Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Perceptions Of The Promotion Process: An Analysis Of U.S. Medical School Faculty, Sarah A. Bunton, April Corrice

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Faculty satisfaction is important to medical schools for myriad reasons, including the empirical links between job satisfaction and increased organizational performance, faculty retention, productivity, and patient care. Half of U.S. medical faculty leave their academic medical centers within 10 years, and the resulting loss of these faculty poses financial and human capital costs to the institution. Additionally, the academic medicine workplace has changed significantly in recent decades, resulting in increased demands for research, teaching, patient care, and administration on faculty. To be effective, medical school leaders and researchers must remain abreast of the issues that comprise workplace satisfaction for their …

Retention Of Full-Time Clinical M.D. Faculty At U.S. Medical Schools, April Corrice, Shannon Fox, Sarah A. Bunton

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Physician and faculty retention have garnered increased attention in recent years, in part because academic medical centers are grappling with the lost human and financial capital associated with turnover. Medical schools (and their departments) face significant financial costs when they lose faculty members. For example, one school demonstrated the average costs of replacing a single generalist and specialist totaled $115,554 and $286,503, respectively. In addition, with projected workforce shortages of over 90,000 physicians looming,2 physician faculty turnover will likely have workforce implications, especially within certain specialties. In response to these concerns, this Analysis in Brief (AIB) examines retention rates of …

An Exploration Of The Satisfaction And Experiences Of Part-Time U.S. Medical School Faculty, April Corrice, Sarah A. Bunton

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the fact that many medical schools have increased their reliance on part-time faculty over the past several decades, scant information about the experiences and job satisfaction of parttime faculty exists in the literature. This Analysis in Brief is an exploratory study to provide insight—from the part-time faculty perspective—into the unique issues facing this faculty group and suggestions they offer for improving the workplace. Understanding the part-time faculty members’ experience is important, as they serve a significant and permanent role in the medical school workforce. When used appositely, these part-time medical school faculty appointments can benefit both individuals and institutions. …

Trends In Tenure For Clinical M.D. Faculty In U.S. Medical Schools: A 25-Year Review, Sarah A. Bunton, April Corrice

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The number of faculty in academic medical centers, and clinical enterprises in particular, has expanded profoundly over the past several decades. During this expansion, the prevalence of tenure systems and the actual numbers and proportions of tenured positions in U.S. medical schools have garnered much attention. Some commentators have remarked that tenure, as a system, is vanishing from schools and that the opportunity for tenure-track appointments is declining, especially for clinical faculty. This Analysis in Brief presents data on the current status of tenure systems, the changing distribution of clinical M.D. faculty on tenure-eligible tracks, and trends in numbers of …

Clinical Faculty Satisfaction With The Academic Medicine Workplace, Sarah A. Bunton, April Corrice, William T. Mallon

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Faculty members in US academic medical centers face multiple pressures, including increasing clinical productivity while also providing quality education to medical students and residents. With the resulting potential for decreased job satisfaction and burnout, understanding these issues is paramount—especially given the associations of job satisfaction and important outcome measures like quality of patient care and retention. The turnover of these faculty could rise and pose great financial and human capital costs to institutions. Despite the challenging context in which clinical faculty find themselves, current understanding of the facets of clinical faculty workplace satisfaction, especially by specialty area, is limited. We …

The Relationship Between Tenure And Guaranteed Salary For U.S. Medical School Faculty, Sarah A. Bunton

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Across all types of higher education in the United States, tenure has been historically linked to the concepts of academic freedom and economic security. In medical schools, however, the link between tenure and a financial guarantee has changed appreciably over the past decade into something much more tenuous. In the current economic environment where medical schools operate with limited and, arguably, unstable bases of “hard” funding, the liability of a financial guarantee to tenured faculty presents schools with a fiscal risk they often must manage. Accordingly, schools continue to revise their policies and increasingly provide no financial guarantee at all, …

U.S. Medical School Faculty Job Satisfaction, Sarah A. Bunton

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Concerns about the vitality of faculty careers at U.S. medical schools have been well documented, as medical school leaders and researchers have raised awareness about overall career satisfaction, faculty stress and burnout, and struggles with recruitment and retention. Previous research has demonstrated an empirical link between job satisfaction and retention as well as job dissatisfaction and intent to leave an organization. This Analysis in Brief examines key areas of medical faculty job satisfaction and dissatisfaction and the disconnect for some faculty members between what they value in the workplace and actual workplace opportunities.

Challenges And Strategies Of Medical School Expansion, Sarah A. Bunton, William T. Mallon

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The early twenty-first century will be known as a period of great expansion of medical education in the United States. Current projections indicate at least a 20 percent increase in the number of M.D. matriculants in U.S medical schools by 2013 over the 2002 benchmark.Most of this planned expansion has come from larger enrollments at existing medical schools. This Analysis in Brief explicates the major models of expanding class size at existing medical schools and examines several challenges of medical school expansion.

