This investigation was concerned with the problem that the staff development needs of child-care personnel in juvenile detention facilities in the State of Texas have not been identified and described. The study utilizes the Delphi technique in determining juvenile detention administrators' perceptions of the skills/knowledge required to be a competent detention child-care worker. The assumption was made that detention administrators can supply relevant input to study.

The problem of this study was a test of a specific videotape designed to influence the actions of tour guides for older adult groups. The purposes of the study were to observe guide performances and older adult responses before and after training in techniques for sharing information with older adults in public spaces. The hypotheses were tested. 1) Guides after training would exhibit significant differences in behaviors of pointing, repeating, pausing, questioning, conversing, facing art when talking, talking inaudibly, pacing rapidly. 2) Older adult drop-outs would decrease on tours with especially trained guides.

Formal job performance evaluation of a church's pastoral staff has been almost nonexistent in many churches. While business and education have been making strides in evaluation techniques during the past three decades, the church is just beginning to notice the need for this kind of accountability and ongoing professional development. In this research, the author applied the evaluation techniques of education to church pastoral staff members. Evaluation can be understood as both a formative process and a summative decision. The steps to planning an evaluation that will be both formative and summative are discussed. Qualifying the ministerial tasks through objective job descriptions will enable the church to quantify the job performance through evaluation. Suggestions are given for developing a ministerial evaluation instrument. In this research a model from educational evaluation was adapted for use in a local church setting. One denomination was selected to demonstrate the process of evaluation development. Denominational governments differ considerably. Therefore, the key stakeholders of the church for the chosen denomination were identified as pastors and church board members. These stakeholders were used as a "panel of experts." The Delphi technique was used to develop consensus from the participants concerning (1) the core skills of ministerial …

The purpose of this study was to survey the educational activities offered for persons age sixty and over in Southern Baptist churches in a five-state area (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) and to determine if there are significant differences (1) in the preferences shown by older persons between church-sponsored instrumental and expressive learning activities and (2) between the number of church-sponsored instrumental and expressive learning activities. The population for the study consisted of 114 Southern Baptist churches in ten selected metropolitan areas identified as providing educational activities, other than Bible study, for adults age sixty and over. Data were collected by a questionnaire mailed to these 114 churches. The data from the responses were tabulated, compared, and summarized, using descriptive statistical procedures.

This study examines nursing students' adoption of inferential sets in a clinical situation. The investigation determines (1) the particular inferential set(s) nursing students adopt toward a patient in a clinical situation; (2) the particular inferential set(s) adopted by sophomore and senior nursing students in a clinical situation; and (3) whether or not inferential sets adopted by the sophomore and senior nursing students differ. Sophomore and senior nursing students at a woman's university in Texas were asked to complete a research tool designed to determine inferential set adoption.

This ex post facto study sought to examine: the efficacy of Mosby's Assess Test as a valid predictor of NCLEX (National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensure Examination) scores; significant correlations among semester averages, semester tests failed, Nelson Denny Reading Test scores, and NCLEX scores; and differences in NCLEX outcomes in relation to ethnicity, age, and prior practical nursing licensure for 558 associate degree nursing graduates who wrote the NCLEX in 1983 and 1984. Significant positive relationships were found among Mosby scores, Nelson Denny scores, semester averages, and NCLEX scores. A significant negative relationship was found between number of semester tests failed and NCLEX scores. The mean NCLEX score of older graduates was higher than the mean NCLEX score of younger graduates. LPN graduates had a higher mean NCLEX score than non-LPN graduates. White graduates' mean NCLEX score was greater than the average score for black graduates. Combined predictor variables which yielded the best estimate of the criterion variable (NCLEX scores) for all graduates included mean semester average, Mosby scores, age above thirty-three, and Nelson Denny scores, respectively. The most important predictor of black graduates' NCLEX success was prior practical nursing licensure. Other significant predictors for black graduates' NCLEX …

This study was conceived as an attempt to determine .and analyze factors deterring participation in continuing professional education among social workers in environments where continuing education for relicensure is mandatory and voluntary. The specific research design implemented to complete this study was the ex-post facto descriptive design. The sample included 106 social workers randomly selected in the state of Texas where continuing education is mandatory and 94 social workers in the state of Louisiana where continuing education is voluntary. The instrument used was the Deterrent to Participation Scale developed by Scanlan (1983) and a demographic inventory. Scanlan (1983) earlier identified six factors deterring participation in continuing professional education: Disengagement, Lack of Quality, Family Constraints, Cost, Lack of Benefit, and Work Constraints. The study concluded that social workers in both states considered work constraint as a major factor deterring participation in continuing professional education. Also the factors of cost and lack of quality were also considered as crucial barriers in their efforts to participate in continuing professional education. The Wilks' multivariate test of significance of the means and univariate F tests at alpha level p < .05 revealed differences in the combined mean scores of social workers in both states when …

This study describes the learning projects of a sample of engineers between the ages of 25 and 35 employed by a single employer in Port Worth, Texas. The problem of this study was the nature and extent of the continuing education programs of young engineers and the implications of these programs to their job requirements and possible employer assistance. The purposes of this study were to determine the number and types of learning projects undertaken each year by engineers with degrees, the number of hours spent by the subjects, the problems experienced, the resources used, the amount of job-related learning projects undertaken, the locations used to pursue learning projects, and whether the learning projects were amenable to assistance from employers.

