Faculty Motivation Research Articles

The role of university faculty motivation in human resources development and university competitiveness growth

The article aims to reveal the university rating by its faculty motivation, which has an impact on human resources development in higher education sector and raises the university competiveness level. To achieve the given goal, the researchers have developed a model for evaluating the university rating on faculty work motivation by assessing implementation of motivational factors in the university, their weight for determining its rating in comparison with the threshold value.The article examines blocks of motivational factors, such as material-monetary, material- non-monetary and non-material. The authors believe that systemic and timely use of these blocks of motivational factors by the university may increase the lecturers’ professional skills level, quality of the educational program and the academic process itself and contribute to the growth of university competitiveness.During the research, the lecturers were surveyed by using a structured questionnaire, and a model for assessing the university faculty motivation level has been developed based on the research outcomes. Comparative analysis of the obtained results and the threshold value have been made so that to come up with conclusions on the universityrating. The survey has revealed that the university under study has the B+– class rating, which demonstrates a fairly high result. There have been made recommendations to the given university on achieving the higher-class rating.

Determinants of scholarly project completion in a paediatric resident program in Canada.

The primary aims of this study were to: 1) assess barriers and facilitators of completing scholarly projects from residents and faculty mentor perspectives, 2) determine the perceived value of new initiatives designed to support resident scholarly projects and 3) determine if these initiatives led to changes in resident publications. Between June and September 2014, we surveyed 18 paediatric residents and 41 faculty mentors regarding barriers to resident scholarly project completion and the value of new initiatives to support scholarly activity. We also tracked scientific publications by residents before and after implementation of these initiatives. The primary perceived barriers to research for residents and faculty were lack of protected time (64.3% versus 68.6%, respectively), lack of resident interest in scholarly activity (50.0% versus 60.0%, respectively) and lack of mentor motivation. Mentors and residents did not agree that lack of proper training in research (29% versus 54%, respectively) and faculty motivation (29% versus 17%, respectively) were barriers to completing a project. A dedicated research coordinator (71.4% versus 70.6%, respectively), a revised research curriculum (71.4% versus 41.2%, respectively) and works in progress sessions (50.0% versus 61.8%, respectively) were perceived as valuable initiatives to the program. These initiatives were not associated with changes in annual resident publication rates. Lack of time and competing clinical training are primary barriers to scholarly project completion for residents in addition to a lack of motivation on the part of faculty members. Improving program support was perceived as positive changes to address these barriers but did not increase resident publication rates. The information provided here could be used to tailor future resident research programs and highlight the value of gathering input from resident and faculty when designing initiatives to enhance resident research productivity.

“What Can I Offer America?” A Post‐Colonial Analysis of Faculty Motivations and Perceptions in North‐South University Partnerships

“What Can I Offer America?” A Post‐Colonial Analysis of Faculty Motivations and Perceptions in North‐South University Partnerships

Foreign faculty at Japanese universities: Profiles and motivations

AbstractThis study aims to identify the major characteristics and motivations of foreign faculty at Japanese universities. The study begins with a brief introduction to the literature, research framework and method. In the second section, the study deals with the background and changes in foreign faculty at Japanese universities since 1980. In the third section, the study discusses the key aspects of the personal attributes and career patterns of the foreign faculty and their motivations of being hired in Japanese universities. The study concludes by presenting a more detailed description of the personal, educational and professional identities of the foreign faculty at Japanese universities, the main reasons for their coming to work in Japan, and the implications for research, policy and institutional practice.

International faculty in China: case studies of four leading universities in Shanghai

To attract and hire high-level international faculty to leading universities is an important task in building world-class universities in China. However, there is much left to explore and to understand about international faculty in China. Based on a brief review of China’s higher education system and international faculty, findings from A National Survey of International Faculty at Chinese Universities and Colleges (conducted in 2017), and case studies of four leading universities in Shanghai, this study explores the main characteristics and motivations of international faculty in China by discipline, age, gender, and so forth. More specially, it explores the individual, educational, and professional characteristics of international faculty at Chinese colleges and universities, how these characteristics vary among different groups of international faculty, and why they came to Chinese leading universities?

