Digital Commons Network^™

The Need For Classroom Research, K. Patricia Cross

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The single most important question in higher education for the rest of this decade will be, I think-What can and should be done to improve the quality of undergraduate education?

The reports that constitute the higher educational reform movement of the 1980s have taken as their major mission the improvement of undergraduate education. Most of the recommendations have to do with what is taught, i.e. the curriculum. Some seem to think that is where the problem lies-that students don't learn what they should learn in college. I am inclined to think, however, that how students are taught is even more …

Strengthening Faculty Development Programs Through Evaluation, Ann Ferren, Kay Mussell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Theoretical Framework for Program Evaluation

Methods and Data Sources

Findings

Implications

Conclusions

References

A Marketing Approach To Conducting Successful Workshop-Based Programs For Faculty, Linda Hilsen, Emily (Rusty) Wadsworth, Judy Cohen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A Marketing Orientation: The Key to Successful Workshops

Marketing Research: Identifying the Needs of Your Target Market

Marketing Your Workshop: Planning, Implementation and Control

Planning: Product

Product: Choosing a Presenter

Product: Getting the Presenter Ready

Product: Choosing a Format, Length, and Date

Planning: Promotion

Planning: Place

Implementation

Implementation: Place

Implementation: Product

Control

Conclusion

Notes

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Faculty Collaboration For Better Teaching: Adult Learning Principles Applied To Teaching Improvement, Elizabeth A. Mcdaniel

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Rationale

Adult Learning Principles

The Instructional Improvement Model

Illustrations of the Model

Summary

References

Colleagues As Catalysts For Change In Teaching, Robert J. Menges

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The Feedback Seeker

The Relationship Between Feedback Giver and Feedback Seeker

The Feedback Message

Costs

Programmatic Issues

Three Program Examples

Training

Rewards

Conclusion

References

Part I: Research - Toward A Research Agenda On Classroom Teaching

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this volume, we continue our custom of publishing the keynote address from our annual fall conference. This year, Harvard educator K. Patricia Cross, most familiar to us through her work on non-traditional students, proposes a non-traditional approach to teaching improvement. She suggests that by empirically investigating questions that arise from their own teaching experiences, faculty can improve their teaching and revitalize themselves as educators. Although we've titled this section "research," it really incorporates elements of reflection, conceptualization, and practice into an argument in favor of faculty-generated research on teaching.

Part Iii: Conceptualizations - Models For Program Planning

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this section, we present a spectrum of articles illustrating professional and organizational development practice informed by the theory, research, and methodology of many disciplines. These articles share a theme that characterizes our organization as well as emerging thought in many of the disciplines from which we borrow: the value of collaborative action as a vehicle for improving teaching and enhancing program effectiveness.

Part Iv: Practice-Improving Teaching And Learning

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We come now to the practice of teaching improvement, the bread-and-butter of most faculty development programs. The articles in this section describe programs that range in purpose from training foreign teaching assistants to offering Supplemental Instruction without benefit of a "Supplemental Budget."

It's Working: A Training Program For Foreign Teaching Assistants, Rosslyn M. Smith, C. Len Ainsworth

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

National Awareness

Program Description

Goals

Admission

Pre-Screening

Testing

Curriculum

Materials Used

Administration and Staff

Results and Follow-Up

In Summary

References

Notes

Administrative Leadership Styles And Teacher Job Satisfaction: A Study Of Secondary Schools In Imo State, Nigeria., Amos E. Ozumba

Dissertations (Pre-2016)

None

Board Of Regents’ And Board Of Trustees Perceptions Of Current And Desired Goals Of Black Colleges And Universities In The State Of Texas., Sandra F. Cornelius

Dissertations (Pre-2016)

None

An Analysis Of Middle Level School Principals' Conceptual Systems In Relation To Student Academic Achievement, Lois V. Cunningham

Dissertations (Pre-2016)

None

Teacher Competency Testing And Teaching Performance, John C. Madu

Dissertations (Pre-2016)

None

Evaluation Of The Language Arts Curriculum In Cerro Gordo Community Unit School District #100, Keith Ashcraft

Masters Theses

Cerro Gordo Community Unit School District #100 in Cerro Gordo, Illinois has a student population of approximately 700 pupils. The schools are located within Cerro Gordo, a village of 1600 residents, but gain students from surrounding areas in the ninety-nine square mile district. Most of the parents are employed in farming or in Decatur which is twelve miles to the east.

