Describes the Characteristics of Adult Students in Higher Education (CASHE) instumentation strategy for the self-evaluation of faculty members' beliefs and knowledge regarding adult learners. Reports preliminary results on the use of this self-test among community college and university personnel. Includes the CASHE instrument. (Author/PAA)

A study investigated the teaching characteristics on which medical students, residents, and faculty focus in their assessment of teaching and how they arrive at their assessments of teaching quality. Results indicate the important predictors of ratings were clinical competence, demonstrated sensitivity toward patients and families, and recognition…

Explores role of college textbooks in students' acquisition of special disciplinary literacy, focusing on use of metadiscourse as manifestation of writer's linguistic and rhetorical presence in a text. Features are compared from 21 textbook extracts in microbiology, marketing, and applied linguistics with similar corpus of research articles,…

A survey of 196 freshmen seeking to identify noncognitive variables influencing pre-college decision making, satisfaction with the freshman experience, and academic confidence found that academically underprepared students were older, went to college later, reported more satisfaction with academic advising, and were less accepting of American…

A study investigated the effect of adding a writing measure to the Graduate Management Admission Test on the gender/ethnic composition of an admissions pool. Standardized differences from the white male reference group were computed for men and women in four ethnic/minority groups: Whites, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, and…

Two clinical courses for first-year dental students were designed to develop students' interaction skills through actual patient case presentations and discussions and an interdisciplinary teaching approach. Results indicate students preferred the case presentations, with or without lecture, to the lecture-only approach and felt they learned more…

A study investigated the influence of academic discipline (biology, mathematics, psychology, history), gender, age, highest degree earned, and administrative experience on the espousal of community college teaching norms held by 265 community college faculty. Results indicate gender, discipline, and professional experience exert statistically…

Contrasted role of ethnic labels and identity in predicting drug use among seventh graders. Found that minority students with strong ethnic pride reported less drug use/exposure than those with weak pride; ethnically proud White students reported more. Minority students who viewed themselves as consistent with their ethnic group reported more drug…

Data from an annual survey on higher education degrees awarded to minority group members are summarized and presented. From 1988-89 to 1992-93, the increase in degrees awarded to minorities has outpaced those conferred on whites. Institutional ratings, based on number of degrees conferred, are presented for baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral…

Assessed effects of social risks on psychological adjustment of African American and black South African 6- year-olds. Confirmed poverty and gender as risk factors; but not single-female family headship. Found that poverty and gender posed less risk for South Africans than African Americans. Found gender and national differences in adjustment;…

A study of working conditions of black and white faculty (n=138) at all English-language, historically-white universities in South Africa found no differences by race or gender in ratings of the importance of routine employee and faculty fringe benefits. However, interviews revealed subtle distinctions. Attitudes toward various workload activities…

This article summarizes the findings of the National Research Council (NRC) report "On Evaluating Curricular Effectiveness" and examines the reviews in middle grades mathematics undertaken by the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The NRC report reviewed and assessed 147 key evaluations of 13 National Science Foundation-supported K-12 mathematics…

Deviant behaviour and victimization at school have been consistently related to poor psychological adjustment in adolescents. This research explores the mediating role that parents and teachers have in adolescent psychological distress in 973 Spanish students aged 11-16 years old. Structural equation analyses results showed that adolescent deviant…

During adolescence, one important career-related decision is the choice of a study in higher education. In this article, a new set of measures for different tasks (i.e., orientation, exploration, commitment) that can be distinguished during this career decision-making process was constructed: the Study Choice Task Inventory (SCTI). A sample of 946…

This study examined the impact of background, aspirations, achievement, college experiences, and price on the persistence of first-generation (F-gen) and continuing generation (C-gen) college students at 4-year institutions using the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study of 1995-96 (n = 24,262). The authors found differences between the two…