This study examined curriculum planning strategies at four Massachusetts community colleges: Massachusetts Bay Community College, Bunker Hill Community College, Roxbury Community College and Middlesex Community College. This examination was done through an interview process conducted throughout 1990. The interviewees were three knowledgeable officials at each of the four community colleges. The interviews were conducted in person and lasted approximately two hours each. It was the goal of the interview process to have interviewers respond to a number of questions related to the planning strategies used currently in the context of curriculum development, labor force preparation, and the emerging technological economy and questions related to planning strategies being contemplated for the future in the context of curriculum development, labor force preparation and the emerging technological economy. The data from these qualitative interviews were summarized, analyzed, and compared. Additionally, this study gathered data from five-year plans of each community college. Points stressed by those interviewed were compiled in the section on "Findings". From the "Findings," conclusions were drawn relative to the subject of this dissertation. It is interesting to note that while many might not fully have appreciated the reality, community colleges are now and will likely continue to be significantly involved in remediation as a component of their respective missions.

This case study examined the development, implementation, and assessment of a staff development project created to facilitate teachers' instruction of elementary students who speak Black English. Staff development procedures took place utilizing an action research approach. The presenter/researcher examined strategies and methods for promoting school improvement within an elementary school serving African-American students. Successful staff development depended on voluntary participation by teachers who found the information and activities of use in their classrooms. The project demonstrated a low-cost, school-based approach to staff development. The researcher collected information about the needs of teachers and investigated numerous studies about the effects of negative attitudes of teachers toward Black English usage within classrooms and the potential solutions to this problem. Three workshops focused on the definition of Black English, effects of negative attitudes toward Black English, the issues of correction, reading and writing instruction, linguistic self-esteem, and whole language approaches. Staff development workshops generated enthusiasm and positive evaluations from school district administrators, the building principal, auxiliary staff, and the participants. Staff development procedures permitted (1) individual teachers who were uncertain about how to address the needs of Black English speakers to attend workshops, (2) a school-based project to involve volunteers, (3) peer-group interactions and sharing of ideas and knowledge among colleagues and administrators, (4) increased morale among teachers and students, (5) personal and professional growth of teachers, and (6) development of teaching strategies and methods that address the needs of students.

This case study describes how the culture of a faculty at a junior-senior public high school was influenced by a grass roots initiative of restructuring. The efforts at educational change centered on a move toward detracking their once rigidly grouped classrooms. While a growing body of research literature looks at students in reorganized schools, particularly those that have undergone a process of detracking, this study adds to the relatively little work done regarding how these processes involve the culture teachers share. Utilizing interviewing, participant observation, school based documents and peer review this qualitative research offers perspectives of what change in the structure of a school can mean to those who work in the school. It draws a theoretical framework of understanding from the fields of Education and the Sociology of Education. Changes in the culture of a group of teachers is the focus of this work with the process of detracking providing an ever present back drop. The dissertation addresses how cultural change redefined personal perspectives and meanings shared by educators in a small school. These new meanings created an going dialogue about the role of those educators in issues such as school-wide leadership, in-school professionalism, serving as professional development specialists for hundreds of other educators and teacher empowerment. Finally this work presents how the work-day world of teacher's became a "crucible of change", forcing many educators to continually redefine what it meant to be a teacher.

