The Graduate School: Teaching and Research Support in Higher Education

This monograph summarizes the data from a study designed to evaluate how university deans, department chairmen and faculty view teaching related activities. A methodological problem which limited the analysis of a similar, earlier study prompted the development and execution of this research. An introductory section describes the earlier flawed study. There follows a description of the methodology for the current study: deans, department chairs and faculty were surveyed in nine disciplines within a national sample of colleges and universities; the study used a sample of 453 institutions and sent surveys to deans, departments chairs and faculty with 54 percent of deans and department chairs and 38 percent of faculty returning the survey (the final total was 142 deans, 392 chairs, and 1,172 faculty). In addition, to permit the testing of theories about differences among the disciplines, three disciplines were selected from each of the following areas: (1) the physical sciences (biology, chemistry, mathematics); (2) the social sciences (political science, psychology, sociology); and (3) the humanities (English, history, music). The bulk of the document consists of a series of tables presenting the data from the study. Many tables permit comparisons between disciplines. An index to the tables is included, and to assist in further research, the tables have been cross-referenced by category. (JB)