This study examined the academic achievement of national social fraternity pledges compared to non-fraternity students at the University of Texas at Arlington. It was done to determine whether significant differences existed between the grade point averages of pledges of social fraternities and those of students who did not pledge a social fraternity, and to determine whether significant differences existed among fraternities when compared with each other with respect to academic achievement. This study was meant to provide a research design that could be used by other colleges and universities with fraternities to conduct the same comparison of academic performance. In the fall semester of 1989, 164 pledges were selected as the population for the study to be matched with non-fraternity students based on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, age, sex, classification, academic major, and number of hours attempted. A T-test of like groups was performed on the entire population with no significant difference found at the .05 level between all the fraternity pledges and all the matched pairs. A T-test of like groups was performed on the pledges from each separate organization and there was a significant difference among three of the fraternities. Two of the fraternities had significantly higher grade point averages than those of their matched pairs, and one group of matched pairs had a significantly higher grade point average than the fraternity. Of the 17 fraternities, 12 had higher grade point averages than their matched pairs and five of the matched pairs had higher grade point averages than the fraternities. The results of this study show that objective data can be collected to address the issue of academic excellence comparing fraternity and non-fraternity populations. It is recommended that further study be conducted in this area to establish longitudinal data, with specific examination of the scholarship programs of …
The primary purpose of the study was to develop an expert system that could C D perform medical diagnoses In selected problem areas, and C2) provide diagnostic Insights to assist medical students In their training. An expert system Is a computer-based set of procedures and algorithms that can solve problems In a given domain. Two research questions were proposed. The first was "Given a problem space defined by a matrix of diseases and symptoms, can a computer-based model be derived that will consistently perform accurate and efficient diagnoses of cases within that problem area?" The second question was "If the techniques derived from the model are taught to a medical student, is there a subsequent improvement of diagnostic skill?" An expert system was developed which met the objectives of the study. It was able to diagnose cases in the two problem areas studied with an accuracy of 94-95%. Furthermore, it was able to perform those diagnoses in a very efficient manner, often using no more than the theoretical minimum number of steps. The expert system employed three phases: rapid search by discrimination, confirmation by pattern matching against prototypes, and elimination of some candidates (impossible states) by making use of negative information. The discrimination phase alone achieved accuracies of 73-78%. By comparison, medical students achieved mean accuracies of 54-55% in the same problem areas. This suggests that novices could improve their diagnostic accuracy by approximately 20% by following the simple rules used in the first phase of the expert system. Curricular implications are discussed. When 49 first-year medical students at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine were exposed to some of the insights of the expert system by means of a videotaped 10- minute lecture, their diagnostic approach was modified and the accuracy of their diagnoses did improve. However, the degree …
For almost two hundred years, liberal arts colleges dominated the American system of higher education. The Wesleyan movement into education was a missionary movement to provide an education to those denied this privilege by the class prejudices of the eighteenth century. Founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Texas Wesleyan University (originally known as Polytechnic College) began in 1891 with 11 faculty members and 173 students. It has survived despite the hardships of The Depression, economic adversities, and a severe financial crisis in the 1980s. Today with 73 faculty and 1,550 students, Texas Wesleyan remains committed to its original mission that the goal of education is the development of each student to his or her greatest potential. William M. Pearce, born in the woman's dormitory of Seth Ward College in Plainview, Texas, resigned his position as executive vice-president of Texas Technological University to become the thirteenth president of Texas Wesleyan College in June 1968. Upon assuming office, Pearce realized the need to concentrate his efforts on those things in need of repair and improvement. There was no faculty organization, no tenure, no formal budget process, and Texas Wesleyan was lacking many other standards usually found in institutions of higher education. Following his grassroots philosophy, Pearce began making immediate changes. Pearce brought to the college widely used and accepted practices of college and university administration. Pearce's administrative style was autocratic yet contained a degree of participative management. His organizational structure provided avenues for faculty and student participation in college administration. His accomplishments during his 10-year administration, while not extraordinary, were necessary and added to the future health and success of Texas Wesleyan College. Without them the college would have remained in the dark ages of higher education. A reserved man, Pearce's experience, capabilities, straightforwardness, and quiet initiative were necessary for Texas …
This study was designed to determine (a) the most important knowledge and skills for functional literacy teachers; (b) the most important competencies to be covered in in-service training; (c) whether there were any differences between the perceptions of functional literacy teachers, supervisors, and administrators in terms of needed competencies or areas of training; and (d) whether there were any differences in the perceptions of teachers, supervisors and administrators regarding the need for competencies and for training of functional literacy teachers based upon these variables: age, years of experience in formal and nonformal education, and training in the functional literacy program. It was found that teachers, supervisors, and administrators agreed that most competencies listed in the instrument were important. No significant difference was found in their perceptions of the importance of the competencies. A significant difference was found in the perceptions of the needs for training among these three groups.
The problem of this study was selected aspects of public community college non-credit law enforcement training programs in Texas. Purposes of the study were: (a) to examine the development of police academies at community colleges in Texas; (b) to provide normative data describing the academies in terms of background, organization and administration, adequacy of facilities and equipment, personnel, student policies and practices, the program administrator's perceptions of internal and external support, involvement of outside forces and the extent of the program, and (c) to provide data which community colleges can use in organizing and developing police academies.
