Open AccessRESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY AND TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS
Author(s) -
Centra John A.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.1981.tb01246.x
Subject(s) - productivity , psychology , variety (cybernetics) , mathematics education , statistics , mathematics , economics , macroeconomics
This study investigated the relationship between research productivity and teaching effectiveness to shed light on the long‐debated question of whether performance in one area enhances performance in the other. The academic field and the stage of a faculty member's career were both considered in the analyses. Two samples of 2,973 and 1,623 faculty members from a variety of institutions were studied. In considering results of both analyses, teachers of social science courses were the only group for which there were consistent though modest relationships between the number of published articles and student ratings of instructor effectiveness. Thus “spill‐over” effects, or a “general ability” factor, or other reasons for a possible link between research and teaching performance are not totally supported. The relationship between performance in the two areas is either nonexistant or, where it appears, too modest to conclude that one necessarily enhances the other.