| |
Bess, James. (Ed.). (1996). Teaching well and liking it:
Motivating faculty to teach effectively. Baltimore, MD: Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Pp. ix + 448
$42.95(Cloth) ISBN 0-8018-5364-8
Reviewed by Jim Vander Putten
University of Arkansas-Little Rock
August 18, 2004
One measure of a good book is its ability to stand the test of
time. Although published in 1997, James Bess’ edited volume
‘Teaching Well and Liking It’ continues to maintain
its relevance for students, faculty, and academic leaders who are
interested in the motivational aspects of high-quality
instruction in higher and postsecondary education.
An underlying premise of the book is that motivation is a
legitimate psychological construct, and investigating motivations
for teaching will lead to deeper levels of understanding that can
tangibly affect the lives of faculty and their students. As Bess
identifies in the Introduction, “In tasks requiring
successive, unique qualitative judgments, as in teaching and
research, unmotivated persons perform less well over the long run
than do motivated ones.” (p. x)
The title’s suffix, ‘Motivating Faculty to Teach
Effectively’ provides additional description of the
book’s content that focuses predominantly on a variety of
applications of motivational theory to the practice of teaching
from a number of perspectives. Twenty-one chapters are organized
into six parts of the book that generally follow the intuitive
‘internal-external-organizational’ approach to
discussing these issues in a comprehensive and effective
manner.
Part I: Approaches to Studying the Motivation to
Teach
The first section of the book is comprised of
three chapters that serve to provide a broad foundation of
motivation to lay the foundation for the rest of the book. One
strength of the book is immediately apparent; Walker and Symons
begin Chapter 1: ‘The Meaning of Human Motivation’
with two illustrative and contrasting case studies of faculty and
their approaches to teaching an introductory Physics course. One
is the stereotypical senior faculty member who lectures from
yellowed notes and bores students, while the other uses
innovative teachings methods. McKeachie’s Chapter 2:
‘Wanting to Be a Good Teacher: What Have We Learned to
Date?’ also begins with two case studies of faculty that
encompass a broader array of personal and professional roles.
This chapter also provides a useful review of the previous
research literature on faculty motivations and values, as well as
the various motivations over the course of the faculty career. In
the final foundation chapter, Glazer provides some important
different perspectives in Chapter 3: ‘Beyond Male Theory: A
Feminist Perspective on Teaching Motivation.’ This chapter
provides a thorough historical overview of research that has
begun to intersect feminism and motivation theory within the past
30 years. To illustrate, Glazer wrote,
Women approach teaching from different perspectives
than their male colleagues, but they are not a monolithic group.
Their motivation to teach, their socialization to the profession,
the dual reward systems that sustain them, and their interactions
with students derive from their gendered experiences. (p. 49)
In summary, these chapters establish a useful overview of
faculty motivations to teach, and serve as an excellent resource
for scholars to survey the previous literature in preparation for
their own teaching and research in this area.
Part II: Theories of Internal Motivation to Teach
The second section of the book offers two chapters
on internal motivations for faculty. Deci, Kasser, and
Ryan’s Chapter 4: ‘Self-Determined Teaching:
Opportunities and Obstacles’ uses Self-Determination theory
and the inherent intrinsic and extrinsic aspects as means to
provide incentives for faculty to aspire to high-quality
teaching. They summarized,
The motivational bases for professors’ feeling
autonomous and committed in their teaching are intrinsic
motivation and integrated extrinsic motivation. Being
intrinsically motivated to teach means being interested in
teaching and finding it spontaneously satisfying; being
autonomously extrinsically motivated means involving oneself
fully in the activity because of having internalized and
integrated the importance of the activity. (p. 69)
Relying heavily on his own previous work,
Csikszentmihalyi’s Chapter 5: ‘Intrinsic Motivation
and Effective Teaching: A Flow Analysis’ is an effective
complement to the preceding chapter. His discussion of a series
of conditions for learning sets the stage for subsequent chapters
that describe instructional techniques to transform teaching into
a flow activity. By its very nature, faculty work has a high
degree of autonomy and the preparation for teaching is often a
solitary task. As a result, the focus on intrinsic faculty needs
in these chapters is particularly relevant for identifying ways
in which faculty can derive optimum enjoyment from the teaching
and learning process.
