Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1975

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Statement of the problem: Within a ten-year period, the community college system of Illinois quadrupled in students and doubled the number of campuses. The number of professional staff members grew simultaneously. The physical impossibility of the state universities pretraining the number of new professional staff needed for community colleges meant that alternative methods of staff development had to be utilized. The responsibility fell to the local community college to promote professional staff development related to the unique concept of the community college. This study was undertaken: 1. To determine whether the present offerings are meeting the needs of of the professional staff members. 2. To determine what is being done in Illinois. 3. To determine the relationship of the staff members' tenure status, years of community college experience, professional role, sex, and/or education level on the staff members' participation and perceived value of various development activities. 4. To determine the degree of understanding of the development programs between those responsible for and those benefiting from the activities. 5. To determine those activities which were most/least valuable to the professional staff. Results and Conclusions: The data lead to the following conclusions: 1. There is considerable uniformity in staff development activities offered and staffs' perceptions of program usefulness throughout the state. 2. The knowledge as to the availability of activities is readily available to all. 3. The professional staffs are generally satisfied with the programs that are offered, and participation is at a relatively high level. 4. There is little evidence that the years of experience at the community college level or the education level have any influence on one's perception of usefulness of staff development activities. 5. Women are more optimistic than men concerning what the staff development activities can do for them. 6. No modification of development program is warranted on the basis of tenure status. 7. Staff meetings dealing with human relations, philosophy and goals of the community college, improvement of professional skills, and orientation are not meeting the needs of the instructional staff. Among the activities of considerable value are: formal evaluation by students and self, formal coursework, professional journals, readily accessible library facilities, workshops, visitation, and facilitation of professional organization activities. Among those activities of little value are: off-campus library and meetings for the entire staff.

Extent

179 p.

Comments

Thesis (Educat.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1975.|College of Education|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (Educat.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1975.

Identifier

FADT11660

Format

pdf

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