Faculty members’ motivation for teaching and best practices: Testing a model based on self-determination theory across institution types

This study tested a conceptual model based on self-determination theory to examine how university faculty members’ motivation for teaching predicts their utilization of teaching best practices, and explored if faculty at various higher education institution types are differentially motivated for teaching. Data from a national online survey of 1671 faculty from 19 universities was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Support for the overall model showed faculty autonomy, competence, and relatedness positively predicted autonomous motivation (intrinsic, identified), but not controlled motivation (introjected, external). Autonomous motivation, in turn, predicted greater incorporation of effective teaching strategies, namely instructional clarity, higher-order learning, reflective and integrative learning, and collaborative learning. There were no differences found across faculty at Doctoral, Master’s, and Bachelor’s institutions in terms of autonomous motivation mean levels, nor for the predictive effects of autonomous motivation on teaching best practices. The findings have implications for the faculty motivation and teaching research literatures, as well as for faculty development initiatives aimed at improving teaching effectiveness.

Faculty motivations to use active learning among pharmacy educators

IntroductionFaculty motivations to use active learning have been limited to surveys evaluating faculty perceptions within active learning studies. Our objective in this study was to evaluate the relationship between faculty intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and demographic variables and the extent of active learning use in the classroom. MethodsAn online survey was administered to individual faculty members at 137 colleges and schools of pharmacy across the United States. The survey assessed intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, active learning strategies, classroom time dedicated to active learning, and faculty development resources. Bivariate associations and multivariable stepwise linear regression were used to analyze the results. ResultsIn total, 979 faculty members completed the questionnaire (23.6% response rate). All motivation variables were significantly correlated with percent active learning use (p < 0.001). Intrinsic motivation demonstrated the highest correlation (r = 0.447) followed by current extrinsic motivations (r = 0.245) and ideal extrinsic motivations (r = 0.291). Variables associated with higher intrinsic motivation included the number of resources used (r = 0.233, p < 0.001) and the number of active learning methods used in the last year (r = 0.259, p < 0.001). Years of teaching experience was negatively associated with intrinsic motivation (r = −0.177, p < 0.001). Regression analyses confirmed the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in predicting active learning use. Discussion and conclusionsOur results suggest that faculty members who are intrinsically motivated to use active learning are more likely to dedicate additional class time to active learning. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation may be positively associated with encouraging faculty members to attend active learning workshops and supporting faculty to use various active learning strategies in the classroom.

An Exploration of Contingent Faculty Experiences at a Private, Liberal Arts College

&lt;p&gt;Both internal and external factors have incited higher education institutions to reevaluate and restructure antiquated policies and practices that influence contingent faculty support systems and contingent faculty interpersonal relationships with their institutional community members. Higher education institutions now employ over a half million contingent faculty nationwide, with numbers of contingent faculty hiring continuing to grow (Maldonado &amp;amp; Riman, 2009).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Currently, much of the research on contingent faculty stresses the use of contingent faculty and full-time faculty perceptions of contingent faculty at the community college level (Meixner, 2010; Tomanek, 2010; Wallin, 2004). Differences between full-time and contingent faculty are difficult to label because of the diversity of contingent faculty motivations (Gappa, Austin, &amp;amp; Trice, 2005; Wagoner, 2007). Therefore, depending on how researchers conduct their study questions contingent faculty either seem satisfied, vulnerable and disenfranchised, or somewhere in the middle which produces a confusing picture of contingent faculty experiences (Wagoner, 2007; Waltman et al., 2012). This qualitative study explores contingent faculty experiences at a single institution through their own voice. Focus on an interpretative phenomenological approach allows for rich, descriptive storytelling that communicates the uniqueness and distinctiveness of the contingent faculty’s experiences, and their perceptions of how they identify and connect with their institutional support systems and institutional members. Such specificity also highlights the institution’s cultural values and norms. While some shared experiences were similar among contingent faculty, there were also experiences unique to the individual. Exploration of contingent faculty voice is imperative in driving institutional platforms that aid in creating positive institutional support systems for contingent faculty. &lt;/p&gt;

Commitment to Change and Challenges to Implementing Changes After Workplace-Based Assessment Rater Training.

