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An ongoing tension among faculty roles has generated discussions questioning the amount of teaching faculty members actually do. Before assessing this issue, it is important to investigate satisfaction levels of teaching faculty. Using the model of L. Hagedorn (2000), this study examined how personal and environmental factors combined to influence faculty feelings of satisfaction in their teaching experience. Data came from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) faculty survey in 1992. Rates of faculty response were judged to be of sufficient quality at 289 institutions, generating responses from 37,417 faculty members. The analysis is restricted to full-time faculty whose primary role was teaching. The strongest individual predictor found within the environmental domain for all three models considered is faculty perception of a caring and supportive environment, followed by themes of student learning, collegial respect, and trust. Fostering an environment in which faculty can spend their time teaching students with support and without the need to spend energy on "defensive" tactics may explain increased levels of satisfaction. (Contains 12 tables and 25 references.) (Author/SLD)

This study examined the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of faculty and students about the use of nontraditional pedagogies such as active learning, collaborative/cooperative learning, and the encouragement of student participation and involvement in the learning experience. The data came from two surveys of faculty (n=136) and students (n=676) conducted through the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement at seven institutions during the winter and fall of 2000. The result reveal that both groups agree on the value and desirability of direct involvement in learning, academic collaboration with student peers, and productive, constructive student/faculty relationships. There are substantial, statistically significant differences, however, between how frequently they believe these practices are actually enacted in the classroom. Possible explanations and implications are discussed. (Contains 7 tables and 33 references.) (Author/SLD)

This study, built upon prior work by E. Pascarella, C. Ethington, and J. Smart (1988), examined the influence of college upon the civic values held by students. Data were obtained from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, a national longitudinal study of college students. Four sets of variables were used: civic values of students in 1985 and 1989; student individual characteristics; measures of college experience; and organizational characteristics of the institution. The within-school model used in the study showed that students who were more involved in college activities had better civic values than those with less involvement. Another finding was that church-affiliated, or more politically oriented, colleges were more effective in developing student civic values than other types of institutions. Six tables and two appendixes describe the variables and the statistics; summarize data and results for civic value factors, a random coefficient model, an intercept-and slopes-as-outcome model, and a one-way ANOVA model; and show proportion of variance in the final model. (Contains 19 references.) (CH)

This longitudinal study examined changes in teaching goals over the past 2 decades. It reviewed data on trends in teaching goals obtained from national surveys of faculty conducted in 1968 by Platt, Parsons, and Kirschstein (3,045 respondents), in 1972 by the American Council on Education (42,000 respondents), in 1984 and 1989 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (5,000 respondents each), and in 1989 and 1992 by the Higher Education Research Institute (approximately 30,000 respondents each). It was found that the goals "develop the ability to think clearly,""prepare students for employment after college,""prepare students for graduate studies," and "provide for students' emotional development" were fairly stable over the 24 years covered by the surveys. Goals were also stable over time when compared by institutional type, although support for preparing students for employment after college grew at liberal arts and comprehensive institutions in the late 1980s and fell at research and two-year institutions. The results indicate a growing divergence between the relatively stable goals of faculty and the changing goals of students, who are placing more emphasis on practical training and job preparation. (Contains 24 references.) (MDM)

Problems associated with low response rates to surveys are considered, drawing from the literature on the methodology of survey research. A series of analyses are presented which were designed to examine the efficacy of Astin and Molm's procedure to adjust for nonresponse biases. Data were obtained form the Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey of 1987 incoming students and the 1991 followup survey. Data were analyzed for 209,627 students at 390 institutions. After separating the data into respondents (21 percent) and nonrespondents (79 percent), attention was directed to how distributions and relationships change due to nonresponse. The efficacy of the Astin and Molm procedure was examined using univariate and joint distributions and multiple regressions. It is concluded that the Astin and Molm procedure for adjusting for patterns of nonresponse is very effective in reducing biases in univariate distributions. The effectiveness of this weighting procedure is less clear in adjusting the results of correlation and regression analyses. The analyses did not reveal a situation where the weighted results were clearly less preferable than the unweighted one. Although the Astin and Molm technique is designed for use in longitudinal research, related methods of weighting can be implemented for cross-sectional surveys. (Contains 27 references.) (SW)

