Designing effective student retention programs is of critical importance from both a completion and a monetary standpoint. However, oftentimes colleges attempt to use nationally developed models rather than institutional-specific data to identify potential factors involved in student attrition. At a Midwestern community college, research…

This qualitative study via an action research design explored adjunct faculty pedagogical perceptions at Butler County Community College (BC3) in Butler, Pennsylvania. Based on a preliminary study by the researcher, adjunct survey data was analyzed to determine if there was a need for pedagogy training and, if so, what adjuncts believed that…

In spring 1981, resources were allocated for the establishment of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, which would coordinate strategies to improve methods of instruction and learning in the community colleges of the United States. The emphasis of the Center is on the development of strategies that require relatively small…

Describes the evolution of Stetson University's More Effective Teaching Program (MET) from a writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) faculty development program to a voluntary collaborative learning and teaching project. Focuses on the grassroots work of a faculty committee to design and maintain the research-based program. (DMM)

The current perception of faculty tenure as a guarantee of a job for life can impede the removal of teachers who do not perform up to standards. Such faculty, however, can have an extremely negative effect on overall college quality, and studies have shown that community college faculty do support post-tenure evaluation if it is responsibly…

In response to a low passing rate in a general psychology course taught at Howard Community College (MD), as well as to student and instructor dissatisfaction with the course, a systems model was developed and applied to improve course quality. The development of the model involved nine steps: (1) enumerating precise skill objectives which could…

To improve basic skills instructor training in North Carolina's 58 community colleges, the Department of Community Colleges funded a 3-year Adult Basic Skills Training Project. It was designed to develop a cadre of local trainers who could meet the training and development needs of basic skills instructors at each community college. Adult basic…

In 1989, the Focus on Access, Community, and Excellence in Teaching (FACET) Commission was created at St. Petersburg Junior College (SPJC) to develop recommendations to guide the college into the 21st century. The Commission's work plan included the definition of SPJC's educational standards; open hearings to solicit ideas from students, faculty,…

This quarterly publication serves as a medium for the exchange of ideas regarding the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of professional development practices at two- and four-year colleges. The four issues in volume 12 feature the following articles: (1) "The Course Syllabus Reexamined," by James O. Hammons and Jackson R. Shock; (2)…