Showing papers in "The Journal of Higher Education in 1979"

Four Critical Years: Effects of College on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge

Abstract: (1979). Four Critical Years: Effects of College on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 353-356.

Investment in Learning. The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education.

Abstract: The value of higher education has been under attack as seldom before in American history. We are told of the overeducated American, of the case against college, and of the failure of education to contribute significantly to the reduction of inequality. In this environment, republication of an exceptionally comprehensive and judicious analysis of all that has been learned--and not learned--about the consequences of American higher education comes at a most appropriate time. Investment in Learning more fully covers the various aspects of this subject than any yet to appear. Howard Bowen is optimistic about higher education, but his viewpoint is based on profound knowledge of both the economic and social aspects of education. Unlike some economists who insist on a strict cost-benefit analysis of expenditures on higher education in relation to outcomes, Bowen argues that the non-monetary benefits are far greater, to the point that individual and social decisions should be made primarily on those broader indicators. Cameron Fincher, in his new opening for the book, notes that "Publication of Howard Bowen's Investment in Learning was like a break in a long summer drought. . . . It was a comprehensive rebuttal to return-on-investment studies with negativistic findings." And in the foreword to the book, Clark Kerr simply says, "Howard Bowen is better prepared to survey the overall consequences of higher education in the United States than anyone else."

Improving College Teaching: An Evaluation of a Teaching Consultation Procedure.

Abstract: (1979). Improving College Teaching. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 670-683.

Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study since 1636

Abstract: (1979). Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study since 1636. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 686-688.

Nonintellective Undergraduate Socialization in Academic Departments.

Abstract: This study is an investigation of the impact of college on changes in students' values. To more clearly delineate the nature of such impact, the study focuses on the academic department, a particularly salient setting for student activity since it is the unit through which completion of degree requirements is generally certified, and on the interpersonal processes through which change (i.e., socialization) occurs in individuals. Wheeler [29, p. 54] discusses two general questions that must be addressed in the study of socialization in organizations. One pertains to social interaction: What are the interpersonal processes through which people are socialized? The other pertains to organizational structure: What are the normative characteristics of the organization that exert socializing influences on members? At college, the relationship between interpersonal and organizational variables can be explained as follows: Just as students differ in their patterns of interaction with others, colleges differ in their structuring, intentionally or not, of both normative contexts such as classrooms and student residences and of opportunities for social interaction among students and college staff.

Toward Cognitive Development through Field Studies.

Abstract: Although field study is as ancient as the apprenticeship concept, field study programs have been recreated in recent years as innovative features of many colleges and universities. These programs are as diverse as the institutions that sponsor them. Some are part of cooperative education plans whereby students alternate between a term on campus in regular classwork and a term off-campus in paid employment. Others combine working and studying in the same term. Nearly all have as a primary objective exposing students to a world or perspective beyond the traditional classroom, usually for the purpose of advancing career planning. Evaluation of such programs in terms of reported outcomes and the achievement of objectives is far less developed than the programs themselves. Similarly, the relationship of field studies to the traditional goals of postsecondary education has been ambiguous and even discordant, and educators involved in such programs express concern about "bridging the gap" between academic and work settings [15]. What is needed is more detailed documentation of the dynamics of field experience education and some specification of the relationship between those dynamics and the outcomes purportedly achieved in the classroom. In this article, the authors attempt to address those needs by reporting data that have been collected over a span of four years on a particular program design developed at Northwestern University. The design is discussed, observed dynamics and outcomes are presented, and the data are compared to selected theories that attempt to describe the psychologi-

The Construction of Rating Instruments for Faculty Evaluation: A Review of Methodological Issues.

Abstract: For over fifty years, hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the country have evaluated the effectiveness of their courses and instructors by means of student ratings [2, 11, 16, 31, 59]. Despite the predominance of this approach to instructional evaluation, there is considerable confusion over the construction of rating instruments. Many of the instruments currently being used by college administrators and instructors lack reliability and validity. This stems in part from the fact that, in many cases, the persons who assume or are charged with the task of evaluation do not possess training in psychometrics. Regardless of one's expertise in that area, however, the research on the topic offers little assistance. The studies dealing with rating instruments are legion and methodologically diverse in the educational and psychological literature. What emerges from a survey of the literature are issues and problems rather than a clear set of guidelines for instrument construciton. These issues include the following: How should the domain of instructional characteristics be defined? What method of scaling is most appropriate? Is a graphic scale more effective than a numerical scale? Are seven-point scales more reliable than five-point scales? Should a neutral position be used? How should the items be generated? Are both item analysis and factor analysis necessary? The intent of this paper is to synthesize the fragmented research on student ratings in order to provide: (1) a clarification of the issues and (2) definitive guidelines for constructing the instruments. The issues that will be examined are those that must be confronted by anyone who attempts to

The Effects of Collective Bargaining on Faculty Salaries in Higher Education.

