REVISING A COLLEGE'S TOTAL CURRICULUM‐THE PROCESS AND THE PRODUCT

ABSTRACT

Use of: curriculum definition, outside consultant review, extensive research tied to outcomes assessment, curriculum planning models, time commitment estimation, and human relations/group dynamics in revising a college's entire curriculum is reported. Although all of the above are important, consensus models to include delphi are the critical catalyst.     

SHORT‐TERM PROGRAMS ON DEATH AND DYING AND AGING: A REVIEW OF SELECTED LITERATURE

Agencies and institutions dealing with the elderly have only limited time, money, and personnel with which to plan and implement educational programs. Yet a basic knowledge of aging and death and dying seems to be essential for those working with older adults. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on short‐term educational programs on death and dying and aging in order to offer practitioners some guidance for efficiently structuring programs to bring about desired changes in these areas. From 15 selected studies, 3 aspects of such programs are reviewed and analyzed: the length of the intervention, the type of treatment, and the nature of the target group involved.     

MEETING THE EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SERVICE PROVIDERS: EFFECTS OF A CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAM ON SELF‐REPORTED KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES ABOUT AGING

A variety of approaches are available for meeting the educational needs of professionals currently providing services to older adults. This article focuses on the development of the Professional Development Program in Gerontology offered through Continuing Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and examines the effectiveness of this program in educating regional service providers. The discussion is based on participants’ self‐reported before‐and‐after data on their knowledge and attitudes about aging and the aged. The importance of changing employers’ attitudes about the importance of gerontology education as a qualification for service providers is also discussed.     

ORDER AND CONTENT OF THE BIBLICAL COURSES IN A COLLEGE CURRICULUM∗

The man is a blue collar worker. He tells the story of his nine year old daughter. She said that the only thing she really wanted for Christmas was a pair of Vidal Sassoon Jeans. He explained to her that they really weren't wealthy enough to afford $40 jeans. Maybe Levis would do. “Forget it,” she said. “If I can't have what I want, I don't want anything.”

The man said that they saved up and got her the Sassoon jeans for Christmas. “But you know,” he mused, “she judges the others in her class on what kind of designer jeans they have. They form cliques based on their clothes. It's their way of being somebody, being acceptable, being ‘in’.”     

EFFECTIVENESS OF A WORKSHOP ON AGING IN CHANGING MIDDLE‐AGED ADULTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD THE AGED

This study focused on the question of whether middle‐aged adults’ attitudes toward the aged could be changed through participation in specially designed educational experiences. It was expected that the adults participating in this study would hold negative attitudes toward older persons, but the pretest showed that they held slightly positive attitudes. “Purpose in life” was the only variable significantly related to pretest scores. The adults’ attitudes toward older persons changed significantly in a positive direction following the workshop experience, while those in the control group decreased. It was concluded the workshop had a significant impact on these differences.     

A STUDY ON THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS IN DEVELOPMENT OF FRESHWATER FARMING

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DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC PLAY IN YOUNG CHILDREN AND ITS EFFECTS ON SELF‐REGULATION: THE VYGOTSKIAN APPROACH

The necessity for parents and teachers to work together collaboratively to optimize children’s learning and development in early childhood education is well recognized. Yet, ways in which initial teacher education programs might prepare teachers for professional relationships with parents are rare in the literature. This paper reports on the use of field experience in family homes that occurred in the 1^st year of a teacher education program. A case study of two student teachers is discussed to illustrate the potential of such an approach to this aspect of teacher preparation. These student teachers experienced the realities of the daily lives of families with young children. Six months later, their experiences appeared likely to have had a positive influence on their understanding of parenting and their attitudes towards establishing and maintaining effective partnerships with parents in their future professional role.     

THE DEVELOPMENT AND ASSESSMENT OF PERSONAL TRANSFERABLE SKILLS DURING WORK‐BASED PLACEMENTS

The article focuses on the development and assessment of skills during the work‐based placements of business studies sandwich degree students. A total of forty‐two skills are identified and these have been subsumed within two distinct frameworks according to their general or vocational nature. The importance of the work‐based placement In acquiring these skills is borne out when this is compared against a variety of other methods.

Aggregated students’ ratings have been compared with those of employers. Whilst there appears to be some agreement about development having occurred during the placement for virtually all skills, the research highlights major inconsistencies between employers and students in their ratings of the actual level of proficiency finally achieved. This discrepancy between student and employer assessments suggests that a more comprehensive and systematic approach to assessment is required if formal credit is to be given for work‐based learning within degree programmes. This could involve techniques such as triangulation, contract learning or the assessment of competencies, but the difficulty of ensuring a common frame of reference between the parties involved, and across the methods of assessment employed, is likely to remain a major issue, particularly among those advocating formal credit towards degree classifications.     

