This study concerns the perceptions of African educators concerning the role of higher education in Africa. The study investigates African educators' awareness, understanding, opinions, and reactions to the role of higher education as defined by the Tananarive Conference on the development of higher education in Africa. The data were collected through personal interviews with 80 educators affiliated with the universities of the English—speaking countries in Middle Africa. The findings of the study reveal that (a) the Tananarive recommendations are still realistic and relevant to the African situation; (b) African educators agree that universities in Africa must contribute to the definition and development of African economic, social, and cultural goals; (c) African universities are judged mainly by how successfully their objectives and achievements improve society; (d) the critical problems confronting the African universities are finance, colonial origin, attachment to metropolitan models and standards, training of staff in overseas institutions, brain drain, and government interference; and (e) mutual trust and understanding of role-expectation between African governments and universities is required for universities to fulfill their developmental role in African societies.

The purposes of this study were to determine and describe the roles of persons other than professional development staff in the solicitation of major gifts from private individuals for selected senior colleges and universities as perceived by senior development officers. The activities of four groups of nondevelopment staff, trustees, president/chancellor, private citizens, and nondevelopment staff/faculty, were examined through the four steps of the major gift solicitation process: identification and rating, cultivation, the in person solicitation, and the thank-you process following the gift. The population encompassed all accredited, degree granting four year colleges and universities in the United States which solicit major gifts from private individuals. The sample consisted of the 223 schools which had received one or more gifts of one million dollars or more from private individuals as reported in Giving USA. Philanthronin Digest, or The Chronicle of Higher Education, between January 1, 1985, and December 31, 1987. The research instrument was a mailed questionnaire which was sent to the Chief Development Officer of the 223 schools in the sample. Replies were received from 162 institutions, for a response rate of 72.7%. Examination of the results of this study indicated that the services of nondevelopment personnel were used in …

The problem with which this investigation was concerned is that of treating agoraphobia with cognitive-behavioral group therapy and cognitive-behavioral group therapy combined with the drug alprazolam (Xanax). The purpose of the research was twofold. The first goal was to determine the relative effectiveness of the two treatment conditions on phobic behavior, anxiety, and depression. A second goal was to analyze the results and make recommendations concerning each of these modalities available to agoraphobics, their families, and to treatment specialists. The research design of this study was a randomized, pretest-posttest, experimental group design. The sample (N = 15) consisted of Group I (N = 7), who received behavioral-cognitive group therapy combined with the medication alprazolam, and Group II (N = 8), who received behavioral-cognitive group therapy only. The treatment included 15, 2-hour weekly group sessions, with the addition of a brief medication evaluation prior to each group meeting for Group I. During these sessions, the subjects received information about agoraphobia in the form of brief didactic segments, treatment materials, homework assignments, group interaction, and various forms of desensitization. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. Multidimensional behavioral-cognitive group therapy can significantly reduce phobic avoidance, anxiety, …

This study is concerned with the effect of placing text into a mediated structure form upon the generation of test items for analysis level domain referenced test construction. The item writing methodology used is the linguistic (operationally defined) item writing technology developed by Bormuth, Finn, Roid, Haladyna and others. This item writing methodology is compared to 1) the intuitive method based on Bloom's definition of analysis level test questions and 2) the intuitive with keywords identified method of item writing. A mediated structure was developed by coordinating or subordinating sentences in an essay by following five simple grammatical rules. Three test writers each composed a ten-item test using each of the three methodologies based on a common essay. Tests were administered to 102 Composition 1 community college students. Students were asked to read the essay and complete one test form. Test forms by writer and method were randomly delivered. Analysis of variance showed no significant differences among either methods or writers. Item analysis showed no method of item writing resulting in items of consistent difficulty among test item writers. While the results of this study show no significant difference from the intuitive, traditional methods of item writing, analysis level test …