Committee Studies Role of Incentives In Teaching Here

An informal faculty committee, the Teaching Incentives Study Group, has been studying the relationship between teaching quality and various incentives since the fall of 1974, Thomas C. Schelling, Littauer Professor of Political Economy and the group's organizer, said yesterday.

"We feel that an important part of the determinants on how well people teach are the incentives involved, whether pay, promotion, fame or fun," Schelling said. "The study group is looking at how different rewards and punishments influence the style, quantity and quality of teaching."

The group, consisting primarily of faculty members from the Economics Department and various University graduate schools, is currently investigating the role of student questionnaires in enhancing interest and self-consciousness in teaching.

In order to compare the different ways department chairman receive information on the quality of teaching within their departments, the study group is also comparing feedback procedures in the Business School with those used in the Law School and various departments in the College.

"We don't know if we'll do anything dramatic," Schelling replied when asked whether the group would submit a formal report on its findings.

"We're a self-selected group of self-interested people," Schelling added. "Whether or in what way we communicate the results to others depends on the nature of the results themselves."