KNOWLEDGE OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARD AGING IN YOUNG,MIDDLE‐AGED,AND OLDER COLLEGE STUDENTS: A COMPARISON OF TWO MEASURES OF KNOWLEDGE OF AGING

Scores on two measures of knowledge of aging were compared and correlated with direct and indirect measures of attitudes toward aging. Knowledge scores were not strongly related (r = .2‐.3) to either indirect or direct measures of attitudes toward older adults, and scores on the knowledge tests were not strongly correlated with each other (r = .25). In general, older subjects had higher knowledge scores and more positive attitude scores than did younger subjects. The age effect for knowledge remained after attitude was controlled. Suggestions for improving tests of general knowledge of aging are offered.     

SCHOOLING FOR A NEW MYTHOS: RACE,ANTI‐SEMITISM AND THE CURRICULUM MATERIALS OF A NAZI RACE EDUCATOR

The formation and teaching of race biology and anti‐ Semitism represented one of the darkest legacies left by Nazi Germany to the history of education In the West. Alfred Vogel, a biology curriculum writer and elementary school principal in Baden during the Third Reich, published a series of racist and anti‐Semitic teaching charts in 1938 to accompany a teacher's textbook on race biology intended for the instruction of elementary pupils. Unlike numerous other race eugenists in the field of education, Vogel went beyond the textbook to create with artist Eberhard Brauchte a series of pedagogical images using the latest technology of the period in color printing. This study examines the significance of the Vogel collection within, the larger context of Nazi race education. A special emphasis is given to the anti‐Semitic aspects of Vogel's race pedagogy. The investigation offers the disturbing affirmation that school curriculum can all too easily be used to pervert science and advance racism under the evil arm of the state.     

FUNCTIONS OF THE TWO‐YEAR COLLEGE CURRICULUM: FACULTY PERCEPTIONS

There are limited empirical data on curriculum in two‐year colleges; this study is designed to address that lack. A literature review is used to identify the functions served by credit courses: transfer, general education, preparation for work, and remediation. Secondary analysis is made of data gathered on a 1977 survey of science, social science, and science‐related technical courses. Instructor perceptions of course purpose(s) are used to determine if the identified functions are served. The findings indicate these functions are served, but predominately as combined functions rather than the discrete functions identified in the literature. Patterns of multiple course functions are identified by academic area and by course. Further, the methodology used is presented as a useful tool in developing empirical data about college curricula.     

SCIENTISTS’ PARTICIPATION IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPACT ON FOURTH TO EIGHTH GRADE TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INQUIRY SCIENCE

The impact of a professional development experience involving scientists and fourth to eighth grade teachers of science was explored. Teachers attended a summer program at a research facility where they had various experiences such as job shadowing and interviewing scientists. They also participated in authentic inquiry investigations and planned inquiry units for their classrooms. Data on teachers’ understanding and implementation of inquiry were collected through surveys, questionnaires, and classroom observations. Findings show that the teachers’ understanding of inquiry improved and most participants were able to successfully implement inquiry science in their classrooms. Barriers to the implementation of inquiry practices and the impact of specific experiences with the scientists were explored.     

REVISION OF PALMORE'S SECOND FACTS ON AGING QUIZ FROM A TRUE‐FALSE TO A MULTIPLE‐CHOICE FORMAT

A study was undertaken to develop for the first time a multiple‐choice version of one of Palmore's true‐false tests on aging knowledge. We were interested in comparing the two formats of the second Facts on Aging Quiz (FAQ2; Palmore, 1981) to determine whether educational measurement improved with a change in format. The multiple‐choice version was administered to 195 introductory sociology students, and the standard true‐false version was given to a second group of 180 introductory sociology students. Compared with the true‐false version, the multiple‐choice version (a) showed a substantial decrease in guessing and thus increased the likelihood that a score was an accurate reflection o respondent's knowledge, (b) had greater internal consistency and reliability, (c) showed a trend toward higher discriminatory power, and (d) identified more specifically some misconceptions about aging.     

A SURVEY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRAINING OF EUROPEAN (WHITE) TEACHERS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652‐1960

The Society of Jesus, which was founded at the University of Paris in 1540, aimed at developing both humanism and Catholic faith by means of teaching the youth. This Jesuit order insisted on a standard formation of its teachers in the humanities t'litterae humaniores'). To this purpose, they established special classrooms in the main provinces for novices who wanted to enter the teaching profession. But the diversity in age and school level of the future teachers was so great that these classes could not have had a uniform function. Only in the northwestern provinces a professional and academic formation could be organized since those who attended it had already finished their studies in humanities and philosophy.     

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.     

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.     

THE EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY ON THE MANAGEMENT AND LABOR RELATIONS

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