CS and Biology Departments - Faculty Expectations

Faculty Expectations of Students

Faculty held expectations of ideal student behaviors. These expectations concerned the amount of time students devoted to assignments; student interest in the subject matter; student focus on the discipline; and student initiative.

Data measuring these faculty expectations were collected by the survey. The following descriptions quote the relevant survey questions.

Homework

In most departments, faculty expected their students to devote up to 9 hours per week on homework assignments for one class. Faculty indicated their homework expectations in response to the following question. "How many hour per week did you expect it would take the average student in this [introductory or intermediate level] course to complete course assignments?"
Tables for CS and Biology/Life Sciences are presented below. They report the percentage of a departments' faculty that expected students to devote 10 or more hours per week on homework assignments.

Interest

Faculty expressed agreement or disagreement with the statement: "Good students had more than an academic interest in the course material." Responses were on a 5-point scale where 1 indicated strong disagreement and 5 indicated strong agreement.
Mean departmental responses to the statement about student interest are listed in the table below for CS and Biology/Life Sciences.

Focus

Faculty expectations of student's focus on the discipline was measured with the statement: "Students involved in activities unrelated to their field are less likely to succeed academically." Responses were on a 5-point scale where 1 indicated strong disagreement and 5 indicated strong agreement.
Tables listing the mean responses for CS and Biology/Life Sciences are presented below.

Initiative

Faculty expectations of student initiative were measured with two survey items. The first item directly asked faculty to agree or disagree with a statement concerning their expectations about initiative. "Students had to exhibit initiative to earn an A grade." The second item was also an agree/disagree statement, but initiative was not explicitly mentioned. "I expected students to gain competence with new supporting technologies outside of class." Responses were on a 5-point scale where 1 indicated strong disagreement and 5 indicated strong agreement.
Tables listing the mean responses for CS and Biology/Life Sciences are presented below.

Faculty Expectations of CS Students:

Percent of Faculty Expecting 10 + Hours of Homework
CS Departments	% of Faculty
1.2	0.00
2.2	0.00
3.2	26.11
4.2	0.00
5.2	.
6.2	0.00
7.2	26.61
8.2	20.00
10.2	25.00
11.2	0.00
12.2	0.00
13.2	0.00
14.2	0.00
15.2	0.00
16.2	50.00
17.2	60.00
18.2	50.00
19.2	0.00
20.2	0.00
21.2	0.00
22.2	25.00
24.2	15.55
25.2	0.00
mean	13.56

Interest, Focus, and Initiative Faculty Expect of Students
1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree
CS Departments	interest	focus	initiative1	initiative2
1.2	3.75	1.25	3.00	3.25
2.2	4.00	2.00	3.67	4.33
3.2	3.22	1.78	3.96	3.26
4.2	4.00	2.67	4.00	4.00
5.2	.	.	.	.
6.2	4.33	2.67	4.33	4.33
7.2	4.60	2.82	4.37	4.55
8.2	4.60	1.80	4.80	3.40
10.2	4.00	2.50	3.75	3.38
11.2	5.00	1.00	4.00	4.00
12.2	.	1.00	4.00	3.00
13.2	4.00	2.50	5.00	3.50
14.2	5.00	2.00	3.00	3.00
15.2	4.33	2.33	4.67	4.00
16.2	3.00	2.20	2.75	4.25
17.2	3.80	2.00	3.00	2.60
18.2	3.50	2.50	4.50	1.50
19.2	4.50	2.00	4.50	3.00
20.2	.	1.50	2.50	3.00
21.2	3.00	2.31	2.50	.
22.2	4.75	1.25	2.75	3.67
24.2	4.22	2.94	4.22	4.31
25.2	4.00	1.00	4.00	2.00
mean	4.08	2.00	3.79	3.44

Faculty Expectations of Biology/Life Sciences Students:

Percent of Faculty Expecting 10+ Hours of Homework
Biology/Life Sciences Departments	% of Faculty
1.1	0.00
2.1	20.00
3.1	37.31
4.1	100.00
5.1	100.00
6.1	11.11
7.1	17.53
8.1	53.92
10.1	42.86
11.1	25.00
12.1	.
13.1	0.00
14.1	0.00
15.1	25.00
16.1	35.51
17.1	0.00
18.1	0.00
19.1	0.00
20.1	33.33
21.1	41.84
22.1	22.22
24.1	74.35
25.1	40.00
mean	30.91

Interest, Focus, and Initiative Faculty Expect of Students
1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree
Biology/Life Sciences Departments	interest	focus	initiative1	initiative2
1.1	4.33	2.67	3.00	3.33
2.1	4.20	2.00	4.40	4.25
3.1	3.21	2.39	3.58	2.33
4.1	4.33	2.33	4.67	3.67
5.1	5.00	1.00	5.00	3.00
6.1	4.11	2.67	4.00	3.50
7.1	4.35	2.25	4.03	2.61
8.1	4.37	2.00	3.38	3.16
10.1	3.86	2.75	4.29	4.20
11.1	4.50	2.50	4.50	2.67
12.1	.	1.00	.	.
13.1	3.56	2.40	2.22	3.00
14.1	4.00	3.00	4.00	4.00
15.1	4.75	2.75	4.50	4.00
16.1	4.18	2.61	4.82	3.29
17.1	4.37	2.76	4.48	3.67
18.1	3.67	2.50	4.75	3.25
19.1	4.00	2.50	3.50	2.67
20.1	4.25	2.20	4.40	3.80
21.1	5.00	2.00	3.00	3.33
22.1	3.89	2.20	4.11	3.22
24.1	4.92	2.42	4.68	2.13
25.1	4.40	2.17	4.00	3.00
mean	4.24	2.31	4.06	3.28

Faculty Expectations of Students

Faculty Expectations of CS Students:

Percent of Faculty Expecting 10 + Hours of Homework

CS Departments

% of Faculty

Interest, Focus, and Initiative Faculty Expect of Students

CS Departments

interest

focus

initiative1

initiative2