Teaching Effectiveness and Government Awards

Abstract

Three bodies of available data at Tufts University were used in determining whether there are meaningful relationships between teaching effectiveness, publication, and the receipt of government support. A search of the literature showed that virtually all comments in the popular literature and most references in professional journals suggest that publication and receipt of support for research somehow detract from teaching performance in the classroom. The empirical data of the Tufts study do not support these previous conclusions. The students rated as their best instructors those faculty members who had published articles and who had received or were receiving government support for research.