The increasing disparity between the research and teaching aspects of academic careers has been an area of concern in different national contexts over a number of decades. Anyone working with educational enhancement will have encountered the binary choice between research development and educational enhancement that academics are forced to make,…

This article is primarily designed to provide a cultural analysis of the literature on achievement goals. First, an overview of the four dominant approaches to the study of culture--namely, cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, indigenous psychology, and psychological anthropology--is offered. Second, we analyze the extant body of…

It sounds so simple. If tests measure what a student learned, why can't they also be used to measure what a teacher taught? Wouldn't this data make it easy to distinguish good teachers from bad? And can't this information be used in teacher retention, tenure, salary, and other decisions? The use of student performance data to judge the quality of…

The widespread popularity of programs for first-year students is due, in large part, to studies showing that participation in first-year programs is significantly related to students' academic success. Because students choose to participate in first-year programs, self-selection effects prevent researchers from making causal claims about the…

Meta-analysis techniques for integrating research findings are utilized in this report to determine the magnitude of the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement. Also investigated are the factors which contribute to the large amount of variance in previously reported correlations between these two variables. Over…

Through a qualitative study of the work practices of interdisciplinary humanities scholars, the activities and resources involved in scholarship that crosses disciplinary boundaries were examined. Results highlight fundamental features of work in the humanities in relation to the interdisciplinary processes scholars use to extend their knowledge…

Survey data from 458 former health science graduate students were examined for correlations between variables that might be used in selecting research training award recipients and successful training outcome defined as a highly productive research career. Four variables that showed promise as useful indicators of posttraining research are…