Faculty Members' Views on Academic Activities

Abstract

Problem Statement: Providing an integrated viewpoint to academic activities related to instruction, research, community service, and administration and determining academicians' views on these academic activities will contribute to the development and improvement of the profession of academicians. Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study is to examine academicians' views on academic activities in terms of various variables. Method: The study was conducted with the use of singular and relational survey methods, and the study group included 124 faculty members teaching at a university in Eskisehir in the academic year 2008-2009. The research data were collected via a 38-item "Questionnaire for Determining Views on Academic Activities" developed by the researchers. Findings and Results: As a result of the analysis of. the data obtained regarding faculty members' views on academic activities, it was revealed that faculty members had mostly positive views about research activities and about instruction, community service, and administrative duties, respectively. In this study, faculty members' views on academic activities were examined with respect to independent variables such as gender, faculty, teaching experience, the number of national and international articles published, and weekly course-hours. The views were found to differ only with respect, to the number of the articles published and faculties. Conclusions and Recommendations: When the results obtained within the scope of the present study are taken into general consideration, it is possible to say that academicians are inclined to research and that they consider research and instruction as academic activities that complement each other. In this context, quantitative or qualitative studies conducted with faculty members and instructors from different regions in Turkey will provide different classifications of academic activities and contribute to the related literature.