This study was concerned with the enrollment patterns in required general education courses by technicaloccupational students in an urban community college. The purposes of this study were to (1) examine the general education course enrollment patterns of technical occupational students in specific programs; (2) determine if completion of an English course yields a higher GPA; (3) profile the characteristics of the students who do and do not enroll in general education courses; (4) determine if students enrolled in certain technical-occupational programs are more likely to enroll in general education than students enrolled in similar programs; and (5) determine if completion of general education courses has a positive effect on overall GPA of students.

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 …

The problem with which this study is concerned is assessing the relationship between the expressed needs of adult community college students and their needs as perceived by selected faculty members and student services staff members at a metropolitan community college. The population of the study was 201 adult students and 77 faculty and student services staff members who took the Adult Learner Needs Assessment Survey, a publication of the American College Testing Program. The data results were analyzed statistically using one-way analysis of variance and the Scheffé multiple comparison procedure. Data were considered statistically significant at the .01 level on all eight hypotheses. Based on the data findings, the following conclusions appear to be warranted. 1. The Adult Learner Needs Assessment Survey seems to provide useful needs assessment information in a convenient format for large scale research. 2. The instrument seems to provide a useful tool for gathering data on the perceptions of the needs of adult learners from community college employees. 3. Both faculty and student services staff groups seem to perceive adult students as needing more assistance with educational and personal needs than is reported by adult students. 4. Both faculty and student services staff groups perceptions of …