Teaching was the first mission and service was the second. Boyer suggests that because evaluating research, by the publications produced, is so much easier than evaluating teaching, this gradually came to be the predominant method of evaluating faculty. Thus teaching and service performed by faculty gradually lost status. The 4-H agent reminded of Boyer's idea that all have seasons in their academic lives. There are years that are extremely productive developing and teaching new ideas and there are years when the pace is slower.
Successful scholars have fallow periods just as they have highly productive periods.
This idea was reassuring. The agents knew that some of what they already do in teaching clientele is scholarship of Development and Integration, but that more effort must be made to on communicate successes to their peers and documenting the impacts of educational programs. The county staff realized that it is the Extension faculty's challenge to demonstrate the value of these forms of scholarship to the more traditional, research-oriented faculty. Most of all, the staff renewed the inspiration they gain from being part of a team of faculty who provides the best service possible to the people of their county. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.