Abstract

This study explored the correlation between perceived contextual factors (leadership, collegiality, resources, professional development, autonomy, and respect) and departmental climate for teaching quality improvement in STEM settings across institutional types and faculty's institutional roles. Institutional types include associate's colleges, doctoral-granting universities, master's colleges and universities, and baccalaureate colleges. Faculty's institutional roles included full professor, associate professor, assistant professor, lecturer, and instructor. Gappa et al.'s (2007) framework regarding faculty work was used to explain the explored correlation. Two hundred and seventy-eight faculty members in STEM settings across institutional types participated in the web survey. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was utilized to analyze the collected data and test the research hypotheses. The results indicate there were perceived contextual factors positively correlated with departmental climate, for teaching improvement across institutional types except between collegiality and associate's colleges. Moreover, the results revealed that although these factors are positively correlated with departmental climate for teaching improvement among faculty, regardless of their ranks, lecturers are not supported with resources, and instructors are not supported with autonomy. Further, the findings indicate that faculty in STEM are generally satisfied with and supported by their departmental climate. Research implications support the idea that for improved teaching in STEM, policy makers and stakeholders need to focus on providing support, resources, and increased autonomy for lecturers and instructors.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2020

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Hartshorne, Richard

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

School of Teacher Education

Degree Program

Education; Instructional Design and Technology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008231; DP0023585

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0023585

Language

English

Release Date

August 2020

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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