Job Satisfaction Of Us Medical School Faculty With A Focus On Internal Medicine Departments, April Corrice, Sarah A. Bunton

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

As demands on academic medical faculty have risen, medical school leaders and researchers have raised awareness about and attention to job satisfaction, faculty stress and burnout, and struggles with recruitment and retention. This increased attention is important because researchers have consistently demonstrated an empirical link between job satisfaction and retention as well as between job dissatisfaction and intent to leave an organization (1–4). Given the high costs of faculty turnover (5–7), it is essential to understand the factors that contribute to the satisfaction of medical school faculty. Using responses from a faculty satisfaction survey administered to full-time faculty at 10 …

Community College National Center For Community Engagement Accent On Student Success: Engaged Together For Service (Assets) Initiative Report, Christine M. Cress

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report is the first year of data findings (of a three year grant project) involving nine of the ten community colleges (one college did not submit data) who received funding from the Community College National Center for Community Engagement through a Learn and Serve America Higher Education grant as part of the Corporation for National and Community Service in an effort to expand the field of service-learning and civic engagement in diverse communities nationwide. The grant is intended to address two dimensions of this effort: 1) training and technical assistance; and 2) facilitation of sub-grantee projects in meeting community …

The Continued Evolution Of Tenure Policies For Clinical Faculty At U.S. Medical Schools, Sarah A. Bunton, William T. Mallon

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

For the past several decades, financial uncertainty, changes in health care delivery and reimbursement, and changing workforce needs have prompted medical schools to continually refine their appointment and tenure policies. This Analysis in Brief examines recent data for medical school clinical faculty by describing tenure systems, the financial guarantee associated with tenure, and probationary period length. Data come from two sources: first, responses to the AAMC’s 2005 Faculty Personnel Policies Survey of the 125 LCME-accredited U.S. medical schools. The survey instrument consists of questions about policies and procedures related to appointment, tenure, and compensation structures for medical school faculty. Deans …

A Rough Guide To Interdisciplinarity: Graduate Student Perspectives, Jessica K. Graybill, Sarah Dooling, Vivek Shandas, John Withey, Adrienne I. Greve, Gregory L. Simon

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

A widely held belief is that only through interdisciplinarity can academics effectively address today's complex ecological problems, because these problems demand cross-disciplinary efforts and specialized knowledge from natural and social scientists. Innovative interdisciplinary research and curricula have been created to train a new generation of scientists to engage with complex issues. It seems critical that those most affected by interdisciplinary education—doctoral students—provide feedback about such innovations. Without understanding students' experiences in interdisciplinary programs, faculty will not know whether they are "getting it right" for future generations of interdisciplinarians. From our experiences as doctoral students, we provide reflections and perspectives on …

The Impact Of Research Centers On Faculty Work Life, Sarah A. Bunton, William T. Mallon

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research centers are a common mechanism for facilitating scientific work in medical schools, but little is known about how faculty operate in these milieux. Given that centers and institutes span the boundaries of traditional departments, center-affiliated faculty members can find themselves with two ties to the medical school— one through their academic department and one through the research center. Some commentators have asserted that this fluidity of faculty roles and allegiances produces positive benefits while others have argued the opposite. This Analysis in Brief examines the impact of organized research centers on faculty productivity and work life. We administered the …

Recent Trends In Basic Science Department Reorganizations, Sarah A. Bunton

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The past several decades have seen a rapid and profound expansion of knowledge within the biomedical sciences. Achievements in molecular biology, human genetics, and neuroscience, among others, have contributed to the realization that the complexity of science now lends itself to interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts. This transformation of biomedical science has led to questions regarding the organization of academic departments in U.S. medical schools around traditional basic science disciplines. Some have proposed that the discipline-based department impedes scientific progress and a new structure that breaks down boundaries is needed. Others believe that traditional basic science departments continue to foster valuable …

Engineering Education Through Service-Learning In Developing Communities: Two Case Studies, Evan A. Thomas, Andrew Azman

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper provides case studies of two service learning projects that University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) students are integrating into their academic experience. The projects focus on developing communities and are managed under the auspices of Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA), a group founded by Dr. Bernard Amadei, Professor of Civil Engineering at CU-Boulder. These projects expand students? understanding of the social value of their chosen profession, and expose them to a type of engineering significantly different than what is presented in most of their classes. Specifically, focusing on developing communities provides students with the opportunity to design solutions to …

The Functions Of Centers And Institutes In Academic Biomedical Research, William T. Mallon, Sarah A. Bunton