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This dissertation reports findings from a sociolinguistic ethnography that examined relationships between literacy practices and personhood. The study involved the formulation of a writing club at an urban middle school, involving a multiracial group of women from the lowest academic track; two were described as special education students. They researched and wrote about their communities, investigating questions of personal concern about issues of racism and sexism. Students interviewed community members, including artists, organizers, neighbors, and peers. Students wrote up and published their findings. I collected data on the writing project, including forty-five hours of taped data. Analysis involved thematic and textual analyses of the students' written artifacts, and microanalysis of videotaped events. A microethnographic analysis examined sociolinguistic processes that research suggested is important. Attention was paid to the social construction of intertextuality during writing activities. The findings show that the nature of literacy practices and personhood is such that they are continuously and inherently constructed within particular fields of intertextual semantic potentials. These intertextual potentials are described along five dimensions: (1) ways students' definitions of personhood changed over the course of the project, (2) strategies students, community members, and myself used to position students, (3) how the project's structure positioned students, (4) community literacy practices and how they positioned people, (5) how students used community literacy practices to position themselves and others. The student's definitions of personhood changed. The established field of intertextual semantic potentials was influenced by changes in literacy practices that led to changes in literacy practices that led to changes in the students' definitions of writing, their views about themselves and life in the community. Literacy practices established in the writing project built on ones students encountered as they researched their communities. Community members shared ways of acting for social justice, including the importance of reclaiming cultural heritage, learning history from the community's perspective, analyzing multiple forms of oppression. Students' ethnographic research helped them reflect on their communities by enhancing their understanding of the cultural dynamics in which they live. Students recreated methods and theoretical frameworks to address the issue of personhood as students, as community members, and as ethnographers of their own communities.

The increase of HIV/AIDS patients requiring health care has direct implications for dental hygiene education programs and effective college teaching in those programs. Little documentation of the issues of HIV in dental hygiene education and practice have occurred. Research design was exploratory, quantitative and descriptive. A mail questionnaire was conducted on all 1992 Massachusetts dental hygiene program graduates. Response rate was 70%. Results of data analysis with respect to HIV/AIDS attitudes and educational process indicate that program graduates: (a) are willing to provide care to HIV/AIDS patients despite a perception of high risk for occupational exposure due to their work, (b) believe faculty influenced their attitudes about providing care to HIV patients, (c) want more educational opportunities to interact with psycho-social elements of HIV, (d) want interactive, two-way dialogue approaches to learning about HIV/AIDS as well as traditional lecture formats, (e) define the interpersonal and relational elements in effective college teaching as important in this learning context, and that (f) no one AIDS education experience made a difference in terms of attitudes toward providing care but a combination of multiple experiences did influence attitudes toward HIV. Negative attitudes were held about receiving care from HIV infected dental hygiene practitioners and about working in an office that employs an HIV positive hygienist. Risk from HIV/AIDS had not caused the respondents to consider leaving the field of dental hygiene. Findings contribute to dental hygiene and other health care educator work in policy, curriculum, and faculty development and suggest that multiple and multi-dimensional AIDS education experiences be included in the curriculum, that faculty development in HIV/AIDS education and effective college teaching occur, and that communication of program HIV/AIDS philosophies, policies, and protocols be included in clinical handbooks and regular faculty-student communication vehicles. Suggestions for further study include replication of the study with additional classes of graduates as well as national and different geographic region samples, assessment of HIV/AIDS education experiences and instructional methodologies in dental hygiene education programs, and qualitative research on how HIV/AIDS clinical treatment experiences affect learner knowledge, skill and value about providing health care.

Most Haitians in the U.S. area have immigrated over the past three decades, with the largest number of arrival coming in the late 1970's through the mid 1980's. Boston has one of the largest Haitian student populations in the U.S. following Miami and New York City. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of English language development among Haitian immigrant ninth graders participating in Boston's transitional bilingual education. Two major research questions guided this study: (1) What is the effectiveness of oral English language-use among ninth grade Haitian immigrant students in selected bilingual classrooms? (2) What is the effectiveness of English reading among ninth grade Haitian immigrant students in selected bilingual classrooms? Three High schools with transitional bilingual education programs totalling ninety-one Haitian ninth grade students participated in the study. Twenty five students were randomly selected as subjects for the study. A pre- and post-test comparison and an analysis of students' oral and reading scores were done to obtain a preliminary quantifiable impression of the students' growth in English language development over a period of time. Using Halliday's (1973) seven functions of language, classroom observations of students oral English language-use were recorded and analyzed to determine the students' ability to communicate effectively in different classroom contexts. Miscue analyses through a series of reading activities were performed to provide valuable insights into the nature of the reading process and gain appreciation for readers' strengths as well as weaknesses. Over three hundred and fifty hours of classroom observations and reading miscue activities with (N = 25) Haitian immigrant ninth graders reveal that subjects do not differ markedly in their oral and reading effectiveness in English. Although individual differences among subjects in oral and reading effectiveness existed; however, only a minority of students (N = 5/25) in (oral language) and (N = 1/4) in reading did not show positive gains in language effectiveness. Overall, many of the subjects show positive gains in English. Thus, they have the ability to use oral and reading English effectively to succeed academically.

