Teaching Faculty 1 Running Head: CHARACTERISTICS OF TEACHING FACULTY Analyzing the Contextual, Motivational, and Conceptual Characteristics of Teaching Faculty in Regard to the Use of Learner Centered Approaches to Teaching

The purpose of this national survey was to explain the relationships between professors’ contextual characteristics, teaching conceptualizations and motivation, and the use of learnercentered teaching (LCT) methods in colleges of environmental, agricultural, applied, and life sciences. Three hundred and twenty-nine professors from land-grant universities (1862 & 1890) and state colleges participated in the study. Simple linear correlations were computed, and three multiple regression models were conducted to determine if teacher conceptualizations, LCT value motivation, and LCT self-efficacy were collectively related to professors’ use of teaching methods for (1) active learning, (2) inquiry learning, and (3) service learning. Eighty-five percent of professors in the study worked at research institutions, 69% of the respondents were tenured at the time of the survey. Professors had four teaching conceptualizations: developmental, apprenticeship, transmission, and nurturing. Professors were interested, motivated, and confident in their ability regarding the use of teaching methods for active, inquiry, and service learning, yet they used lectures 77% of the time. Professors used teaching methods and approaches for inquiry learning about one-half of the time, active learning about one-third of the time, and service learning about 15% of the time in their courses. The three models were significant. The teaching methods used for learner-centered teaching were related to a teacher’s task value motivation, teaching self-efficacy, and conceptualization of teaching. The results suggest that the teaching methods used by professors are informed by their teaching conceptualizations.