A National Assessment of Perceived Instructional Needs For Professional Development of Part-Time Technical and Occupational Education Faculty in the Community Colleges in The U.S.

The context for higher education has changed dramatically in recent years with reduced funding, increased emphasis on technology, internationalization of the curriculum, and greater competition for students. The range of courses offered by colleges and universities and employer expectations of graduates has also changed with higher education being asked to produce a more flexible and higher qualified workforce to respond to changes in society (Watters & Weeks, 1999). Both public and private institutions, facing escalating costs and a heightened public awareness and sometimes criticism of the high cost of tuition, have viewed the hiring of part-time faculty as one source of flexibility in budgets dominated by fixed costs (Ostertag, 1991;Gappa & Leslie, 1997;Leslie, 1998).