The major purpose of this study was to investigate whether a career-oriented, freshman English class (WSACP), was beneficial in increasing student cognitive complexity beyond normal maturational development. Cognitive complexity was assessed along the Perry scheme of intellectual and ethical development by the Measure of Intellectual Development (MID). A pretest/ posttest quasi-experimental design was implemented to compare cognitive changes among an experimental (n=23) and two control groups (n=21/n=23). A secondary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of WSACP on student retention rates. This study was based on the assumptions that an effective college-level career development program would: (a) be developmentally oriented, focusing on cognitive maturation through an emphasis on the writing process, (b) be taught within the regular academic curriculum, and thus be taken for academic credit, and (c) be collaboratively designed and taught. Using analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures, the study found that the general cognitive complexity of the experimental group increased at significantly higher rates (at the .05 level) than that of the two combined control groups. The retention results. although encouraging, revealed no statistically significant differences between WSACP and 266 other freshman students. The major recommendations emanating from this study were: (a) institutions of higher education should encourage the development of "collaborative" courses in the areas of English and career development. Research should be conducted to substantiate the career development results of this study, and investigate the effects of such an approach on student writing, (b) the dimension of cognitive complexity should be included in the development of career programs, and (c) first-term career development activities should be included in any comprehensive retention program. / Ed. D.

Though professional development interventions are widespread in higher education, administrators often do not formally assess their effectiveness, particularly in relation to teacher self-efficacy. The purposes of this study were to determine if any statistically significant difference existed between the self-efficacy scores of adjunct faculty participants in a community college’s professional development program and nonparticipants and to identify the variables with a statistically significant relationship with self-efficacy. A modified version of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) was administered to 21 adjunct faculty participants in Lone Star College’s Adjunct Certification Program (ACP) and 312 adjunct faculty not currently participating in the program. A demographic questionnaire development by the researcher was also administered. Independent variables of the demographic questionnaire included gender, ethnicity, age, K-12 teaching experience, highest degree earned, subject taught, years of college teaching experience, and number of courses taught each semester. Paired t-test results indicated statistically significant differences in Efficacy in Instructional Strategies for adjunct participants in the ACP program. No significant differences were found for Efficacy in Student Engagement and Efficacy in Classroom Management. Multiple regression analyses indicated that gender has a statistically significant relationship to Efficacy Instructional Strategies. A statistically significant relationship was found for race for Efficacy in Classroom Management. Finally, analysis also indicated a positive relationship between race and gender for Efficacy in Student Engagement. No other statistically significant relationships were found across the other demographic variables. Findings of this study revealed that the ACP increased teacher self-efficacy across two of the three dimensions of the TSES indicating that the professional development intervention had a positive effect on the efficacy of its participants. The present study contributes to the research on teacher self-efficacy, adjunct faculty and professional development interventions.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the current state of community college faculty development program evaluation and identify possible influences on evaluation practices. Data from 184 survey responses and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) were analyzed to answer three research questions. Multiple regression was used to determine if a relationship existed between the dependent/outcome variable (evaluation utilization score) and the independent/predictor variable (accrediting agency affiliation: MSCHE, NEASC, NCA, NWCCU, SACS, and WASC) and/or control variables (institution locale, student FTE, expenses per student FTE, percent spent on instruction, and percent of full-time faculty). Results were not statistically significant, F (12, 163) = 1.176, p = .305. The mean evaluation scores were similar for all six accrediting agencies ranging from 60-69. The rural variable was statistically significant with p = .003 and alpha = .05, but it only accounted for 3.6% of the variance explained. Logistic regression was used to determine if a relationship existed between the dependent/outcome variable (use of evaluation) and the above-specified independent/predictor variable and/or control variables for six faculty development program activities. Results revealed that significant predictor variables for the use of evaluation vary based on the faculty development program activity. Statistically significant predictors were identified for two of the six activities. The percent spent on instruction variable was statistically significant for financial support for attending professional conferences (p = .02; alpha = .05). The NCA affiliation and student FTE variables were statistically significant for orientation for new faculty (p = .007; alpha = .05 and p = .027; alpha = .05 respectively). The analysis of the evaluation methods was conducted using descriptive statistics and frequencies. The most frequently used evaluation methods were questionnaire and verbal feedback. NCA was identified as having the greatest number of institutions using the most frequently used evaluation methods for four of the activities. SACS was identified as having the largest number of institutions using the greatest number of evaluation methods for five of the activities. It was discovered that accrediting agencies with policies regarding faculty development program evaluation practices were not more likely to have higher evaluation utilization scores or utilize evaluation methods more frequently than accrediting agencies without such policies. The study revealed that among community college faculty development programs evaluation practice similarities were more prevalent than differences regardless of accrediting agency affiliation. As a result of this discovery, future research should extend beyond the accrediting agency affiliation emphasis and explore additional influences on institutional decision making processes regarding community college faculty development program evaluation practices.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Leadership and Foundations. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This study examined allied health and nursing career and technical education (CTE) teacher beliefs and attitudes about reading. Since beliefs and attitudes influence the way teachers teach, it is important to understand what those beliefs and attitudes are, especially in relationship to reading in subject matter classrooms. One hundred twelve individuals responded to a written survey concerning their attitudes and beliefs about reading. A four-factor solution was achieved with a principal components factor analysis. A significant number of variables were associated with the factor labeled Reading Apathy, which appears to be indicative of the condition known as aliteracy among faculty who participated in the study. Professional development activities grounded in novice-to-expert theory are suggested as a way of overcoming the phenomenon. Recommendations for future research involve a more detailed study to further characterize the condition of aliteracy and its impact on student learning.

