| This study was designed to examine the teaching perspectives, teaching preparation, previous teaching experiences and involvement in faculty development activities among faculty from a research extensive university in the southern United States. A simple random sample of 536 was drawn from the institution's faculty and total of n = 131 (24.4%) responded to the survey.; Respondents were asked to complete the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) via the Internet and complete a survey which included questions regarding demographic variables, teaching preparation, previous teaching experience, and involvement in faculty development activities.; The majority of respondents were male (n = 91, 70.0%), held a doctoral degree (n = 119, 91.5%) and had earned tenure (n = 82, 62.6%). A majority of study respondents ( n = 95, 72.5%) had one dominant teaching perspective. Five (3.8%) had two or more dominant teaching perspectives and 31 (23.7%) had no dominant teaching perspectives, as measured by the Teaching Perspective Inventory.; The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedure was used to determine if dominant teaching perspectives were discipline-specific, using the academic college or school of the faculty member's teaching appointment for grouping purposes. The results of this analysis concluded that a significant difference existed among respondents with "Apprenticeship" as a dominant teaching perspective (F = 2.036, (12, 118), p = .027).; A majority of the respondents (n = 91, 69.5%) reported that they had completed a course or training session on teaching, while about three-fourths (n = 98, 74.8%) had served as teaching assistant during graduate study. The Pearson's r correlation coefficient was calculated to determine if a relationship existed between the dominant teaching perspectives of the faculty and their participation in on-campus and off-campus faculty development activities. Results of this test indicated no statistically significant difference between the two variables. |
