If schools were strongholds of intellect, the most academically able would be stars. Gifted kids often have trouble with school; academically uninterested kids enjoy cult-hero status; and the humanities are undervalued. Schools' purpose has been to train future employees and consumers, not create intellectual citizens. (MLH)

Since the end of the Cold War, federal funding for research at American universities has sharply decreased, leaving administrators searching for a new benefactor. At the same time, changes in federal policy permitting universities to patent, license, and profit from their discoveries combined with the emergence of new fields that thinned the lines…

In "One Hundred Semesters", William Chace mixes incisive analysis with memoir to create an illuminating picture of the evolution of American higher education over the past half century. Chace follows his own journey from undergraduate education at Haverford College to teaching at Stillman, a traditionally African-American college in…

The proliferation of open technologies and content in higher education is motivated by broad embrace of a principle of sharing that is consonant with various contemporary economic, pedagogic and policy drivers. At the same time, open technologies and content present the possibility of a departure in the culture of humanities research and teaching.…

For many students, the community college is the first and perhaps only place where technological and humanities instruction will be articulated. It is suggested that technology has never been far from the set of practices, usually academic, called "humanities" and the boundary between the two has long been unstable and contested. However, while…

Outlines are presented for the courses that make up the three-tiered general education program at Los Medanos College. Part 1 provides background on the Los Medanos model and includes a position paper on the criteria and format for a Tier I course. Part 2 provides outlines for Tier I courses, which focus on providing a breadth of knowledge in six…

While ability to read and think critically is the very basis of post-secondary education, increasing numbers of college students lack these skills. A sequence of two courses in critical reading and thinking are currently offered in the Concentrated Studies program at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania. In these courses, students who are…

This issue of "Focus" includes seven essays addressing various concerns related to community college curriculum, instruction, and instructors. "Money, and the Good of Humanities," by Dr. Demont H. Howell, explores the utility of humanities education in preparing students for coping with the present and the future. "Teaching High Level Thinking in…

Views on the impact of women's studies and the feminist perspective in scholarship in the humanities and social sciences are presented in nine essays. Each essay concludes that while women's studies has the potential power to transform the academic disciplines, it has yet to alter college and university curricula. A second theme that emerged from…

Designed for educational policymakers and researchers, this volume on global issues is divided into four sections. The four essays in the first section, "Reducing the Nuclear Peril," offer a brief documentary survey and then present practical suggestions and action plans to reduce the nuclear threat. The eight papers in the second…

Information on the employment status of recent science, engineering, and humanities doctorate recipients is presented, with special emphasis on the 1973-1976 graduates. The primary data source is the 1981 Survey of Doctorate Recipients, which is appended. Attention is directed to the increasing number of Ph.D.s awarded over the last decade or two,…

Twenty-three conference papers related to the topic of women and curriculum are presented. Keynote addresses have been grouped together in the first section to provide an overview of the field of women's studies. Papers covering research about women in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities are grouped together in Part II. The text…

A program designed to improve the reading, writing, and thinking skills of low achieving poverty level high school juniors was developed for use in a Pennsylvania high school. The program uses the Pennsylvania Reading Comprehension Plan's four critical experiences of (1) responding to literature, (2) self-selected and sustained silent reading, (3)…

The relationship between the costs of central administration and academic teaching and research production was studied, based on a large sample of British universities and a separate analysis of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. To determine variables important to central administration costs, a cross-sectional and intertemporal regression…

To revitalize humanities courses and to improve student thinking, a workshop for faculty members of the University of the Sacred Heart (Puerto Rico) will cover two models of collaborative learning, collaborative group work and peer criticism. In collaborative group work, students should be able to learn how to reach a consensus about a specific…