Learning Communities and the Academic Career [electronic resource] : Perspectives on Faculty Participation / Terri Susan Fine and Napp Nazworth.
Learning communities are becoming important components of faculty teaching responsibilities. This study addresses faculty's perceptions of its role as learning community participants. A survey administered in December 1998 to faculty (n=67) at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1999.
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| Summary: | Learning communities are becoming important components of faculty teaching responsibilities. This study addresses faculty's perceptions of its role as learning community participants. A survey administered in December 1998 to faculty (n=67) at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Central Florida focused on how they viewed participation generally, as well as anticipated benefits such as promotion, tenure, teaching awards, and performance evaluations. Responses to questions on whether learning community participation was good for a respondent's career showed significant variation across rank, with full professors showing the strongest agreement and instructors expressing he least agreement. There were also meaningful differences in race and gender; with white female assistant professors less likely to agree with the statement than white male assistant professors. In responding to questions about how onerous and demanding participation was in such courses, most faculty (with the exception of white male instructors) did not regard participation as overly difficult. The paper concluded that faculty perceptions of the benefits of participation in learning communities vary by rank, discipline, and years of experience, with faculty nearing retirement generally not as concerned with perceived benefits as younger and untenured faculty. Appended are five data tables and the questionnaire. (CH) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED438745. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the "Creating and Sustaining Learning Communities: Connections, Collaboration, and Crossing Borders" Symposium, sponsored by "On the Horizon," a journal of information sources on education and change. (Tampa, FL, March 10-13, 1999). |
| Physical Description: | 17 p. |