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.

In the last three decades, there has been a significant growth in the number of undergraduate students taking introductory statistics. As a result, there is a need by universities and community colleges to find well-qualified instructors and graduate teaching assistants to teach the growing number of statistics courses. Unfortunately, research has shown that even teachers of introductory statistics struggle with concepts they are employed to teach. The data presented in this research sheds light on the statistical knowledge of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and community college instructors (CCIs) in the realm of probability by analyzing their work on surveys and task-based interviews on the p-value. This research could be useful for informing professional development programs to better support present and future teachers of statistics.

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

This research sought to ascertain whether differences exist in the levels of student-faculty interactions between students taught by part-time and full-time faculty. Differences in the interactions of students with faculty were examined for four types of content (a) course-related, (b) intellectual, (c) career planning, and (d) informal socializing; for both in-class and out-of-class.

The purpose of this study was to determine faculty participation in and approval of professional growth and renewal activities in the Dallas County Community College District. The population consisted of 526 full-time faculty employed by the district. The DCCCD Survey instrument, which was used in the study, included activities grouped into seven categories: career development, leaves, international activities, instructional renewal, grants, reward, and a miscellaneous category. Faculty members identified participation in activities; they also identified their approval or disapproval of all activities on a five point Likert-type scale. The population was grouped by teaching field, age, years-of-experience and campus for statistical analyses. A Chi-square test of goodness of fit was conducted to determine if significant differences existed between expected and observed participation among groups in each of the seven categories. An analysis of variance was completed to determine significant differences of opinion. The findings of the study indicated significant differences between expected and observed participation in the following categories: international and instructional activities when faculty were grouped by teaching fields; reward activities among years-of-experience groups. Significant differences of opinion were reported in all but the miscellaneous category when faculty were grouped by teaching field. Other significant differences were reported in career development among age groups, in leaves and grants among years-of-experience groups and in career development, reward and the miscellaneous category among campus groups. Based on the findings in the study, the following recommendations were made. The career development program should be broadened to appeal to faculty. Leaves and travel funds must be provided for faculty. International and instructional activities must be expanded to include appropriate activities for all teaching fields. Further study should be conducted in specific areas of professional growth to determine if these activities influence the effectiveness of faculty.

Job satisfaction and its related phenomena have been of considerable interest for many years. Review of the job satisfaction literature, however, revealed few studies which examined the job satisfaction of both full-time and parttime community college faculty. The purpose of the study was (1) to determine the level of job satisfaction among occupational-technical faculty in relation to ten factors based on Herzberg's et al. (1959) Motivation-Hygiene Theory and (2) to determine the relative difference of job satisfaction between full-time and part-time occupational-technical faculty in the Virginia Community College System. Specific research questions explored the level of job satisfaction, the level of job satisfaction among the ten factors of Herzberg's et al. (1959) Motivation-Hygiene Theory, and the proportion of variance in job satisfaction explained by selected demographic variables among full-time and part-time occupational-technical faculty in the Virginia Community College System. A total of 255 occupational-technical faculty were selected to participate in the study, 127 full-time and 128 part-time. These faculty were mailed a packet of survey materials containing a Data Form and a modified version of the Wood's Faculty Satisfaction/ Dissatisfaction Scale. The overall usable response rate was 70.2% (n=177). The response rate for the full-time occupational-technical faculty was 78.6% (n=99) while the response rate for the part-time occupational-technical faculty was 62.4% (n=78). Results of the study indicated that both the full-time and part-time occupational-technical faculty were generally satisfied with their jobs, 76.7% and 89.7% respectively. Both full-time and part-time occupational-technical faculty reported the highest level of satisfaction for the factor the work itself and the lowest level of satisfaction for the factor salary. Although both full-time and part-time occupational-technical faculty were generally satisfied with their jobs, the part-time faculty were more satisfied with their jobs than were their full-time counterparts. It should be noted, however, that the actual proportion of variance explained by status (i.e., full-time or part-time) was small and may not be of practical significance. Recommendations for local and state level administrators responsible for supervising full-time and part-time occupational-technical faculty were delineated. Recommendations for future research were described. / Ph. D.

This study examines the main research hypothesis that there is significant interaction between the effects of computer use/non-use and level of computer training among community college educators in the state of Texas regarding attitudes toward the implementation of administrative and instructional computing. A statewide survey was conducted with deans of instruction and full-time faculty members who represented the three academic transfer departments of natural/physical sciences, social science, and humanities/fine arts. Fifty-five deans of instruction and three hundred fifty-six faculty members participated in the study. A factor analysis of data from the questionnaires revealed four factors which were identified and labeled: Factor One: Computer Applications: Advantages and Disadvantages; Factor Two: Administrative Computer Applications: Advantages and Disadvantages; Factor Three: Apprehensions About Educational Computing; Factor Four: Situational Factors Associated With Computer Applications in Education. A 4x3x2 (professional position x level of computer training x level of computer experience) multivariate analysis of variance of both main and interaction effects was then performed within and across these factors.

The creation of a community of practice of tutors--a shared practice among a group of people who share the same domain--enables second-language learners to facilitate their acquisition of English by embracing new learning strategies while they learn the target language. The community of tutors’ perspective allows for the incorporation of the individual’s particular second-language-acquisition needs and goals. This presentation presents a proposed study that took place at the Yasuda Center at California State University, San Bernardino in the summer of 2015. Students in the English Language Program housed in the College of Extended Learning were asked to participate in tutoring sessions offered by tutors who participated in a community of tutors. Tutors embraced new teaching strategies that they acquired through participating within a community of practice, sharing their background knowledge and teaching experience, and demonstrating new teaching techniques to each other by using collaborative and hybrid strategies during activities embedded in a rich learning context. The provision of community of practice for tutors in the English Language Program enabled learners to develop meaning-making and communication skills as well as language and literacy skills to address the informational and problem-solving needs of their tasks and assignments.

Increasing diversity among community college students and the rising demand for a culturally competent workforce necessitate community college faculty across all disciplines to adjust their pedagogical choices to effectively serve diverse students while preparing all students for the new global era. The purpose of this narrative study was to explore what culturally competent pedagogies effective community college instructors use and reasons behind their choices. The study was conducted at a large community college in the Pacific Northwest. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with ten instructors teaching in different disciplines. In addition, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) was used to measure participants' intercultural competency. The findings revealed that the participants were cognizant of the growing diversity in their classes and made a number of pedagogical choices to accommodate their students' needs. The findings also revealed that the participants' teaching in the Humanities and the Adult Basic Skills departments had more latitude in engaging diversity and choosing materials to fit the needs of their students compared to science and vocational field instructors.