| Widespread concern about basic skills, literacy, diversity, and a common culture catalyzed an extensive general education reform movement during the 1980s. This study analyzes those reforms at 199 four-year institutions and links patterns in course requirements, institutional characteristics, and institutional effort with Chief Academic Officers' assessment of satisfaction and impact. For the purposes of this study, these three elements are conceived as time, talent, and effort, respectively.;For the institutions represented in this study, there was significant variety in the patterns of time, talent, and effort invested in general education reform. These patterns existed despite a decade of national pressures to conform to a common goal, collegial pressures to do so by common means and institutional pressures to line up with a national reform "movement.".;This study of general education posits a model for conceptualizing the elements that are the key ingredients in the reform of general education. In this model, the relationship of time, talent, and effort to the Chief Academic Officers' assessment of satisfaction and impact is offered as a valid and useful way of gauging the success of a general education reform effort.;This research relies upon the opinions of Chief Academic Officers (CAO's) because it is through them that the reform movement spreads. CAO's rated satisfaction for themselves and for their major constituents. Of the three elements which influenced the design of general education programs, the amount of effort the institution invested in the reform was the most powerful influence on decanal satisfaction with the revised program. Least important were the talents of the institution. Of only mild influence were the amounts of credits required in course work.;These findings parallel those of C. Robert Pace, who found that the amount of effort students invest in their college experience correlates directly with their assessment of the quality of their college experience. In a similar study, Alexander Astin found that students gain more from their general education experience when they invest more effort in it. This study of general education reform finds that effort is a critical factor for CAO's and institutions as well. |