This study investigated an apparent dilemma suggested by previous research on faculty orientations toward students and academic standards. Some research suggests that encouraging faculty to be student-centered is an effective way to increase student learning and development, while other research indicates that being student-centered leads to lenient grading and lower academic standards. Information was obtained from 134 institutions based on a longitudinal data set from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, providing a nationally representative cohort of college freshmen who completed questionnaires upon entry in 1985 and again 4 years later in 1989. Faculty data were obtained from a Higher Education Research Institute survey of teaching practices. Student-centered evaluation methods were considered to be student presentations, student evaluations of each others' work, and weekly essay assignments. Using a series of multiple regression analyses predicting undergraduate grades, it was found that student evaluation practices and the ways in which faculty viewed their orientations toward students were not significantly related to institutional average grades. Faculty views of student-centeredness were also unrelated to institutional grades. (Contains 40 references.) (SW)

A study of college faculty stressors attempted to address limitations in previous research by extending the variables measured to include both on- and off-campus sources of stress and by testing the implicit assumption that all faculty perceive the same dimensions of stress, albeit at different levels. Data were drawn from a 1989-90 national survey of 93,479 full-time faculty in 400 institutions. From this total, 51,574 usable responses were received, a number which was later refined down to 35,478 full time faculty and 392 institutions. This total was then divided into 8 groups, from each of which a random sample of 491 was drawn yielding a final sample size for this study of 3,928. Faculty variables considered include tenure, sex, race (white or non-white), institutional selectivity (low, medium, high), and sector (private, public, non-sectarian, Catholic, Protestant, and two- and four-year). Results indicate that different groups of tenured faculty perceive varying levels and dimensions of stress. The largest differences across groups were found in "subtle discrimination." It was also found that men and women perceive household responsibility stress similarly, although men express it less frequently. Methodological implications for stress research are considered. The findings' implications for institutional policy include differential faculty development emphases and a need for increased and more creative institutional efforts at stress reduction. Includes 14 references. (MSE)

Data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program Follow-Up Surveys were used to study student retention at four-year colleges and universities. Data used were from the 1985-1988 follow-up surveys of 1981-1984 freshmen. Student data were also requested directly from the institutions themselves, concerning degree earned, number of years completed, admission test scores, and current enrollment status. Three retention measures were utilized: (1) received a bachelor's degree 4 years after college entry; (2) received a bachelor's degree 4 years after college entry or had completed 4 years of course work; and (3) received a bachelor's degree, or completed 4 years, or was enrolled in the fifth year. Individual characteristics that were found to be positively correlated with retention included high-school grade point average, admission test scores, and being female. Prediction equations were developed with the use of multiple regression in order to allow institutional researchers and policymakers to assess an institution's ability to retain students. Results can be used by researchers to statistically control for the influence that student characteristics have on retention, and then make valid inferences about the effect that the college environment has upon retention. Includes eight references. (JDD)

In this study, student liberalism is examined longitudinally to determine whether it changes as the result of being exposed to different educational environments. The effect of college on liberalism and the relative efficacy of different measures of the college environment are also addressed. The main focus is on the effect of student peers. Data were drawn from the 1983 Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey sponsored by the American Council on Education and the University of California at Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute. Results indicate that the effect that college has upon liberalism appears to be due to socialization effects. Effects commonly attributed to the educational process may in fact be due to social forces that exist outside of college, suggesting that many of the findings related to affective student outcomes may need to be reexamined. While it is possible that changes in liberalism are due to cognitive or psychodynamic changes in students, these results indicate that involvement in different social systems affects liberalism differently. Colleges may not directly affect student values, yet bring students of different values together. Instead of developing and promoting values among students, colleges may simply serve as forums that reinforce generally held social values. Researchers may need to try to integrate more proximal measures of student experiences. By relying on structural characteristics to measure the college environment, they are adopting an imprecise frame of reference for interpretation. It is concluded that while college promotes liberalism, the effect is neither large nor universal, and college may now have a moderating rather than liberalizing effect. Contains 28 references. (SM)