NCJ Number
101570
Editor(s)
S Duguid
Date Published
1985
Length
23 pages
Annotation
In 1984, 11 instructors in a British Columbia, Canada, prison higher education program were surveyed to determine their views of inmates' writing abilities, verbal abilities, familiarity with the forms of academic discourse, ability to do research, motivation, attitudes toward education, values, reasoning/thinking abilities, and career goals.
Abstract
Instructors viewed students' writing abilities as being either superior to good students on the outside or considerably below average, albeit reflective of persons of similar socioeconomic background. Students' verbal abilities were comparable to on-campus students, but inmates were weak in the forms of academic discourse due to limited vocabularies. Students were particularly weak in research abilities. Most instructors viewed the students as highly motivated and generally egocentric and 'concretist' in their thinking. The prison environment was not considered by the instructors as conducive to educational development. Instructors indicated their teaching styles in prison classes to be similar to those used in on-campus classes. Prison classes, however, focused more on class discussion, due to students' special needs and abilities and small classes.