Maximizing responses to a nationwide faculty survey

Using on-campus facilitators to distribute and retrieve an 11-page questionnaire administered to a nationwide sample of humanities faculty and nonhumanities department chairmen in two-year colleges resulted in an 84% return rate. The 2,000 subjects were drawn from 156 junior/community colleges selected on the basis of geographic locale and type of control. Secondary stratification variables included college size, organization, and curriculum emphasis. Accurate rosters of full-time and part-time faculty were generated from class schedules. Pilot procedures, selection of the college and faculty samples, and the use of facilitators are described.     

Related factors of the MTAI and the 16PF

The Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory (MTAI) and the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF) were administered to 395 undergraduate teachers-in-training. The MTAI and the 16PF were compared using canonical analysis. They contained three related factors accounting for 41% of their total variance. It was concluded that teachers' attitudes toward their pupils are determined in large part by measurable personality traits.     

Integrated policies for the preparation of educational personnel

Drawing on the literature and developments in Lifelong Education in the 1960s and 1970s, this paper seeks to offera contribution to the updating of the concept to address the pressing new needs of the 1980s for integrated policies for the preparation of educational personnel. Such policies are seen as necessitating the ability to forge new curricula across sectoral boundaries, linking education and economic activity, school and community, and achieving delivery in different modes and locations. The article offers a conceptualization of policy options for such preparation, comprising four major dimensions, each comprehending tendencies to conservation and change. The author proceeds to illustrate the conceptualization by reference to programmes provided, often on an inter-agency basis, in the United Kingdom by the Manpower Services Commission. The paper concludes by highlighting the continuing disjuncture between education and training and between education and national needs in many developing countries, partly as a legacy of colonial concepts of schooling, and points to the requirement for comprehensive and coherent policies which can link education and the economy and schooling and training, harnessing them to the response to pressing national needs.

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Zusammenfassung Gestützt auf die Literatur und Entwicklungen im Bereich des Lebenslangen Lernen in den 60er und 70er Jahren versucht der Verfasser dieses Artikels eine Aktualisierung des Konzepts, um auf die dringenden neuen Bedürfnisse der 80er Jahre für integrierte Richtlinien zur Vorbereitung des Erziehungspersonals einzugehen. Schwerpunkte dieser Richtlinien sind: neue Curricula über Sektorengrenzen hinweg zu entwickeln, Bildung und wirtschaftliche Aktivität sowie Schule und Gemeinschaft miteinander zu verbinden und auf verschiedene Art und Weise und an verschiedenen Standorten zu vermitteln. Im nachfolgenden Artikel wird eine Konzeptualisierung der Optionen bei Richtlinien für eine derartige Vorbereitung angeboten, die aus vier Hauptdimensionen besteht. Jede diese Hauptdimensionen enthält Tendenzen zu Erhaltung und Veränderung einschließen. Der Verfasser veranschaulicht die Konzeptualisierung mit einem Verweis auf die im Vereinigten Königreich von Manpower Services Commission angebotenen Programme, die häufig auf einer Vermittlungsbasis zwischen den verschiedenen Regierungsstellen beruhen. Abschließend betont der Verfasser die fortdauernde Trennung zwischen Bildung und Ausbildung sowie zwischen Bildung und nationalen Bedürfnissen in vielen Entwicklungsländern, die teilweise als ein Erbe kolonialer Entwicklungskonzepte weiterbestehen. Es besteht ein Bedarf nach umfassenden und kohärenten Methoden, die Bildung und Wirtschaft sowie Erziehung und Ausbildung verknüpfen und sie an eine Antwort auf dringende nationale Bedürfnisse koppeln.

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Résumé S'inspirant de la littérature et des développements de l'Education Permanente enregistrés au cours des années soixante et soixante-dix, cet article s'efforce d'apporter une contribution à la mise à jour de ce concept afin de présenter les nouveaux besoins pressants apparus dans les années quatre-vingts aux politiques intégrées pour la formation du personnel enseignant. On considère que de telles politiques nécessitent la capacité de forger de nouveaux curricula à travers les limites sectorielles, établissent des liens entre l'éducation et l'activité économique, l'école et la communauté, et opèrent de diverses manières et en différents endroits. L'article présent offre une conceptualisation des options politiques pour une telle préparation, qui englobe quatre grandes dimensions, chacune d'elles renfermant des propensions à l'invariabilité et à l'évolution. L'auteur illustre ensuite cette conceptualisation en se référant aux programmes offerts, sur une base interopérationnelle souvent, au Royaume-Uni par la Commission des Services de la Main-d'Oeuvre. Il conclut en soulignant l'incohérence constante entre l'éducation et la formation, l'éducation et les besoins nationaux que de nombreux pays en développement ont hérités en partie de concepts coloniaux d'éducation et il met en relief la nécessité de politiques générales et cohérentes capables de nouer des liens entre l'éducation et l'économie, l'instruction et la formation, les exhortant à répondre aux besoins nationaux urgents.

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I am indebted to a Unesco Seminar for a number of the ideas contained in this paper. See Unesco,Interregional Symposium on Integrated Policies and Plans for the Training of Educational Personnel. Paris: Unesco, 1985.     

Mechanisms of the relation between perinatal problems, early childhood illness, and psychopathology in late childhood and adolescence

Data on perinatal and early childhood somatic and psychological risk factors of a random sample of children were gathered in early to middle childhood and employed to examine the long-term risk of emotional and behavioral problems of late childhood and adolescence. 3 issues were addressed: First, can syndromic specificity of such effects be identified on scaled and diagnostic measures of syndromes? Second, are these effects attributable to excess risk of low-income children for both perinatal and later childhood problems? Third, are the intervening mechanisms identifiable as intellectual impairment, vulnerability to poor health, poor maternal caretaking, maternal rejection, or maternal stress associated with marital problems? Findings indicated that elevated risk was present for all syndromes, both at the scale level and at the diagnostic level. None of the examined intervening mechanisms fully accounted for the effects of early risks.     

The instructional audit in urban school settings: A descriptive policy analysis of instructional delivery using signal-receptor assessment theory and information referenced testing

High levels of student absenteeism, low SES home environments, and a general lack of experienced teachers to service the school curriculum all contribute to difficulties in insuring the delivery of apriori school district defined instructional programs. The importance of urban school site educational evaluation is underscored by recent studies which show that the effectiveness of instructional delivery is an important predictor of student antisocial behavior such as drug abuse, gang activity, vandalism. This study examines some of the problems associated with instructional evaluation in urban school settings using signal-receptor assessment theory analysis and a new type of test scoring procedure called Modified Confidence Weighted-Admissible Probability Measurement (MCW-APM). With MCW-APM, school administrative personnel can simultaneously evaluate and obtain policy relevant information for instructional leadership concerning the signal (instruction as delivered), the reception (student learning as received), and the assessment instrumentation itself (sensitivity of the test). Additionally, this method of scoring permits individual student performance on school district developed CRTs to be referenced to an information based standard (informed, partially informed, uninformed, and misinformed) of mastery as a selection standard instead of a percent correct score.