This study explored public safety programs in publicly controlled American community colleges. The need for accurate and complete information in an era of homeland security and defense is paramount as government, education, the private sector, and the citizenry interact to ensure a safer nation. The general purposes of this study were to compile current descriptive information on public safety programs and curricula in America's publicly controlled community colleges, and to identify problems and prospects inherent in the administration of these programs. Information is critical as community colleges continue to struggle with decreased funding and seek alternative sources of revenue. Community colleges represent a tremendous network for course delivery, such as homeland security training, but struggle to obtain the attention or the funding from the federal government. A review of pertinent literature provided the foundation of a 100-item survey questionnaire that was mailed to a random sample of 200 public safety administrators at American community colleges. The study also included a review of archival data to further describe the programs. Of the 200 instruments sent, 97 (48.5%) were completed, returned, and useable. From the literature, the survey results, and the archival data, a comprehensive list of community colleges with public safety programs was constructed. The composition of the curricula was investigated, and problems and prospects were identified. The study includes conclusions and recommendations, which were based on all sources of information used in the study.

La Louisiane présente la particularité de posséder la seule agence d’État dont le rôle consiste à préserver et diffuser une langue minoritaire, en l’occurrence le français. Le CODOFIL (Conseil pour le Développement du Français en Louisiane) fut créé en 1968 par la loi 409 du Congrès de Louisiane. Son président fondateur, James « Jimmy » Domengeaux était persuadé que la réintroduction du français dans les écoles, à raison de trente minutes quotidiennes (dans le cadre d’un programme de Français Langue Seconde ou FLS), permettrait de freiner le déclin de cette langue, chassée des établissements scolaires par la constitution de 1921. Sa décision d’importer un corps enseignant étranger, majoritairement issu de France, de Belgique et du Québec afin d’enseigner le français international et non le vernaculaire louisianais, allait entraîner une rupture profonde entre la population francophone et le CODOFIL, sans pour autant ralentir la baisse du nombre de locuteurs cadiens. Cette situation poussait alors certains chefs d’établissement et parents d’élèves, dans les années 1980, à demander la création de programmes d’immersion française où les élèves reçoivent un enseignement des matières principales en français. Le succès constant de ces programmes (ils scolarisent aujourd’hui plus de 3.400 élèves en Louisiane) devrait logiquement en faire le fer de lance de l’action du CODOFIL car, au contraire du programme de FLS (dont les effectifs sont pourtant six fois plus importants), les classes d’immersion produisent véritablement des francophones. Une enquête présentée dans ce travail et menée auprès de 49 professeurs étrangers exerçant dans ces classes montre que tel n’est pas le cas et que le CODOFIL ne s’implique pas dans le volet pédagogique relatif aux programmes d’immersion et laissent aux enseignants étrangers le soin d’inclure, ou non, des séquences à vocation identitaire dans leur progression, tâche pour laquelle ils ne reçoivent aucune formation émanant du CODOFIL. Ce dernier se contente d’un rôle administratif de pourvoyeur de visas. La conséquence majeure de cette politique est l’absence presque totale de la langue et de la culture cadiennes dans les salles de classe. Une loi adoptée en juin 2010 par le Congrès de Louisiane, alors que ce travail de recherche était en cours, est venue modifier la mission du CODOFIL et établir l’enseignement immersif comme un de ses objectifs prioritaires : le législateur considère désormais que diffusion du français, programmes d’immersion et intérêt économique de l’État sont étroitement liés. / Louisiana is the only state in the USA to possess a public agency whose role consists in protecting and transmitting a minority language, namely French. CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) was created in 1968 by an act of the Louisiana legislature. Its founder and first president James “Jimmy” Domengeaux held that the reintroduction of French in the schools of Louisiana with daily 30-minute classes (French as a Second Language program or FLS) would slow down the constant decline of this language that had been banned by the 1921 constitution. Domengeaux’s decision to import foreign teachers from France, Belgium and Quebec to teach international French and not the Louisianan variety that he deemed unfit for the classroom was to leave the cajun population displeased and resentful towards CODOFIL, while the number of French speakers kept falling. This situation led some school principals and parent support groups in the 1980’s to demand a change of policy and the creation of immersion. Instead of studying French as in the FLS program, pupils are taught the main subjects in French. Given the growing success of those immersion programs (they now comprise more than 3400 pupils in Louisiana) which churn out real French speakers (unlike the FLS programs and their 18 000 pupils), CODOFIL should be expected to focus its core action on them. A survey presented in this work and conducted with 49 French Associate Teachers (FAT) shows that CODOFIL is not, leaving the FATs to their own devices when it comes to teaching Cajun culture and language. Generally ignorant of those features when they arrive in Louisiana, they are deprived of a serious training. CODOFIL is content with its administrative role consisting in delivering. The main consequence of this policy is the near total absence of cajun culture and language in the classroom. A recent and unexpected act of the Louisiana legislature (June 2010), adopted while this work was still under way, is meant to radically alter the mission of CODOFIL and establish the immersion programs as a high priority: the transmission of French, immersion classes and the economic interest of the state are now regarded as closely linked.

