Digital Commons Network^™

First-Year Student Perceptions Of A Community College Success Course: A Phenomenological Approach, Aaron J. Walk

Aaron Walk

The use of college success courses by community colleges in recent years has had a significant impact on the academic success of their first-year students. Although studies have shown increases in grade point averages and retention rates for students enrolled in success courses, few have examined student perspectives of these courses. The intention of this study was to gain an understanding of the student perceptions of college success courses and how they shaped their college experiences. By using a phenomenological method of inquiry, the researcher interviewed six community college students enrolled in a college success course. The participants were students …

The Impact Of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Read 180 Next Generation Program On Middle School Students With Disabilities, Katherine Arnold

Katherine Arnold

Student And Teacher Attitudes Toward Giftedness In A Two Laboratory School Environment: A Case For Conducting A Needs Assessment, Jennifer Riedl Cross, Tracy Cross, Andrea D. Frazier

Jennifer Cross

Providing effective professional development in laboratory schools around topics that can be divisive, such as preparing a school environment for expansion of gifted education services, can be quite difficult. However, doing so based on data collected through a needs assessment can be invaluable to the planning process. As part of a needs assessment in preparation to enroll 100 new gifted students, students and teachers (N=171) from a unique setting in which a residential school for gifted high school students is housed within a laboratory school were surveyed using F. Gagné and L. Nadeau’s (1991) Opinions about the Gifted …

Assessment Of Teacher Dispositions With The Etq2: A Guided-Reflection And Rasch Model Analysis, W. Steve Lang, Lasonya L. Moore, Judy Wilkerson

LaSonya Moore

Queensland Teacher Workload Study: Final Report To The Queensland Teachers’ Union, Sheldon Rothman, Lawrence Ingvarson, Darren Matthews

Dr Sheldon Rothman

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) conducted an online survey of members on behalf of the Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU). The survey was open to teachers, school leaders (principals and assistant principals) and heads of program working in Queensland government schools. It was based on one conducted for the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU) in 2016 and the AEU – Tasmanian Branch in 2017. The survey of the work of union members in Queensland government schools focussed on the hours of work by school staff, staff perceptions of their work, and the relationship between work practices …

Queensland Teacher Workload Study: Final Report To The Queensland Teachers’ Union, Sheldon Rothman, Lawrence Ingvarson, Darren Matthews

Dr Lawrence Ingvarson (Consultant)

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) conducted an online survey of members on behalf of the Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU). The survey was open to teachers, school leaders (principals and assistant principals) and heads of program working in Queensland government schools. It was based on one conducted for the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU) in 2016 and the AEU – Tasmanian Branch in 2017. The survey of the work of union members in Queensland government schools focussed on the hours of work by school staff, staff perceptions of their work, and the relationship between work practices …

A Learning Community For New Chairs, Lynn Stallings, Meghan Burke, Ruth A. Goldfine, Dawn L. Kirby, Monica Nandan, Sharon Pearcey, Kandice Porter, Amy Woszczynski

Monica Nandan

Key elements of an effective professional learning community will be discussed, including readings, peer mentoring, meeting structure, composition, and timing of topics. Presenters will discuss the challenges of their first years as chairs, particularly finding their individual leadership styles and a balance between professional and personal lives.

Faculty Views Of “Nontraditional” Students: Aligning Perspectives For Student Success, Desiree D. Zerquera, Mary Ziskin, Vasti Torres

Mary B. Ziskin

Faculty serve as a primary point of contact for students in college, playing vital roles in students’ retention and attainment. The perceptions and beliefs held by these institutional actors are important for understanding the context that shapes students’ experiences while they are in college and potentially, long after they leave. The purpose of this work is to examine faculty members’ perceptions of nontraditional student experiences. Findings highlight faculty members’ awareness of students’ multiple roles and obligations; perceptions of student academic success, including barriers to succeeding; and the ways faculty connect with students and the types of connections they forge. The …

Report Results Of Webex Versus Nonsurvey 30 April 2016.Pdf, Ron J. Hammond

Ron J. Hammond

School Improvement: Data-Driven And Vision-Centered, Samuel J. Smith

Samuel James Smith

The Influence Of Racial Identity On White Students' Perceptions Of African American Faculty, Kathleen Neville, Tara L. Parker

Kathleen Neville

A Study Of Work Practices In Tasmanian Government Schools: Final Report To The Australian Education Union – Tasmanian Branch, Sheldon Rothman, Lawrence C. Ingvarson, Paul R. Weldon, Ali Radloff, Darren Matthews