Part III: Theories of External Motivation to
Teach
The third section of the book includes three chapters that
address well-known external motivation theories. Nord’s
Chapter 6: ‘Behavior Modification in a Loosely Coupled
System of Higher Education’ uses Weick’s (1976) term
loosely coupled as a context for describing a behavioral
modification approach that university administrators can adopt to
promote effective teaching. This is the only chapter that
addresses administrators, and contextualizes the influences of
several factors, including organizational climate, communication
processes, and rituals and ceremonies. The second external
motivation theory is detailed in Mowday and Nam’s Chapter
7: ‘Expectancy Theory Approaches to Faculty
Motivation.’ Set in the context of corporate restructuring
and higher education retrenchment of the mid-1990s, the authors
discuss in plain terms faculty beliefs that certain outcomes are
likely to result from the accomplishment of certain tasks.
Finally, Chapter 8: ‘Implications of Goal-Setting Theory
for Faculty Motivation’ by Latham, Daghighi, and Locke
analyze goal mechanisms and process and outcome goals as applied
to institutional partnership programs managed by academic deans.
The authors stated,
The challenge for a dean is how to motivate faculty to
participate in such partnerships in a manner that achieves an
integrated program approach and one that leads to the attainment
of both the school’s and the client’s goals as well
as the faculty member’s objectives. Through the application
of goal-setting theory to the development process of partnership
education programs, the satisfactory delivery of such programs
can lead to feelings of accomplishment and recognition among
faculty (p. 136).
Part IV: Organizational Conditions as Motivators
The fourth section of the book is the largest, and is
comprised of six chapters that focus on various organizational
influences on motivation to teach. In Chapter 9:
‘Organizational Cultures and Faculty Motivation,’
Beyer reviews the general features of organizational cultures,
and discusses both organization-wide cultures (e.g., Cultural
leadership) and sub-cultures within an organization (e.g.,
faculty, students, and administrators). Next, Hall and
Bazerman’s Chapter 10: ‘Organization Design and Job
Characteristics’ implements the case study approach first
used in Part I of the book, and compares levels of faculty
motivation to teach that are exemplified by the Harvard Business
School (higher faculty motivation to teach) and the Graduate
School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University
(lower faculty motivation to teach). One chapter of this book,
which has become somewhat dated since being published in 1997 is
Dunlap’s Chapter 11: ‘Technology and Teaching
Motivation.’ While some content in this chapter is still
applicable (e.g., faculty early adopters and late adopters of
technology), the widespread implementation of online courses and
emergence of virtual universities in higher education have much
broader implications for faculty motivation to teach than the
issues presented here.
Continuing the disciplinary focus on Business, Hunt and
Ropo’s Chapter 12: ‘Leadership and Faculty
Motivation’ uses the scenario of developing a new
Master’s-level curriculum concentration in Management as
the frame of reference for articulating a specific form of
motivation the authors refer to as ‘systems
motivation.’ Shifting to a focus on the internal
constituency of students, Smith discusses a series of important
factors in Chapter 13: ‘Student Diversity: Challenge and
Potential for Faculty Motivation.’ She identifies four
dimensions of diversity (Representation, Campus Climate,
Educational purpose, and Organizational/Educational
transformation) but only briefly touches on an aspect of student
diversity that deserves much more attention: student academic
preparation. With the increasing calls for accountability in
higher and postsecondary education from external stakeholders,
Stumpf and Rindova’s Chapter 14: ‘Assessment and
Evaluation Techniques’ is a necessary part of any
discussion of high quality instruction. They make an important
assertion early in this chapter,
A common criticism of teaching evaluation is, “How could
someone else…using standardized measures and methods or
observing a small portion of what I do make an accurate and
useful evaluation of my performance? I am unique in what I do. I
am the expert.” If you accept this as a representative
faculty member reaction to teaching evaluations, then the
motivational potential of many assessment and evaluation methods
is severely limited. (p. 269)
The authors discuss motivations for assessment and evaluation
of teaching, debunk a series of myths surrounding assessment and
evaluation, and conclude with a useful research agenda for
assessment and evaluation.