Motivation är viktigt i arbetslivet och utan motivation är det svårt att uppnå mål eller att genomföra någonting med glädje. Karriärutveckling är en viktig del för att kunna motivera anställda inom revisionsbranschen. Eftersom många nyexaminerade väljer att söka sig till Big4 där karriärutvecklingen tydligt präglas av up-or-out är det intressant att undersöka vad som motiverar till karriärutveckling på den mindre byrån.   Syftet är att bidra till förståelsen för karriärutveckling samt vilka motivationsfaktorer som påverkar revisorsassistenten till karriärutveckling på mindre revisionsbyråer. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod använts i form av nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med revisorsassistenter. Motivationsfaktorer och karriärutveckling har studerats utifrån centrala begrepp och tre motivationsteorier. Motivation kan enligt Herzbergs tvåfaktorsteori delas in i motivationsfaktorer och hygienfaktorer som utgör en stor del av denna studie.   Studiens resultat visar att när frågan om vad som är motiverande ställs tenderar revisorsassistenter att tänka på motivationsfaktorer snarare än hygienfaktorer. Därmed är det motivationsfaktorerna som är direkt motiverande i arbetet på revisionsbyrå. Den viktigaste motivationsfaktorn som upptäcktes i studien var ansvar under frihet. Samtliga intervjupersoner ansåg att ansvar under frihet var en viktig del för att motivera karriärutveckling.   En slutsats av denna studie är att både faktorerna som motiverar till karriärutveckling och karriärutvecklingen uppfattas olika från individ till individ. Möjligheterna till karriärutveckling på den mindre byrån är inte lika stora som på den större byrån. Däremot behöver inte karriärutveckling endast innebära att bli auktoriserad revisor eller partner på byrån utan kan även innebära att utvecklas på personliga plan eller att bidra till att byrån utvecklas. / In the absence of motivation, it becomes more difficult to achieve goals or to accomplish something with pleasure. Career development is an important part to motivate employees in audit firms. Since many new graduates choose to apply to Big4 where career development is clearly characterized by up-or-out, it is interesting to investigate what characterizes career development at the smaller audit firms.   The purpose is to contribute to the understanding of career development as well as the motivational factors that influence the audit associates to career development at smaller firms. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative research method has been used in form of semi-structured interviews with audit associates. Nine interviews were implemented: four personal and five digital interviews. Motivational factors and career development have been studied based on central concepts and three motivational theories.   The results of this study show that audit associates tend to think about motivational factors rather than hygiene factors when asked what motivates them. It is the motivational factors that are directly motivating in the work at the accounting firms. The most important motivating factor discovered in the study was responsibility.   One conclusion in this study is that both the motivational factors and career development are perceived differently from individual to individual. Career development opportunities at the smaller firms are not as great as the larger firms. However, career development does not only mean how to become an authorized auditor or partner at the firm but can also mean developing on a personal level.

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Nurse educators make decisions regarding the inclusion or exclusion of non-nursing courses in a curriculum. The current literature lacks research regarding which courses have the most impact on first-time nursing licensing examination pass-rates. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate if there is a specific combination of courses that enhance first-time licensing examination pass-rates, using 161 randomly selected accredited associate degree nursing programs. General systems theory applied to nursing education was the framework for the study. ANOVA and independent t-tests were used to address the questions of non-nursing courses or discipline-specific set of non-nursing courses' impact on first-time licensure pass-rates. The ANOVA and independent t-tests analyses did not yield any significant non-nursing courses or discipline-specific sets of non-nursing courses. The findings indicate that non-nursing courses are not a significant subsystem in nursing education when the sole outcome used is NCLEX-RN pass-rates. Nursing faculty can use the results of this study as evidence that the inclusion or exclusion of one non-nursing course over another will likely not be detrimental to their program. This study can lead to positive social change through increasing the evidence-based knowledge from which faculty can base their curriculum.

