FACULTY DEVELOPMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF AVAILABILITY AND PARTICIPATION BY DENTAL EDUCATORS

The purpose of this study was to examine the current availability of faculty development programs directed toward teaching and research in dental education; to determine the extent of participation in available faculty development programs; to examine the institutional and personal factors that inhibit the participation of dental educators in faculty development activities; to determine the factors that may potentially motivate participation in faculty development activities; and the relationship of education, rank, age, and sex to participation. Participants were 157 dental educators representing 55 of the 58 dental schools. A questionnaire was designed to obtain data relative to availability, participation, inhibiting events, motivating events of faculty development programs, and demographic data. Six questions were developed to respond to the objectives of the study. The data were analyzed by frequencies, Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney-U non-parametric tests. The results included: (1) Faculty development programs related to classroom teaching, clinical teaching and research were available to approximately 50% of the respondents. Nineteen schools reported no programs available in the areas investigated. (2) The majority of respondents had not participated in faculty development programs directed toward teaching/research in the past year. (3) The primary institutional obstacles to participation were: scheduled teaching assignments, academic committees, and insufficient financing of faculty development programs. Personal barriers do not present major obstacles to participation in faculty development. (4) Incentives for faculty development identified as important to dental educators included promotion, tenure, salary increases, along with a variety of monetary and non-monetary rewards which suggest the possibility of diverse reward systems to promote greater involvement in faculty development