Part V: Systemwide Conditions
As noted by the title, this section of the book takes a step
back to examine the big picture of faculty motivation for
teaching. In Chapter 15: ‘The Influence of Faculty
Backgrounds on the Motivation to Teach,’ Stetar and
Finkelstein provide a series of useful statistical snapshots of
faculty background characteristics (e.g., parental education and
occupation, faculty religious origins, race and gender) taken
from a number of quantitative national research studies dating
back to the late 1960s. In a chapter that complements Stetar and
Finkelstein’s work, Blackburn’s Chapter 16:
‘Career Phases and Their Effect on Faculty
Motivation’ uses adult development theory as a backdrop to
review research on faculty motivation for administrative duties
and for research productivity. The conceptual framework from his
work with Jan Lawrence (Blackburn & Lawrence, 1995) is also
used as a framework to analyze the influence of faculty career
stages on motivation for various faculty roles. Finnegan’s
Chapter 17: ‘The Academic Marketplace and the Motivation to
Teach’ thoroughly reviews the existing literature on the
academic labor market as it relates to faculty motivation to
teach, and uses the constructs of institutional prestige and
hierarchy to provide valuable insights into patterns of
stratification in higher education. She observed,
By exclusively studying and thereby promoting the
prestige-sorting mechanisms of the labor market as well as
comparative rates of productivity across the sectors, we have
disregarded, and often times dismissed, a significant proportion
of the profession who receive their primary intrinsic rewards
from and are motivated by their interaction with and ability to
engage students inside and outside the classroom. (p. 356)
For the purposes of Chapter 18: ‘Public Policy and
Faculty Motivation,’ Schuster defined public policy
as ‘… the domain of governmental activity; or, more
precisely, the actions taken by legislative and executive bodies,
as well as by regulatory and advisory bodies, which influence
higher education.’ (p. 362) This definition is useful in
understanding the chapter’s historical review of public
policy’s effect on teaching, as well as the discussion of
the future environment for teaching. The final chapter in this
section of the book is Trow’s Chapter 19: ‘The
Politics of Motivation: A Comparative Perspective’ that
brings an international perspective to the issues. The author
applies the concept of managerialism to British higher
education both before and after the Margaret Thatcher
administration, and advances an interesting typology of
orientations to teaching that focuses on Knowledge (creating or
transmitting) and Orientation (toward subject or student).
Part VI: Summary
The final section of the book brings issues related to faculty
motivation for teaching ‘back to the campus.’ In
Chapter 20: ‘Fostering Faculty Motivation to Teach:
Approaches to Faculty Development,’ Menges focuses on
programmatic support for faculty motivation for teaching and
critiques three perspectives on faculty development programs; the
institutional perspective, the teaching center perspective, and
the faculty perspective. Three scenarios are included that depict
different approaches to faculty development, and each focuses on
a specific institutional type: comprehensive university, liberal
arts college, and research university. This is the first
treatment of institutional type influences on faculty motivation
to teach in the book, and these scenarios are useful
illustrations for readers who may be less familiar with the
implications of Carnegie Classification types for teaching. The
book’s editor, James Bess closes with Chapter 21:
‘The Motivation to Teach: Perennial Conundrums’ and
provides a number of thought-provoking ideas for further
consideration. Public opinion of college teaching has been
critical, and underscores the author’s rationale for
studying the motivation to teach. In addition, he touches on
institutional culture for teaching and the faculty role, and
raises the question, “Is teaching a
“Profession”?” Many authors have observed that
teaching is a local, rather than global, activity, and Bess
articulates that effectively:
The most profound difficulty in professionalizing teaching in
higher education is that most of the rewards of teaching are
intrinsic while a significant amount of the rewards of research
are extrinsic – for example, recognition of colleagues. In
societies in which the status of occupations and the achievements
within them are hierarchically organized, it is difficult for
individuals to be content with intrinsic satisfactions
alone. (p. 432)
Given the Editor’s
internal-external-organizational approach to ‘Teaching Well
and Liking It,’ I believe that three primary audiences
would benefit from this book. First, new academic administrators
will find the applications of motivation theory to practice to be
useful starting points in their work with faculty. Experienced
academic administrators are likely to find these applications to
be a useful refresher in identifying new and different
strategies. Given the increasing accountability for faculty
performance and implementation of post-tenure review programs,
applications of motivation theory to practice will continue to be
valuable.
