The problem of this study was the description of two year college instructional and vocational-technical administrators' expectations concerning the enrollment of adults over thirty years of age in two-year colleges and the colleges' need to respond to this population. Ninety of 125 Texas administrators eligible to participate and the Delphi process developed a consensus of opinion. The Delphi process consists of a series of three rounds of solicitation of opinion from panelists through responses to questionnaires and controlled feedback to the panelists of information relevant to the issue in the form of a group statistical response.

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 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 dissertation sought to determine the effects of a buddy system on a student's self-concept, academic achievement, attrition rate, and congruence levels. The buddy system treatment randomly paired two students for the purposes of sharing ideas, working on assignments, getting to know each other, and supporting one another. The study included three randomly selected sections of pre-college level, developmental writing classes from the Brookhaven College of the Dallas County Community College District. Three other classes served as the control group, and one instructor taught all six sections of the course. Three instruments were used as measures of change: the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS), designed by William H. Fitts, measured self-concept levels; the Personality and Educational Environment Scale (PEES), created by Roger Boshier, measured congruence levels; and a written paragraph measured achievement levels in English. Attrition percentages were based on the number of students enrolled during the second week of class who were not present during the sixteenth week of class. To test for significance, an analysis of covariance procedure was used on the TSCS, PEES, and written paragraph results, and a test for the difference between proportions for independent groups was used on the attrition percentages. The class sections were …

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 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 aims to increase the level of knowledge about the gerontological knowledge of a sample of registered nurses by creating a portable and concise continuing education seminar that is based upon the fundamental components of the normal aging process. The impact on the learning outcomes of an accredited continuing education seminar that was developed for this study was analyzed. The continuing education seminar focused on some of the major areas of social gerontology pertinent to nursing. Although other variables (age, gender, educational level, and previous gerontological training) were analyzed, none were found to have significant effect on the level of knowledge.

The impact of a short-term training program upon learned helplessness among nursing home staff and residents was studied. Learned helplessness among staff was defined in terms of depression, self-monitoring, short-term memory, absenteeism, and turnover. Among residents, urinary incontinence was the selected measure of helplessness.

The application of Gowin's knowledge vee as a means to design instruction for adult Bible study was investigated in this study. The study was designed to determine whether subjects using this instructional approach differed from subjects using traditional instructional materials regarding their attitudes toward Bible study, attendance, knowledge retention, application of study materials to life, and recruitment of new class members.

This study purposed to determine Registered Nurses' levels of knowledge and support of the Professional Nursing Practice Act considered by the Sixty-fifth Texas Legislature. According to the findings previously described, it may be concluded that many Registered Nurses participate infrequently in continuing nursing education programs. If the proposed Act had been passed during this session of the Texas Legislature, most Registered Nurses licensed in Texas would have been required to change their levels of participation when regulations regarding continuing education were implemented, no later than January 1, 1982. It may be further concluded that Registered Nurses lacked sufficient knowledge about the Act that was proposed in 1977. Both comments made by respondents and answers to specific questions in the questionnaire pointed to this conclusion.

The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions of faculty development programs by two groups of full-time community college faculty members—arts and sciences instructors and vocational-technical instructors. To guide the development of this study, the following research questions were formulated. 1. Do organized faculty development programs have the same impression on the arts and sciences faculty members as on the vocational-technical members? 2. What specific effects do these faculty members believe that faculty development programs have had on instructional strategies, related faculty activities and professional attitudes? 3. To what extent do these faculty members perceive that the faculty development program is related to the reward system? 4. To what degree do faculty members perceive that institutional or departmental innovations have resulted from faculty development programs. What types of innovations have occurred, and what types should occur?

This study assesses the continuing education needs of social caseworkers employed by the Community Care for the Aged, Blind and Disabled Program Division of the Texas State Department of Human Resources. A model by which needs assessments and discrepancy evaluation can be conducted was identified. The study was designed to answer three major questions. These were (1) What are the behavioral competencies critical to the effective practice of C.C.A.B.D. social casework within the Texas State Department of Human Resources? (2) What are the current continuing education needs of C.C.A.B.D. caseworkers with respect to these competencies? (3) What significant discrepancies exist as to the perception of these needs among caseworkers, supervisors, and administrators that hold implications for continuing education program planning. The needs assessment model developed in this study is designed to overcome many of the limitations of traditional approaches to needs assessment by defining critical job requirements from the perspective of current practice as well as administrative policy, establishing a profile of the successful worker as a model for staff development, and integrating the perceptions of administrators, supervisors, and workers in identifying continuing education needs.