The purpose of the investigation was to determine if goal setting has an effect on physical performance in a realistic, natural, and competitive athletic environment. Results revealed no significant differences between the goal-setting group and the "do your best" group when performing lacrosse skills. However, results from the questionnaire indicated significant main effect difficulty of the tasks. These results imply that athletes in the goal-setting group felt that their goals were not realistic and that it was increasingly difficult to reach their goals as the season progressed. Because the athlete does not have control over some factors which influence game situations, he or she may be hindered in reaching his or her goals, whether specified or individually chosen. Therefore, a research methodology that manipulates and attempts to control types of goal setting may not be appropriate or realistic when applied to the natural field environment of a highly organized competitive sport.
This study explored the importance attached to and the degree of satisfaction with 53 job aspects in the work environment of cooperative research center directors. A survey instrument was mailed to the 105 individuals identified as directors of research units that are (a) committed to multidisciplinary or engineering research, (b) organized as integral units of a university, and (c) supported and funded by industry and other sources. Responses were categorized into two groups: directors involved in NSF (National Science Foundation) Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC), and directors involved in other types of cooperative research endeavors. A 69% response rate was obtained. One purpose of this study was to measure: (a) factors that influence job satisfaction; (b) factors likely to influence center performance; and (c) success factors in industry/university cooperative research. This study was also designed to: (a) compare job attitudes between the two groups of directors; (c) determine the relationship between measures of importance and satisfaction for each group; and (d) develop predictive models of centers' performance using collected data; Directors assign a high degree of importance and a low degree of satisfaction to the majority of the job aspects; and they tend to be somewhat dissatisfied with those factors they consider most important in their work environment. Directors in the NSF I/UCRC group rated factors related to professional activities and industry/university interactions as significantly more important. In developing models to predict the total operating budget and the number of industrial members at a center, combinations of importance and satisfaction ratings were found to be significant factors.
The purpose of study was to compare job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction among faculty members at six teachers colleges in the Bangkok metropolitan area with respect to age, gender, length of experience, level of education, administrative position, academic rank, department, faculties, and salary. The findings of this research were compared with previous studies of Vatthaisong (1982) and Karoonlanjakorn (1986), which measured job satisfaction among faculty members in the Northeastern part and in the non-metropolitan areas of Central Thailand. Additionally, this inquiry expanded the two previous studies and speculated on the possibility that Herzberg's two-factor theory is adaptable to Thai faculty members in Thailand. The instrument consisted of ten demographic items and a 67-statement questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on Herzberg's two-factor theory, and used a five-point rating scale for ten facets of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction. The total stratified random sampling population was made up of 400 faculty members from six teachers colleges in the Bangkok metropolitan area. The returned rate for questionnaires was 383 (95.75%). Frequency, percentage, mean, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and Scheffe method were used for analyses. The level of significance was set at .05. The findings of this study indicated that faculty members with high ages, high work, experiences, high salaries, high academic ranks, high levels of education, and high administrative positions were more satisfied with their jobs than faculty members with lower rankings in these demographic variables. Male faculty members were more satisfied than female faculty members. The results of this research were similar to Vatthaisong's and different from Karoonlanjakorn's. The faculty members of Vatthaisong's inquiry and those of the present study were satisfied with their jobs in every facet except salary, while Karoonlanjakorn's findings reported that no areas of dissatisfaction were revealed. Because the factors described in Herzberg's theory were not the same as those …
The problem of this study concerns the structure and content of teacher education programs in colleges and universities which are members of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI). A questionnaire was developed and consisted of four sections: (1) general background information of the respondent; (2) questions relating to the live NCATE standards using a Likert scale of 1 to 3, regarding respondent's teacher education program; (3) general information concerning Bible credit hours required, critical problems and factors considered in job placement of graduates; and (4) an opinionnaire concerning current issues in teacher education, significant changes in respondents' programs and cooperative and unusual program arrangements. One hundred questionnaires were mailed to the 100 collegiate members of ACSI in 1987. Of the 75 returned, 57 were usable. This represents a 57 percent response rate. Based on the information provided by the chairpersons participating in the study, the following conclusions are drawn relative to ACSI teacher education programs: 1. The influence of an outside agency, such as the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), seems to benefit teacher education programs. 2. State accreditation of teacher education programs appears to be important to both NCATE and non-NCATE accredited programs. 3. Of the five NCATE standards, knowledge base for professional education was the standard that seemed to be the strongest to ACSI collegiate members. 4. ACSI schools emphasize biblical and theological education concurrent with teacher education. 5. Institutions with NCATE accredited programs seem to be satisfied with NCATE accreditation, although institutions with non-NCATE accredited programs seem to favor additional accreditation from an organization other than NCATE. 6. The small number of ACSI programs accredited by NCATE may be due to (1) theological conflicts, (2) fiscal requirements, (3) the amount of work involved in the accreditation process, or any combination of the …
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