A survey of 109 faculty in a private university investigated attitudes about merit pay. Results suggest need for changes in the design, implementation, and evaluation of merit pay systems. Recommendations are made for faculty input, accommodation of departmental preferences, group incentives, performance standards, professional development,…

Faculty in 40 research university departments of physics, sociology, electrical engineering, and education were surveyed about their attitudes toward universities' competitive strategies (clever adaptation, sudden changes, elimination of less attractive units, entrepreneurial ventures). More productive, satisfied, and committed faculty were found…

This study focuses on the perceptions of Guam's mainland-imported faculty about the island and its schools. Survey data were collected from 51 "imported" teachers who represented all areas of the United States; ethnographic interviews were conducted with an additional 15 import faculty from the Guam Department of Education (DOE).…

Research was undertaken to determine whether technology education had moved from theory into practice in the United States. To make meaningful national comparisons, a comparative model was developed to determine the philosophy, implementation organization, and implementation processes of technology education. The model was used as a table of…

To describe and evaluate current practices in college composition programs, a study was conducted of the 19 California State University campuses. English department chairs completed a short survey on courses, staffing, and special projects, and structured interviews were conducted with these chairs and various other program coordinators from a…

A study was conducted to see if differences in attitudes and definitions exist between faculty and administrators toward the concept of academic freedom. The purpose was to gain a better understanding of their attitudes toward, and the perceptions of, academic freedom and compare those perceptions to the academic freedom general taxonomy. Academic…

The effect of student evaluations of teaching on administrative personnel decisions at the Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, was investigated. In addition, the apparent impact of summative student evaluation of teaching upon faculty attitudes and faculty teaching performance was assessed. In the Department of Psychology,…

A redesign of the basic foreign language courses at the University of Michigan--Flint, stimulated by a need for improved enrollment and retention and for more language majors, had the result of improving faculty cooperation and teaching. Before the curriculum development effort, the program reflected individual faculty preferences and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 24 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) learning experiences resulting from two ways of teaching reading; (2) Right to Read competencies of urban principals as perceived by three groups in reading…

The Faculty Development in Individualized Education Project was established at the University of Minnesota in 1976 as a special two-year effort to improve the systems of faculty involvement in individualized education at the undergraduate level (part of the University Without Walls program). The project's main assumption was that faculty members'…

Department chairpersons, college deans, and members of college-level personnel committees at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) were interviewed concerning their use of procedures by which college students measure or evaluate teaching, teachers, and classes. All regular teaching faculty at BGSU and associated administrators also were asked to…

Faculty and students in colleges of arts and sciences in four universities were surveyed for their perceptions of student and adviser responsibility in the advising process, including counseling about personal problems, providing information on extracurricular activities, realizing student potential, monitoring academic progress, and the mechanics…

A study of the faculty evaluation system at Nene College (England) is reported and compared with studies in other British universities. Evaluator, faculty, and administrator views of the program were generally positive, particularly concerning the opportunities the evaluation interviews present for discussing issues. Assessment by line manager…

A study examined the experiences of three male and three female newly employed full-time education faculty at a research university and compared them with administrator expectations and perceptions. Five recurring themes emerged: collegiality, school expectations of new faculty, the department chair's role, workload, and feelings of new faculty…

This paper discusses theoretical issues surrounding the creation of new departments at universities and presents a case study of how the Institute for Media and Communication at Oslo University (Norway) was created. It examines the effects of status, resource allocation, and power relations on the creation of university departments. (MDM)