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this Analysis in Brief, we report on the findings from a 2004 survey of directors of research centers and institutes located at research-intensive medical schools and their parent universities, who identified their unit’s primary mission as basic, clinical, or other type of research. While many assertions have been made about the functions that centers and institutes perform, or do not perform, our findings indicate that their missions and roles are varied, complex, and nuanced. The 604 research centers and institutes in the study conduct a variety of tasks. For the purposes of this analysis, we define “some effort” to …

Successful Online Course Retention At Marylhurst University Constructing A Model For Online Course Retention Using Grounded Theory, Vincent Schreck

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past 6 years, the course retention rate for Marylhurst University's (MU) online courses was 91%, which is within four percentage points of its on-campus course retention rate (Schreck, 2002). This appears to contradict a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that stated, "Although there is significant variation among institutions with some reporting course-completion rates of more than 80% and others finding that fewer than 50% of distance-education students finish their courses, several administrators concur that course-completion rates are often 10-20 percentage points higher in traditional courses than in distance offerings" (Carr, 2000). Recent studies (Beatty-Gunter 2001; …

Essay Review Of Higher Education’S Imperative: Rising To The Challenge Of Educating Citizens, Priya Kapoor, Dilafruz Williams

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article provides a review of the book, "Educating Citizens: Preparing America's Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility" by by Anne Colby, Thomas Ehrlich, Elizabeth Beaumont, & Jason Stephens.

Distress Under Duress: The Relationship Between Campus Climate And Depression In Asian American College Students, Christine M. Cress, Elaine Kimiko Ikeda

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Student perceptions of negative campus climate were predictive of Asian American students’ depression levels in spite of students’ entering proclivities toward depression and in spite of varying institutional types. In addition, these findings were consistent whether individual Asian American perceptions of campus climate were entered into the equation or whether institutional levels of campus perceptions (which included all racial and ethnic groups) were entered into the equation. Therefore, higher education institutions that are perceived by students to discriminate against individuals based on race or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disability may put their Asian American students at risk for severe …

Transforming Technology Management Courses For Web Delivery, Wayne Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explores the ramifications of using web technology in teaching technology management courses, computer-based modeling and simulation courses in particular. The emphasis is on what works, but disappointments are also mentioned. Web technology is being used to supplant lectures with self-paced materials and lab exercises that enable students to take courses remotely and asynchronously. Web-based exams are also discussed.

Teaching Systems Science In High School Compared To Graduate School, Wayne W. Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper compares System Dynamic models built by graduate students to those built by high school students. The motivation behind this comparison is to explore the question: "How effectively is feedback-oriented system dynamics being taught in secondary schools compared to graduate school?" The paper will also speculate regarding implications for other systems concepts.

Assessing Second Language Proficiency In An American University, Suwako Watanabe, Patricia Wetzel

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are currently two nation-wide trends that impinge significantly on language teaching and assessment at the university level in the U.S. One is the general wave of education reform, the other is the so-called "proficiency" movement in language teaching. That being said, these two categories are much too broad in their definitions and implications to be of any use in discussing what we wish to address here: actual practice in the second language classroom. We will therefore begin by constraining the relevant characteristics of each of these. We will then proceed to discuss their ongoing implications for what actually happens …

Preservice Teacher Education Using Flexible, Thematic Cohorts, Kenneth D. Peterson, Nancy Benson, Amy Driscoll, Ronald B. Narode, Douglas Sherman, Carol Tama

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Describes one school of education's response to the call for reform, and outlines the qualities unique to institutional change experienced in its evolution from a four-year undergraduate program to a fifth-year graduate teacher preparation program featuring thematic cohorts of students. Profiles of four of the cohorts are presented.

Black Content In Schools: A Model Of Black Content In A School Of Social Work's Curriculum, Dorothy L. Baker, Alexander Richberg, Isaac White

Dissertations and Theses

The primary purpose of this study is, in general, to inform schools of social work of a method to include Black content within their curricula, and in particular to sensitize the faculty at Portland State University to the importance of including Black content into the school's curriculum.

In this research design, a select population was used as well as a specific body of knowledge from the Human Behavior and Social Environment sequence to develop a model to introduce Black content in the social work curriculum.

Report On Faculty And Student Evaluation Of Instructors In Direct Service Teaching At Portland State University Graduate School Of Social Work, Janet Mansfield, James Mcdevitt

Dissertations and Theses

The classroom as a messenger of learning and awareness is an honored institution. Education promotes the spirit of inquiry. Concurrently, inquiry spearheads research. As students who have spent many hours in a classroom, we have wondered, inquired, into the spirit of the classroom. Our research is devoted to gaining and establishing a series of perspectives as to what occurs in the classroom.

Our research is concerned with specific characteristics of the teacher-learner relationship and outcomes of that relationship. Specific characteristics of the student-teacher relationship such as effective communication, clarity of course objectives, or the quality of class lectures, have been …

"The Student And The Life Of The Intellect", Branford Price Millar

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.