At the College of the Canyons in California, the majority of faculty are adjunct instructors, many of whom have had little formal background in teaching. In an effort to support these faculty and to assure the quality of instruction, the Associate Program for Adjunct Instructors was instituted. The program emphasizes the development and evaluation…

A study examined the information collected by the Department of Defense on both the quality of its new recruits and the effectiveness of its training in preparing recruits to operate in a technologically sophisticated environment. It found that data were collected at a recruit's entrance to military life, during and upon completion of formal…

Teacher effectiveness literature has supported the contention that a recurring theme in examining the qualities and attributes that constitute effective teachers is the use of humor in the classroom. However, most of the research did not appear to consider the potential differential effects on the students' perceptions of teachers' use of humor…

In this study, different educator groups had to rank a total of 112 behaviors that had previously been judged to be important to the performance of first-year teachers. Focus was on determining which behaviors are important in the assessment of beginning teachers' performance and whether or not such assessment should be differentiated according to…

In July 1989, Rio Salado Community College established an Adjunct Faculty Staffing and Development Program (AFSDP) with the following goals: to insure excellence in instruction through content consistency and the use of effective teaching and learning strategies; to increase adjunct faculty identification with the college and appreciation of the…

West Virginia Northern Community College provided workplace literacy education and training for employees of Weirton Steel Corporation and Union Carbide Corporation. For Weirton Steel the training included 4,040 hours of instruction in fundamental literacy skills (reading, writing, speaking, and math), oral and written communications (including…

Case studies of a wide variety of state and local job related education and training programs revealed enough about the range of coordination activities nationally to permit generalizations about the current state of coordination. In a 2-year effort to examine the coordination of vocational education and Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)…

In 1990, a research study was conducted to discover which variables students identified as being significant to their academic success, first at Mt. San Antonio Community College (MSAC), then after they transferred to the California State University (CSU) or to the University of California (UC). An important goal of the study was to determine if…

Grade inflation is a serious problem in multisectioned speech communication courses, and one of its principal causes is a desire for positive student evaluations and high enrollments on the part of professors and economically insecure departments (who need the funding generated by high enrollments). Positive student evaluations have been found to…

In spring 1987, Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) conducted a survey to determine employer satisfaction with the college's occupational/technical graduates. Survey forms were sent to the employers of 62 graduates who had previously granted permission for their employers to be contacted. Study findings, based on responses from 50…

A study examined the impact of a simulated aging experience on nursing staff perceptions of job satisfaction and job performance. It was hypothesized that nurses and nurse aides who participated in the simulated aging experience would be more satisfied with their jobs and would receive fewer complaints from residents than those who did not…

This paper, which highlights the findings of a recently completed doctoral dissertation, attempts to: (1) identify the desirable professional competencies of superintendents as perceived by South Dakota school board members and superintendents, themselves; and (2) determine which competencies, when performed unsatisfactorily, are the most common…

This study tested the hypothesis that there is no significant difference in reading achievement among children in grades 2 through 5 related to family structure. Researchers administered the Stanford Achievement Test to 119 students in an Alabama city suburban school system. Of the sample, 69 children lived in intact families and 50 lived in…

Two methods to improve the teaching performance of clinical teaching physicians were studied: an intensive feedback method and a seminar. Both methods were designed to help clinical teachers analyze their teaching and implement more effective teaching methods. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected early and late in each attending…

As part of the United States Army's Project A, research has been conducted to develop and field test a battery of experimental tests to complement the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery in predicting soldiers' job performance. Project A is the United States Army's large-scale manpower effort to improve selection, classification, and…