JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Year:2012 | Volume:18 | Issue:2 (64)|Papers Count:8

The study of relationship between research and teaching activities of lecturers, especially faculty members, is an interesting and at the same time a controversial topic which has been researched over and over without coming to a final conclusion as a comprehensive result. The purpose of this research was to investigate faculty members’ attitude about the relationship between their research and teaching activities. The sample was 100 faculty members and lecturers of three colleges of Arts, Engineering and Basic Sciences in University of Mashhad who were selected via improbability quota sampling method. The participants answered two researcher-made questionnaires about their research and teaching activities. A descriptive research method was used for this study. Demographical characteristics of the faculty members were utilized as control variables. The result of multiple regression analysis showed that research status predicts up to 58.4% of teaching quality. Moreover, the demographical characteristics of the faculty members including gender, field of study, academic ranks, teaching experience, average hours dedicated to research and teaching, number of articles and research projects - that were considered as control variables- predicted 32.8% of variance in teaching quality.

The purpose of this study was to examine the multi relationships among faculty trust, faculty members efficacy and their collective efficacy at selected public universities of Isfahan. Research hypothesis formulated based on study of relations among faculty trust components, faculty efficacy components and their collective efficacy. The research method was descriptive correlational type and the statistical population were consist 1541 faculty members of selected public universities of Isfahan. Statistical sample were chosen by stratified random sampling and 261 faculty members participated in this study. Three gathering information tools including, higher education faculty trust inventory, higher education faculty member efficacy inventory and collective faculty member efficacy inventory were used. The reliability of questionnaires by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficients were found to be 0.81, 0.83 and 0.89 respectively. The data were analyzed by using inferential statistics (Multivariate Correlation, Regression and Statistical Equation Modeling).The finding revealed that generally faculty trust and faculty members efficacy have affected the collective efficacy, and there is a latent relationship between faculty trust and faculty member efficacy. Also there is a positive and significant correlation between faculty trust and collective efficacy and faculty member efficacy and collective efficacy. Based on Structural Equation Model, the predictability of collective efficacy level was determined via trust and its components (Gamma= 0.70) and faculty member efficacy (Gamma=0.12). The fit indicators indicated that the research model was relatively good fitting.

The principal goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between using learning organization components (personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning and system thinking) and quality work life of faculty members in Western Mazandaran Islamic Azad universities. A descriptive survey correlation design method was used for this study. Statistical population included all full time faculty members of the Western Mazandaran Islamic Azad universities. A total of 214 people were randomly selected by using stratified sampling method. In this study, two researcher made questionnaires, learning organization including 30 questions and work life questionnaire including 32 questions were used in generating the data. The reliability of learning organization (.81) and work life (.84) questionnaires determined by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Multiple regression, Pierson correlation coefficient and ANOVA tests were used to analyze data.The findings indicated that: 1) there is a meaningful relationship between the application of the learning organization components and quality of work life; 2) there is a meaningful relationship between the application of learning organization components (personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning and system thinking) and quality of work life and 3) among learning organization components, mental models can be the best predictors for faculty members' quality of work life.

The purpose of this research was to study the relationships among self-efficacy, competencies and organizational commitment with teaching quality of faculty members in Islamic Azad University. The population of this research was 2181 faculty members from Azad University branches in region one. Random stratified cluster sampling was used to select 436 faculty members. A researcher-made questionnaire for assessing teaching quality with 27 statements (Chronbach alpha = 0.861), Allen and Meyer questionnaire for assessing organizational commitment, a researcher-made questionnaire with 13 statements for assessing competencies (Chronbach alpha = 0.866) and Schwartzer et al questionnaire for assessing self-efficacy of faculty members were used to conduct this research. Multiple regression and Structural Equation Modeling were used to specify the portion of self-efficacy, competencies, and organizational commitment factors in teaching quality. Results showed that self-efficacy with coefficient of 0.28, competencies with coefficient of 0.32 and organizational commitment with coefficient of 0.23 had positive, direct and significant relationship with teaching quality. In addition, self-efficacy and organizational commitment with coefficient of 0.17, self-efficacy and competencies with coefficient of 0.36 and organizational commitment and competencies with coefficient of 0.15 had significant and positive reciprocal relationships.

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships between some of the variables associated with teaching evaluations by the students. Data were collected by a composed questionnaire from 210 undergraduate students from five Faculties of Tehran University. Structural Equation Modeling techniques was used to assess the measurement model (relationships factors and indicators), the structural model (relationships of factors) and testing of nine research hypotheses. Reliability (internal consistency, item reliability and composed reliability) and validity (convergent and divergent) instrument were evaluated by using a variety of desirable indices. The results of survey confirmed a close relationship between faculty and students, and a direct and positive correlation between student evaluation of teaching, student satisfaction with grade and their interest in the course. Faculty’s effort and involvement on student interest in the course had positive impact on their valuation of teaching. On the other hand, course difficulty had negative relation with students’ grade satisfaction and students’ valuation of teaching. Additionally, students’ course content interest had a positive impact on their valuation of teaching.

This research was conducted with purpose of studying the relationship between socio-economic status of students and their perceptions of investment in graduate education. A descriptive survey method was used for this study. Statistical population included all 12045 paying tuition graduate students at Tehran’s state universities in 2010-2011 school-years. Cluster random sampling was used to choose a sample of 379 students in Amir Kabir University, Kharazmi University, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran University, Sharif University and Allameh Tabatabaee University. A researcher made questionnaire was used to evaluate the perceptions of students in investing in higher education and their socio-economic status. Findings indicated that there were a significant relationship between socio-economic status, and appropriateness of fees and appropriateness of supportive policies perceptions. There were no significant relationships between socio-economic status of students and following three variables: 1) perception of the future cash incomes, 2) perception of the future non-monetary incomes and 3) tendency to get loans. Regarding the main hypothesis, there was a significant relationship between socio-economic status of students and their perceptions of investment in graduate education. The results of this research illustrated that financial and social incentives were predictors of students’ perceptions of investment in graduate education.

This research aimed to identify learning styles and entrepreneurial traits and relations among agriculture students by using a survey method. The statistical population of consisted of all agriculture students of the Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (N=1618). The sample size (n=180) was determined by Cochran's formula and respondents were selected by stratified sampling technique. Data was gathered by an instrument consisting of Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire and Measurement Instrument of Personality Characteristics of Iranian's Entrepreneurs. Research results showed that most students had active learning style (in processing dimension), sensing (in perception dimension), visual (in presentation dimension) and global (in perspective/understanding dimension). Calculated correlation coefficients revealed a significance positive relationships between learning styles of students and some personal and academic variables such as age, taking course in entrepreneurship and self-employment, hopeful of receiving skills and occupational preparation, grade point average, scientific field trips, doing scientific projects and preparing articles. The results also showed that most of students were weak and very weak in terms of entrepreneurial traits. According to correlation coefficients, there was a significance positive relationship between age, experience of part-time job, hopeful of skill and occupational preparation, grade point average and doing scientific projects with entrepreneurial traits.