EXTENDED ORIENTATION COURSES AT TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES

This national study of extended orientation courses indicates that they are used as frequently at 2‐year colleges as at 4‐year colleges. However, substantial differences in the administrative structures and content emphases of these courses exist within institutional types. At 2‐year colleges, these differences have the potential to limit the effectiveness of extended orientation courses. For instance, 2‐year college courses have significantly larger class sizes, are shorter in duration, are less likely to be required, use less faculty training, are less varied in content, and are rarely used as an introduction to an academic discipline.     

SATISFACTION WITH CAREER PLANNING AND JOB PLACEMENT SERVICES AT TWO‐YEAR PUBLIC COLLEGES

The purpose of this study was to examine 2‐year public college students'satisfaction with career planning and job placement services offered at their college by gender and job cluster. The 2,873 students included in this study attended 212‐year public colleges in 11 states, predominantely in the Midwest. The results revealed significant differences in students'satisfaction with career planningandjob placement services. Women were more satisfied with these services than were their male counterparts. Students in the Business Operations job cluster were significantly more satisfied with career planning and job placement than were students in other job clusters. Students were significantly more satisfied with career planning services they received than with job placement services.     

IMPACTS OF 2‐YEAR AND 4‐YEAR COLLEGES ON LEARNING ORIENTATIONS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

This investigation compared the impacts of 2‐year and 4‐year colleges on learning orientations. Controlling for precollege learning orientations, academic aptitude, age, work, place of residence, and enrollment status, this study found no significant differences between 2‐ and 4‐year students in freshman‐year effects on enjoyment of diversity and intellectual challenge, learning for self‐understanding, internal locus of attribution for academic success, and preference for higher order cognitive activities. The findings are consistent with other recent evidence casting doubt on major differences in the net educational effects of 2‐ and 4‐year colleges.     

COURSE DROP PRACTICES IN TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES

Course drop practices among two‐year colleges were surveyed. Examined were deadlines by which courses were dropped, grades received when classes were dropped, who initiates drop procedures, and the extent to which policies related to the above stated practices have been recently changed. One fourth of the institutions reported a drop deadline of between four and six weeks from the end of the term. Almost that many (21.98 percent) used 10 days prior to the final exam as a deadline. More than two‐thirds of the colleges allowed students to drop prior to the deadline with a non‐punitive “W” grade. In the majority of instances, the official drop procedures may be initiated by either the student or the instructor. Community college administrators need to examine course drop policies in light of institutional statements of mission, philosophy, and objectives. Based upon dialogue among the staff, appropriate policy revisions should be developed in order to coordinate the rhetoric and the regulations of the college.     

PRINTED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS USED IN TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES

The data for this report came from nationwide surveys sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. The questionnaires dealt with the instructional materials used by full‐ and part‐time instructors on the two‐year college level. First, cross‐tabulations of highest degree of full‐ and part‐time instructors and their amount of participation in the selection of textbooks revealed five correlations. In all three categories of humanities instructors, more full‐ than part‐time faculty selected texts, p < .05. In the category of science instructors holding a master's degree or a doctorate, the same correlation occurred. Second, humanities teachers with either a bachelor's degree or a doctorate assigned significantly more reading,p < .05, than did their part‐time counterparts in three different types of instructional materials. Science teachers with doctorates were also found to assign a greater number of pages of reading than did their part‐time counterparts but in two additional types of instructional materials. Last, data analysis indicated that overall, with increased years of experience, full‐time humanities instructors assign more extensive reading than do their part‐time counterparts.     

AN UPDATE ON REVERSE TRANSFERS TO TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES

Reverse transfers, students who transfer from four‐year to two‐year colleges, now make up 20% of the two‐year college enrollment. This paper will describe reverse transfers in terms of demographics, educational goals, and academic performance. Data from thirteen two‐year colleges includes official student records on a 1984 class of newly enrolled students and a survey of this same cohort.

Reverse transfers differ significantly from two‐year natives in terms of race and other demographic characteristics. Reverse transfers were older, more likely to be married, employed full‐time, and had higher socioeconomic status indicators. Reverse transfers’ parents were more likely than native students’ to have earned a college degree.

Two‐year students who had already earned a college degree had short‐term occupational goals aimed at upgrading job skills or making themselves more employable. Those who had not yet earned a degree were most likely to aspire to the bachelors degree. Reverse transfers earned significantly higher grades than natives. Reverse transfers were less likely to be enrolled in remedial courses or to indicate a need for special help in basic skills in order to succeed at the two‐year college.     

THE FUTURE OF TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES: AN ADMINISTRATOR'S‐EYE VIEW

Individuals in eight different types of administrative positions in two‐year colleges were asked to rate the importance of a variety of external and internal issues in the next five years. The purpose of the study reported here was first to identify those internal and external issues that administrators viewed as being of high importance. A second purpose was to assess the degree of consensus among differing types of administrative positions. The third objective was to identify differences between public and independent two‐year college, between men and women, and minority and white administrators perceptions of issues identified as being most important. There was a high degree of agreement across administrative groups as to the importance of five external issues; and when asked to indicate the two most critical issues, administrators were almost unanimous in their assessment. There is less agreement on the two critical internal issues. Some differences by gender and racial/ethnic group were noted, but the differences were not as great as might have been expected.     

