From 2012 to 2015, students' academic performance at a community college in North Carolina fell below North Carolina Community College System baseline benchmarks despite the institution's adoption of several student success initiatives. Building from the established correlation between student academic achievement and academic engagement and the importance of noncognitive competencies in moderating student academic engagement, this qualitative case study investigated the academic experiences of 7 students who were members of the Paying It Forward mentoring program to determine the types of support and resources that students needed to develop and hone intrinsic motivation, sense of belonging, and self-efficacy-the noncognitivenoncognitive competencies proven to most directly moderate academic engagement. The guiding frameworks included a student-engagement framework developed by the Chicago Consortium on School Research, the learner-centered curriculum framework, and the generalized internal/external model. The research questions focused on specific factors that facilitated students' development of intrinsic motivation, sense of belonging, and academic confidence. The findings identified relationships between student academic performance and academic engagement as moderated by these noncognitivenoncognitive competencies and supported previous research concerning the invaluable role of faculty in developing students' sense of belonging. A resulting professional development project may enable faculty to systematically bolster students' academic engagement and performance by directly supporting mastery of these noncognitivenoncognitive competencies. This project may contribute to social change through increased graduation and transfer rates, which would create opportunities for enhanced social capital.

Whereas research related to the experience of faculty of color is increasing, little attention has been focused on Chinese faculty's career experience in the United States. The purpose of this study was: (1) to identify and describe factors which influence Chinese faculty decisions to apply for, accept, and remain in faculty positions at a Research Extensive University in Texas; and (2) to determine the challenges and support Chinese faculty have experienced with respect to promotion, tenure and recognition at a Research Extensive University in Texas. To address the purpose of the study, four research questions were used as guidance for collecting and analyzing the data. The purposive sample consisted of sixteen Chinese faculty members (four female and twelve male) across different disciplines, ranks and genders, from seven different colleges at the studied university. All participants are first generation Americans who obtained at least a bachelor's degree in China, received their doctoral degree or postdoctoral training in the United States, and found faculty positions in the United States. This study used a qualitative research design with in-depth interviews, observations and document reviews as the major tools for data collection. Constant comparative method was adopted to analyze data. Major findings concluded that factors such as traditional Chinese culture, family influence, the ability to access American academic freedom, advanced research environments, flexibility and job security, have significant influences in determining Chinese faculty decisions to work within academia in the United States. Additionally, Chinese faculty tended to regard individual barriers (i.e. challenges in mastery of English language, a lack of teaching experience, no undergraduate educational background in the United States, an unfamiliarity with the American culture, and insufficient communications skills in general) rather than institutionalized barriers (i.e. occupational discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice) as primary factors that impeded their professional development. Furthermore, Chinese women faculty experienced racial and gender issues in their lives and faced more challenges than their male counterparts in developing their career in the United States. The researcher hoped that this study could contribute to the scant literature on Chinese faculty's career experiences in the United States, shed some light on understanding what factors influenced their career development, and provide some implications for practice and recommendations for further research.

This phenomenological study explored the experiences of public health faculty, who developed and taught online courses, at one particular school of public health from 2006 to 2009. The goal was to explore and document the experiences of faculty involved with this phenomenon. A criterion sample was used to identify and select participants. Five public health faculty participated in the study. Data were analyzed in two ways. Written narratives, observational field notes, and artifact data were analyzed using the inducted grounded analysis technique. Interview data were analyzed using the phenomenological data analysis method, Stevic-Colazzi Keen Method. Findings revealed that the experiences of public health faculty, who develop and teach online courses were similar to those in other subjects and were described as difficult, daunting, painful, and time consuming, leaving the public health faculty feeling frustrated and exhausted. While negative feelings described the experience pertaining to the development of online courses, the experience in the teaching phase was seen as positive, enjoyable, joyful, refreshing, and fun. These experiences were found to be contingent upon instructional and organizational support, availability and quality of resources and faculty development and training. Three overarching themes emerged from the study in relation to the experience. These themes included the rhetoric of fear, transformation, and support. The rhetoric of fear described the participants’ sense of being afraid or apprehensive toward developing and teaching online courses. Transformation described the transition participants made as they emerged as online instructors. Support described the structures needed to engage in the activities of developing and teaching online courses. The study also revealed five types of barriers to developing and teaching online courses at this particular school of public health. These barriers included psychological, organizational, technical, instructional, and time barriers. Benefits for developing and teaching online courses were identified. They included availability for students, access and penetration into global markets, instructional innovation, design innovation, and new methods of instructional delivery. This study provides data that can be used by institutions and faculty as they design and implement social, political, and technical infrastructures to support the activities of online teaching.