Second, graduate faculty will benefit from using
this book as an instructional resource in courses related to
faculty and teaching. I have used ‘Teaching Well and Liking
It’ as the primary text in my doctoral-level ‘College
Teaching Problems and Issues’ course for the past several
years. The students in my course each year are, or are preparing
to be, college and university faculty in a variety of academic
disciplines. The motivational theories as applied to college
teaching in this book have interdisciplinary applicability.
Faculty in English Departments and faculty in Colleges of Nursing
can make meaning of the material presented in these chapters.
Many students have aspirations for positions of increasing
academic leadership responsibility, and the illustrative cases
and scenarios in many of the chapters are valuable teaching tools
to apply the theories that are presented. I also require students
in my ‘College Teaching Problems and Issues’ course
to complete a small original research project on some
instructional issue of their choice, and this book provides
students with a multitude of research ideas.
Furthermore, the theories of motivation and their applications
to faculty teaching serve as excellent material for qualifying
comprehensive examination questions and case studies. The
chapters are written in an accessible yet scholarly tone that
piques the reader’s curiosity to learn more about each
topic. This book has generated three doctoral dissertations in
the time I’ve taught it; one investigating Physical
Education faculty use of technology in teaching, one
investigating Early Childhood Education faculty perceptions of
self-efficacy, and one international, interdisciplinary study
investigating use of student evaluation data.
I hope there will be a second edition of this book
at some point. If so, some revision suggestions can be identified
to ensure that this book continues to be a useful resource for a
variety of audiences. In recognition of the increasing use of
adjuncts and part-time faculty in higher education (Pannapacker,
2000), a chapter on the special implications for motivation of
these faculty would be a welcome addition. With the increasing
roles being played by community colleges, virtual universities
and proprietary institutions in higher and postsecondary
education, some chapters that discuss institutional type
influences and the implications for faculty motivation at
teaching-oriented and research-oriented institutions is also
recommended. The authors whose chapters focus on on-campus
teaching issues infer that all teaching occurs in the classroom.
However, the pervasive implementation of undergraduate research
programs, service-learning projects, and learning communities in
colleges and universities today necessitates the inclusion of a
chapter on faculty motivation for co-curricular teaching and
learning.
As mentioned earlier in this review, the chapter on technology
has become somewhat dated since being published in 1997. Given
the short lifespan of technology itself (laptops become obsolete
9 months after introduction), including a technology-related
chapter in a long shelf life publication requires careful
attention to issues of scope and generalizability. The inclusion
of technology usage items in recent national data collection
efforts on faculty such as the 1999 National Survey of
Postsecondary Faculty will yield important data to gain insights
into the future of faculty motivation for teaching. Finally, the
continuing emphasis on access to higher and postsecondary
education for students who have been historically
underrepresented carries with it the distinct implications of
developmental education coursework and faculty motivation to
teach. The next edition of ‘Teaching Well and Liking
It’ will be strengthened by attention to these important
topics.
In summary, this book makes important contributions to the
scholarship on faculty motivation for teaching and continues to
be as relevant today as when it was published in 1997.
References
Blackburn, R., & Lawrence, J. (1995). Faculty
at work: Motivation, expectation, satisfaction. Baltimore, MD:
Johns Hopkins University Press.
Chronicle of Higher Education. (2004). Survey of public opinion
on higher education. Available online at
http://chronicle.com/stats/higheredpoll/2004/higheredpoll.htm
Pannapacker, W. (2000, December 1). The adjunct
rip-off: 10 reasons why the overuse of adjuncts hurts students.
The Chronicle of Higher Education. Available online at
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2000/10/2000120104c.htm
Weick, K. (1976). Educational organizations as loosely coupled
systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 1-19.
About the Reviewer
Jim Vander Putten is an Associate Professor of Higher
Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Chair
of the Institutional Review Board at the University of
Arkansas-Little Rock. He coordinates the Faculty Development
concentration in the doctoral program in Higher Education, and
his research interests include faculty from working-class
backgrounds, faculty and staff perceptions of the higher
education work environment, and the organizational culture and
climate for the responsible conduct of human participants
research.
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment