The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the phenomena of effective teaching for award winning faculty instructors at the University of Missouri. Nine university faculty members were selected to participate in this study based on their recognition as award winning instructors and by nomination from their respective college's academic dean. Each participant took part in a semistructured interview with a member of the research team. After analysis, several themes were identified and fell into two broad categories dealing first with the act of effective teaching and second, the act of becoming and evolving as an effective teacher. One sub-theme was the need to focus on students. While all acknowledged the importance of course content, they noted that if the focus is not on the student, content is of little consequence. Additionally, sub-themes indicated that effective teaching required dialogue, was relevant and led to critical thinking and progression which caused students to think about content in a new way. Further, themes describing teaching as scholarship and teaching and learning being a process of growth emerged. These themes provide valuable insight into how award winning faculty instructors think about their teaching.

Supporters of concurrent enrollment programs tout its many benefits to students, parents, and involved institutions; however, findings from related studies vary widely. As more and more students enter college having earned a substantial number of college credits while concurrently completing their secondary education, it is essential to determine the value of such experiences. The purpose of this study was to explore the suggested value of prior college credits in relationship to student performance, retention and degree completion in college. The population for this study consisted of entering freshmen (1998 and 2003) in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri. Findings revealed that students who began college with prior credit experienced greater academic performance during their first year of college than students who entered with no prior credit. There was a relationship between number of prior college credits and both academic retention, and degree completion. Finally, prior college credit, when controlling for high school core grade point average and ACT score, accounted for only a small amount of unique variance in academic performance. These findings express trends between the 1998 and 2003 cohort groups investigated.

The purpose of this study was to determine faculty members’ knowledge and perceptions of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) at the University of Florida. Faculty with appointments in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Emerging Pathogens, Genetics, and Water multidisciplinary institutes served as the population for this study. The objectives of the study were to describe characteristics of faculty in regard to teaching, determine knowledge of the definition of the SoTL, describe faculty involvement in the SoTL, and determine faculty members’ perceptions about the value of and attitudes toward the SoTL. Nearly one–third of respondents were not familiar with the SoTL. More than 80% indicated that they had never, on their own or through collaboration, completed research about the SoTL. Almost 60% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that SoTL is a valid form of scholarship, yet less than one–third of respondents felt that conducting research in the SoTL would be useful to their tenure and promotion dossier. In general, most faculty were neutral or positive in regards to the SoTL with almost two–thirds indicating they would like to learn more about the topic.

Respondents participated in 0.92 hours of teaching professional development at the departmental level, 4.49 hours at the college level, and 4.70 hours at the university level. An average of 5.15 hours each week was devoted to improving their teaching and 1.07 hours discussing teaching with colleagues. It was determined that 19% of the variance in how actively faculty seek out teaching professional development can be explained by teaching appointment percentage and sex. Further, 6% of the variance in the number of hours of teaching professional development can be explained by teaching appointment percentage. Finally, 19% of the variance in the number of hours of teaching professional development can be explained by research appointment percentage. Faculty agree that professional development in the areas of evaluation, teaching methods, advising and working with diverse learners, and developing the teaching portion of the promotion and tenure dossier would be helpful to their growth as a teacher. It was concluded that respondents were most confident in their ability to perform tasks related the actual act of teaching (i.e., developing learning objectives, using a variety of teaching approaches, developing effective lectures, etc.).