The phrase "teachable moment" has a taken-for-granted connotation of readiness to learn, but has been rarely defined and researched in the literature of higher education. This study described faculty members' experiences of teachable moments in their undergraduate classrooms. This included the conditions in which they emerge, and the decision-making processes used by faculty members to determine if and how to pursue such moments. If professors have opportunities to clarify their understandings of such moments, the ability to capitalize on otherwise unplanned teaching opportunities may be enhanced. Seventeen experienced social science and humanities faculty members teaching undergraduate classes at a large research university participated in two semi-structured active interviews (Gubrium and Holstein, 2003). The interviews addressed their understandings of, experiences with, and decisions about teachable moments in the classroom. These interviews yielded descriptions of teachable moments as creating a heightened sense of engagement and interaction about a topic of shared interest. Teachable moments fall along a continuum of predictability, with some moments being intentionally designed by the professor and others emerging spontaneously during a class as a result of current events or student comments. When confronted with surprise moments professors consider a complex set of interacting elements to decide whether to pursue or postpone the exploration of the moment. They ask themselves several questions Is there time? How does this fit with goals for the class, course or program? Are the students and I ready to examine this? What impact will this have on classroom dynamics? Does this warrant in-class exploration, or should it be pursued outside of class? The set of considerations can be examined as manifestations of Schon's (1987) theory of reflection-in-action which describes how professionals make decisions in surprise situations when previously effective responses do not work, and more specifically of Steier and Ostrenko's (2000) adaptation of Schon's model, .reflection-in-interaction. Implications for theories and practices of teaching of college teaching as well as for opportunities for faculty development were described.

As universities increasingly offer online nursing education, the transition that faculty members must make to their new instructional role is often overlooked. This phenomenological qualitative research involved the use of semi-structured interviews with 16 nursing faculty from four Florida public universities, who were asked to describe their experiences transitioning from classroom to online teaching. Interview questions focused on their prior assumptions about online education, their preparation for online teaching, their current teaching methods, and the identification of information they would recommend as vital for successful online teaching. Participants were voluntary and selected by both criterion and network sampling. Interviews were conducted in-person, audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed for recurring themes. Data were validated using member checks, peer reviews, and Atlas.TI software. Participants reported that teaching online was more difficult than expected. Most frequently mentioned issues were time and effort required to design and teach due to factors such as students' needs, class sizes, and designing learning activities. Faculty preparation varied among institutions, but regardless of training most reported the significance of mentors or colleagues as critical for success. While some faculty reported feeling disconnected from students, many reported having better relationships with online students than with their face-to-face counterparts. Over half the faculty discussed the importance of their role as becoming facilitators of learning. Results support the need for institutions to provide both an adequate technology infrastructure and sufficient faculty support. From this study faculty recommended that mentoring and collegiality are vital components of the faculty development process. Administrators need to address issues of time and effort, and faculty need to learn different ways to work that include team approaches and flexible scheduling. Suggestions for future research include identifying the degree to which these findings transfer to other disciplines. Identifying strategies for developing, sustaining, and implementing online mentoring programs for faculty, and information on sustaining better communication in the online environment. Finally, looking at cost-efficient models for delivering quality services is a factor often overlooked by administrators.

