Dissertations on Improvement of College Teaching – 1960

Abstract

A listing of 121 doctoral dissertations in one year concerned with improvement of college teaching is further evidence of sincere nationwide interest in the responsibilities of the professor as teacher. Dr. Eells (A.B., Whitman College; Sc.D., A.M., Chicago; Ph.D., Stanford) has a long and distinguished record in higher education as professor, researcher, author, journal editor, and bibliographer. By WALTER CROSBY EELLSURING THE YEAR 1%0, at least 21 doctoral D dissertations were accepted in American colleges and universities dealing with the improvement of college teaching and college teachers. This is a marked increase in the number of such research studies of earlier years which averaged only 15 per year for the period of 12 years from 1945 to 1956 as compiled by the writer.* This is by no means the total number of doctoral dissertations dealing with higher education in 1960. Many others were concerned with the history, organization, and administration of colleges and universities; with studies of student characteristics and progress ; and with other significant aspects of the total field of higher education. The selection reported below was limited to dissertations which deal rather specifically with the improvement of college teaching, the field particularly represented by the title of this journal, including the training, selection, and conditions of service of the faculty members who do the teaching.Following is a list of these dissertations, with names of authors, titles of dissertations, and names of institutions at which they were written. Where information was available, the degree awarded, pagination, and place of publication, if any, of substantial abstracts is also given. Abstracts have been published for more than three quarters of the group. For most of these (all that have been published in Dissertation Abstracts) Walter Croshy Eells, College Teachers and College Teaching. Atlanta, Georgia: Southern Regional Education Board. 1957. xiii + 232 pp.copies of the entire dissertation on microfilm or by the Xerox process are available at moderate cost. For the others, copies presumably may be secured by interlibrary loan. Unfortunately the abstracts of many of the dissertations are delayed considerably in publication. For example the abstract of one in the following list was not published in Dissertation Abstracts until June 1962, and possibly others will appear at even later dates.Of the total number of dissertations listed below, 54 were for the Ph.D. degree, 41 were for the Ed.D. degree, and one each were for the degrees of D.B.A. (Doctor of Business Administration), D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts), and H.S.D. (Doctor of Health Sciences). For 23 dissertations, information on degrees was not available.The 121 dissertations listed below were written at 46 different American universities and colleges. The largest number are found at Indiana University, 12 in number, with Columbia University and New York University tieing for second place with 11 each. Other institutions follow in order : 2 ; 26 other ...