National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track

National randomized experiments and validation studies were conducted on 873 tenure-track faculty (439 male, 434 female) from biology, engineering, economics, and psychology at 371 universities/colleges from 50 US states and the District of Columbia. In the main experiment, 363 faculty members evaluated narrative summaries describing hypothetical female and male applicants for tenure-track assistant professorships who shared the same lifestyle (e.g., single without children, married with children). Applicants' profiles were systematically varied to disguise identically rated scholarship; profiles were counterbalanced by gender across faculty to enable between-faculty comparisons of hiring preferences for identically qualified women versus men. Results revealed a 2:1 preference for women by faculty of both genders across both math-intensive and non–math-intensive fields, with the single exception of male economists, who showed no gender preference. Results were replicated using weighted analyses to control for national sample characteristics. In follow-up experiments, 144 faculty evaluated competing applicants with differing lifestyles (e.g., divorced mother vs. married father), and 204 faculty compared same-gender candidates with children, but differing in whether they took 1-y-parental leaves in graduate school. Women preferred divorced mothers to married fathers; men preferred mothers who took leaves to mothers who did not. In two validation studies, 35 engineering faculty provided rankings using full curricula vitae instead of narratives, and 127 faculty rated one applicant rather than choosing from a mixed-gender group; the same preference for women was shown by faculty of both genders. These results suggest it is a propitious time for women launching careers in academic science. Messages to the contrary may discourage women from applying for STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) tenure-track assistant professorships.

Social Network of Faculties According to Student Preferences in Transition to Higher Education

In social network analysis, the studies on weighted adjacency matrix of nodes are increasing day by day. In thispaper, a method is proposed by including node properties to neighbourhood matrix, in order to see the structures of weightedadjacency matrix that defines the relationship between the nodes. In accordance with this proposal, the relationship betweenthe faculties of Turkish universities is studied according to student preferences. Weighted adjacency matrix between facultiesis composed based on the frequency of faculty preference of students. By using the properties of faculties, this matrix ismultiplied by the adjacency matrix, calculated by Squared Euclidian Distance. The weighted adjacency matrix of the facultiesis compared with the re-calculated weighted adjacency matrix. It is observed that the relations between faculties are turnedout to be more meaningful in new weighted neighbourhood matrix which is multiplied by Squared Euclidean Distance.

Adult Learner Centered Processes in an Online ADRN to BSN Nursing Program: Independent Evaluator and Peer Self-Assessments

A five year fully online RN to BSN program was assessed by faculty and a consultant using the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Partnerships for Training (PFT) learner-centered evaluation tool. Faculty were more critical of their expertise in learner-centered online course criteria than the consultant. The consultant identified minimal use of peer support, collaborative activities, faculty preference for visual learner activities, and a tendency toward faculty ownership of learning goals and creation of activity rules and guidelines. The need to bring online discussions to a higher level of thinking was also noted. The dual evaluation perspectives helped identify strengths and weaknesses in the curriculum.

An Analysis Of The e-Business Program In The School Of Business Curriculum

The article analyzes various present and future aspects of e-business as it is or should be incorporated in the school of business curriculum. The study uses both primary and secondary data. The results indicate that e-business courses are currently taught across the traditional disciplines of business schools. The courses are primarily taught as independent electives or as part of a regular course. The faculty preference for the future of e-business courses seems to be in the same direction, maybe even more extreme. Currently, a minority of schools do offer a certificate, major, or degree program in e-business. The current levels of e-business courses, faculty expertise, and faculty development funds all seem to be less than satisfactory. The sudden and significant decline in internet-based businesses did have significant negative effects on the number of course offerings in e-business and student enrollment in these courses. However, a significant number of respondents believe that the importance of e-business, hence e-business courses, will increase in the future.

Improving Undergraduate Lectures: The Sender, the Message, and the Receiver

Many negative comments have been made about lecturing. One suggests that this methodology “violates the belief that learning results on the part of the students” (Adler, 1984). Another author suggests egotistical reasons for lecturing: “when we professors get into a classroom, we profess” (Balliet, 1970). One widely published writer blames both administrative policies and faculty preference: Lecturing has “continued due to cost-conscious administrators whose major interest is the logistical efficiency of the large lecture…” (Erickson, 1970) and many professors use lectures as a “security blanket without which they would neither feel like teachers nor be recognized by their students” (Erickson, 1970). The traditional lecture has faced stiff competition from other teaching methods: coaching, Socratic questioning, simulations, collaborative education contracts, role playing, self-instruction, the case method, and personalized systems of instruction.Despite the challenges of innovative teaching methods, lecturing persists. Wagner Thielens (1987) in a random study of half of American universities found that 81 percent of social scientists lectured. This confirms an earlier study which found that “the dominant mode of instruction remains the lecture…” (Eble, 1972). Thus, lecturing persists because of the power of tradition, the structure of the classroom, the textbooks, and the subject/discipline orientation of higher education.The truth of the matter is that lecturing, when done well, is effective, for “a skillful lecturer can gain as favorable a response as a seminar leader” (Eble, 1972). Lecturing is an efficient method of imparting information, analysis, and explanation of complex questions and concepts, and thus is an effective medium for introductory classes. Further, good lectures can update texts, synthesize tomes, provide structure, and pique students' interests.