Abstract: An emerging issue of the seventies is the role of collective bargaining agreements in university and college communities. On almost all American campuses today there is increasing speculation regarding the conditions leading faculty to seek collective bargaining arrangements and the subsequent experiences of those choosing to participate. A particular interest is the effect of such agreements on the salaries of the faculties involved. Salary has not been a traditional concern of the American professoriate. As Veblen pointed out in 1916, while American university professors have much in common with tradesmen, "there appears to be a feeling among them (university faculty) that their salaries are not of the nature of wages, and that there would be a species of moral obliquity implied in overtly so dealing with the matter" [14, p. 118]. However, as collegial relationships fade and are replaced by bureaucratic arrangements; as faculty members face a shrinking job market and their universities experience severe financial straits-the issue of salary has come to be associated with the movement toward faculty unionization. It is this issue that the present study addresses. Despite the extensive discussion and occasionally heated debate regarding the efficacy of unionization,' surprisingly little research has dealt with

Why the Professor Can't Teach: Mathematics and the Dilemma of University Education

Abstract: (1979). Why the Professor Can't Teach: Mathematics and the Dilemma of University Education. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 791-794.

Governance at Unionized Four-Year Colleges: Effect on Decision-Making Structures.

Abstract: The faculty role in academic governance at institutions of higher education remains a topic of controversy, ambiguity, and misunderstanding among faculty themselves, administrators and, more recently, state legislators. The events of the past decade have further clouded the issues, for over 120,000 faculty on approximately 600 campuses are now unionized [20, 21]. The initiation of faculty collective bargaining has raised issues concerning the faculty role as employee or managerial decision maker [1], standardization of working conditions such as teaching load [3], and the status of the department head as supervisor or peer [28]. Other concerns include the effect of unions on faculty senates [43, 44], centralization of decision making at higher administrative levels [32], and the effect of collective bargaining on collegial faculty-administration relationships [15, 25, 38]. Governance generally refers to the decision-making and policy process in academic organizations. Because there is little agreement among scholars about the manner in which academic institutions are governed [4, 22, 29, 39], the imposition of the industrial model of adversarial relations upon a governance system based upon "shared authority" or "collegiality" has often resulted in confusion and mistrust between faculty and administrators. Most writing on collective bargaining, particularly in the early 1970s, chronicled the problems encountered by administrators unfamiliar with the conduct of labor negotiations [35] or warned of the

Skill as an Aspect of Knowledge.

Abstract: "What makes some people better than others at learning things?" If you ask this question you will probably get the answer that it has to do with intelligence (some people are cleverer, more gifted, better equipped). Those who answer in this way seem to be satisfied with this "explanation," and if you ask them, as a follow-up, what it means to be intelligent (clever, gifted, intellectually well-equipped), they might very well answer that it means that one is good at learning things. Dissatisfaction with this type of "explanation' -which is, unfortunately, not so rare in the field of behavioral science-was the starting point of a project concerning higher education, which our research group initiated in the beginning of the 1970s.1 We were quite simply interested in what difference there is in how a learning task is approached between those who are successful and those who are less successful. Do they tackle the task in different ways, and if so how can these different ways be described? The question would, of course, be quite impossible if it concerned learning in general (i.e., all types of learning). Our starting point was an

Three Hundred Eminent Personalities: A Psychosocial Analysis of the Famous

Abstract: Employment​: Adjunct Instructor, Washington State Community College, Marietta, Ohio, Spring, Fall 2017 Adjunct Instructor, Marietta College, Spring 2015 Instructor, Learning in Retirement Program, Marietta College, Winter 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2017, Spring 2018 Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University, 19732013. Assistant Professor, University of Oregon: 1968-1973. Visiting Instructor, Universidade de São Paulo, 1967-1968

New Pressures on Accreditation.

Abstract: understood-not by the general public nor, for that matter, by the institutions of postsecondary education it primarily serves. Like any dynamic process, accreditation has been evolving in subtle but important ways over the years; and the corps of individuals-professionals and volunteers-who have been actively involved in accreditation have been so busy making the process work that they have had little or no time to spend in educating others as to its values, its limitations, and its changing emphases. The public's understanding of accreditation has not been helped either by those who, despite their limited understandings or even misperceptions of accreditation, nonetheless periodically have leaped to their typewriters or podiums in order to proclaim to the world their discovery that accreditation was not doing what they thought it should or was doing what they thought it should not. This communications gap has been exacerbated by several important recent developments, namely, a redefinition of the universe served by accreditation, a change in the role of accreditation, and substantial alterations in the attitudes and activities of government (both federal and state) in relation to both postsecondary education and accreditation. Let's examine these developments one at a time.

