This topical paper discusses the concept of teacher-student interaction. In an attempt to apply the concept to junior colleges, the paper presents the findings of several research studies in which the types and extent of interaction have been assessed at other levels of schooling. Only a few of the ways in which teachers and students relate are…

The problems and practices of science education in the community college are discussed in this paper. First, the community college's contribution to and position in American higher education is examined, especially with respect to enrollment and curricular trends. Next, the results of a national study of community college science education and a…

Driven by the inability of traditional higher education institutions to accommodate the increasing number of people demanding postsecondary education, community colleges are implementing new modes of access to their programs. One of the most popular means of access is distance education, which promises education beyond the boundaries of the…

Data for the evaluation of the Rio Hondo Exploratory College were obtained from a review of the literature and background materials, interviews with faculty, staff, and the board of trustees, and questionnaires administered to faculty and students. According to planning documents and the perceptions of administrators and staff at Rio Hondo…

This report focuses on the techniques, objectives, and problems associated with teacher and teaching evaluation. The first section of this 2-part monograph was devoted to the discussion and appraisal of methods currently employed. Topics considered included: a review of the standard techniques of supervisor, colleague, student, and self…

This review describes needed research in the junior college field. Section one focuses on the following projects to be undertaken by the ERIC Clearinghouse for Junior Colleges: (1) increasing research coordination assistance, (2) developing an annual review of trends and research in the junior college and related fields, and (3) initiating a study…

In 1986, the U.S. Department of Education published the immensely popular "What Works: Research about Teaching and Learning," a compendium of research summaries pertinent to the home, classroom, and school. In 1988, graduate seminar students at the University of California, Los Angeles, attempted to develop a series of "What…

A major reason for the paucity of usable data on the contributions and effectiveness of community colleges is that the definitions on which the data are based are imprecise. Colleges' contributions might be better understood if their functions were reconceptualized. The collegiate dimension of community colleges (i.e, that portion of the…

Recent research and trends in the humanities are discussed in terms of their implications for community colleges. First, initial results of a survey of students in Washington community colleges are outlined, including the findings that 46% of the students attended the colleges straight from high school and that the more liberal arts courses the…

The designer of a modern community college must concomitantly meet the needs of those who expect a college to fit their traditional perceptions of a suitable physical plan, and not repel the great numbers of nontraditional students the community college is expected to serve. Many community colleges have been built as an uneasy compromise between…

This document contains a report of the University of California, Irvine, and Golden West College Cooperative Science Improvement Project (UCI/GWC Project) which was designed to address two major problems: (1) the difficulty faced by community college biology teachers in keeping pace with developments in their field and (2) the problem of conveying…

When will community college humanists recognize that their classrooms are diminished, their courses ignored, and their teaching fields assaulted by advocates of other curriculums, not because the humanities are less worthy, but because the advocates of career and medical education, to name but two, have stepped out of the classroom to take…

Drawing upon the responses of 268 instructors of randomly selected class sections offered at the Los Angeles Community College District during Fall 1980, this paper assesses the role of the faculty in remedying the underrepresentation of women, minorities, and the handicapped in science education. The paper first summarizes probable causes of this…

As part of an effort to survey members of the humanities faculty at 178 community colleges about their instructional practices, a sample of 1110 class sections was chosen by pulling every tenth section from the colleges' fall 1977 schedules of day and evening classes. Because 92 class sections were not offered, only 1018 survey forms were…

Educational systems in all nations are called on to accommodate people who are past the age of compulsory schooling but who desire further education that is not provided by the traditional universities. In the United States, the term "community college" is used generically for all publicly-supported institutions accredited to award the…