This study identified the number of learning projects undertaken by thirty-eight retired educators and examined the extent to which these experiences were associated with the body weight and the exercise patterns of the subjects. A list of 1091 names of retired educators was obtained and 400 names were randomly selected to receive a brief survey seeking responses to demographic, personal and miscellaneous questions relating to their efforts to continue to pursue learning. Interviews were arranged with thirty-eight subjects who met established criteria. The 19 8 3 Metropolitan Height and Weight Tables were used to estimate weight characteristics and a probe sheet was designed to identify the number of hours spent exercising in activities vigorous enough to increase heart beat. In-depth interviews were conducted by the investigator using the questions from Tough's Interview Schedule for Studying Some Basic Characteristics of Learning Projects, and the probe sheet designed by the investigator. The interviews focused on the efforts to continue learning during the past twelve months and on the participation in vigorous exercise during the past twelve months. Findings were analyzed by computing t-tests for independent means and the Pearson product moment method of correlation. Comparisons of the results from this study were …

The purpose of this paper is to establish a need for more accessible fine arts courses offered to adults and more specifically in music, to design a series of programs that would give an introduction to beginning functional piano through the use of educational television. The paper includes ten lesson outlines for thirty minute program segments including a pilot script. This educational television series is designed to stimulate the student's continued playing of the piano with guided instruction through class or private lessons. A particular method of piano pedagogy used for educational television is explored. Procedures followed in order to be able to film the project are also covered, It is suggested that a survey in the particular viewing audience area be conducted and tests given to a cross-section of adults before implementation of the program.

The problem of this study was to determine to what extent contemporary adult education theory has similarities to and origins in ancient Athenian ideas about education. The methodology used in the study combined hermeneutics and the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. Primary sources incuded Aristotle, Plato, Aristophanes, and Diogenes Laertius; secondary sources included Jaeger, Marrou, Dover, and Kennedy. In the analysis of Athenian adult education, three groups of adult educators were identified—the poets the sophists, and the philosophers. The poets were the traditional educators of the Greek people; their shared interest or way of perceiving the world emphasized the importance of community cohesion and health. In Athens in the mid-fifth century B.C., a new group of educators, the sophists, arose to fill a demand of adults for higher and adult education in the skills necessary to participate in the assembly and courts. The sophists emphasized a pragmatic human interest and taught the skill of rhetoric. Socrates and Plato created a new school of educators, the philosophers, who became vigorous ideological opponents of both the poets and the sophists. The philosophers exhibited a transcendental interest or approach to knowledge; the purpose of life was to improve the soul, and the preferred …

This study examined the relationship between the continuing professional education practices of Southern Baptist pastors and their tenure in their pastoral positions. A survey questionnaire was designed to collect data about the pastors' continuing education and pastoral tenure. A stratified sample of 500 pastors was selected from the 36,235 Southern Baptist churches according to church membership. A total of 217 (43 percent) of the questionnaires was returned and used in the data analysis. Thirty percent of the pastors reported spending no days in continuing education during the past year. Sixty-two percent spent five days or more in continuing professional education. Tenure was not significantly linked to continuing education among the pastors. A personal perception of ministerial competency was positively related to continuing education. The majority of pastors felt accountable to God and themselves in terms of their competency. They strongly resisted any move toward certification or accreditation. The majority of the pastors did not view mobility as an alternative to becoming involved in continuing education. However, the reasons reported for mobility could be interpreted as needs assessment addressed by professional growth. A majority of the pastors strongly agreed that a basic seminary education did not alone prepare a minister for …

This study was designed to investigate the current practice of continuing professional education in the library science departments of teachers colleges and universities in Thailand and the role of the library science department in continuing professional education for librarians. In order to accomplish this task, two questionnaires were developed and administered to 236 chairpersons and library school faculty of 31 tecahers colleges and 9 government universities. Of the returned questionnaires, 72.88% were usable. Data were analyzed using percentage and a contingency chi-square test. The major conclusion of the study was that while the library science departments of teachers college and universities in Thailand provide to some extent, all 20 continuing education items of the Association for Library and Information Science Education model, only two were identified as being provided by more than a majority of institutions.

This study sought to determine the staff development knowledge and skill needs of school administrators as perceived by primary school principals in Thailand. This study posed the following questions for investigation: what specific knowledge and skills do primary school principals in Thailand perceive as necessary for them to perform the role of staff developer in their schools, and which competencies are perceived to be the most important?

This study was a comparison of the perceptions of directors of and participants in senior centers with regard to needs of the elderly and delivery of services to them. The sample consisted of a random selection of 200 of the 741 centers in the state of Texas. Responses were received from 111 center directors and 609 elderly participants. An instrument that used a Likert-type scale to measure the importance of needs and frequency of delivery of services was devised to survey needs in the areas of health, nutrition, recreation, education, and transportation. No statistically significant differences were found between perceptions of directors and participants with regard to needs, delivery of services, or the differences between needs and actual delivery of services at the centers. When participants were grouped on the basis of gender, age, and ethnicity, males and minority groups rated both needs and delivery higher than did females and the majority ethnic group. The sixty to seventy age group rated education needs significantly higher than did the older age groups.

Many engineers perform managerial roles; however, their professional education in engineering usually does not include management education. Thus, this study examined the participation of the Nigerian licensed engineers in professional development activities in management. The study proposed (1) to determine if, in fact, Nigerian licensed engineers participate in management education and training; (2) to determine the management programs in which the engineers participated and whether participation was voluntary or required, or within Nigeria or overseas; (3) to test hypotheses dealing with these variables: age, management level, academic level, years of experience in a managerial role, and sector of employment; and (4) to identify the mean number of hours of participation. Also, the engineers were asked to judge the value of non-credit versus credit programs.