The Reward Structure for Part-Timers in Academe.

Abstract: Surprisingly little information is available on the earnings determinants of part-timers. This may reflect the absence of a source of detailed yearly data such as that provided for full-timers by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)[5] or the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)[13]. It is also because part-time employment is only now emerging as a subject worthy of further study. The absence of a body of literature on the earnings of parttimers may also reflect the mistaken belief that since some part-timers are paid a flat amount irrespective of their credentials, and since most hold unranked positions, there is little or no variation in part-timers' salaries. In this paper, we show that a substantial amount of variation does exist. We argue that part-timers' skills do not play a major role in determining salary differentials and that institutionally determined factors are the major identifiable source of salary differences. The implications of these findings for the earnings of part-timers, and for their willingness to spend time investing in skills are also explored.

Communication, Rewards, and the Use of Classroom Innovations.

Abstract: (1979). Communication, Rewards, and the Use of Classroom Innovations. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 761-771.

Accreditation: A Perspective

Abstract: This issue of the Journal of Higher Education focuses on accreditation, a process integrally related to postsecondary education. From the manuscripts submitted, an issue that offers a variety of perspectives on accreditation has been developed. Millard, Proffitt, Conway, and Young address the respective roles of the "educational triad"-the states; the federal government, and accrediting agencies and their national coordinating body, the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA). Pfnister reviews three recent publications: a summary of the current status of the regional accrediting agencies, an analysis of the current debate on accreditation versus eligibility, and a discussion of a variety of issues on accreditation in general and federal-accrediting agency relations in particular. Hall assesses the effect of the accreditation experience on nontraditional institutions and programs and the impact of the accreditation of nontraditional institutions on the accrediting agencies and higher education generally. Kells examines the people-related aspects of the institutional accrediting process, citing changes by one regional accrediting commission over a seven-year period in the characteristics of evaluation team members and the coordination of the on-site visit. Macpherson recounts the experience of a program accrediting agency in developing a mandated self-study process for its members, validating its value, and establishing costs. Miller and Boswell deal with the important task of evaluating extrainstitutional learning. Troutt offers a perspective from outside the accrediting community in a review of the accreditation criteria of six regional accrediting associations.

Local Income Generation and Regional Income Redistribution in a System of Public Higher Education

Abstract: In the past fifteen years or so considerable attention has been focused on the application of regional multiplier analysis to the estimation of regional economic parameters, i.e., regional economic impacts. With some variations, two general approaches have emerged in the literature-the input-output approach and the economic base approach. It has generally been concluded that the input-output approach is more sophisticated and comprehensive, since it requires the development of a complete interindustry model. The majority of regional economic impact studies still employ the economic base approach, however, because input-output studies typically entail prohibitive costs and data problems.1 More recently, conventional regional multiplier methods have been used in the analysis of two specific questions: (1) the economic impact of public sector institutions or projects [7, 8]; and (2) the distribution of economic benefits from public programs among "incidence groups" [6, 1 1]. The former has often become essential in project evaluation, and the latter has received more emphasis as governmental developmental planning has emerged as a policy priority. One important outgrowth of these questions has been the recent attention given to estimating local economic impacts of institutions of higher education, fostered in large part by the American Council on Education's development in 1971 of a comprehensive methodology for estimating such impacts [3].2

The University-Environmental Movement Marriage.

Abstract: Professors and students helped shape the environmental movement, and now environmentalism is reshaping the university. The history of higher education may offer no more telling example of the interplay of life and learning in America. But will the universityenvironmental movement marriage last? No clear date marks the beginning of what has come to be called "the environmental movement" in the United States. There was no shot heard 'round the world from a rude bridge. Nor has any single individual come to personify environmentalism the way Teddy Roosevelt took on the mantle of the first wave of conservation four score years ago. What we can say with assurance is that from the mid-1950s on some rather apocalyptic voices were heard in the land, predicting a badly malfunctioning people-environment-energy system and calling for varieties of remedial private and public actions. Invariably the early-warning-radar voices of environmentalism were those of university professors. As Aldo Leopold [17] once wrote, ecologists live in a world of wounds, and they began to cry out in force, not just card-carrying ecologists either: Leopold himself, a University of Wisconsin wildlife manager; Arnold Bolle, Montana forester; Kenneth Boulding, Michigan economist; Paul Brandwein, Pinchot Institute educator; Lynton Caldwell, Indiana political scientist; Lamont Cole, Cornell biologist; Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist; Ray Dasmann, California ecologist; Rene Dubos, Rockefeller micro-

New Foundations for Planning Models.