<p> This study sought to address the challenge of interesting university professors in adopting more deliberate and integrated approaches to course design through a multi-case study of five professors in the liberal arts at a top-tier research university. Professors watched video-recorded interviews with five of their own past students who were graduates of the university. The researcher interviewed the professors before and after they viewed the alumni feedback. Professors were asked to reflect on what most surprised and concerned them in the interviews and if and how they were inclined or disinclined to alter their courses. Professors were also asked to compare feedback from alumni to feedback from students. Central findings related to the research questions were that: (a) professors&rsquo; views of their course and course design changed after receiving feedback from their alumni; (b) professors perceived a need to alter their course design when they received surprising and concerning feedback from alumni; (c) but, feedback needed to be sufficiently concerning for professors to be inclined to alter their course designs, and (d) even then, several factors disinclined professors to follow through on changes. These factors opposing change include professors&rsquo; recollections of their college experiences, lack of pedagogical and course design knowledge, and university disincentives to focus on teaching. Professors appreciated hearing from the alumni because alumni had longer-term and more real world perspective than current students and were unconcerned about grades. Professors uniformly disliked, and to a great extent disregarded, student feedback from course evaluations because surveys are anonymous and lack context about who is making a comment and why. In contrast, the alumni interviews allowed professors to see and hear personalized feedback that provided context for which individual said what. Several additional findings emerged from the research. These were: (a) professors developed courses based on limited understanding of what students retained in a course; (b) professors relied considerably on their own educational experiences and on trial and error in creating courses and in their teaching; and (c) professors&rsquo; dislike of course evaluations made them skeptical of student feedback. These findings have potential significance for professors, faculty developers, universities, and students because they suggest an avenue for impacting faculty attitudes about their course design by planting seeds of curiosity about the link between design and course impact. Findings also support the use of alumni interviews as a tool for collecting feedback and existing evidence that faculty development efforts are best when they are personal, context-specific, and endure over time. Because this was a small exploratory study, repeating the alumni interview approach with more faculty and alumni is recommended.</p>

<p> This thesis reviews literature researching creative thinking and applies the findings in a curriculum designed to develop creativity in elementary age students in the U.S. Educators and business leaders recognize creativity as a key need for 21^st century success, but creativity scores have been going down. Since current research shows correlations between creative thinking, questioning strategies, and contextual connections, teachers need to weave these processes into instruction. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards recognized the importance of creativity and proposed new national standards which include 4 key components: creating, responding, presenting and connecting. This six-unit curriculum synthesizes the new National Visual Arts Standards (NVAS), questioning strategies, and contextual connections to increase creativity in elementary school students in the United States. </p>

Published Article / The economic value of tourism makes it an attractive sector for commerce. Ethiopia has experienced rapid changes during the last decade and can be regarded the leading economic stimulator of the Horn of Africa. The challenge is therefore not only to develop tourism in a sustainable way so that a growing population can be fed, but simultaneously to create better livelihoods for millions of people. The primary objective is to develop an overall education, training and multi-disciplinary research plan for Ethiopian universities with an integrated gender perspective in the field of (eco) tourism, taking into account the professional and/or educational needs of the labour market and the demand-driven research needs of relevant external stakeholders in Ethiopia. Specific plans for universities with regard to training courses, study programmes and demand-driven research programmes will be developed, while explicitly avoiding overlap and overprovision of the afore-mentioned courses and programmes at national level.