All programs in a midwestern university recently embarked on a path to help increase the scholarly productivity of faculty. The effort to develop a research emphasis within the School of Education required determining the needs of tenure-track faculty regarding meeting the new requirements. The purposes of our study were to investigate Innov High Educ (these needs and identify the individual, environmental, and leadership factors that affect faculty productivity. Findings revealed a need to transform the School's service and teaching culture to a culture of research and scholarship. Recommendations for helping other schools of education to become more research-oriented are provided. While the study focuses on data from a particular School of Education, the implications may generalize to faculty productivity within other institutions, particularly within professional schools.Key words research productivity . promotion and tenure . school of education Schools of education today are confronted by many challenges. One is the growing pressure for tenure-track faculty to increase their productivity in research and scholarship. Gleaned from a study in one school of education, in this article we identify the barriers that have emerged along with this demand, as well as factors that may improve faculty productivity. Initially we discuss research related to schools of education, and then we summarize a broader focus of university faculty. After a review of the literature, we present the findings of a survey study at a midwestern public Doctoral/Research University. Finally, we offer recommendations for meeting productivity challenges at schools of education in the United States, which may be of particular interest to those in professional schools. Faculty Productivity and Supports School of Education Challenges and SolutionsFaculty research productivity is typically defined by the number of publications in academic refereed journals and scholarly books (Denton et al. 1986;Wilson 2001). Sometimes the number of presentations at professional meetings is also included as are grant applications, awards, and dollar amounts of grants. Denton et al. (1986) examined the national institutional productivity ratings for institutions with teacher education programs and found disappointing results. There were more teacher education programs not publishing research findings than there were productive programs with published research.Levine (2007) conducted a survey of 5,469 faculty members in the USA on the problems faced by schools of education, with a 40% response rate. He also developed 28 case studies of specific schools of education. He found not only little agreement about appropriate methodology in educational research but also that some faculty lacked the necessary skills to carry out the research. Heavy teaching loads (defined as 10 hours) led to less time for research. Another problem for faculty members was the high number of advisees working on dissertations. Faculty members who did well at dissertation advising were penalize...

The relationship among role ambiguity and role conflict on the three burnout factors of depersonalization, personal accomplishment and emotional exhaustion were evaluated in this study. These factors were measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory and a Role Questionnaire. Three hundred and seven rural special educators completed the instruments. Role conflict was found to have a significant predictive value in determining whether the rural teacher scored high in both burnout depersonalization and emotional exhaustion frequency. Role ambiguity had a significant predictive value in influencing in a negative manner the teacher's feelings of personal accomplishment. Specific recommendations to alleviate some of the problems of role ambiguity and role conflict in the rural setting are included.

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Do you remember the first time you stood in front of your peers to give a speech? You wondered if that first word would somehow emerge from your lips and prayed that your knees would not buckle. Remembering these feelings will help one understand the importance of helping a student with learning handicaps and lack of selfconfidence in language skills meet the challenge of his first speech.When she recalled the value of speech experience as preparation for adult life, a parent suggested that her child participate in the regular seventh-grade speech program.To begin implementation of this idea, the regular education teacher spent about 10 minutes with two students who decided to participate, explaining how to start and how to choose a topic. Next, a peer tutor, who had given many speeches in English class, answered questions and gave suggestions. Notes from these sources were reduced to a three by five index card containing no more than 50 words.The general type of speech was a "How does it work?" topic. Each student chose an object or process and explained how it operated. For example, one student chose the tanning of a deer hide while another chose the drying process of corn and/or grain. Both worked on a logical progression-what happened first, second, and so on to a conclusion. Time allowed for the speech was three minutes. Cue cards were used beginning with 3, 2, and finally 1 to indicate how much time was left.