OPINIONS OF STUDENTS AND FACULTY AT IRANIAN TECHNICAL INSTITUTES ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MODIFYING THEIR INSTITUTES IN TERMS OF SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

This research was designed to determine the opinions of students and teachers at Iranian Technical Institutes regarding the importance of modifying their institutes along the lines of nine selected dimensions of community colleges in the United States. The data consisted of the opinions of 594 sophomore students and 83 teachers. To elicit study data, the author designed two instruments--the Educational Change Opinionnaire (ECO) and the Personal Data Inventory (PDI). The PDI requested information on educational background, work status, and the technical institute with which the respondent was affiliated. The ECO was designed to elicit opinions on the importance of modifying Technical Institutes along the lines of each of the following characteristics common to community colleges in the United States: (a) offering two-year programs of post-secondary university parallel education in technical areas; (b) offering two-year programs of post-secondary university parallel education in academic areas; (c) a governing board of local citizens; (d) providing continuing adult non-credit occupational education; (e) providing remedial education; (f) providing programs of cultural value to the community; (g) a systematic program of co-curricular activities; (h) providing individual and group counseling; (i) providing a program of general education. Respondents to the ECO expressed their opinions through a five-interval Likert-type scale: no importance (1.00), low importance (2.00), medium importance (3.00), high importance (4.00), extremely high importance (5.00). The ECO and PDI were translated into Farsi by the investigator and administered personally to the study samples by the investigator's representative (an Iranian college professor) in Technical Institute settings. Statistical treatment of the data consisted of determining the mean ECO response for student and teacher samples for each ECO item. Based on these mean values, a ranking of the importance of modifying Iranian Technical Institutes along the lines of the nine changes they entail was made. The mean values and ranks so determined are as follows: Offering two-year programs of post-secondary university parallel education in technical areas--students x 4.71, rank 1 (first in relative importance), teachers x 4.31, rank 1; providing individual and group counseling--students x 4.60, rank 2, teachers x 3.14, rank 4; offering remedial education--students x 4.13, rank 3, teachers x 3.74, rank 2; providing programs of co-curricular activities--students x 3.80, rank 4, teachers x 2.66, rank 9 (lowest in relative importance); offering two-year programs of post-secondary university parallel education in academic areas--students x 3.67, rank 5, teachers x 3.16, rank 5; a governing board of local citizens--students x 3.26, rank 6, teachers x 3.05, rank 6; providing two years of general education--students x 3.04, rank 7, teachers x 2.90, rank 7; providing community cultural programs--students x 2.40, rank 8, teachers x 2.85, rank 8; providing non-credit adult education--students x 2.00, rank 9, teachers x 3.37, rank 3. Recommendations. The opinions of both student and teacher samples seem to suggest the following: (a) Iranian Technical Institutes should offer two-year programs of post-secondary university parallel education in technical areas, (b) Iranian Technical Institutes should offer remedial programs, counseling, and guidance services, (c) adult non-credit education should be offered at Iranian Technical Institutes on a limited basis; (d) Iranian Technical Institutes should approach the idea of locating their control in a local governing board on an experimental basis.