Exploring Teaching Behaviors of Faculty by Context: An Analysis of Organizational Climate

Most faculty have knowledge of evidence-based instructional practices and access to the resources to carry them out. Despite this, efforts to transform postsecondary instruction have had only modest success (e.g. AAAS, 2012). The underlying reasons for modest employment of evidence-based practices may be related to institutional environments and structures (Beach, Henderson, & Finkelstein, 2012; Henderson, Beach, & Finkelstein, 2011). The purpose of this project was to examine how attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control (e.g. perceived barriers) intersect with faculty teaching practices. Our overarching research question is – How do policy and actions of other in the academic workplace (organizational climate) intersect with individual teaching practices? How do teaching-climate profiles differ by institution and demographic groups of interest? We gathered survey data from 549 instructors from 6 different institutions of higher education in the United States. We used 2 valid and reliable surveys of teaching practice and organizational climate for instructional improvement: Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey (PIPS; Walter et al., 2016) and Survey of Climate for Instructional Improvement (SCII; Walter et al., 2017). We conducted k-means cluster analysis to find patterns in faculty teaching practices and their perceptions of organizational climate. This process revealed 10 potential cluster 'profiles' membership for each faculty member in the study. In this poster, we explore features of 10 unique profiles, including patterns among demographic groups of interest. We also unpack implications for understanding the nature of institutional change and consider goals for future, and ideally collaborative, work in this area.