at Mangosuthu Technikon. During the study a group of students in the Department of Chemical Pathology was exposed to an in-course portfolio assessment as well as an experiential training portfolio assessment. A number of variables in the in-course portfolio assessment was tested. These variables were related to the concerns raised in the workplace. The introduction of the in-course portfolio showed some improvement in the way students performed their basic duties in 2005. The 2006 group of students was not exposed to the in-course portfolio assessment therefore this provided a better comparison of students by the employers. The study also involved the lecturers in the department who had different opinions regarding portfolio assessment. It was found that some of them supported the idea whereas others felt that the time allocated for lecturers’ duties did not permit them to introduce such a time-consuming assessment format. Employers involved in the study clearly indicated which areas or skills students needed to develop before they could come to the workplace for experiential training. However, the researcher concluded that some of those skills could be accumulated with further years of work experience. The study revealed that a significant portion of the students realized that, by integrating assessment in the learning process, they are able to be more critical of their own work, thereby putting more effort into understanding what they learn through the use of formative assessment. This in turn should pave the way for students to understand that learning is no longer teacher-centred, but learner-centred. This approach means that they are expected to work in more reflective and independent ways in the future. The study highlighted a number of issues that need to be addressed in assessment strategies. The lecturers were accustomed to assessment system that was time-efficient and yielded the scores required by the system. However, the way this assessment system related to learning was not so clear to either lecturers or students. Particularly, students felt that a mark did not necessarily reflect what they knew about the subject matter. They argued that if the same subject content had been assessed in other ways, a different performance outcome might have been achieved. This means that the actual awarding of marks is an intimidating process for some students and that ways should be found to render assessment less intimidating or threatening. A critical finding of the study is that assessment requires not only a high level of critical reflection, but also active engagement and discipline-specific knowledge by the lecturers to make the necessary changes for an assessment method where students’ learning is the centre of focus. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and report the relationship between teaching and research as experienced by twelve faculty members at a medium sized, doctoral granting, state assisted university in the Midwest. Research review revealed that the relationship between research and teaching in higher education was supportive, conflicting, or neutral (Marsh & Hattie, 1996).Twelve faculty members from five different departments at Teachers College participated in this study. Evidence was gathered using semi-structured interviews. Analysis of evidence revealed several findings.Faculty members in this study described activities needed to produce publishable research, which included participating in professional meetings (conferences, workshops, and seminars), contributing to professional associations, reading publications, and writing activities. Faculty members engaged in research projects, and worked with students on their dissertations and research papers. Many of faculty members' research ideas came from their reading and their participation in learning activities needed to produce quality teaching.In this study, faculty members reported that research and teaching were intertwined activities that produced two different products. Faculty members reported that some of the activities in both teaching and research were similar and overlapping. They found ways to make progress in both activities at the same time. The activities used to produce quality teaching were influenced by the demands of producing publishable research and vice versa.For faculty members, many of their activities as scholars produced both research and teaching. While teaching was identified as the highest form of scholarship, research was considered also an important form of scholarship. Scholarship includes discovery of new knowledge, looking for connections, and building bridges between theory and practice. Teaching is scholarship applied. / Department of Educational Leadership

This study explores the process that occurred between a group of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists at a tertiary institution in South Africa as they negotiated common understandings of an integrated approach to the teaching of academic literacies. The focus of the study is on both the process underpinning this approach, as well as how the participants understood this process and constructed themselves within it. The unit of analysis in this study is the co-ordinated integrated approach to the teaching of academic literacies. This is a retrospective case study that engaged participants in a process of reflection on their interactions, over the three-year life of an institutional project, which resulted from the collaboration of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists. The overarching approach to data production was narrative methodology. Drawing on life history research methods, various strategies (such as participant observation, survey of documentation, analysis of policy documents, stimulated recall, individual interviewing and focus group sessions) were used to collect data about participants' experiences retrospectively. Three levels of analysis were applied to the primary data set, which comprised the narrative interviews, freewrites and focus group sessions. The findings from the study suggest that sustained interaction between language lecturers and disciplinary specialists is an important process in reshaping how both parties construct their roles and academic identities within higher education, a necessary element in shifting mindsets regarding the practice of academic literacy teaching in higher education. The most important factors in bringing about this shift are presented in the report as a theoretical model for the process of integrating academic literacies into disciplines. These factors and the processes linking them, represent important considerations when designing integrated approaches to the teaching of academic literacies, and are instrumental in bringing about changes regarding the practice of academic literacy teaching in higher education. The data suggest that the creation of productive institutional discursive spaces, which transgress narrow disciplinary boundaries, could bridge the separate academic Iifeworlds of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists. In a shift away from the 'study skills' view of academic literacy which supports an autonomous model of literacy, and the 'acculturation' view of academic literacy which supports an uncritical academic socialisation model, this study proposes a critical understanding of the teaching of discipline-specific academic literacies and introduces an inside/outside model of academic literacy teaching. This model proposes that disciplinary specialists need to be working within their disciplinary Discourse communities, while simultaneously having a critical overview of this 'insider' role, from outside of it. It is in engaging with language lecturers who are 'outsiders' to their disciplinary Discourses that disciplinary specialists find themselves at the margins of their own fields, and are able to view themselves as insiders from the outside, as it were. This shifting location from a purely insider perspective, to an insider perspective from the outside, shifts lecturers towards a critical understanding of the teaching of discipline-specific academic literacies. This model, and the· study informing it, theorises the process by which this dual critical identity can be crafted in practice. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.