Faculty development for clinical faculty who assess trainees is necessary to improve assessment quality and impor tant for competency-based education. Little is known about what faculty plan to do differently after training. This study explored the changes faculty intended to make after workplace-based assessment rater training, their ability to implement change, predictors of change, and barriers encountered. In 2012, 45 outpatient internal medicine faculty preceptors (who supervised residents) from 26 institutions participated in rater training. They completed a commitment to change form listing up to five commitments and ranked (on a 1-5 scale) their motivation for and anticipated difficulty implementing each change. Three months later, participants were interviewed about their ability to implement change and barriers encountered. The authors used logistic regression to examine predictors of change. Of 191 total commitments, the most common commitments focused on what faculty would change about their own teaching (57%) and increasing direct observation (31%). Of the 183 commitments for which follow-up data were available, 39% were fully implemented, 40% were partially implemented, and 20% were not implemented. Lack of time/competing priorities was the most commonly cited barrier. Higher initial motivation (odds ratio [OR] 2.02; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14, 3.57) predicted change. As anticipated difficulty increased, implementation became less likely (OR 0.67; 95% CI 0.49, 0.93). While higher baseline motivation predicted change, multiple system-level barriers undermined ability to implement change. Rater-training faculty development programs should address how faculty motivation and organizational barriers interact and influence ability to change.

An Institutional Level Case Study of Teaching and Learning Approaches and Underlying Motivations in Indian Context

The paper deals with the impact of motivation of faculty and students, on effectiveness of teaching and learning processes respectively. The motivation for choosing engineering as career by the students, and for joining teaching and pursuing it as career by faculty;was probed by a survey of both these stakeholders in the institution. It was found that only half of the students were self- motivated to pursue engineering education. Considerable level of correlation emerged between reasons for pursuit of higher studies and aspirations of type of jobs the students prefer after their studies. Nearly a quarter of the student population in the survey wanted to be entrepreneurs after five years of work experience and beyond. The motivation of faculty to learn and deliver effectively was correlated to their aspirations to pursue research. On the flip side, a quarter of the faculty who didn't get any suitable job before joining teaching, exhibited low motivation to learn and teach, and also considered the authority they wield on students and respect they get from parents as motivating factors to continue in the job. The survey also revealed their wide differences in perceptions of the effectiveness of the pedagogy. The understanding of these factors and creating enabling environment in institutions would enhance quality of engineering education in the Indian context.

The role of motivation and adjustment in selection of expatriate academics in China: an intensive study of a Chinese university with one of the largest foreign faculty staffs

Throughout the world, numerous universities seek foreign faculty to meet their annual staffing needs for both English-speaking academic lecturers and oral English teachers. Recruiting and selecting quality foreign teachers are a great challenge for many learning institutions, including universities. Although there is ample research on adjustment and selection practices in international business operations, there is a lack of research for academic expatriates (Selmer and Lauring, 2011). This paper concentrates on a 25,000 student university located in central China. Although its location is less developed, pay is minimal, and pollution is significant, this university manages to boast a significantly large population of foreign faculty. This study shows a relationship between the expatriate faculty's motivations for coming to SIAS and their adjustment to living abroad and expands on this relationship's implications on selection of the best candidates.

