Showing papers on "Higher education published in 1985"

A Conceptual Model of Nontraditional Undergraduate Student Attrition

Abstract: Older, part-time, and commuter students have composed an increasingly larger portion of college student bodies. The reasons why these students drop out of school are not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to describe the rise in nontraditional enrollments, define the nontraditional undergraduate student, and develop a conceptual model of the attrition process for these students. The chief difference between the attrition process of traditional and nontraditional students is that nontraditional students are more affected by the external environment than by the social integration variables affecting traditional student attrition.

A history of American higher education

Abstract: Colleges and universities are among the most cherished institutions in American society-and also among the most controversial. Yet affirmative action and skyrocketing tuition are only the most recent dissonant issues to emerge. Recounting the many crises and triumphs in the long history of American higher education, historian John Thelin provides welcome perspective on this influential aspect of American life. In A History of American Higher Education, Thelin offers a wide-ranging and engaging account of the origins and evolution of America's public and private colleges and universities, emphasizing the notion of saga-the proposition that institutions are heirs to numerous historical strands and numerous attempts to address such volatile topics as institutional cost and effectiveness, admissions and access, and the character of the curriculum. Thelin draws on both official institutional histories and the informal memories that constitute legends and lore to offer a fresh interpretation of an institutional past that reaches back to the colonial era and encompasses both well-known colleges and universities and such understudied institutions as community, women's, and historically black colleges, proprietary schools, and freestanding professional colleges. Thelin's lively history has particular relevance for a society still struggling to determine what constitutes a legitimate field of study, reminding readers that Harvard once used its medical school as a safe place to admit the sons of wealthy alumni who could not pass the undergraduate college admissions examination and that the University of Pennsylvania once considered the study of history, government, and economics unworthy of addition to the liberal arts curriculum. Thelin also addresses the role of local, state, and federal governments in colleges and universities, as well as the influence of private foundations and other organizations. And through imaginative interpretation of films, novels, and popular magazines, he illuminates the convoluted relationship between higher education and American culture. For anyone attempting to understand America's colleges and universities, A History of American Higher Education offers a much-needed challenge to conventional wisdom about how these institutions developed and functioned in the past.

Andragogy in Action: Applying Modern Principles of Adult Learning

Abstract: (1985). Andragogy in Action: Applying Modern Principles of Adult Learning. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 56, No. 6, pp. 707-709.

Institutional Environments and Resource Dependence: Sources of Administrative Structure in Institutions of Higher Education.

Abstract: Pamela S. Tolbert Two theoretical perspectives are combined to explain the pattern of administrative offices in public and private institutions of higher education. The first perspective, resource dependence, is used to show that the need to ensure a stable flow of resources from external sources of support partially determines administrative differentiation. The second perspective, institutionalization, emphasizes the common understandings and social definitions of organizational behavior and structure considered appropriate and nonproblematic and suggests conditions under which dependency will and will not predict the number of administrative offices that manage funding relations. The results of the analyses indicate that dependence on nontraditional sources of support is a strong predictor of administrative differentiation and demonstrate the validity of integrating these two theoretical perspectives.

Explaining the Origins and Expansion of Mass Education

Abstract: The prevalence of mass education is a striking feature of the modern world. Education has spread rapidly in the last 2 centuries, becoming a compulsory, essentially universal institution. It has even expanded greatly in the poorest countries. Unesco estimates that about 75 percent of the children of primary school age in the world are enrolled in something called a school (1980 data).' For the developing countries, the mean figure reported is 68 percent. Although the richer countries have long since reached virtually universal enrollment, the fervor for education in the poor countries may be even stronger.2 Mass education is clearly no longer the prerogative of boys: the World Bank reports that elementary enrollment ratios for girls are as high as those for boys in developed countries, and they are only slightly lower than the ratios for boys in developing countries.3 In both rich and poor countries, secondary education has expanded to the point where it is obviously to be considered a mass form of education as well. The day is not far off when at least some type of secondary schooling will be widely available in countries where it was completely absent a few decades ago. Another way to gauge the universality of education is by the fact that about 19 percent of the world's population are students, nearly all of them in mass educational institutions. For most people, education may be the most important element of their social status, and their educational background will have a greater direct impact on their overall life chances than any other element but nationality. In the first part of this article, we consider a number of lines of explanation of the rise of mass education that have emerged over the past 2 decades. Two general sociological themes characterize these theories. First, there has been a tendency to see vertical or lateral social differentiation

In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America

Abstract: A leading authority in the field here provides the first synthetic and comprehensive history of women in American higher education in over fifty years. "Essential reading for feminists and educators, appealing to general readers as well, this study joins familiar material with new insights gleaned from fiction, journals and the records of deans and dons." -Publishers Weekly "An absorbing history of women's higher education in the United States." -Patricia Meyer Spacks, The New Republic "Will be invaluable to social historians or anyone interested in the education of women." -Sue Beckwith, New Directions for Women "An aid and resource for women to continue their struggle for equality, it is a work of both scholarship and inspiration." -Jurgen Herbst, Reviews in American History "[An] excellent history." -Christine Bolt, Times Higher Education Supplement "A major contribution to the exploration of women's past." -Joyce Antler, American Educator "This marvelous and monumental book will be an enduring classic-a major contribution to our understanding of historical changes in the lives of American women during the past two hundred years. It is a very human book, filled with humor as well as statistics, and it will be enjoyed by a general as well as an academic audience." -Kathryn Kish Sklar

