A Survey On Behaviours And Psychology Of Research Work Among Medical University Teachers

Background and Objective Scientific researches of university teachers are the basic prerequisite to ensure that the university teaching always reflects the culture and the latest achievements of science and technology and remains in the forefront of the era.The teachers' participation in scientific researches also contributes to the innovative nurture of talents.However,the incompletion of research administration induces the psychological pressure,a number of academic frauds,and academic misconducts.At present,almost all the researches on the situations and administration of teachers' scientific research are targeted on external factors or research activities.The publications on the subject,mainly comments,were either too broadly focused on all the research personnel as a whole or too limitedly confined to some certain objects.). It is hard to find the evidence-based researches specificly on the psychology and behaviours of university teachers.However,university teachers have to undertake the heavy task of teaching besides scientific research.Under the circumstances of sophistication,confusion and impetuousness and the direction-changing environments,only few attentions and investigations were paid to their behaviours and psychology,such as how the psychology of the main body of scientific researchers and university teachers is; Whether they are full of enthusiasm for scientific research or just a last resort;What their research requirements,difficulties and confusions are;Whether the researches bring their teaching activities positive or negative impacts;What the relationship between research activities and their life goals and personal lives is.Without the understanding of the research psychology,we will face difficulties to evaluate the research conduct correctly,to motivate the teachers to be engaged in the R & D activities,to administrate the research activities,to raise the research level and to supervise teachers to serve the society by creating and dispensing their knowledge. Therefore,it is necessary to understand the psychology,motivation and behaviors of the scientific research personnel and to develop a series of methods and measures accordingly.It serves as the basis for management decision-making.Methods1.Subjects 1 000 teachers from medical schools of 6 universities in Guangdong Province were studied with the two-stage stratified sampling method from January 2007 to December 2007.The universities are Southern Medical University,Jinan University,Sun Yat-sin University,Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,Guangdong Medical Academy and the Guangdong College of Pharmacy.2.Questionnaire designing According to the literature available and the consultation of experts,we first designed a preliminary questionnaire on teachers' research behaviours and the psychological factors,and then determined the answers to the questions after repeated screening.The investigation included mainly about 4 aspects:①teachers'personal factors, such as sex,age,professional title,academic degree,tutorship,and so on;②teachers' academic levels,such as their scientific projects,achievements,patents, publications and academic tenures;③teachers'attitude,emotion and self-evaluation, such as their participation in the projects,their commitment and their research capacity.④teachers' attitude towards current policies of research administration and stimulation.3.Methods of investigation:(1) Expert consultation:to interview experts and professors with high academic status of each university to collect their comments and suggestions,which were the basis we designed a questinnaire;to consult expertise from experts of statistics,psychology and management to ensure the validity.(2) the questionnaire:with purposive sampling method,to take samples from six universities located in Guangdong Province(Southern Medical University,Jinan University,Sun Yat-sin University,Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Medical Academy and the Guangdong College of Pharmacy);1,000 copies of questionnaires were distributed collectively,completed independently,and recovered at the required time.4.Data Processing:The questionnaire were collected,selected and analyzed. The invalid ones were screened out.SPSS 13.0 was used to set up statistic analysis list with the comprehension of the collected data.Results1.The basic information of subjects:964 of the 1,000 distributed copies were recovered.The recovery rate was 96.4%.12 of them were invalid and 952 were valid. The validity was 95.2%.There was a similarity in the sex ratios.About 80%of the investigatees were young or middle-aged PhDs or masters with above-intermediate professional titles.2.The results of the questionnaires(1) The relationship between between the teachers' personal factors and the researches undertaken as the first author The following factors lead to the assumptions and awards of research projects as the first author:the seniority,male,the high qualification,the long teachership,the high-class tutorship and the high standard of working unit.The following factors lead to the research patents:the long teachership,the senior professional title,the high-class tutorship and the high-standard laboratory.The following factors influence the number of pubished research papers:the seniority,the high academic degree,the senior professional title,the high-class tutorshipThe following factors influence the number of academic publishcations:the seniority,the high-class tutorship.(2) The relationship between the teachers' attitudes,feelings,self-assessment of research capacity and research achievements.The following factors lead to the scientific projects undertaken as the first author: the high devotion,the accuracy of self-recognition of research capacity and the frequent involvement of students into researches during teaching.The following factors lead to the scientific rewards:the high devotion,the understanding of scitific policies of all levels of government,the grasp of scientific methods,the high proficiency of foreign languages,the accuracy of self-recognition of research capacity and the frequent involvement of students into researches during teaching.The following factors lead to the scientific patents:the understanding of scitific policies of all levels of government,the frequent involvement of students into researches during teaching.The following factors influence the number of professional publishments:the high devotion,the accuracy of self-recognition of research capacity and the frequent involvement of students into researches during teaching. (3) The relationship between scitific administration and stimulation and the teachers' scientific achievements.The relative Pearson analysis shows that there is no clear connection between the teachers' comments on the stimulation of scientific policies and their achievements. But obvious communication exists between the satisfaction of the buget management and the number of patents and publications,and between the amount of financial support and the number of rewards,publications and punishments.The more satisfaction and more financial support result in better achievements.Conclusions1.Different factors influence teachers'research behaviours:①the high-leveled tutors had more projects,rewards,patents,publications and publishments;②the researchers with high professional titles had more projects,rewards,patents and publications;③the senior researchers had more projects,rewards,publications and publishments;④the researchers with long teachership had more projects, rewards,and patents;⑤the high standard of teaching units or laboratories led to more projects,rewards,and patents;⑥the researchers with high academic dgrees had more projects and publications;⑦the researchers who always involved students into researches during teaching had more projects,rewards,patents, publications and publishments;⑧high devotion led to more projects,rewards, publications and publishments;⑨the researchers with better sell-recognition of research capacity had more projects,rewards,publications and punishments;⑩there were more outcomes when more sastifaction showed with the management of budget and more financial supports were offered.2.The external factors,like stimulative and administrative policies,have relatively little influence on the scientific activities and psychology of university teachers.It is the personality and self-expectations of the teachers,including academic degree,age of teachership,professional title,tutorship,subjects,etc.,that have decisive impact on the number of projects,achievements,patents,and publications.The research outcomes,in return,enhanced the personal development of the teachers.Through the survey,a clear understanding was revealed on the teachers' behaviours and psychology.It also offers good materials,reference and instructions to formulate policies,to mobilize personnel,to improve the activities of scientific research and to create a positive scientific atmosphere.