Lessons From 10 Exemplary Faculty. The Teaching Professor, 10:3 (March 1996), 1-2.

Imagine interviewing 10 of the best: faculty acknowledged by peers, students, professional associations, and their institutions as exemplary. Image speaking with them for up to two hours, exploring the question: What individual characteristics, sociological forces, values, and strategies do you feel have allowed you to balance and sustain your enthusiasm for research and teaching?

That’s what researcher Patricia Kalivoda of the Instructional Development Office at the University of Georgia did. And from transcriptions of the recorded interviews, she identified “ten guiding principles [that] shaped the world view and influenced the behavior” of these faculty (p.100). We highlight those principles here:

1. A Life Centered on Concerns

The academic life should focus not just on ideas (described by one faculty participant as “too thin”) but also on “value-enriched ideas” or “concerns” (p. 100). Yes, these faculty see their work with students and in research as important, but it is more than that. It matters as part of a larger framework.

In the words of another participant, “You sort of have this feeling that you’re working on something bigger than yourself. I think it’s important to view it that way, as something that might have some significance to your field and to humanity” (p. 102).

2. A Commitment to Teaching

Despite a high level of scholarly productivity characteristic of all these faculty, “respondents reported a love of teaching, an acute sense of responsibility toward students, and an obligation to disseminate new knowledge generated from research” (p.102).

3. A Sense That Teaching and Research Are Interdependent

Here respondents recounted examples of the reciprocal relationship between teaching and research. The teaching often helped with the expression of recent findings. And the research added a freshness to the teaching as new material and ideas were integrated. To some degree, the extent of the relationship was a function of specialization. Those in highly specialized fields reported difficulty incorporating research findings into introductory courses.

4. Self-Improvement as a Way of Life

Most in this cohort were “advocates for life-long learning and practiced it regularly” (p. 105). Their learning activities ran the gamut from off-campus interests to on-campus activities. Many were avid readers. Several reported having read books on teaching.

5. The Seizing of Opportunities

Some of the opportunities presented themselves as “luck”-the old “being in the right place at the right time.” But other times these faculty were instrumental in creating opportunities, sometimes through developing a new program, course, or project. In both instances, participants didn’t miss the opportunities, but worked hard to make the most of them.

6. A Long-Term View and Persistence

Some respondents noted that they did not perceive themselves as being as talented as some of their colleagues, but they reported a willingness to work harder and longer. They set goals and were not seriously set back by the rejection of an article or grant proposal.

7. The Avoidance of Politics and Gossip

Quite simply, the respondents avoided them because they felt they were detrimental to their personal well-being and to their effectiveness as faculty members.

8. Generosity of ideas

One faculty member ably summed up the principle: Some of the really well known people in science, when I’ve gotten to know them, they’ve turned out to be such wonderful people, so generous with their time and opinions…even ideas, sharing ideas-… not caring who gets the credit as long as something interesting gets done (p. 109-110).

9. Respect, Sincerity, and Caring Towards Others

The respect, sincerity and car these faculty spoke of they worked to extend to colleagues and to students, graduate and undergraduate.

10. A View of the Vocation as an Avocation

Here the view is of a co-mingling of the professional and the personal, a sense that the two are inextricably linked, inseparable, joined parts in one person.

The investigator believes that many faculty members can benefit from examining their own guiding principles – attitudes, beliefs, and values about their roles and responsibilities as faculty members – and from giving conscious attention to developing their own strategies for balancing faculty roles and for sustaining enthusiasm for their academic careers.

Reference: Patricia Kalivoda, “Exemplary Senior Faculty at Research Universities: Their Guiding Principles for Balancing Teaching and Research.” Innovative Higher Education, 20:2 (Winter 1995), 95-116.