The politics of child abuse

Abstract: '...the most comprehensive account to date of the discovery and identification of child abuse and its consolidation in Britain as a social problem ...informative and compelling ...an important study not only of child abuse but also of the sociology of a social problem.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

All One System Demographics of Education: Kindergarten Through Graduate School

Abstract: This report is a demographic study of the United States education system from kindergarten through post-graduate education. Part 1 provides a briefing on the major demographic trends that form the framework of the analysis in terms of: (1) number of births in different groups; (2) rate of age increase in various groups due to varying birth rates; (3) changes in family status; (4) differences in educational needs by region; and (5) education, including educational supply and job demand, and thegrowing need for day care and early childhood programs such as Head Start. Part 2 concerns the retention of students through the school system to high school graduation. Part 3 concerns the accessibility of college to different socioeconomic groups. Part 4 discusses retention of students through college graduation in the context of the number of years it takes students to reach that goal. Throughout, suggestions are offered on how to deal with the impact of increased minorities in the educational system and how best to structure curricula to better educate the population as a whole. (CG) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

From Idealism to Pragmatic Detachment: The Academic Performance of College Athletes.

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between athletic participation and academic performance among athletes involved in big-time college sports. Drawing on four years of participant observation of a major college basketball program, we trace athletes' involvement in academics throughout their college careers. We show that, contrary to popular belief, most athletes enter college with optimistic and idealistic goals and attitudes about their impending academic careers. However, their athletic, social, and classroom experiences lead them to become progressively detached from academics. As a result, they make pragmatic adjustments, abandoning their earlier aspirations and expectations and gradually resigning themselves to inferior academic performance. We conclude that the structure of universities with big-time athletic programs and the athletes' patterned experiences within these universities undermine their attainment of the professed goals of the educational system. We discuss several policy implications of this research.

Making a Difference in Educational Quality Through Teacher Education

Abstract: Is teacher education beneficial and worthwhile? What standards are being established for admitting students to teacher education programs? What is the relationship of these standards to teacher effectiveness? These questions and others implicit in the debate regard ing the efficacy of teacher preparation programs are discussed by Evertson, Hawley and Zlotnik. The authors review the extensive body of research surround ing preparation programs, make propo sals for strengthening teacher prepara tion, and offer words of caution to those endorsing many of the popular proposals for teacher education reform, including advocates of alternative credentialing.

Reflective Teaching and Preservice Teacher Education in the Netherlands

Abstract: Development of an inquiry orientation among teachers is a common goal of preservice and inservice programs In this article the author describes a teacher education program designed to promote a re

Inquiring into Inquiry-oriented Teacher Education

Abstract: In this article, Tom develops a set of dimensions that reveal the different ways in which inquiry-oriented teacher education can be conceptualized. Three dimensions are proposed and dis cussed : (a) the arena ofthe problematic, (b) the model of inquiry by which a particular arena of the problematic is to be studied, and (c) the ontological status of educational phenomena. The relevance of each dimension to inquiry-oriented teacher educa tion is explored, and rationales for inquiry-oriented teacher education are located on the three dimensions.

Mentoring in Graduate Schools of Education: Mentors’ Perceptions

Abstract: A sample of 1,088 professors in colleges and departments of education were surveyed to study mentoring relationships from the mentors’ point of view. About half of them returned the demographic instrument; half of these currently had mentees. Using O’Neil’s theory of mentoring, a Likert-scale instrument was developed. Results indicated that mentors feel mentoring is important to them as well as to their students. In a multivariate multiple regression, age was a significant predictor of mentoring score; sex and professorial rank were not significant. Younger professors reported more depth to their mentoring relationships, and older professors reported more breadth.

The First Year of Teacher Preparation: Transition to Pedagogical Thinking? Research Series No. 156.

Abstract: * An earlier version of this paper was presented as part of a symposium entitled 'Teacher Thinking and Curriculum Change: New Perspectives', at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, April 1984. The authors wish to acknowledge and thank Deborah Ball, who assisted in project management and data collection.

Power in the Classroom V: Behavior Alteration Techniques, Communication Training and Learning.

Abstract: This study examined the relationship between differential use of Behavior Alteration Techniques (BATs) by teachers trained or untrained in communication in instruction and learning of students of varying quality levels. Results indicated that increased use of Immediate Reward from Behavior, Deferred Reward from Behavior, Self‐Esteem, and Teacher Feedback as well as decreased use of Punishment from Teacher, Legitimate‐Teacher Authority, Debt, Responsibility to Class, and Peer Modeling were associated with increased student learning. Results also indicated that appropriate training in communication in instruction may lead to more appropriate choices of BAT usage and increased student learning. The results of this investigation were found to be generally consistent with previous studies in this series.

Performance and Paralysis: The Organizational Context of the American Research University.

Abstract: (1985). Performance and Paralysis. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 241-281.

Students' Affective Development within the College Environment

Abstract: (1985). Students' Affective Development within the College Environment. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 56, No. 6, pp. 640-663.