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.     

FINANCIAL REPORTING PRACTICES IN ILLINOIS PUBLIC COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of a given financial entity requires comparisons of two kinds. We must examine current data in light of the historical data of the entity with which we are concerned; and we must assess all such data in relation to that of other, similar, entities. Making the necessary comparisons is not currently possible for Illinois Public Community College Districts because all independent public accounting firms do not prepare their financial reports in the same way. The firms do prepare their financial reports consistently from year to year, but reports are not uniform throughout the industry. This lack of industry‐wide uniformity prohibits locally‐elected boards, creditors, investors and taxpayers from analyzing a district's financial report and determining its overall financial position. This study points out the need for a financial reporting methodology that allows not only for an accurate determination of a district's past and present success, but also for a reasonable projection of its financial future.     

STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF CHILLING PRACTICES IN SEX-ATYPICAL MAJORS

This study examined the possibility that notonly women, but also men, face what Hall and Sandler(1982) call chilling behaviors when theyare students in a major considered nontraditional oratypical for their sex. The population for this studywas all upper-level students (N = 1,992) in accounting,education, engineering, and nursing at a publicuniversity in the mid-South. A random sample of females and males, or a total of 426 junior and seniorfull-time and part-time students in these majors, wasmailed a survey about chilling practices in their major.Analysis of variance was used to clarify the relationships between the independent variablesof students' sex and academic discipline and theinteraction of students' sex and academic discipline andthe dependent variable of perception of practices in their major. The findings indicated that,regardless of their sex, students in these majors didnot perceive practices in their major to bechilling. However, there was a differencein perceptions as a function of major. Both education andnursing students perceived a warmerenvironment in their major than did accounting andengineering students. The pattern was the same for bothfemales and males since there was no interaction of sex andacademic discipline.     

DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICES IN TEACHER EDUCATION: LESSONS FROM ONE SEMESTER

Abstract

A major challenge for teacher preparation programs and future teachers is learning to work skillfully with the diversity of children in American classrooms. This paper describes a tool developed to address this challenge: the Learning and Teaching Assessment System (LTAS). The LTAS is a performance‐based, curriculum‐embedded assessment tool designed to uncover young children's strengths in different curricular areas as well as their approaches to learning. Developed for use with children 3–8 years of age, the LTAS helps teachers understand what children know in relation to key concepts in the different disciplines as well as how they learn in order to further their learning in subsequent days and weeks of teaching. The development of the LTAS is based primarily on two theoretical frameworks: Leont'ev's activity theory and Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. To examine the efficacy of the LTAS in its proposed objectives, a pilot study was conducted; results point to the potential of the LTAS for helping student teachers uncover new information about children to guide future instruction.     

西方修辞理论中受众的演变与发展——从演说修辞到写作修辞

在西方语言修辞的发展史上,“受众”经历了由兴而衰、再由衰而兴的过程。而现代修辞理论、实践都以不同的方式重视受众及其在修辞过程中所起的作用。受众是修辞情景的核心因素之一。在修辞过程中,受众意识影响着修辞内容、形式的方方面面。因此,为了获得合意的修辞效果,修辞者需要考虑受众的功能需要并与之积极合作。     

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SUICIDE RISK ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN THE SCHOOL SETTING

Suicidal behavior in children and youth continues to be a major public health problem in the United States. School personnel have a legal and ethical obligation to recognize and respond to the mental health needs of their students and to take steps to ensure their safety. In this exploratory study, suicide risk assessment practices of three large school districts were examined. More than 3,400 suicide risk assessments were conducted in these districts during the 3 years considered. The results indicate that all three districts have implemented suicide prevention programs that include risk‐assessment practices in an effort to reduce suicidality. Suicides risk assessments were conducted with at least one child in each grade from kindergarten through 12^th in each district, occurring most frequently at the middle school level. Differences by gender were noted in terms of level of risk and hospitalizations, but no significant differences were observed based on race/ethnicity. These risk assessment efforts of these three districts appear to be promising in preventing suicides: none of the students who were assessed went on to commit suicide. Implications for school‐based practices and training are discussed.     

PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF CULTURALLY RELEVANT SCIENCE TEACHING IN AMERICAN INDIAN CLASSROOMS

This study explores the perceptions of culturally relevant science teaching of 35 teachers of American Indian students. These teachers participated in professional development designed to help them better understand climate change science content and teaching climate change using both Western science and traditional and cultural knowledge. Teacher perceptions of practices using culturally relevant instruction were evaluated. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results from the survey analysis show that the teachers’ existing practices of culturally relevant science teaching were limited in choosing topics relevant to American Indian culture. We found three common themes from the teachers’ perceptions of culturally relevant science teaching, meaning of culturally relevant science teaching, teaching strategies, and purpose of culturally relevant science teaching from the qualitative data. We also found that teachers with higher survey scores perceive culturally relevant science teaching differently than teachers with lower survey scores, specifically for the purposes and teaching strategies of culturally relevant science teaching. The results show that teachers with higher survey scores tended to perceive culturally relevant science teaching as a two-way learning process between teachers and students where the teachers can learn traditional science knowledge from the students. They also tend to perceive using concrete traditional science examples as effective teaching strategy for culturally relevant science teaching and building strong relationships with American Indian students as the most important purpose of culturally relevant science teaching. We also discuss common challenges faced by science teachers when trying to implement culturally relevant science teaching with American Indian students.     

PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES GUIDING WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES IN ONE LOUISIANA TECHNICAL COLLEGE REGION

The study reported in this paper surveyed eight campus deans in the Louisiana Technical College Greater Baton Rouge/Northshore District II Service Delivery Area about the institutional infrastructure for providing workforce training and continuing education to their respective communities. Study results indicated that while all campuses in the District attempted to respond to the customized training needs of business and industry, only a few of the campuses were adequately equipped, staffed, and supported by an effective infrastructure dedicated to delivery of high quality workforce training, including rapid response to inquiries and requests from employers and workers. The study resulted in a regional webpage and portfolio project designed to market a consistent message about workforce training opportunities offered through the Louisiana Technical College District II campuses to support the region as a whole.