Planning introductory college courses: Content, context and form

Course planning is an important faculty role requiring expertise and effective decision-making. Despite the centrality of planning activities in the teaching-learning process, relatively little research has explored the process by which instructors in higher education plan their classes. Thus, the author and colleagues pursued a three-year series of studies of college instructors in the US who were teaching introductory classes. The study explored faculty members' underlying assumptions about planning and their decision-making processes. This chapter summarizes these empirical studies that inform us about the general and discipline-specific purposes faculty express for their classes, the contextual influences that modify their intentions, and the way they arrange discipline content for teaching. A key finding was that differences in course planning reflect varied assumptions about students and about their discipline that faculty in different fields bring to the planning process and which strongly influence them.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43861/1/11251_2004_Article_278770.pd

Testing a Model of Program Curriculum Leadership

This study tests the curriculum leadership framework that Stark and Lattuca adapted from Quinn's model of management styles. Chairpersons of departments nominated as effective in curriculum planning answered a survey about their leadership activities and styles. Factor analysis partially supported the model. Activities that chairs reported did not correspond well, however, with leadership styles they chose as most effective.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43625/1/11162_2004_Article_364282.pd

Measuring higher education quality

The panelists indicated that considerable progress is being made by such organizations as ACT and NCHEMS in identifying the domains of quality to be measured and particularly in devising unidimensional indicators of student progress. Few were able to cite comparable advancements in the development of multivariate techniques to assess the relation of student growth to other variables. Notable progress in achieving consensus on appropriate standards for measuring quality institutions or curricular programs within comparable institutions remains as a future task.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43587/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00991828.pd

Curriculum Leadership Roles of Chairpersons in Continuously Planning Departments

Forty-four chairpersons of departments judged by academic vice presidents at randomly selected institutions to be engaged in especially effective curriculum planning were interviewed about their roles. The interviews suggest 7 leadership roles used in the curriculum development process. The roles varied by institutional type, department size, and personal choice. This article reviews the conceptual framework that guided the study, describes the interview population and sample, illustrates the leadership roles with quotations, relates the roles to curriculum planning and organizational contexts, and develops implications for researchers.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43627/1/11162_2004_Article_369441.pd

Comparative career accomplishments of two decades of women and men doctoral graduates in education

Patterns of doctoral study and subsequent career progress were compared for 756 men and women doctoral graduates in education at a research university from two six-year periods, one before and one after a rapid nation-wide increase in the percentage of women doctorates. Despite advantages relative to men in admission, financial support and full-time study, women doctorates of both periods had achieved less career progress than men but held similarly positive perceptions concerning career impact of the degree. Work experience prior to doctoral study strongly predicted career progress for both genders. Thus, affirmative action may have positively affected the careers of recent women doctorates who were younger and who began study with less established careers than women doctorates prior to 1970.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43594/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00974052.pd

Program-Level Curriculum Planning: An Exploration of Faculty Perspectives on Two Different Campuses

This study explored faculty views about curriculum planning in academic programs. Using a semistructured format, researchers interviewed 59 faculty members at two very different campuses about their assumptions and the influences upon them as they work with colleagues in planning program curriculum. Although many of the same factors influence course and program planning, we observed that, compared to course planning, program planning is irregular (even infrequent), typically responds to a specific catalyst, and is more dependent upon a supportive institutional climate and leadership. We consider ways that institutional researchers can help provide a supportive climate for responsive and regular planning that will link planning and assessment more closely.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43619/1/11162_2004_Article_423995.pd

Comparing introductory course planning among full-time and part-time faculty

Using data from a nationally representative survey of faculty teaching introductory college courses, this exploratory study compares course planning procedures of full-time and part-time faculty teaching courses in eight academic fields. The choice of variables examined was guided by a general model of course design developed from earlier studies of course planning. To control for discipline-related differences in faculty planning assumptions, separate analyses were conducted for the eight fields. No key differences were found between full-time and part-time faculty on the primary factors under investigation: substantive content-related influences on courses, strength of influence within the instructional environment, and planning steps and content arrangements faculty preferred.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43604/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00992618.pd

Faculty and administrator views of influences on professional programs

Administrators in professional programs perceive influences on the program from within the university as stronger than do faculty but the two groups do not perceive the strength of societal influences, professional community influences, or internal levels of curriculum debate differently. After controlling for program and institutional sizes and institutional types, these differences between faculty and administrator views regarding relationships between the program and the university appear characteristic of certain professional fields. The analysis was based on subsamples drawn from a data base of survey responses from 873 administrators and 849 faculty members in ten professional fields representing 732 programs in 346 colleges and universities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43601/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00992306.pd

Faculty roles and role preferences in ten fields of professional study

Teaching faculty in ten entry-level professional fields reported varying amounts of time devoted to teaching, research, consulting, and professional practice but did not differ in time devoted to administration. The faculty member's own role view was most closely related to time use, but for time spent in teaching and research, faculty age and institutional type (but not gender) were also significant predictors. Even after several general demographic characteristics and environmental variables that potentially differentiate professional from discipline-based faculty are taken into account, different professional fields may be characterized by group climates which influence or reinforce certain faculty roles.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43598/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00991875.pd

On defining coherence and integrity in the curriculum

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43597/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00991778.pd