Faculty development from the point of view of research asisstants: The case of education faculties in Turkey

The aim of this study is to determine the point of views of research assistants ofEducation Faculty on faculty development according to needs, importance ranks andproposals, and to improve proposals that are suitable for researchers to apply in facultydevelopment fields.This study has been improved by using singular and correlational models. 1095 researchassistants who work in 54 Education Faculties of 44 state universities of Turkey haveformed the population of the study. The study is limited with the data which have beentaken from the 2003-2004 statistics of the Committee of Higher Education.The data which are necessary for reaching the goal determined in the study have beencollected by means of the survey headed as ?The Survey for Identifying the Point ofViews of Research Assistants on Faculty Development?.At the end of the study, it has been determined that the Research Assistants inEducation Faculties in Turkey are highly in need of faculty development in view of;professional development, institutional development, instructional development andpersonal development respectively. It has been found out that there is a significantcorrelation between the faculty development rates of the Research Assistants of theEducation Faculty and their attendance to scientific meetings in their native country; onthe other hand, it has been found out that there is not a significant correlation betweenthe faculty development rates which they need and their gender, working periods,departments, and their attendance to scientific meetings and faculty developmentprograms in abroad.In study, it has been determined with the study that in view of the importance of facultydevelopment, the faculty development levels that the Research Assistants of EducationFaculty consider important are professional development, personal development,instructional development and institutional development respectively. It has beendetermined that there is partly a significant correlation between the faculty developmentfield levels that the Research Assistants of Education Faculty consider important andtheir attendance to scientific meetings in abroad; on the other hand, it has beendetermined that there is no correlation between the faculty development levels that theyconsider important, and their gender, working periods, departments and their attendanceto scientific meetings and faculty development programs in their native country.Finally, it has also been determined with the study that the organization of the facultydevelopment programs that research assistant suggest, should be organized by theexperts in education period as a workshop, and as activities continuing 2-3 hours in aweek in an education center which will be established in the university for this aim.