JOB DUTIES OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCHERS IN SOUTHERN TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES

The objective of this study was to determine the types of duties being performed by institutional researchers in Southern two‐year colleges. Research was based on a mail survey submitted to all two‐year colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Of 326 colleges surveyed, a total of 301 (92 percent) responded. Respondents completed a survey designed with the assistance of a panel of experts. This included a section posing statements about institutional research tasks in a discrepancy model, and a second section consisting of statements about the overall research function organized in a five‐part, Likert‐type scale

The survey found that less than half of Southern two‐year colleges employed an institutional researcher on a half‐time or greater basis. It also identified a number of discrepancies in the job duties now being performed by institutional researchers and the duties those individuals felt they should be performing

Among those duties which should not be performed were external reporting, program supervision, grant development, and clerical functions. Tasks identified as needing to be performed included increased research project completion, academic program evaluation, planning studies, outcomes assessment, financial analysis, and policy development     

PLANNED STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES WITH TURBULENT CONTEXTS

The relationships among context, structure, and performance of two‐year colleges are explored in this article. The rationale for the ideas proposed is that the problems generated by rapidly changing environmental forces impinge on a college's internal structure and help shape the responses made by administrators. A model is proposed and a scheme explained for administrators to make intelligent modifications in policies, forms, and decision‐making methods. An abbreviated set of instruments is provided for measuring four key dimensions of structure: specialization, formaliza‐tion, standardization, and centralization. The purpose of the model and the set of instruments is to provide practitioners with tools to apply in adapting structure to maintain high level outcomes in turbulent times.     

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: A THREE‐YEAR REVIEW (1968‐70)

There were considerable differences in the distribution of the articles amongst the age groups of the persons studied, the sizes of the samples, the methodologies of the designs, and the number contributed by individual British universities. There was evidence that editorial policy sought to correct some of these imbalances.     

REALIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS AMONG BLACKS AND WHITES IN TWO‐AND FOUR‐YEAR COLLEGES

This paper looks at an aspect of the two‐year college: that it is the logical system for achieving educational equality in higher education. The authors find that low aptitude blacks are overrepresented at four‐year colleges, that blacks are less likely than whites to meet aspirations of attending four‐year colleges, and that attending a two‐year college is related to reduced probability that four‐year education will be realized.     

CLASSROOM RESEARCH AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: THREE SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES‐INVOLVEMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY

The teaching‐learning paradigm that is experientially student‐centered was integrated into the original curriculum development of psychology at Collin County Community College. As a result of the emphasis on active learning from the department's inception, the administration and faculty have been able to observe, ask, review, and evaluate the experiential approach. Based on the data from these sources as well as national research, there appears to be a strong indication that indeed students do learn, grow, persist, and enjoy higher education more when they are actively involved in the learning process.

There are four elements that the department has employed to try to achieve student involvement: a laboratory component, extensive writing to learn, classroom research, and business/industrial linkages through internships. These four elements are inseparable in our educational process as the laboratory and internships require written reports, and the written assignments demonstrate the student's ability to communicate knowledge, understand method of inquiry, and give feedback on the learning process. Two courses, General Psychology and Life‐span Psychology are detailed in the article.

Evaluations conducted over the past three years are included which show active participation by the student in the learning process does promote synthesis and integration of theoretical knowledge as well as promoting the opportunity for students to think critically, creatively, and apply the knowledge to their own lives.     

STATE OF PART‐TIME FACULTY SERVICES AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN A NINETEEN‐STATE REGION

The use of part‐time faculty by community colleges continues to grow. A study of 283 community colleges in the Midwestern states found a number of practices being used to assist part‐time faculty to become proficient teachers. Evaluation of these faculty revealed that there was much to be desired by over 40% of the colleges. Few merit recognition programs were found to exist. Most of the colleges in the study were planning to increase support services to their part‐time faculty in the future.     

CURRICULUM DECISION MAKING AT THE TWO‐YEAR COLLEGE: THE TYPES OF DATA USED

After decades of rapid expansion, community colleges have begun to examine their internal academic processes; this study examines how curriculum is approved at one two‐year college. A previously developed classification system is utilized to examine data utilized by a college's curriculum committee in their deliberations preceding decision making. The system employs the use of three judges trained in the use of the system and also in the research technique of Content Analysis. The study classifies two groups of data—data sources and data subjects. It identifies some specific avenues in which data enter the curriculum deliberations; reveals some patterns of data usage; and develops a hierarchy of subjects, or topics, most often used in curriculum decision making at the college.     

CLASSROOM RESEARCH AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: THREE SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES‐THE IMPACT OF STUDENT WRITING IN LEARNING ACCOUNTING

As the knowledge base in all disciplines continues to grow, professors face the problem of incorporating even more essential, difficult, technical material into their already content‐filled courses. Furthermore, companies are hiring more selectively than ever, requiring not only superior technical skills but also good writing skills of the people they hire. How can faculty add more technical material plus extra writing practice into already bulging courses?

One solution may be to supplement typical homework problems with daily written journals. In using these journals, the students would think about and better understand difficult concepts that are not being fully understood through homework problems. Also, a byproduct of writing in daily journals would be extra writing practice and, presumably, better writing skills.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of research done in the Collin County Community College District in which four Principles of Accounting classes were used in an experiment involving writing to learn. Two classes were conducted in the traditional accounting class format in which student participation was through homework problems. The other two classes also wrote in daily journals, using a few minutes of class time to individually summarize difficult concepts presented during that class. Final grades and attrition rates of the experimental groups were compared at the end of the semester with promising results.