The Frustration of Academic Innovation.

This paper describes a case study in which one large, private university tried to improve the moss lecture course in introductory sociology. Academic change, it was found, is impeded by deeply held prestige factors which seem to mitigate against new methods of instruction. In introductory courses, the lecture system is accepted as normal, while innovations tend to be branded nonstandard and therefore expendable. Students were of little help in developing a new course since their opinions did not correlate with grade earned or opinion change during the course. It is concluded that academic innovation will prove difficult in the future unless it is legitimized in the academic prestige system. Several other examples of academic innovation failing to survive the original instructor are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]