As many of the founding full-time community college faculty began to retire, colleges across the nation intensified their full-time faculty recruitment and retention efforts. They began to replace the retiring full-time faculty with the new generation faculty cohort. The purpose of this study was to understand the role that a comprehensive orientation program played in the socialization process of new community college faculty. Additionally, the study examined the choice of orientation tactics used to socialize the new faculty. Relying on the reported socialization experiences of seven full-time faculty members from six of the seven colleges that comprised a community college district, the study explored how an orientation program facilitated their adjustment process. Finally, the researcher sought to identify ways to improve full-time community college faculty socialization experience. Most of the faculty in this study, although having no specific training to teach at the community college, were able to build relationships outside their individual colleges, acquired new skills, and gained access to valuable district resources, as a result of their participation in a yearlong comprehensive orientation program. Three significant findings resulted from this study. The first major significant finding of this study was that the incorporation of a social apparatus, such as the “retreat” into an orientation program, facilitated group cohesion and identity among the new faculty. The social structure of the retreat provided new faculty with an opportunity to connect with one another at an emotional level. They were able to expand their social networks beyond their immediate colleges. A second significant finding was that faculty became more confident and comfortable in their teaching roles as a result of the skills they acquired following their completion of the comprehensive orientation program. The monthly sessions, which were held every 4th Friday provided the faculty the opportunity to acquire and develop new skills to effectively discharge their responsibilities. The third major finding of this study was that because faculty had access to district resources, to develop their skills, they became more closely tied to their institutions. Finally, recommendations are made to improve new faculty socialization experience during their adjustment process. / text

In traditional models of university education, students gather in classrooms, listen to instructors lecture on specific topics, and take notes with limited time for interaction. Students are then expected to spend additional time outside of the classroom reading textbooks, completing assignments, and preparing for tests. Instructors are viewed as experts providing information to students in much the same manner that they learned the content as students in college. The advent of the World Wide Web in 1991 allowed a dramatic change in the way students and faculty gather information, conduct research, and publish ideas. Internet-based technologies can transform traditional classroom experiences. Student participation can be increased by promoting group and collaborative learning online, and by the use of tools such as e-mail, discussion boards, and synchronous chat sessions. The objectives of this study were to 1) determine which factors affected faculty members’ use of technology integration in their instruction, and 2) determine what effect the integration of technology had on the role and teaching styles of faculty members. The study employed a mixed-methods research methodology. A survey instrument was developed and sent to faculty members at the five largest, public research institutions. The level of technology integration was calculated on a scale ranging from nonuse to full integration. The scale included practices such as providing online discussion areas, allowing/requiring students to use the Internet for assignments, and using anonymous online surveys to gather student feedback. Faculty members were then asked to elaborate on their answers. After the quantitative and qualitative survey results were analyzed, a select group of faculty members at one campus were interviewed to verify or dispute the findings. The survey results revealed the factors that significantly contributed to the overall level of technology integration were: instructional resources, professional and personal computer use, level of class, gender, title, and type of online teaching experience. One of the most significant factors was the level of instructional resources. Instructors with a facilitative teaching style were most likely to integrate technology into their instruction. This information can inform institutions when creating faculty development programs and budgeting limited resources. / text

Conceptions of learning and teaching shape teaching practices and are, therefore, important to understanding how engineering professors learn to teach. There is abundant research about professors' conceptions of teaching; however, research on the conceptions of teaching of doctoral students, the future professors, is scarce. Furthermore, there is a need to understand not just future engineering professors' conceptions of teaching but also their conceptions of learning. The purpose of this study was to explore qualitative variations in future engineering professors' conceptions of learning and teaching as well as understanding how they came to these conceptions. The research questions that guided this qualitative study are the following: 1) How do future engineering professors describe their conceptions of learning engineering?, 2) How do future engineering professors describe the basis of their conceptions of learning engineering?, 3) How do future engineering professors describe their conceptions of teaching engineering?, and 4) How do future engineering professors describe the basis of their conceptions of teaching engineering? Twenty doctoral engineering students interested in academic careers were interviewed. A phenomenographic approach was used to explore variations in conceptions of learning and teaching. The basis of conceptions of learning and teaching were explored using thematic analysis. Six variations in future engineering professors' conceptions of learning engineering emerged and included learning engineering as 1) acquiring knowledge, 2) gaining an understanding, 3) practicing problem solving, 4) applying knowledge, 5) developing an approach, and 6) maturing. Each conception of learning was described