Faculty Misconduct in Collegiate Teaching

by John M. Braxton, Alan E. Bayer

Overview

In Faculty Misconduct in Collegiate Teaching, higher education researchers John Braxton and Alan Bayer address issues of impropriety and misconduct in the teaching role at the postsecondary level. Braxton and Bayer define and examine norms of teaching behavior: what they are, how they come to exist, and how transgressions are detected and addressed. Do faculty members across various collegiate settings, for example, share views about appropriate and inappropriate teaching behaviors, as they share expectations regarding actions related to research? And what mechanisms are utilized to correct inappropriate behavior on the part of college and university teachers?

The authors' work is based on survey results obtained from faculty members at research universities, liberal arts colleges, and two-year community, junior, and technical colleges. Braxton and Bayer's focus is on undergraduate teaching in four disciplines: biology, history, mathematics, and psychology. In their analyses, the authors examine how individual, disciplinary, and institutional differences influence professorial behavior.

In contrast to the more explicitly understood and enforced rules of conduct in research, the authors find that teaching norms are informally defined and observed. They argue that a formal code of ethics for undergraduate teaching would serve the dual purpose of improving undergraduate education and elevating the status of college teaching.

A groundbreaking study of contemporary academe, Faculty Misconduct in Collegiate Teaching is required reading for all university and college instructors and administrators

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801874741
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/30/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John M. Braxton is a professor of education at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. Alan E. Bayer is a professor of sociology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

John M. Braxton is a professor of higher education at Vanderbilt University. He is a coauthor of Professors Behaving Badly: Faculty Misconduct in Graduate Education.
Alan E. Bayer is a professor emeritus of sociology at Virginia Tech and director emeritus and founder of the Virginia Tech Center for Survey Research. He is a coeditor of Faculty and Student Classroom Improprieties and coauthor of Faculty Misconduct in Collegiate Teaching, the latter also published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Centrality of Norms to Academic Work
Chapter 2. Design for the Studies
Chapter 3. Inviolable Norms
Chapter 4. Admonitory Norms
Chapter 5. Institutional Type and Norm Espousal
Chapter 6. Academic Disciplines and Norm Espousal
Chapter 7. Individual Faculty Characteristics and Norm Espousal
Chapter 8. The Social Control of Teaching Misconduct
Chapter 9. Prior Formalized Teaching Prescriptions and Proscriptions
Chapter 10. Conclusions and Implications for Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice
Appendix A: College Teaching Behaviors Inventory
Appendix B: Response Bias Analysis
Appendix C: Means and Standard Deviations for Behaviors Included in the College Teaching Behaviors Inventory (CTBI)
Appendix D: Zero-Order Intercorrelation Matrix Among Independent Variables
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Drawing on survey results from faculty members at research universities, liberal arts colleges, and community and technical colleges, Braxton (education, Vanderbilt U.) and Bayer (sociology, Virginia State U.) define and examine norms of teaching behavior. They explore what the standards are, how they come to exist, how transgressions are detected and addressed, and the extent to which views on the subject are shared across the collegiate settings. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

An important book that plows through long-neglected territory.
—George Keller, University Business

This book is thoughtfully conceived, carefully executed, well written, cautiously interpreted, and the findings are properly qualified.
—Luther B. Otto, Contemporary Sociology

The authors posit nine types of conduct that they view as examples of misconduct, and seven inviolable norms that they find in existence in the broad field of instructional service . . . A serious and useful study of a new field.
—Rosemary Park, Change

From the Publisher

This book is thoughtfully conceived, carefully executed, well written, cautiously interpreted, and the findings are properly qualified.

Contemporary Sociology - Luther B. Otto

The authors posit nine types of conduct that they view as examples of misconduct, and seven inviolable norms that they find in existence in the broad field of instructional service . . . A serious and useful study of a new field.

Change - Rosemary Park

An important book that plows through long-neglected territory.

University Business - George Keller

The authors posit nine types of conduct that they view as examples of misconduct, and seven inviolable norms that they find in existence in the broad field of instructional service... A serious and useful study of a new field.

— Rosemary Park

Change

This book is thoughtfully conceived, carefully executed, well written, cautiously interpreted, and the findings are properly qualified.

— Luther B. Otto

Contemporary Sociology