During the 1985-86 school year teachers were surveyed as to what academic area needed evaluation. The teachers selected language arts as the subject for study. A committee of volunteers was formed and began meeting.

The researcher served as committee …

Educational Leadership: A Study Of Graduates Of Eastern Illinois University's Educational Administration Program, Elizabeth L. Smith

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of graduates from Eastern Illinois University’s Educational Administration program as to how effective their preparation was in preparing them for the role as instructional/educational leader.

A survey was developed and distributed to 214 Educational Administration students who graduated between 1982 and 1986. The data collected was broken down into three different categories to study: Female and Male Graduates, Teacher and Administrative Graduates and Graduates before 1983 and after 1985. A response rate of 42% was obtained.

An independent t test was utilized to compare the mean scores for the Foundations …

Personal, Professional, And Educational Characteristics Of Illinois Women Superintendents In 1987, Joyce Simpson Kaufman

Masters Theses

This study reviewed the personal, professional, and educational characteristics of the Illinois women superintendents in 1987. A questionnaire was mailed to the twenty-two women superintendents. Eighteen of them replied.

The three specific problems addressed by the study were:

1. What are the personal, professional, and educational characteristics of Illinois women superintendents in 1987?

2. What are the special problems encountered by women superintendents?

3. What advice do the present women superintendents in Illinois offer to women aspiring to become superintendents?

The responses were based on the perceptions of the eighteen women superintendents who replied. The questionnaire results were reported in …

Contract Negotiations With Classified Personnel In Selected Illinois Public Schools, Frederick Dee Wiley

Masters Theses

This study examined the current status of collective bargaining between boards of education and classified educational employees in eighteen selected Illinois public schools. The collective bargaining agreements from the respondent school districts were examined and data were researched and collected concerning items currently impacting the negotiations process. The results of the study indentified information with regard to the following areas of the collective bargaining agreements: 1. Union affiliation of the employee bargaining units. 2. Classification of the employees covered by the collective bargaining agreements. 3. The duration of the contracts currently in force. 4. Fair share as an issue currently …

A Study Of Perceptions Of Superintendents Of Illinois Public School Districts That Had Teacher Strikes During The 1984-85 School Year, James E. Mcnellis

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of public school superintendents before, during, and after the teacher strikes in the state of Illinois during the 1984-85 school year regarding: teacher organizations, negotiations personnel and influences, progression of events related to the strike (before, during, and after the strike), issues that contributed to the strike, time spent working on strike-related activities, terms and conditions of contract settlement, and cost of the strike. The 1984-85 school year was selected for this study because this was the first year teachers could legally conduct strikes in the state of Illinois after …

A Curriculum Review And Coordination And Articulation Study Of The Niantic-Harristown Unit School District #6, David O. Bills

Masters Theses

Reform of the public schools is a major issue in Illinois today. Numerous reports claim that public education is mediocre at best. These reports have fostered public concern that has led to a call for school accountability that has caused those involved in education to take a close look at their schools. In this atmosphere of school accountability, a careful and thorough examination of the school curriculum by the local administration can be useful.

Strong instructional leadership from the Superintendent of Schools in a local school district is an important characteristic of an effective school. In the face of state …

The Understanding Of The Roles And Responsibilities Of The Administrators And Board Of Education Members In Schools In The Diocese Of Peoria, Dennis J. Smith

Masters Theses

Purpose

There are specific tasks which are assigned to the board of education and the administrator in policies adopted by the Commission on Education for the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. The purpose of this study was to discover how informed or uninformed administrators and board members in the Diocese of Peoria are in understanding their authority and responsibilities. Lack of understanding of the assigned roles may represent a need for in-service or training on role and responsibility clarification.

