FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN TEXAS COMMUNITY COLLEGES

This study surveyed Texas community colleges to assess the extent of faculty development programs and the means, the purpose, and degree to which they were evaluated. Ninety percent of the 62 community colleges responded to the Fall 1985 survey with 93% of the respondents indicating that they had organized faculty development programs. The data gathered revealed that most programs were group oriented, perceived as effective, and offered at higher rates than previous studies have indicated. However, the methods used to determine effectiveness were, on the whole, not measures of changes in teacher or student behavior. In addition, there is little evidence that the programs are being used as a major instrument for institutional change and improvement that is linked to the accomplishment of college goals and the establishment of accountability. It is suggested that faculty development programs can improve by being more diligent in the pursuit of opportunities to effectively evaluate outcomes and by focusing on more individual than group activities.     

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLICLY SUPPORTED 2-YEAR COLLEGES

A comprehensive study of faculty development in community colleges was undertaken to identify the organizational components that nurture good teaching. A review of the literature revealed several variables for assessing the state of faculty development. The most important of these appears to be an institutional climate that encourages faculty development. This article reports the results of a survey of 130 community colleges regarding faculty development efforts. It also profiles those accountable for faculty development and summarizes the extent to which each development activity is available to faculty members. One significant finding is that faculty development in American community colleges lacks leadership and is not well connected to the colleges missions.     

THE STATUS OF FACULTY SENATES IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Shared governance plays an important role in institutional decision making. The extent to which faculty are involved in governance, though, has largely been ignored within community colleges. The current study was designed to profile faculty governance units, such as senates, in community, junior, and technical colleges in order to initiate a constructive dialogue about how best to build structures that allow faculty input into decision making. An exploratory survey of faculty governance in community colleges was mailed to a apurposive national sample of community colleges to provide geographic representation. Findings reveal that governance bodies are less common that perhaps previously thought, and that these structures tend to be more informal than in their 4-year college counterparts.     

WITHIN-YEAR PERSISTENCE OF STUDENTS AT TWO-YEAR COLLEGES

Two previous studies have used the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey ( NPSAS ) to examine the persistence of two-year college students. We used NPSAS:96 and found that tuition had a small negative effect on within-year persistence. Debtload was significant and negatively associated with persistence at low and middle levels of debt, but significant and positively associated with persistence at high levels of debt. We explored the implications of these findings and compared our research to the previous studies. This study used NPSAS:96 to research the persistence of two-year college students. We found that, while background and college experience variables influenced persistence, students were 0.18% less likely to persist for each $100increase intuition, more likely to persist if they received subsidies, and 15.96% more likely to persist for every $1,000 in student loan debt outstanding.     

JOB SATISFACTION AND COMMITMENT OF TWO-YEAR COLLEGE PART-TIME FACULTY

One of the more significant trends in higher education has been the recent increase in dependence on part-time faculty members. Community colleges, more than any other sector of higher education, have been affected by this trend. However, few scholars and policy makers have made systematic studies to identify whether these individuals are satisfied with their roles, responsibilities, and rewards. The purpose of this investigation was to use nationally representative data to comprehensively study the job satisfaction and commitment of two-year college part-time faculty members. In doing so, this study provided richer definitions of job satisfaction and commitment that for practical and theoretical purposes better capture the multidimensionality of the psychological constructs of job satisfaction and commitment.     

FROM PERSUASION TO ACCOMMODATION IN PUBLIC TWO-YEAR COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT

This was the first of a series of papers presented February 20, 2001 at a national conference sponsored by North Texas State University held in the Omni Hotel Dallas, TX. The author relates the 1950 status of two-year college development, numbers and locations of university professors specializing in the field, and the need to persuade citizens they should have a public two-year college in their midst. Events are traced which led up to the overwhelming demand by the public in the late 1960s and early 1970s to have their own two-year college. This condition precipitated the untiring work of university faculty specialized in this field to accommodate the need for assistance at both the state level planning and for local college establishment. The citizens participatory comprehensive study involvement developed initially as a way of overcoming resistance and persuading citizens they needed a college is a viable approach today for periodically evaluating and future planning to meet changing societal manpower needs. The author urges continued use of action research tools to accommodate evolving local area educational needs.     

THE IMPACT OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ON FACULTY COMPENSATION IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

This study examines the impact of collective bargaining on faculty compensation at two‐year colleges over the period 1970‐81. The results show that faculty at unionized community colleges have not experienced significantly greater increases in compensation than their nonunionized brethren. In fact, the nonunion institutions actually experienced higher relative gains in compensation for the first three years after the unionized colleges first engaged in collective bargaining.     

DROPOUT AND STOPOUT PATTERNS AMONG DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION STUDENTS IN TEXAS COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The dropout/stopout patterns of community college students were examined in the research reported here. About two thirds of the 51,903 students in the study were enrolled in developmental education courses. Success in college was defined as a passing grade point average after five semesters of coursework. Student success was found to be associated with enrollment patterns, initial skill deficiencies, and age. Community college students who enrolled for consecutive semesters outperformed students with other types of enrollment patterns.     

ACADEMIC STANDARDS IN THE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES: A STUDY OF FACULTY PERCEPTIONS

This study assessed the opinions of faculty concerning academic standards in the classroom. It compared the responses of faculty with experience in the academic senates in 23 community colleges with faculty who had no senate experience. Differences of opinion also were examined based on the demographic variables of gender, age, ethnicity, level of education, years of teaching experience, and subject area taught. While faculty generally agreed with the importance of academic standards and with important considerations for establishing academic standards in the classroom, there were significant differences based on senate membership, gender, ethnicity, age, and subject area taught. Gender and ethnicity displayed the greatest number of differences. Campus‐wide discussions of academic standards, regional subject matter articulation conferences with nearby universities, and explicitly stated goals and objectives in all course syllabi were implications for practice emanating from this study.     