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 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 purpose of this study was to identify and specify knowledge and skills needed by adult educators in Thailand. This study provided information for establishing a guide to be used in professional training and in graduate programs in adult education. A three round Delphi technique was used to develop the consensus of findings. The first round solicited open-ended responses from twenty panelists. One hundred and twenty-five knowledge and skill statements, the responses from the first round, were developed into a five-point rating scale questionnaire. This questionnaire was utilized in both Round II and III. Median, mode and interquartile ranges were applied to specify the consensus of the panel of experts. The one hundred and twenty-five knowledge and skill statements, seventy-five knowledge statements and fifty skill statements, were classified into four major categories: teaching, administration, research and general experience. The experts for the study consisted of eleven non-formal education officers and nine university professors in adult/continuing education and non-formal education. From seventy-five knowledge statements, sixteen were rated at the highest priority of importance. Forty-nine statements were rated at above average priority of importance and two statements were rated at average. Eight statements did not meet the interquartile range criterion as a …

The problem of the study was to determine the relationship between teaching methods and attainment of knowledge and skill performance of nurse aides in rural area nursing homes. The purpose of this study was to determine the improvement in skills performance and knowledge gain in the population cited above. The skill to be learned was operation of an electronic thermometer. The analysis of variance used on the pretest for written performance showed a significant difference at the .01 level; however, the analysis of covariance done on the posttest results showed no significant difference, indicating that the initial difference was of no consequence to the results obtained on the posttests. The paired comparison t test of the group means obtained from written tests showed that the programmed instruction group was superior to either the control or teacher-taught groups at the .001 level. Overall the programmed instruction tool was more effective in teaching skill and learning of cognitive knowledge. This report concluded that the evidence seems to support the use of programmed instruction as a means of economically and effectively teaching nurse aides who work in a rural area nursing home.

The purpose of the investigation was two-fold: (1) to develop an educational design for consciousness-raising in social justice education using Paulo Freire's literacy method, and (2) to investigate its effect on the Incarnate Word sisters' attitude toward the economically poor, Workshop sessions examined social justice concepts of the economically poor as stated in the Acts of the Congregation's General Chapter and applied Freire's method of consciousness-raising outlined in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed and his Education for Critical Consciousness.

The purpose of this study was to determine Bonaro Wilkinson Overstreet's significance and development as a leader in adult education. This study provided information on her life, her individual and collaborative contributions with Harry Overstreet in adult education, and her interest in poetry. Data were collected using online database searching; review of published, unpublished, and informal documents of Bonaro Overstreet; and correspondence and interviews with professional colleagues, employers, and personal acquaintances. Interviews were conducted with current authorities in the field of adult education for informational purposes. Bonaro Overstreet did not influence or alter the course of adult education as a field of study. Her strength was in her role of practitioner and contributor to research, theory, and professional development of the adult education field. She broadened the depth of adult education as an advocate of knowing oneself and acting responsibly in the context of democratic responsibility.

This study examined the historical development of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and its contributions to adult education both in Nigeria and in other African nations. This was aimed at providing up-to-date insight into the department's contributions to the development of adult education in Nigeria and in other African nations. Specifically, this study examined the department's founders and their goals, the department's management structure, its relationship with other adult education agencies in Nigeria and in Africa, its programs and services, and the participants in these. This study reveals that the department's founders were both British and Nigerian politicians, educators, and humanitarians. They were concerned with eradicating illiteracy, preparing adults for democratic roles, and improving the economic well-being of these adults. The department does not have a consistent pattern of management. The selection of its leadership is usually based on seniority and academic merits. The department initially relied on donations and on the revenues from the local, state, and federal governments of Nigeria to operate. It now relies on those from the profit from its services to the public and on those from Nigeria's state and federal governments. The department interacts with other departments of the university and with other …

This research is a study of the relationship of the organizational characteristic of technology to rate of change in a human services organization. The first operation, directed to the technology construct, collected data and analyzed statistical differences on each of the separate indices of task difficulty and task variability and on the combined indices of the two dimensions. A second operation, directed to the rate of change construct, collected data and ranked the five social services programs. This research indicates that multiple technologies do exist among programs within the corporate structure of a single human services organization, and that programs differ in the rate at which rule changes occur. This research, however, indicates that technology is not related to change. The definition of change used in this study considered only one form of organizational adaptation: rate of change in program policies and procedures. Technology, however, may be related to other measures of change such as new programs, reorganizations, and staff increases.