Ali Radloff

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) conducted an online survey of members on behalf of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU). The survey, which was open to teachers, school leaders (principals and assistant principals) and education support staff working in Tasmanian government schools and offices, was available to the majority of members of the Union in August 2017, and remained open for four weeks during Term 3. The survey was based on one conducted for the Victorian branch of the AEU in 2016. The survey of the work of union members in Tasmanian government schools focussed …

A Study Of Work Practices In Tasmanian Government Schools: Final Report To The Australian Education Union – Tasmanian Branch, Sheldon Rothman, Lawrence C. Ingvarson, Paul R. Weldon, Ali Radloff, Darren Matthews

Dr Paul Weldon

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) conducted an online survey of members on behalf of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU). The survey, which was open to teachers, school leaders (principals and assistant principals) and education support staff working in Tasmanian government schools and offices, was available to the majority of members of the Union in August 2017, and remained open for four weeks during Term 3. The survey was based on one conducted for the Victorian branch of the AEU in 2016. The survey of the work of union members in Tasmanian government schools focussed …

A Study Of Work Practices In Tasmanian Government Schools: Final Report To The Australian Education Union – Tasmanian Branch, Sheldon Rothman, Lawrence C. Ingvarson, Paul R. Weldon, Ali Radloff, Darren Matthews

Dr Lawrence Ingvarson (Consultant)

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) conducted an online survey of members on behalf of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU). The survey, which was open to teachers, school leaders (principals and assistant principals) and education support staff working in Tasmanian government schools and offices, was available to the majority of members of the Union in August 2017, and remained open for four weeks during Term 3. The survey was based on one conducted for the Victorian branch of the AEU in 2016. The survey of the work of union members in Tasmanian government schools focussed …

A Simple Low-Cost Institutional Learning-Outcomes Assessment Process, Andrea A. Curcio

Andrea A. Curcio

Law school institutional learning outcomes require measuring nuanced skills that develop over time. Rather than look at achievement just in our own courses, institutional outcome-measures assessment requires collective faculty engagement and critical thinking about our students’ overall acquisition of the skills, knowledge, and qualities that ensure they graduate with the competencies necessary to begin life as professionals. Even for those who believe outcomes assessment is a positive move in legal education, in an era of limited budgets and already over-burdened faculty, the new mandated outcomes assessment process raises cost and workload concerns. This essay addresses those concerns. It describes a …

Digitalcommons@Lesley Quarterly Report & Impact Infographic - December 2017, Philip M. Siblo-Landsman

Philip M. Siblo-Landsman

Lesley University's institutional repository (IR) continues to grow since it's launch in May 2017. This report discusses the addition of new collections including the migration of an academic journal, and the addition of two conferences. It also discusses the outreach efforts of the digital team and comments on the download metrics and how they indicate the demographics of users accessing Lesley scholarly and creative works. An infographic is included to provide a visual report of these metrics and to highlight the impact of Lesley scholarship.

Lgbtq Students, Tammy R. Johnson, Daniel Weber

Tammy R. Johnson

As with any sub-population of college stu­dents, there is a great deal of variance among individual LGBTQ students in terms of their ex­pectations and desires when it comes to choos­ing or persisting at a particular college. Perhaps the one unifying objective among members of this group is a goal common to almost every student at every level of study: to find an edu­cational environment in which the student will feel valued and supported while pursuing his or her educational goals. To this end, LGBTQ stu­dents have unique needs that historically have gone unaddressed.

Classroom Climate, Academic Success, And Intent To Persist Among Non-Christian And Christian Undergraduate Students, Christy M. Craft, Yang Yang

Christy Moran Craft

The Development Of Intercultural Competency In School Psychology Graduate Students, Susan C. Davies, Abigail A. Lewis, Amy E. Anderson, Elana Bernstein

Elana R. Bernstein

School psychologists often have the opportunity to work with students and families from varied backgrounds and cultures. While this can be an exciting and enriching part of the job, it can also be daunting for some practitioners, particularly those who are inadequately prepared. A number of strategies have been implemented in school psychology training programs to improve students’ intercultural competency. This exploratory study investigated the results of one university’s short-term study abroad program for school psychology graduate students. Pre- and post- intercultural development assessments were given to school psychology graduate students who completed a course abroad; results were compared to …

College Admissions Debates, Oiyan Poon

OiYan Poon

An investigation of affirmative action and its impact on the enrollment of Asian American college students.