This study provides a detailed description of full-time faculty salary and fringe benefits in US public community colleges by state and by 2005 Carnegie basic classification type for the academic year 2003-2004. This classification is used to analyze data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS). Further analysis clusters states into the following groupings: states with/without collective bargaining agreements, states with/without local appropriations, large megastates versus nonmegastates (using the methodology developed by Grapevine at Illinois State University), and the impact of California on the nation's salaries and fringe benefits. The analysis showed high level of variation of salaries paid by the type of community college (rural, suburban, and urban serving) in the US. The nation's average salary for full-time faculty was $52,598. Rural serving small institutions faculty salary was $18,754 or 45 % less than the nation's average. Salaries in colleges with collective bargaining agreement were higher than in colleges without collective bargaining agreements. Faculty teaching in suburban serving colleges with local taxation had the highest salaries, $61,822 within colleges with access to local support. Suburban serving multiple colleges in megastates had the highest faculty salary average, $64,540 as compared to $42,263 for rural serving colleges in non-megastates. California may be a state with a very high cost of living; however, that does not diminish the fact that community college faculty are among the highest paid faculty in the nation. Colleges with collective bargaining agreements, with local appropriations, and in megastates, tended to have better benefits packages for their faculty. This study includes recommendations for further research, including a recommendation that a quantitative statistical analysis be undertaken to show statistical significance in salaries and fringe benefits among collective and non-collective bargaining states, a study addressing the faculty and leadership challenges that community colleges will be facing soon should be done, and that a similar study be done that includes tribal colleges.

Members of the Instructional Teleconference Consortium (ITC) were mailed a survey instrument. A total list of 375 teleconference coordinators generated 137 usable responses. The purposes of this study of faculty and staff development presentations by teleconferencing were to determine the amount of usage; which subject areas are utilized; what delivery methods (live, interactive, prerecorded, multimedia, etc.) are utilized; barriers (size or location of college, size of teleconference or travel budget, etc.) to implementing teleconferences; and the sources of presentations utilized in teleconferences. Larger community colleges are the greater users of teleconferencing and even produce some for distribution to other community colleges, whereas smaller community colleges have just begun to receive equipment that enables them to receive telecasts for this purpose. No clear subject area has yet been defined that dominates these teleconferences, and the trend is toward two-way audio and one-way video as the delivery media as communication costs decline. Barriers of money for staff, equipment, and programming appear to be the principal objections to the use of teleconferencing for faculty and staff development presentations. There appear to be few sources of presentations except for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of Prince George's Community College faculty knowledge of the legal issues, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, and recent court decisions, related to the provision of classroom accommodations for students with disabilities at the postsecondary level. The focus of the study was to determine if a difference existed between the knowledge of full-time and part-time faculty. Part-time faculty comprise over 50 % of the instructional staffs at most community colleges and are considered an integral part of their institutions, yet they are offered little opportunity for professional development. The variables of gender, department affiliation, teaching at more than one institution, number of years of teaching experience, number of students taught with a disability, and number of individuals known with a disability also were reviewed. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to 158 faculty members at the college. Twenty-nine packets were returned as undeliverable. Of the 129 deliverable packets, 57 were returned for a response rate of 44.2%. Results from the analysis of data indicated that faculty have very limited knowledge of the legal issues concerning students with disabilities. Only 26.9% of respondents scored at an acceptable level of knowledge. Additional analysis suggested no relationship existed between faculty knowledge and gender, faculty status (full-time and part-time), department affiliation, teaching at more than one institution, number of years of teaching experience, or number of individuals known with a disability. A relationship was found at the p < .05 level of significant between faculty knowledge and number of students taught with a disability. Faculty who scored in the acceptable range had a mean score of 24 or more students taught with a disability. Faculty scoring in the unacceptable range had a mean score of 11 students taught with a disability.

The problem of this study involved identifying and ranking perceptions of the attributes of exemplary teaching of adjunct faculty of the Dallas County Community College District. Data was collected by a 75 item opinionnaire and a demographic data sheet which was sent to a population of 3,000 employees of the Dallas County Community College District and 100 exemplary faculty from 39 of the 50 United States. The five chapters were titled Introduction, Review of Literature, Methods, Presentation and Analysis of Findings, and Summary, Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations. Revealed through the findings of Chapter 4 was the order of attributes as a Grand grand rank found through the combining of the grand rank order of the Dallas County Community Colleges' employees and the rank order of the nationally recognized exemplary faculty. Findings disclosed that a rank ordering of items represented by Kendall's W at .9654 with a chi-square of 142.8815 at the .001 level of significance. These findings led to the rejection of three null hypotheses and the following related conclusions: (1) perceptions of importance of teaching attributes, can be rank ordered, (2) while a high level of significant values of W may be interpreted as meaning that the observers and judges are applying essentially the same standard in ranking the variables, their pooled ordering may serve as a standard, (3) ordering of perceptions of exemplary teaching attributes is possible, and (4) rankings of attributes provides a usable list of variables that can be employed in evaluation. Recommendations for further study include design of an evaluation instrument incorporating all or part of the attributes for use in adjunct classrooms, and creation of a staff development program designed to help those who are less proficient in the classroom.