Good comment on the survey issue. >From my experience I would guess that teaching and scholarship about teaching just isn't held in as high esteem as 'real' research (stuff that brings in the money, the grad students and post-docs, and the prestige). Even within undergraduate institutions where the main focus is teaching, committees are still hesitant about counting scholarship in education as being good enough.
One of the difficulties we had was is in defining scholarship. We had arguments such as classroom teaching innovation, and pedagogical instruction to peers should count as scholarship. That is, it needn't it only be in peer-reviewed journals. Examples were made of the performing arts where performing counts toward tenureship, etc. Nevertheless, there was reluctance to accept this type of stuff since, if the tenureship was to mean anything (let's say you wanted to apply for a position as a tenured professor to another institiution) one would presumably need to have at least some points of contact with other tenure granting institutions, and those are overwhelmingly peer-review based. Hence the need to include at least some peer-reviewed publishing track record. (Not to mention needing to have an external reviewer who whould most likely heavily rely on the peer-review record). So, to some degree, the whole system needs to change toward valuing teaching (if that is the way people want to go). --Mike On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 7:32 AM, Rick Froman <[email protected]> wrote: > > I would have to say that the question is not a good example of unbiased > item writing for a survey. The very question assumes that teaching > publications are not substantive. I wonder if many readers of the question > would then assume that maybe a teaching publication was a note in a > teacher’s newsletter (or a message to TIPS?) or some other non-substantive > work. I would like to see it asked something like, “in your evaluations of > faculty research that is published in peer reviewed scholarly journals, do > you give less weight to research published in the area of teaching in your > discipline?” I can imagine that there would still be a difference with such > a question (more in Natural Sciences than Social Sciences I would guess) > probably because the Natural Sciences don’t consider teaching to be an area > within the purview of Natural Sciences. Another issue would be what brings > in the most outside funding to the department. I am guessing that there are > many more lucrative areas of research in many areas of science than teaching > in the discipline. > > > > Rick > > > > Dr. Rick Froman, Chair > > Division of Humanities and Social Sciences > > Professor of Psychology > > Box 3055 > > John Brown University > > 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 > > [email protected] > > (479)524-7295 > > http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman > > > > > > > > *From:* Christopher D. Green [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Monday, July 20, 2009 8:12 AM > *To:* Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > *Subject:* [tips] News: What Counts for Tenure - Inside Higher Ed > > > > > This will interest many TIPSters: > http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/07/20/polisci > > Here's a snip: "Further, the survey found that the "scholarship of > teaching" ideas of Ernest L. Boyer -- in which colleges would see research > and publication related to pedagogy or teaching as "counting" -- has not > been embraced by a majority of departments in any sector, and by relatively > few at doctoral institutions. Asked if they agreed that "teaching > publications and substantive publications are equal" in tenure reviews > evaluating research, only 11 percent of chairs at doctoral universities > agreed. (The figures were 32 percent for master's institutions and 43 > percent for bachelor's institutions)." > > Chris > > -- > > Christopher D. Green > Department of Psychology > York University > Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > Canada > > > > 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 > [email protected] > http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ > > ========================== > > > > --- > > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