Students’ Views Of Impact Of Textbooks On Their Achievements, Riaz Hussain

Riaz Hussain

The history of curricula and textbooks development in Pakistan has remained contentious particularly during Zia Ul Haq era (1977- 1988) and after. There have been quite a few reviews of the curricula and textbooks undertaken both by Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan and independent researchers. These reviews have mainly employed document/textbook analysis methods and few of them explored teachers or students’ views of curricula and textbooks. This paper argues that since teachers and students are the ultimate users and beneficiaries of textbooks so their views are worth exploring before suggesting or initiating any change process including curricula and textbooks …

The Inclusion Of Self-Assessment In Merit Evaluation, Kenneth L. Rigler, Lorie Cook-Benjamin, Regi Wieland, Carrie Tholstrup

Kenneth Rigler

The purpose of this survey study was to collect faculty perceptions toward changes made to the faculty merit evaluation process in a college of education at a state comprehensive university. The changes in the evaluation occurred over a two-year period, where a formative rubric and faculty self-assessment were incorporated into the merit instrument. The sampling frame for the study included the college of education faculty members at the university. The data for the study were collected in two different phases using a field-tested online survey that was created to collect the faculty perceptions of the newly developed instrument and process …

International Graduate Students: How Do They Choose Academic Majors?, Jia Ren, Linda Serra Hagedorn, Michael T. Mcgill

Linda Serra Hagedorn

International graduate students are a sizeable segment of the student body in the U.S. higher educational system, but remain an understudied population in the educational literature. As a result, this student population is not adequately understood by higher education administrators and faculty. The current study explored 16 factors associated with international graduate students’ choice of academic majors for their American degrees and how factors affected this population’s academic choice among four academic categories. Based on the findings, this study suggests recruitment and admission policies and support services and programs to attract and retain international graduate students, in order to understand …

Organizational Communication: Perceptions Of Staff Members' Level Of Communication Satisfaction And Job Satisfaction, Priti Sharma, James Lampley, Donald W. Good

Donald W. Good

The purpose of this research study was to explore the topic of organizational communication in higher education and examine staff members’ perceptions about their level of communication and job satisfaction in their workplaces. This study was also designed to test the relationship between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction by analyzing the significance of different dimensions of Communication Satisfaction with the view that satisfaction is multifaceted.

The results of the study indicated that gender differences and the number of years in service do not seem to make a significant difference in the level of satisfaction among staff members, but the level …

Self-Assessment And Student Improvement In An Introductory Computer Course At The Community College Level, Jama Spicer-Sutton, James Lampley, Donald W. Good

Donald W. Good

Excerpt:The purpose of this study was to determine a student’s computer knowledge upon course entry and if there was a difference in college students’ improvement scores as measured by the difference in pretest and post‐test scores of new or novice users, moderate users, and expert users at the end of a college level introductory computing class.

Shared Governance: A Comparison Of Perceptions And Implementation Between American And Chinese Higher Education Institutions, Dianyu Zhang, James Lampley, Donald W. Good

Donald W. Good

The purpose of this study was to assess the status of institutional stakeholders’ perceptions and application of shared governance on an American higher education campus and a counterpart in China and determine if there were differences among the groups of stakeholders both within and between the institutions. Significant differences were found among the four categories of participants at the Chinese institution. For the General Acceptance dimension of the Perceptions of Shared Governance Inventory (PSGI) the Chinese staff members reported significantly higher scores than all the other three categories. For the Implementation dimension, staff members and the students scored significantly higher …

Organizational Communication: Perceptions Of Staff Members' Level Of Communication Satisfaction And Job Satisfaction, James Lampley, Priti Sharma, Donald W. Good

Donald W. Good

Excerpt:The purpose of this research study was to explore the topic of organizational communication in higher education and examine staff members’ perceptions about their level of communication and job satisfaction in their workplaces.

Evaluation Of An E-Portfolio Pilot Streamlining.Docx, Carrie Smucker

Deborah Bambini

Recruiting International Master's-Level Students: Research And Good Practices, Paul Schumann, Aaron D. Clevenger, Shelby L. Cearley, Raymond Lutsky

Aaron D. Clevenger

School Choice: Structured Through Markets And Morality, Thomas J. Lasley, Carolyn Ridenour

Carolyn S. Ridenour

School choice is increasingly promulgated as a promising education reform policy for failing urban schools, but no solid evidence has yet shown the promise fulfilled. The authors argue that choice based on market theory without a moral center is insufficient. Without a moral foundation, such market-driven choice programs may actually disadvantage some children further. A market approach, absent a moral perspective, fails to encompass all the necessary dimensions for an educational system that can fulfill the traditional commitment to the common good and effectively serve all urban children, their families, and society. Six moral principles are offered along with examples …