Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) gather crucial feedback on student experiences of teaching and learning and have been used for decades to evaluate the quality of teaching and student experience of instruction. In this paper, we make the case for an important improvement to the analysis of SET data that can further refine its interpretation.…

This research investigates the value of teaching philosophies (TP) for today's academics and their institutions. It offers a new framework to enhance academic development, personal resilience, and institutional capacity building. Since the 1990s, TPs have been formalised as personally constructed and reflectively written statements of educational…

Universities must secure stakeholder support to ensure the successful implementation of most initiatives. However, given the shared governance structures and collegial cultures of many universities, what strategies do university leaders enact to obtain stakeholder support? Although several stakeholder management and organizational response models…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to utilize the Objective Knowledge Growth Framework (OKGF) to promote a better understanding of the evaluating tenure and promotion processes. Design/Methodology/Approach: A scenario is created to illustrate the concept of using OKGF. Findings: The framework aims to support decision makers in identifying the…

The focus of this article is the tenure review process in Canadian universities, a rigorous and high-stakes evaluation of junior academics that serves as a prime exemplar of "disciplining academics", our project's title. In-depth interviews in seven Ontario universities with 30 knowledgeable informants such as senior managers and faculty…

Twenty-five years ago, American sociologist Robert Neelly Bellah (Bellah, et al., 1986: 303) critiqued the growing isolation of intellectuals within universities and called for a return to "social science as public philosophy." Little seems to have changed. My thirty-seven year experience at the University of Alberta suggests that…

We examined web-based ratings and open-ended comments of teaching-award winners (n = 120) and research-award winners (n = 119) to determine if teaching-award winners received more favourable ratings and comments on RateMyProfessors.com. As predicted, students rated teaching-award winners higher than research-award winners on measures of teaching…

Although measures of student ratings of instruction have been developed and examined empirically, students' attitudes about the utility of these ratings have yet to be meaningfully quantified. Using survey responses from 1229 students at a major Canadian university, we developed a psychometrically sound measure of the usefulness of student…

Considerations for establishing purposes of evaluation are described in view of controversies that focus on justification and use of ratings of instructors as well as attempts to meet demands and ward off pressures for accountability. General models are proposed to serve as guidelines for further development and specification of purposes.…

Investigated the relationship between gender and gender role of students and their "best" university professors. Surveys of Canadian college students indicated that there was a strong relationship between students' gender and gender role and the gender and perceived gender role of their best instructors. Masculinity was valued more by…

The discrepancy approach, with a nonmonotonic function, was used in a questionnaire designed to measure the difference between reality as perceived and desires. Reality is described as a student's perception of teacher performance and notion of an ideal teacher performance. The questionnaire deals with both the intensity and direction of a…

A survey of graduate social work schools in the United States and Canada regarding the use of peer review for tenure and promotion purposes and the specific methods and criteria used is reported, and implications for other areas of professional education are discussed. (MSE)

A study investigated the relative importance of refereed and nonrefereed publications in faculty tenure and promotion decisions at 26 English-speaking Canadian graduate colleges, faculties, and schools of education. Results show publication in refereed journals as significantly more important than in nonrefereed serials. (MSE)

There is a strong movement toward legal abolition of fixed-age retirement in Canada. Several factors justify the existing practice, but these arguments are unlikely to prevail, and institutions should consider administrative measures such as facilitation of early retirement, modified benefit plans, and more systematic faculty assessment throughout…

Papers and addresses on aspects of confrontation affecting community college productivity and viability are presented. Keynote speeches include: "Learning to Live While Learning to Make a Living" by George J. Bullied; "Communication and Collegiality" by Charles M. Galloway; "Is Education the One Profession Immune to…