The role of motivation and adjustment in selection of expatriate academics in China: an intensive study of a Chinese university with one of the largest foreign faculty staffs

Throughout the world, numerous universities seek foreign faculty to meet their annual staffing needs for both English-speaking academic lecturers and oral English teachers. Recruiting and selecting quality foreign teachers are a great challenge for many learning institutions, including universities. Although there is ample research on adjustment and selection practices in international business operations, there is a lack of research for academic expatriates (Selmer and Lauring, 2011). This paper concentrates on a 25,000 student university located in central China. Although its location is less developed, pay is minimal, and pollution is significant, this university manages to boast a significantly large population of foreign faculty. This study shows a relationship between the expatriate faculty's motivations for coming to SIAS and their adjustment to living abroad and expands on this relationship's implications on selection of the best candidates.

The Impact of HEIs Policies on the Quality of Education: The Mediating Role of Faculty Motivation

The Impact of HEIs Policies on the Quality of Education: The Mediating Role of Faculty Motivation

Faculty Motivation and the Role of Social Capital in Higher Education

The objective of this paper is to investigate the incentive structure of higher education and the role of social capital in it. In the beginning are proven the limited capabilities of the market mechanisms to stimulate the creation of high quality educational outcomes. After that are revealed the benefits from reciprocal relations in higher education institutions and development of a system of altruistic moral norms, which turn universities into communities centered on the cooperation, tolerance and solidarity values. Next the paper considers the role of social capital for increasing educational revenues and decreasing the transaction costs and personnel expenditures. Finally the question of social capital accumulation sources is analyzed. The latter are sought in the choice of the social enterprise as an organizational form and adopting those management structures that stimulate freedom and equality among the members of higher education institutions.

Increasing faculty participation in resident education and providing cost-effective self-assessment module credit to faculty through resident-generated didactics

Purpose/Objective(s)Board certified radiation oncologists and medical physicists are required to earn self-assessment module (SAM) continuing medical education (CME) credit, which may require travel costs or usage fees. Data indicate that faculty participation in resident teaching activities is beneficial to resident education. Our hypothesis was that providing the opportunity to earn SAM credit in resident didactics would increase faculty participation in and improve resident education. Methods and materialsSAM applications, comprising CME certified category 1 resident didactic lectures and faculty-generated questions with respective answers, rationales, and references, were submitted to the American Board of Radiology for formal review. Surveys were distributed to assess main academic campus physician, affiliate campus physician, physicist, and radiation oncology resident impressions regarding the quality of the lectures. Survey responses were designed in Likert-scale format. Sign-test was performed with P < .05 considered statistically different from neutral. ResultsFirst submission SAM approval was obtained for 9 of 9 lectures to date. A total of 52 SAM credits have been awarded to 4 physicists and 7 attending physicians. Main academic campus physician and affiliate campus physician attendance increased from 20% and 0%, respectively, over the 12 months preceding CME/SAM lectures, to 55.6% and 20%, respectively. Survey results indicated that the change to SAM lectures increased the quality of resident lectures (P = .001), attending physician participation in resident education (P < .0001), physicist involvement in medical resident education (P = .0006), and faculty motivation to attend resident didactics (P = .004). Residents reported an increased amount of time required to prepare lectures (P = .008). ConclusionsWe are the first department, to our knowledge, to offer SAM credit to clinical faculty for participation in resident-generated didactics. Offering SAM credit at resident lectures is a cost-effective alternative to purchasing SAM resources, increases faculty attendance, and may improve the quality of radiation oncology resident education.

Faculty Motivation to Mentor Students Through Undergraduate Research Programs: A Study of Enabling and Constraining Factors.

Undergraduate research experiences are a "high impact" educational practice that confer benefits to students. However, little attention has been paid to understanding faculty motivation to mentor undergraduate students through research training programs, even as the number of programs has grown, requiring increasing numbers of faculty mentors. To address this, we introduce a conceptual model for understanding faculty motivation to mentor and test it by using empirical data to identify factors that enable and constrain faculty engagement in an undergraduate research program. Using cross-sectional survey data collected in 2013, we employed generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 536 faculty across 13 research institutions to examine how expected costs/benefits, dispositional factors, situational factors, previous experience, and demographic factors predicted faculty motivation to mentor. Results show that faculty who placed greater value on the opportunity to increase diversity in the academy through mentorship of underrepresented minorities were more likely to be interested in serving as mentors. Faculty who agreed more strongly that mentoring undergraduate students was time consuming and their institution's reward structures were at odds with mentoring, or who had more constrained access to undergraduate students were less likely to be interested in serving as mentors. Mid-career faculty were more likely than late-career faculty to be interested in serving as mentors. Findings have implications for improving undergraduate research experiences, since the success of training programs hinges on engaging highly motivated faculty members as mentors.

