The University requirements can be found in the ACU Faculty Handbook (accessed 07/16/2014) and are listed below along with the additional departmental requirements. Links have been added that provide evidence of this of meeting the criteria. Many of the links will go to the same pages.
University Requirements
General Criteria
2. SCHOLARSHIP, CREATIVITY, AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS
For a university community, scholarship is important. Abilene Christian University expects that each faculty member will provide evidence (i.e., product) of his or her professional competence through scholarship and/or other creative activities appropriate to the discipline. The number and type of products may vary by discipline. Applicants should justify the number and type in their promotion materials.
Examples include, but are not limited to, the following items:
- Writing/obtaining grants
- Papers presented at conferences
- Pedagogical research
- Workshops and presentations
- Juried competitions
- Exhibitions or performances
- Peer reviewed articles
- Publications
- Scholarly and/or professional awards
Specific Criteria for Promotion to Professor
- The faculty member demonstrates sustained professional growth in scholarship, creativity, or their equivalent. Scholarly/creative activities by the faculty member should be evidenced by items such as those listed under the general criteria for scholarship, creativity, and their equivalents. The work must have influence beyond the ACU campus.
Departmental Expansion on the Criteria for Tenure and Promotion
SCHOLARSHIP, CREATIVITY AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS (IN ADDITION TO THE CRITERIA AND EXAMPLES PROVIDED IN THE “GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES,” THE DEPARTMENT ADDS THE FOLLOWING)
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry recognizes four types of scholarship.
a. Scholarship of Discovery. The scholarship of discovery takes the form of primary empirical research, historical research, theory development and testing, methodological studies, and philosophical inquiry and analysis.[1] The principal focus of research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is the training of undergraduate students in the methods and thought processes of scientific discovery. While the student is responsible for the performance of the research, close collaboration and assistance from the faculty member is essential. The final disposition of discovery research is the appropriate dissemination of results to the scientific community. This includes the presentation of results at scientific meetings as well as the collection of results into manuscripts that are published in peer-reviewed journals suitable to the subject area.
b. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Scholarship can also be expressed in a program of pedagogical research. However, research in teaching is not to be confused with excellence in teaching. Pedagogical research is focused at developing and improving teaching methodologies. The development of new teaching materials (curriculum, course design, etc.) is a legitimate activity but falls under effective teaching, not pedagogical research. Examples of pedagogical research might include, but are not limited to (1) comparison of content retention by students in lecture versus active-learning formats, (2) study of the impact of technology-based learning on student performance and (3) study of the effect of regular writing assignments on comprehension of material. In general, pedagogical research should involve experimental design, data acquisition, analysis of results, and dissemination of results by publication, presentation to peers, or both.
c. Scholarship of Application. The scholarship of application is “the responsible and rigorous application of knowledge to problems of consequence.”[2] The scholarship of application must, in turn, not be confused with the service role of faculty. This scholarly enterprise is devoted specifically to investigating how existing knowledge in one’s field can be responsibly applied to new problems. Scholarship of application is directed both to the immediate setting of the issues addressed and, through the scholarly product that results, to one’s peers as an instructive example.[3] The scholarship of application must be tied directly to one’s field of knowledge and relate to and flow directly out of creative professional activity. Worthwhile citizenship and service activities that are unrelated to the discipline do not constitute the scholarship of application.[4]
d. Scholarship of Integration. The scholarship of integration associates research with reality and clarifies the meaning of results. The scholarship of integration emphasizes the interconnection of ideas, and brings new insight to bear on original concepts and research. Critical analysis and interpretation are two common methodologies, but interdisciplinary work may take place through any medium for scholarship such as those described as discovery, teaching, or application.[5] The scholarship of integration makes connections across disciplines and shapes a more coherent and integrated use of knowledge. Integration work is creative connectedness, interpretation and synthesis, so is closely related to discovery, but poses somewhat different questions in terms of meaning and impact. This form of scholarship interprets meaning to isolated facts and creates new perspectives that can answer questions not originally possible to answer. Chemical and biochemical scholars engaged in integration require innovative thinking to be able to integrate knowledge from different disciplines and create new and different perspectives on significant ideas and theories. Such scholars ask questions that require critical analysis and interpretation such as questioning what the research findings mean and whether it is possible to interpret what has been discovered in ways that provide a larger, more comprehensive understanding.[6]
e. Examples of evidence of excellence in the above forms of scholarship in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry must include peer-reviewed publications. Other examples could include, but are not limited to:
- submitting grant proposals/obtaining grants
- presenting papers, especially with undergraduates as co-authors
- conducting workshops in chemistry, biochemistry, or a closely related field
- receiving of scholarly and/or professional awards
- collaborating with students in their research.
| Previous Page Scholarship |