by seven dimensions or features: focus, nature of knowledge, view of engineering, strategies, assessments, interactions, and relational. Participants described the basis for their conceptions of learning engineering through four general themes: undergraduate student experience, research, graduate school experience, and prior teaching experiences. Five categories of conceptions of teaching engineering emerged and included teaching engineering as 1) delivering knowledge, 2) helping understand and apply concepts, 3) motivating students, 4) helping students learn how to approach problems, and 5) preparing students to make socially conscious decisions. In describing conceptions of teaching, five dimensions were identified: focus, strategies, use of students' prior knowledge, faculty-student interaction, conception of learning, and projects. Observing professors, student experience, talking about teaching, and teaching experience were described by participants as the basis for their conceptions of teaching engineering. The findings of this study are consistent with previous categorizations of university professors' conceptions of teaching from teacher-centered/content-oriented to student-centered/learning-oriented. However, this study contributes to the literature of engineering education and faculty development by contextualizing the conceptions of learning and teaching of future engineering professors. Furthermore, this study provides richer descriptions of variations in other aspects of teaching and learning engineering such as future professors' views on student interactions, student development, assessment, motivation, problem solving, assumptions about knowledge, teaching and learning strategies. In addition, this study contributes to our understanding of how professors learn about teaching. In particular, the exploration of the basis for the conceptions of learning and teaching opens new avenues to explore how conceptions of teaching and learning evolve over time. This study closes with implications for faculty development and suggestions for further research.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-06T23:44:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006 / O estudo buscou articular a interdisciplinaridade com o cenário da educação em saúde, em especial com o da odontologia. A base teórica da pesquisa foi montada em cinco eixos: histórico das mudanças curriculares e das leis educacionais do Brasil; histórico da interdisciplinaridade; conceitos da interdisciplinaridade; interdisciplinaridade em saúde e interdisciplinaridade e currículo. O objetivo da pesquisa foi investigar o enfoque interdisciplinar nas escolas de odontologia no Estado de São Paulo. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo e procedeu-se a uma coleta de dados quantitativos e qualitativos com aplicação de questionário e entrevista semi-estruturada. Para análise dos dados adotou-se a análise de conteúdo para as questões abertas do questionário e da entrevista, agrupadas em categorias e para as questões fechadas dos questionários foi feita uma análise quantitativa nas dimensões de freqüência e percentual de respostas. Os dados foram analisados a partir dos seguintes tópicos orientadores: perfil das instituições; perfil dos sujeitos; mudanças curriculares; práticas interdisciplinares e conceitos da interdisciplinaridade. Foram enviados questionários para 39 sujeitos, dos quais 89,7% responderam à pesquisa. Fizeram parte deste estudo 35 faculdades de odontologia do Estado de São Paulo, das quais 25 eram privadas, sete públicas estaduais, duas autarquias municipais e uma era fundação municipal. Identificou-se o perfil dos diretores/coordenadores que, na sua maioria era do sexo masculino, com a média de idade de 50,8 anos e a maioria trabalhava em regime de tempo integral ou de dedicação exclusiva. O tempo de docência era predominantemente acima de dez anos e quase todos coordenadores têm o titulo de doutor. A grande maioria (88,6%) respondeu que ocorreram mudanças curriculares nos últimos anos nas suas Instituições. Os dados mostraram que a maioria dessas mudanças estava diretamente relacionada com as Diretrizes Curriculares para os cursos de graduação em Odontologia. Os sujeitos consideraram a clínica integrada como a principal atividade interdisciplinar. Quase todos entrevistados acreditam que a interdisciplinaridade tem mais pontos positivos que negativos. Sobre as dificuldades da implantação da interdisciplinaridade a maioria disse ter problemas com o corpo docente em relação a sua formação, autoritarismo e desconhecimento sobre abordagens interdisciplinar. Os dados analisados apontaram uma diversidade e dificuldade de conceituação da interdisciplinaridade pelos coordenadores. Conclui-se que a interdisciplinaridade apesar de fundamental na implantação das Diretrizes Curriculares para os cursos de graduação em Odontologia é uma abordagem que está em construção. / The present study aimed to investigate the interdisciplinary approach at Dental Schools of São Paulo State, Brazil, and to discuss the use of interdisciplinarity in dental education experiences. Five cornerstones constituted the theoretical basis of this research: history of curricular changes and educational legislation in Brazil; history of interdisciplinarity; conceptions of interdisciplinarity; interdisciplinarity in health sciences, and interdisciplinarity and curricula. This descriptive study was based on quantitative and qualitative data which were obtained by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Data from answers to open questions in the questionnaire and from the interviews were analyzed by content analysis and, were grouped into categories; data obtained through the answers to closed questions were quantitatively analyzed by frequency and percentiles. Discussion was guided by five headings: features of the schools; profile of subjects; curricular changes; interdisciplinary practices, and conceptions of interdisciplinarity. 35 Dental Schools, all from São Paulo State, were selected: 25 of them are private institutions; 7 are public, (State iniversities); 2 are public (county) and 1 is a county foundation. Questionnaires were sent to 39 members of Boards of Education of these Schools, and 89.7% of them sent their answers. Profiles revealed that the majority of Board of Education chairmen were males, with mean age of 50,8 years, and most of them worked full-time. Most of them worked as Professors for more than 10 years, and also attained PhDs. According to 88.6% of them, there were curricular changes at their Schools during the last years. Data showed that most of these changes were directly related to the Brazilian Curricular Policy, established for Dental graduation. The subjects considered integrated clinics to be the major interdisciplinar activity. Almost all of the subjects believe that interdisciplinarity has more advantages than disadvantages. Regarding the introduction and establishment of interdisciplinarity, most of the subjects mentioned objections raised by the teachers, because of their graduation, authoritarism, and lack of knowledge on interdisciplinarity. Data also suggested the existence of different conceptions of interdisciplinarity among subjects. Although essential on establishing the Curricular Policy for Dental graduation, Interdisciplinarity is still a resource under construction. / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