Adapting, Not Adopting: Barriers Affecting Teaching for Critical Thinking at Two Rwandan Universities

A recent study of student learning at three of Rwanda’s most prestigious public universities has suggested that Rwandan students are not improving in their critical thinking ability during their time at university. This article reports on a series of faculty-level case studies, which were conducted at two of the participating institutions in order to investigate some of the reasons behind these results. Although educational practices likely to foster critical thinking skills are required elements of the undergraduate curriculum at both institutions, the case study analysis suggests that these practices are being fundamentally altered during implementation, because of a limited understanding of the rationale for pedagogical change and low levels of faculty motivation to implement more labor-intensive teaching methods. The findings suggest that teaching and learning policies are only likely to be effective if accompanied by pedagogical training and support for ongoing faculty development.

The research motivation scale: validation with faculty from American schools of education

PurposeThis paper aims to compare the psychometric properties of the Research Motivation Scale (RMS) from faculty in schools of education in American research universities to previous findings on this scale when administered to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) faculty.Design/methodology/approachThis study was an exploratory, quantitative study using survey research methods, and utilizing confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses and statistical tests of population differences.FindingsResults indicate an adequate fit to a previously found three-factor structure. However, a new four-factor model, accounting for 47 per cent of the variance, was identified as a better fit: failure avoidance, intrinsic reward – satisfaction, intrinsic reward – joy and extrinsic reward. The overall reliability for the entire measure was 0.76. Intrinsic motivation and failure avoidance were rated statistically more important by education faculty than STEM faculty.Research limitations/implicationsAs an exploratory study and because of the chosen research approach, generalizations may be limited and further research in this area is recommended.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to the literature on RMS with data from education faculty. Results support conceptual frameworks regarding faculty outcomes and professional growth, and suggest ways faculty may be encouraged to increase research productivity.Social implicationsThis paper includes implications for societal support for research institutions by modeling factors that affect faculty motivations to produce research and thereby increase institutional productivity.Originality/valueThis study builds on conceptual frameworks, explores the use of the RMS with education faculty and compares faculty motivation to conduct research across disciplines.

Exploring the factors influencing faculty motivation and satisfaction in tertiary education

This study examines the importance of the following five factors in determining motivation and satisfaction levels among faculty involved in higher education: compensation, job role and responsibilities, organizational environment, career growth and recognition. Relevant data were collected from a survey of faculty based at professional universities in Pakistan. Results show that while all five chosen factors are significantly correlated with faculty motivation and satisfaction levels, compensation and recognition are the two most important determinants.

A Comparison of Passion and Teaching Modality

Research exists that applies the dualistic model of passion to face-to-face teaching, but no research has applied this model to online instruction. Distance education theories imply a need to discover factors contributing to online faculty motivation to engage students. Although there has been extensive exploration of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to teach online, factors contributing to consistent and optimal teaching behavior has received less attention. There is evidence that the passion construct is independent of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. A stratified random sample of online and face-to-face faculty (n = 92) were surveyed using the Passion Scale. The results showed that 95 percent of the sampled online faculty self-identified as passionate for their online instruction. In the between-groups analysis, there were no significant differences in the variables of passion orientation, harmonious passion, and obsessive passion by modality. This research provides a basis for future research of passion in online instruction. In addition, this study adds another dimension for research within distance education theory, providing increased evidence for what motivates online instructors to consistently and effectively engage students.