Teaching codes of conduct form part of the ethics infrastructure of universities seeking to raise teaching standards and promote academic integrity. This study investigated the existence of publicly posted codes of conduct for undergraduate teaching in a random sample of 100 universities ranked among the Times Higher Education World University…

In this article, I assert that the work of colleges and universities forms a social action system. I array the critical positions represented in this issue according to the four functional imperatives of social action systems: adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and pattern maintenance. I discuss the role of normative structures for these…

This study examined the normative support by college faculty at teaching-oriented colleges (Liberal Arts I and II institutions and community colleges) of six recommendations commonly offered for the improvement of undergraduate education and compared findings to a similar study at Research I and Comprehensive II institutions. Tenured full-time…

Bringing together the results of the research reported in Chapters Four and Five, this chapter provides recommendations for instructor behavior consistent with the best criteria for ethical behavior toward students.

A study asked college faculty (n=253) to evaluate six recommendations for college instructional improvement drawn from the literature. Recommendations addressed student-teacher contact, systematic advisement, feedback on student performance, faculty knowledge of students, classroom egalitarianism and tolerance, and demonstrated concern for…

Quality of a faculty member's graduate department origin and its relationship to test construction was examined. Findings indicated a tendency for faculty holding advanced degrees from higher quality graduate departments to ask more synthesis questions. (Author/MLW)

Traditional approaches to defining academic quality (reputational, resources, and outcomes or value-added) are criticized as not providing useful information. An alternative perspective is offered, focusing on fundamental course-level academic processes and defining the quality of such processes as the level of understanding of course content…

Empirical research on aspects of teaching role performance in which disciplinary differences have been observed (teaching goals, teaching practices, course examination questions, and the relationship between teaching and research) is summarized, and implications for faculty and development, academic affairs administration, and improvement of…

This book addresses issues of impropriety and misconduct in the postsecondary teaching role. It reports on three surveys of faculty members conducted over 6 years at research universities, liberal arts colleges, and two-year community, junior, and technical colleges. In each survey an equal number of faculty members were selected from each of four…

Academic disciplines with soft paradigmatic development have greater affinity for practices designed to improve undergraduate education than do hard paradigmatic disciplines. A study extends this hypothesis to the seven principles of good practice, garnering empirical support for four principles: encouragement of faculty-student contact;…