Procedure

Administrators and board/commission members completed a survey which identified baseline characteristics, revealed a perception of the working relationship between administrators and …

Graduate Academic Catalog (1987-88), University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Graduate Catalogs

This Graduate Catalog is provided by the Graduate Faculty of the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the hope that it will be a source of information to you on the graduate programs available through our University. We are proud of our University and of its programs. We encourage you to become acquainted with us and with the many resources available to the community through the University. We have hied to include as much information as possible, but obviously we could not include everything. If you have questions which are not answered here, please feel free to call on the …

Retention: The Fourth R, Retention Perception And Practices In The Kennewick School District, Steven G. Linn

All Graduate Projects

A descriptive study was conducted by means of a questionnaire to determine what the Kennewick School District teachers and principals perceived the official district policy to be regarding nonpromotion of a student. The results showed that principals had a clear understanding of the policy while half of the responding teachers did not. Retention practices were investigated and it was found that 74 students were retained for the year 1987 by teachers, with principals reporting 31 retentions district-wide. Criteria for nonpromotion decision making was identified and ranked in order of frequency used by both teachers and principals. Communication of the district …

Registration And Pre-Conference Materials

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Conference Materials

Letter, by Karron G. Lewis, Ph.D. (1987 POD Conference Coordinator)

Conference Registration Form (Registration Fees, 1987-88 POD Membership, Ground Transportation, Room Sharing Information, Pre-Conference Workshop Registration)

Pre-Conference Workshops

Response Form for Materials Exchange Room

The Relationship Between The Individual's Educational And Professional Backgrounds And The 1985 Florida Merit Program, James Roger Dearing

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This research was designed to investigate whether there are any significant relationships between the individual's educational and professional backgrounds and the 1985 Florida Master Teacher Program. This study included information collected on 2,245 (72%) respondents out of 3,390 teachers who were selected as meritorious in Florida's 1985 program.

Two instruments were used in data collection. One was the set of Frame Factor Data which was obtained from the Merit Teachers' Summative Observation forms. The Frame Factor Data included: method of classroom presentation, number of students in the observed classes, number of students in upper and lower academic quartiles, number of …

An Assessment Of Florida Community College Presidents' Acceptance Of Quality Indicators, George Cameron Barcus

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This report describes a study that was conducted to determine the perceived degree of usefulness the indicators of progress toward excellence have for the presidents of Florida's 28 community colleges. This study reports this degree of perceived usefulness by using a survey instrument that identified quality indicators developed by the State Board of Community Colleges, Florida Department of Education.

Based on a project design and format adapted by the Florida Community/Junior College Inter-Institutional Research Council, this study proposed to identify what information (indicators of progress toward excellence) is considered most valid to the presidents of Florida's community colleges in making …

The Identification And Comparison Of Effective Merit Pay Factors By Central Florida Public School Educators, Richard K. Bommelje

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this survey was to identify and compare the specific factors relating to merit pay that teachers, principals, and superintendents in Central Florida would accept in the development and implementation of a merit pay plan. A questionnaire, based on an instrument that was used in a previous study on merit pay factors in 1970, was developed that consisted of 38 factors. A five-point ordinal scale was used to measure the educators' degree of acceptance for each factor. There were 14 Central Florida school districts that participated in the survey including 433 teachers, 211 principals, and 12 superintendents. The …

Undergraduate Catalog (1987-1988), University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Undergraduate Catalogs

The University of Nebraska at Omaha is a fully-accredited, four-year, public university located in the heart of Nebraska's largest city. Approximately 15,000 full- and part-time students are enrolled in day and evening classes, making UNO the second largest higher education campus in the state.

Writing Apprehension: Can An Individualized Approach Help?, Elizabeth B. Loftin

Theses and Dissertations

This study was a descriptive investigation of the effects of the Individualized Language Arts (ILA) program חס writing apprehension. Subjects were 152 eighth graders enrolled in a middle school. The subjects were from five language arts classes and were taught writing during the 1986-87 school year by the Individualized Language Art's (ILA) program. The data gathering instrument for this study was the Daly-Miller Test of Writing Apprehension (WAT), administered in August, 1986 as a pretest and again in the spring of 1987 as a posttest. Between the pre and posttests, students were instructed by the ILA, a method of teaching …

The Effects Of A Freshman Orientation Course On Academic Achievement And Retention, Daniel J. Kelly

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Freshman business administration students were placed into an extended orientation course during their first semester of enrollment at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The 60 course participants met twice a week for fifteen weeks in a 55-minute class spending approximately 20% of class time in each of the following: (a) lecture; (b) skill exercises; (c) group discussion; (d) guest speaker presentations; and (e) a combination of reviews, quizzes, previews, and assignments. The purpose of the course was to provide students with information and the opportunity to acquire skills to help them to be more successful in college.

Following the end of their …

Growth Contracting In The Small College, Patrick Allen

Faculty Publications - College of Education

Hard times are producing nothing less than a complete change in the character of our institutions of higher learning. Every aspect of their work is being affected.