A educação em Administração é cada vez mais demandada a trabalhar profundamente os conceitos com relação à ética, tendo em vista as responsabilidades das organizações na sociedade. Assim, faz-se necessária uma educação mais transcendente, indo além da base financeira, incluindo as questões da sustentabilidade socioambiental, e questionando quais as mudanças são necessárias para educar o administrador. Desta forma, o desenvolvimento dos docentes é um dos pontos fundamentais para a mudança na educação em Administração, para que estes obtenham maior consciência da dimensão socioambiental da sustentabilidade, utilizando esta dimensão nas suas atividades de educação do administrador. Com isso, questiona-se sobre quais bases conceituais podem auxiliar neste desenvolvimento docente. Para responder a este questionamento, foi estabelecido como objetivo geral a construção de um framework conceitual. Como objetivos específicos, foi analisado o contexto da educação e da atuação do administrador brasileiro, no que se refere à dimensão socioambiental da sustentabilidade. Posteriormente foram selecionados junto a pesquisadores, no Brasil e no exterior, bem como em eventos científicos da área, os elementos para analisar o desenvolvimento atual de docentes. Foi observada a necessidade da integração das questões socioambientais na educação dos administradores. A construção metodológica buscou coerência com o Pensamento Complexo, com uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa e orientação interpretativista. A partir da análise dos dados coletados, emergiram os elementos considerados necessários para o desenvolvimento docente, visando tornar a educação do administrador mais transcendente. O elemento central está relacionado aos papéis que os docentes exercem, identificando a necessidade de uma ampliação da capacidade criativa para a resolução de problemas. Com isso, foi proposto o aprofundamento do entendimento dos espaços que favorecem a transformação pessoal e o desenvolvimento dos docentes. O desenvolvimento é impulsionado pela ampliação da visão e conexão com algo maior do que a atividade docente, sendo um estímulo à consciência de fazer parte de algo maior, motivando os docentes em Administração para utilizarem o conhecimento na promoção do desenvolvimento no sentido amplo. Assim, foi definida a espiritualidade como elemento impulsionador do desenvolvimento, permitindo aos docentes a busca de conexão com os aspectos transcendentes, percebendo-se como parte de um todo maior que eles mesmos, podendo atuar de forma a impactar positivamente o todo, sendo impactados positivamente por ele. Desta forma, esta tese visa auxiliar no desenvolvimento da consciência socioambiental na educação em Administração, para que as organizações minimizem os problemas sociais e ambientais da sociedade, por meio de seus produtos e serviços, assumindo compromissos com a transparência e os valores éticos. / Management education is increasingly demanded to teach deeply ethics concepts, given the social responsibilities of organizations. Thus, a transcendent education is necessary going beyond the financial focus, including the issues of social and environmental sustainability, analyzing what changes are needed to educate the future manager. In this way, faculty development is one of key points for changes in management education, so they can develop a greater awareness of the environmental dimension of sustainability, using this to improve education activities. Upon that, the question is about what conceptual basis can help the faculty development. To answer the question, it was proposed the construction and presentation of a conceptual framework as main objective; the specific objectives were initially focused on understanding the context of education and the Brazilian manager role on matters relating to social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. After that, some elements were prospected and selected through researchers in Brazil and abroad, also in scientific events of management area. All of that was necessary to understand the current approach used to faculty development, their roles to integrate environmental issues in management education and the need for adjustments in this development. The methodological approach was based on Complex Thinking, through a qualitative research and interpretative orientation. From the data analysis, emerged the elements considered necessary to faculty development, aiming to transform the management education into a transcendent approach. The central element is related to faculty’s main roles, identifying the need for an expansion of problem solving capacity and creativity. Therewith, it was proposed a deeply understanding of spaces that favor personal transformation and faculty development. The development is empowered by an expansion of a vision and a connection to something larger than the teaching activity, being a stimulus to the consciousness of being part of something bigger, and motivating them to recognize that there is much to do for the good of humanity. Therefore, it was defined spirituality as driver of this development, in the sense that enable professors to search connection with transcendent aspects, perceiving it as part of a whole, greater than themselves, acting as a positive impact and being impacted by it as well. Thus, this thesis aims to assist in the development of environmental awareness in management field, so that organizations can minimize its social and environmental problems on society through its products and services, committing themselves with transparency and ethical values.