Abstract: A planning model poses questions, requests informed judgments about the values of critical variables, and calculates the results of these judgments. It enables decisionmakers (planners, policymakers, et al.) to explore systematically a spectrum of institutionally relevant possible worlds that could become actual provided certain decisions are made and events occur. By using an interactive computer system to represent the model, one may obtain quickly and effortlessly what would demand a prohibitive expenditure of time and energy if done manually. During the past fifteen to twenty years, two kinds of models have been realized: the so-called generalized or comprehensive, purportedly suited, after appropriate tailoring, for any organization, and the individualized or home-grown, devised for a particular company, agency, or school. While evidence to support a judgment on the success or failure of individualized models as such is not presently available, empirical studies documenting the experiences of generalized model users lead to one conclusion: generalized models have failed to satisfy the promises of their designers and the hopes of their users. In the field of higher education administration, Paul Plourde in 1976 surveyed 394 schools with access to the most widely used comprehensive systems: RRPM (Resource Requirements Prediction Model), SEARCH (System for Evaluating Alternative Resource Commitments in Higher

Can Students' Ratings of Instruction Serve Rival Purposes?.

Abstract: For nearly fifty years students' ratings of instruction have been used to make decisions about teachers and teaching, yet reasonable people can be found today on opposing sides of fundamental issues. Questions most likely at issue are those pertaining to the validity of ratings, and the most frequently heard answers are those carefully couched in terms of evaluative purpose. The two purposes usually cited, one formative and the other summative, often conflict, as illustrated by the rival needs of faculty who use students' ratings to diagnose instructional strengths and weaknesses, and of administrators who must recommend promotion, tenure, or salary adjustments. Historically those two sets of needs have not been met by a single, standardized rating form. To satisfy formative needs, faculty require the freedom to select evaluative criteria to match the settings, goals, and strategies of instruction. But for summative purposes, administrators prefer to use standardized measures that can be applied uniformly to all teachers and their courses. Thus, issues of validity are confounded by conflicts of purpose. It is possible, perhaps even desirable, to base summative judgments on diagnostic information, so that some information is disregarded, while other data are elevated. However, nobody much wants that responsibility, since conclusions about teaching effectiveness could easily favor one particular style or strategy to the detriment of others. For these reasons most administrators and many faculty tend to use information from stan-

The Commissioner's Authority to List Accrediting Agencies and Associations: Necessity for an Eligibility Issue.

Abstract: The commissioner of education, in exercising the authority to recognize and list accrediting agencies, has exercised this authority to list both regional institutional and national specialized accrediting agencies. The specialized accrediting agencies generally limit their activity to subject matter program review and are not usually concerned with institutional accreditation. Concern has been expressed whether, under such circumstances, the commissioner has legal authority to grant recognition to an accrediting agency whose activities do not immediately relate to the eligibility of the institution or its students to participate in programs of federal financial assistance. A response to this question requires a review of a complex of legal and factual situations spanning the period of a quarter century.

Accreditation, Assessment, and the Credentialing of Educational Accomplishment.

Abstract: (1979). Accreditation, Assessment, and the Credentialing of Educational Accomplishment. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 219-225.

Short-Term Enrollment Forecasting for Accurate Budget Planning.

Abstract: Accurate enrollment forecasts are a prerequisite for reliable budget projections. This is because tuition payments make up a significant portion of a university's revenue, and anticipated revenue is the immediate constraint on current operating expenditures. Accurate forecasts are even more critical to budget projections when a university's revenue allocations are tied by a state funding formula to credit-hour enrollment [3]. In recent years, the budget forecasting task at many universities has become more difficult than it was during the rapid growth years of the 1960s. The common explanation is that enrollment variations since the early 1970s have been erratic. Actually, the variations only appear erratic when forecasters interpret the latest enrollment change as a lasting trend change. Unfortunately, this focus on trend change has been fostered by researchers who, in developing trend projection models for higher education enrollments, have tended to overlook techniques useful in projecting short-term seasonal and cyclical enrollment variations.' While trend projection techniques can indicate the general level of future expenditures, both curve fitting and causal models, as currently used, have only limited application to projections that deal with one fiscal year at a time.