High nursing student attrition rates at a community college in a southwestern state were noted as a significant problem by nursing faculty and college administration because of a nursing shortage and subsequent health care issues in the surrounding community. The purpose of this project study was to explore the perceptions of nursing graduates regarding the influences that led to or impeded their success in completion of the associate degree nursing program. Additionally, perspectives of the usefulness of remediation sessions provided for students failing a course were investigated. This qualitative case study, guided by transformative learning theory, included a sample of 10 nursing program graduates of the community college from 2012-2015, 4 male and 6 female, 3 of which had failed at least one course and participated in remediation during their programs of study. Participants were interviewed and data were coded and analyzed for common themes. Themes included perceptions of being over stressed, awareness of the negativity of peers, the need for self-motivation, making needed changes to increase their own success, and using available resources such as the remediation program even though it was perceived by some as punitive. A professional development workshop for nursing faculty was developed as a project based on these findings to increase faculty knowledge of factors that contribute to nursing student success or failure, assist faculty in identifying and implementing supportive resources that contribute to student success, and introduce them to practices to reduce student stress such as teaching life skills and coping methods. Social change may occur from programmatic changes that enhance nursing students' success resulting in more nursing graduates to facilitate quality health care in the local community.

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The purpose of this study is to gain insight on the comparative value of a DMS bachelor’s degree and associate degree. While there are multiple training routes to become a diagnostic medical sonographer, it is beneficial to understand the perspectives of those that have experienced how training correlates to practice. While participant perceptions varied, it was determined that an associate degree is comparable to a bachelor’s degree for Diagnostic Medical Sonography training in Illinois.

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to evaluate the relationships between completion of high school dual enrollment courses and subsequent success of first-time, full-time community college students as measured by completion of an associate degree and the time it took to complete the degree. In addition to comparing dual and non-dual enrollment student performance, the effects of the number of dual enrollment courses completed and the subject areas of those courses was evaluated. Student subgroups reviewed included gender, race, socioeconomic status, and prior academic preparation (ACT score). The focus of this study was all first-time, full-time students at TBR community colleges in the fall semesters of 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 who had graduated from a Tennessee high school in the 12 months prior to college enrollment. Archival data from Tennessee community colleges used in this study included 62,644 students across the four years (2015-2018) comprising 11,949 dual enrollment students and 50,695 non-dual enrollment students. Eleven research questions were answered from these data utilizing independent samples t tests, two-way contingency tables using crosstabs, Pearson correlations, or descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that completing just one dual enrollment course significantly increased the probability of completing an associate degree, and this finding was consistent across all subgroups studied. In addition, dual enrollment students completed associate degrees in significantly fewer semesters. Completing more dual enrollment courses tended to further increase the probability of completing a degree and further reduce the time to completion. Students completing all dual enrollment courses in communications were generally more likely to complete an associate degree than students completing all courses in other subject areas, and students completing all courses in non-general education were generally less likely to complete a degree.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / For nursing students to be successful in current and future practice they must be proficient critical thinkers and be able to use reflective judgment skills to manage the daily dilemmas of healthcare practice. Critical thinking and reflective judgment are not elements of nursing curricula unless faculty explicitly design learning activities to develop these skills. This study examined the relationship between reflective judgment and critical thinking by comparing a measure of reflective judgment, the Reasoning about Current Issues (RCI) test, with a measure of critical thinking in nursing (the HESI Exit Exam) in a sample population of senior associate degree nursing (ADN) students (N = 108). The descriptive variables of individual ADN student’s age, grade point average (GPA) in nursing courses and the number of completed college/university credit hours were also examined. A modest correlation (r = .370, p < .01) was found between critical thinking and reflective judgment indicating a positive relationship between these two variables. However, the results supported the hypothesis that these are separate concepts; while the students achieved an acceptable level on the measure of critical thinking, they did not exhibit the skill level of an effective reflective thinker. Positive correlations were found between reflective judgment and individual student age and nursing program GPA (p < .01). Critical thinking was also positively correlated with age (r = .351) and GPA (r = .426). There were no statistically significant correlations noted between the number of credits or previously earned baccalaureate degrees with either reflective judgment or critical thinking. An appreciation of the unique commonalities and differences between reflective judgment and critical thinking is essential for the development of innovative strategies and pedagogies meant to advance teaching/learning within schools of nursing with an explicit focus on both concepts and an ultimate goal of improving competence in newly graduated nurses. The implication for nurse educators is in changes and innovations that can lead to more effective thinkers. Careful pedagogical planning and a mindful inclusion of learning activities to develop both reflective judgment and critical thinking skills may lead to increased competence as nursing students and as new graduate nurses.