Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tennessee Technological University, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Feb. 24, 2010). Bibliography: leaves 54-59.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-68).

In the face of 21st century economic challenges, community colleges must contend with complex pressures on their mission. The dueling missions of academic transfer and workforce preparation must sustain and grow the American economy in a global market and simultaneously meet the promise to community college students— open access to quality higher education for all. In the midst of this challenging environment, community college faculty attitudes and awareness to mission challenges are often ignored. This study examined the macro-level effects of external pressures of the 21st century economy at the micro-level of full-time faculty at Texas community colleges. The study design followed a post-positivist paradigm and sought generalizeable data about full-time faculty from Texas community colleges. Quantitative data from an online survey were analyzed to determine faculty awareness of and attitudes toward the community college mission. The findings of the study show that faculty blur the boundaries of what traditionally have been considered workforce and academic roles. They are not well- informed about the range of pressures on the community college, but they are willing to integrate the academic and workforce mission and change in other ways to respond to challenges. They are generally supportive of the community college mission. Faculty teach with their students’ long-term interests in mind, including career preparation and lifelong learning, more than they teach to prepare their students for immediate work in the community. / text

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This thesis examines the link between background factors to educational attainment, discipline choice, how first job was found and income at that first job. Findings are based on results of a panel study of Ontario high school students. Using human capital theory and comparing and contrasting it with the radical and credentialist arguments, I create a model to further specify the contributing factors to the already well established link between education and jobs. The results produced from the interactive causal model indicate that past research has neglected certain variables while confounding others. Specifically, while the findings are generally consistent with other empirical work, they suggest that (i) education should be treated as a more differentiated variable, (ii) the role of networks in job search behaviour should be included, (iii) gender differences should be considered and, (iv) that non additive models will often provide a better description of the data. Finally, it is also suggested that future work explore the possibility that the relationship between job search behaviour and discipline choice can best be described using a non-recursive causal model.

In a study of perceptions of teaching and teaching improvement, data was collected from 68 CEGEP and university faculty members. Content analysis revealed that faculty members and faculty developers have different perceptions of the need for and the nature of teaching improvement, and that their improvement activities grow out of their perceptions of the critical variables, their controllability and stability. / Most faculty members reported doing some work on improving their teaching, but they were likely to engage in these activities only when they saw a problem and felt it was solvable; they used improvement services only when those services were seen as relevant and necessary to the solution (which was rare). / It was demonstrated that attribution theory and adult learning theory provide the theoretical bases for interpreting professors' descriptions of (a) the factors which limit their teaching effectiveness, (b) their own past and future improvement efforts and the usefulness of formal improvement strategies.

This study attempted to determine the nature and degree of the relationship between assertive behavior and the situational context in which the behavior occurs.Specifically, the independent variables were sex-of subject, sex of antagonist and familiarity of the subject with the antagonist. An attempt was also made to determine if assertiveness was related in some way to attitudes toward equality of the sexes.Results revealed that subjects were more assertive toward unfamiliar antagonists, the only significant interaction. There were also correlations between the degree of assertiveness and duration of response and between assertiveness and affect.

The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between selected individual factors and student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College. In the study, consideration was given to whether or not:1. The personal factors (sex, age, marital status and military status) are related to the student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.2. The academic factors (student classification, cumulative grade point average, major area of concentration in school, method of financing education and employment while attending college) are related to the student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.3. The socio-economic factors (size of high school graduating class, participation in varsity athletics, father's occupation, and hometown population) are related to the student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College. The major source for obtaining data was the "Administrator's Survey Instrument" which was in the form of a questionnaire administered to 500 full-time undergraduate students at Winona State College. The first section was concerned with the selected factors regarding each respondent and was designed to obtain information relative to the subject's personal, academic and socioeconomic background. The second section was designed to obtain data regarding student philosophy and opinions toward intercollegiate athletics and their source of funding at Winona State College.The chi-square test of independence was used to statistically examine the four hypotheses of the study to determine the statistically significant relationships between selected individual factors and student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.One primary and three subordinate null hypothesesPrimary HypothesisThere are no significant relationships between selected individual factors and student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.Subordinate Hypothesis AThere are no significant relationships between selected personal factors and student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.Subordinate Hypothesis BThere are no significant relationships between selected academic factors and student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.Subordinate Hypothesis CThere are no significant relationships between selected socio-economic factors and student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.Analysis of the data revealed that the three subordinate hypotheses could be rejected at the .05 level. In other words, there appears to be a relationship between selected personal, academic and socio-economic characteristics of the students and the opinions these students expressed about the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College. Twenty percent (20%) reached statistical significance in Subordinate Hypothesis A, nineteen percent (19%) reached statistical significance in Subordinate Hypothesis B, and eleven percent (11%) reached statistical significance in Subordinate Hypothesis C. Sixteen percent (16%) reached statistical significance in the Primary Hypothesis. On this basis, the Primary Hypothesis was rejected and it was concluded that there were statistically significant relationships between selected individual factors and student opinions regarding the funding of intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College.Results obtained from the study indicate the following recommendations relative to funding intercollegiate athletics at Winona State College: (1) continue support ofthe intercollegiate athletic program through the primary source of student fees, (2) continue aid to athletes based on need and for a four year period, (3) continue funding of intercollegiate athletics through student organizations, (4) recommend no increase of monies for additional recruiting of outstanding athletes, (5) recommend no increase of varsity athletic program, (6) provide additional money for national tournament participation, (7) continue to stabilize current team expenses for food, lodging and travel, (8) continue the conventional mode of travel (bus and car) and do not increase monies for air travel except when circumstances demand, (9) when curtailment of a sport is necessary within the athletic program, consider the elimination of the sports in the following order: golf, cross country, hockey, tennis, football, track, wrestling, swimming, baseball and basketball, (10) when teams qualify for national competition, continue to fund them for participation nationally, (11) coaches salaries not to be funded from student fees, (12) permit students to have an option relative to purchasing the student activity ticket for extra-curricular events, (13) when a reduction of the yearly allocation comes about, consider such actions as requiring student admission fees to each home athletic event, limit the size of traveling squads for all sports, eliminate spring football, reduce food and lodging allowances and reduce the travel distances for all teams.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes survey instruments. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 63-68)