Graduate Student Perspectives Of The Balance Between Research And Teaching A Preliminary Report

To gauge graduate student views on the relative importance of undergraduate teaching and research, a national survey is being conducted across a variety of higher education institutions. Survey respondents provide not only their personal opinions on the research – teaching balance, but their perceptions of views held by other shareholders such as faculty, fellow students and the general public. The data is analyzed and compared to a similar study conducted at Syracuse University in 1995 on faculty perspectives of the research – teaching balance. A preliminary subset of the survey data is included here. The completed survey will be available and presented at the conference. Introduction Research shows that only 20% of new PhDs are hired as faculty members at institutions with the same Carnegie classification as their graduate degree granting alma mater 1 . Most are hired at institutions where their teaching load is increased. Compound this with “mission creep”, a trend at institutions across all Carnegie classifications toward increasing demands for research, and the new faculty hire may indeed serve two masters. 2 Although programs like Preparing Future Faculty address this concern, such programs are not available at most universities 3 . Misalignment between a new hire’s research/teaching preconceptions and departmental expectations negatively impacts all stakeholders. Tenure is often lost because research and teaching duties are mismanaged. Career goals are stalled and resources invested in those faculty members are lost. Accurate prior knowledge of the research/teaching balance and the requisite activities would facilitate a fast start on the tenure-track. Ph.D. graduates who deeply understand the variations in the research – teaching balance and how they affect their duties and career opportunities are more likely to secure assistant professorships that are compatible with their own goals. P ge 10675.1 Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education To investigate these two issues: the anticipated research – teaching balance and the preparedness of Ph.D. students for a range of faculty duties, data was collected from a range of graduate students by survey at universities throughout the United States. Questions focus on student’s preconceptions of the research – teaching balance that exists in university and college settings and on their preparedness for an academic life at institutions across the Carnegie classifications. Background data (field of study, degree program, institution and nationality) was also collected to identity trends. The Survey The survey was limited to the relative importance of research and undergraduate teaching. Specifically, the student was asked for his own opinion and well as his perception of the opinions of other stakeholders in higher education. That list included undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, administrators and the general public. (Querying for these perspectives parallels a national study conducted at Syracuse University in 1995, called the Lilly Study, with faculty members. 4 ) To reduce costs and simplify data analysis, the survey was conducted online using FlashlightOnline, an excellent survey application maintained by Washington State University. 5 The entire survey instrument is listed below. Of particular interest are questions 1 through 8 – the questions on graduate student perspectives. Note that each question is scored on a 7-point continuum ranging from “teaching most important” to “research most important”. For data processing purposes each point is assigned a numerical value as shown at the bottom of the survey. “Teaching most important” is equated to –3, “of equal importance” is equal to 0 and “research most important” is scored as +3. In this way, increasingly positive numbers indicate a stronger leaning toward research and increasingly negative scores correspond to a preference for teaching. Graduate Student Perspective of the Research Teaching Balance I. Background Information A. Discipline area (select one) o Non-degree o Humanities and Social Sciences o Natural and Physical Sciences o Engineering and Mathematics o Medicine (human or veterinarian) o Law o Education o Other B. University (enter school name)