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES IN THE ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM

In a time of declining resources and restricted faculty mobility, faculty mobility, faculty development has become increasingly important. This study addressed faculty development activities, their evaluation, and their perceived impact on the improvement of instruction in the community colleges of Illinois. Data gathered through the use of a questionnaire mailed to the chief academic officer of each of the state's community colleges were analyzed and interpreted. It was found that a wide variety of activities — orientation, inservice, professional, individual, and group — are available to faculty members. Orientation activities were viewed as being moderately useful for the improvement of instruction. Respondents saw professional activities as somewhat more useful than inservice activities. With some qualifications, group activities were perceived as being more useful than individual activities. Evaluation efforts, for the most part, are as yet sporadic and unsophisticated.

The results of this study suggest that perhaps the traditional inservice‐type activities may not be the “one best way” to deliver quality faculty development aimed at the improvement of instruction. Faculty‐development planners may want to examine more closely the needs of their faculty in relation to the activities available. In addition to continuing the most useful of the group and inservice activities, attention should be directed toward those individual and professional activities not frequently offered but rated as highly effective in improving instruction.     

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN GERIATRIC EDUCATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR FACULTY

The demographic imperative for geriatric training and care is well documented and comes as no surprise to health care professionals working in the field (see National Institutes of Health, 1987). The dramatic increase in the numbers of elderly, particularly those age 75 and older, suggests that geriatric health care will grow in importance throughout the next decade. This article briefly examines strategies for geriatric education that may have relevance for attempts to formalize and institutionalize geriatric content in academic institutions, and suggests strategies for implementation.

The domains of geriatrics and gerontology have continued to overlap as models of training and health care delivery have evolved. Distinctions between these two perspectives remain important, particularly as they pertain to the emphasis on training related to normal versus pathological aging. For purposes of simplicity, the term geriatric is used in a broad context that includes gerontological education as well. The reality of our educational experiences suggests that a balance between normal and pathological aging content in our curriculum is one of the first crucial variables that needs to be addressed.     

WOMEN FULL-TIME FACULTY OF COLOR IN 2-YEAR COLLEGES: A TREND AND PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS

This study involved trend and predictive analyses to examine changes in the proportional representation of women full-time faculty by race/ethnicity from 1991 to 1997 in a sample of 1,024 matched two-year colleges. Large, Hispanic-serving, Historically Black, and California two-year colleges, along with the percentage of women administrators of color entered as significant positive predictors of change in the proportional representation of women full-time faculty of color. These findings open the door, not only to new ways of informing policy development and practice, but also to future research that can uncover new understandings of gender and race-equitable practices in two-year colleges.     

THE CRITICAL ROLE OF TWO-YEAR COLLEGES IN THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS OF MATHEMATICS: SOME STRATEGIES THAT WORK

Providing high-quality mathematics instruction in the classrooms of the future is essential to the development of educated citizens and a competent workforce. W hile this need is growing, the United States is facing a critical teacher shortage. An estimated two million teachers are needed, and this situation will only worsen in the next decade. An increasing number of prospective teachers begin their college experience at two-year colleges, and many future elementary and middle school teachers take all of their college-level mathematics and science coursework at these institutions. Two-year colleges must be integrally involved in teacher recruitment and preparation. The National Science Foundation report Investing in Tomorrow's Teachers recommends two-year college involvement in teacher preparation, including recruitment of prospective teachers; strengthened undergraduate courses; preteaching experiences; liaisons between two-year colleges and four-year institutions; and connections with business, industry, and professional societies. The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) has several strong teacher preparation activities and related guidelines. One successful model for two-year college involvement is the National Science Foundation-funded collaboration between Reynolds Community College and other two-year and four-year institutions in the area that has produced new and redesigned courses and a Teaching Apprentice Program. An emphasis on preparing prospective teachers to take licensure testing in mathematics is addressed through another program. A statewide initiative of the Virginia Community College System has produced a set of policy recommendations developed via a statewide task force and colloquium.     

高校语言实验室的发展与建设若干问题探讨

通过分析语言实验室的发展历史与趋势,以服务大学英语教学为中心,联系本校语言实验室建设,提出高校语言实验室建设中应注意的问题.     

高校教师课程设计能力之研究

为了给社会提供更多、更好的高等教育 ,高校教师需要成为成功的课程设计者。本文从讨论当前高校教学的状况入手 ,分析了课程设计的要素体系 ,评述了三种不同类型的课程设计模式 :经典的Dick模式、针对网络教学的Kuan模式及易于为大学教师使用的Fink整合模式     

STAFF DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND PRACTICES IN U.S. COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The staff development goals and activities of United States community colleges were studied. A total of 1,315 questionnaires were mailed to community college academic deans in the spring of 1979. Of the 687 colleges responding, 413 indicated that their college had an organized staff development program or set of activities, and another 241 colleges indicated no such program at this time.

The results showed that the most frequently mentioned staff development goals of the 31 goals studied related to the improvement of the full‐time teaching faculty as opposed to part‐time faculty and other academic and non‐academic support personnel. Second, the most highly rated and used practices were travel and grants programs for faculty. Some of the least effective of 48 practices investigated were programs for the “faculty evaluation of college administrators” and “lighter than normal teaching loads for first‐year faculty.”

It is recommended that colleges offer a variety of staff development programs for each of their staff development groups and that research be conducted to determine participant perceptions of the usefulness of various staff development practices.     

技能大赛研究与职业院校教师专业发展

技能大赛研究既是职业院校教师学科知识发展的重要途径之一,也是教师专业能力提升的重要途径。职业院校应充分利用技能大赛资源,加强研究,促进教师专业知识发展。