Education Commons^™

The Impact Of Self-Efficacy And Motivation Characteristics On The Academic Achievement Of Upward Bound Participants, Brenda Leigh Brown

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of self-efficacy and motivation characteristics on the achievement of at-risk students. Seventy-nine Upward Bound program participants completed self-efficacy, motivation, and demographic questionnaires. The relationship between GPA and self-efficacy was significant, negative, and low in strength. High GPA was associated with high self-efficacy (as shown by lower numbers on the survey). Gender, length of time in the Upward Bound (UB) program, length of participation in the UB summer program, college sponsor (community or four-year college), self-efficacy characteristics, and motivation characteristics significantly predicted academic achievement as measured by GPA. The relationship between …

Critical Components Of Community College Enrollment Management Planning, Karen Hart Bucher

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Enrollment management has become a common practice at four-year institutions, but has not been extensively explored at community colleges. As students have more educational options available to them, community colleges have begun to explore ways to grow their enrollment, improve student retention and increase graduation rates. This study explored the critical components necessary for implementing a successful enrollment management initiative at three community colleges across the U.S.

To determine the critical components at community colleges, a case study was conducted. Each case was evaluated individually and then the three cases were compared with each other to determine thematic similarities and …

Postsecondary Education Of Students With Disabilities: Review Of Faculty And Of Students With Disabilities Perceptions For Training, Jerry René Alliston

Dissertations

The percentage of students with disabilities who are pursuing post-secondary education has consistently increased over the past few decades. To meet all legal requirements, postsecondary institutions have established disability support services for students with disabilities. One notable responsibility given to postsecondary disability support service staff was the training of faculty on various issues related to disability in general. The focus of this study was to determine the perceived issues of faculty to students and students to faculty, in a two-campus university system in the southeastern United States, in working with students with disabilities in postsecondary education on the six theme …

Perceptions Of Virginia Community College System Faculty And Administrators On The Purposes For And Composition Of A Comprehensive Evaluation System For Teaching Faculty Members, William H. Hightower Jr.

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

A survey instrument was developed to measure community college faculty and administrator views on the faculty evaluation process. Responses were then compared based on demographic characteristics such as primary area of instruction, supervisory responsibility, years of experience, and gender. Open-ended survey questions asked respondents to identify the strengths, limitations and changes needed for their current faculty evaluation plans.

A total of 404 faculty members and 67 administrators completed the survey. Significant differences were found between faculty and administrator responses with respect to the reasons for conducting faculty evaluations, the relative importance of including certain elements in the evaluation process, and …

Student Perceptions Of Campus Safety Within The Virginia Community College System, Robert Chad Patton

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This research examined Virginia community college students' perceptions of campus safety. A survey of 11,161 students revealed the crimes students most feared being a victim of while on the community college campus and the areas in which they felt the most and least safe. The research also demonstrated the effect certain variables had on students' overall perception of campus safety. The variables studied included student demographics, the presence and type of security personnel, and the rurality of the campus setting. The campuses with the highest and lowest degrees of perceived safety were then further studied via case studies to gather …

The Role Of Student Support Services In Encouraging Student Involvement And Its Impact On Student Perceptions And Academic Experiences, Caren Kelley-Hall

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of Student Support Services (SSS) in encouraging student involvement and its impact on student perceptions and academic experiences in three technical colleges in upstate South Carolina. By
examining Alexander Astin's theory of student involvement in the services provided by the program, a better understanding of the existing functions of SSS may be obtained. The study may offer information to increase knowledge and awareness about the college experience for a diverse group of college students. It is hoped that the study will help to better understand unique experiences of SSS participants …

An Examination Of Hurricane Emergency Preparedness Planning At Institutions Of Higher Learning Of The Gulf South Region Post Hurricane Katrina, Caterina Gulli Ventura

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine hurricane emergency preparedness planning at institutions of higher learning of the Gulf South region following Hurricane Katrina. The problem addressed the impact of Hurricane Katrina on decision-making and policy planning processes. The focus was on individuals that administer the hurricane emergency preparedness plans and processes at universities. The research sought comprehension of the complexity of responsibilities while aspiring to build more effective policy. The research procedures consisted of two phases. The first phase of the research used the hurricane emergency preparedness plans of universities and colleges in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to …

The Attraction Of Adjunct Faculty To Rural Community Colleges, Hara Dracon Charlier

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

As rural community colleges face mounting fiscal pressure, the ability to attract adjunct faculty members to support the institutional mission becomes increasingly important. Although the professional literature documents differences between rural, suburban, and urban community colleges, the effect of this institutional diversity on the role and attraction of adjunct faculty has not been explored. The purpose of this cross-sectional, national study of chief academic officers (CAOs) was to examine the impact of institutional type on the reliance on and demand for adjunct faculty across teaching disciplines and explore the applicability of the applicant attraction model (Rynes & Barber, 1990) to …

Moderator Effect Of Financial Aid On Predictors Of Community College Graduation Rate, Richard Wilt

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the resource allocation decisions community colleges make in order to gain insight into the relationship of those decisions to graduation rate and whether those relationships were influenced by the percentage of students at the college receiving financial aid. Much of the literature on persistence and graduation rate in higher education is based on student characteristics such as SAT scores, high school GPA, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, or on college selectivity. This study switches the focus to the characteristics of the college rather than the student.

The relative lack of literature on community college graduation rates and the …

A Phenomenological Study Of Leader Experiences And Reactions To Transformational Change In A Multicampus System, John E. Cech

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research on organizational change theory confirms the importance of leaders' ability to establish a sense of urgency, create institutional support for change, develop a vision, communicate the vision, empower others toward action, generate results, and ultimately create change in the organizational culture. Organizational change in nested systems, in which CEOs of individual units report upward through a state, regional, or corporate hierarchy, has not been extensively studied. To address this gap in the literature, this phenomenological study explored perceptions of college leaders who in 2002-2003 participated in the transformation of seven 2-year technical colleges into a community college system. The …

The Relationship Between Campus Climate And The Teaching Of Critical Thinking Skills In Community College Classrooms, Thomas C. Simon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although critical thinking skills are important for all citizens participating in a democratic society, many community college students appear to lack these skills. This study addressed the apparent lack of research relating critical thinking instruction to campus climate. Critical thinking theory and Moos's organizational climate theory served as the theoretical foundation. The relationship between faculty's perceptions of three campus climate factors and their use of five critical thinking instructional techniques in the classroom was analyzed in this quantitative study. An online instrument based on the School-Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) to measure campus climate and a researcher-designed measure of critical thinking …

The Administration Of Community College Blogs: Considering Control And Adaptability In Loosely Coupled Systems, Troy A. Swanson

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study using a multiple case study method is (1) to further the understanding of how community college administrators and blog authors strike a balance between organizational control and adaptability when implementing and using blog technologies and (2) to create a model that will help administrators better strike this balance within a loosely coupled system of college units and individuals. The rise of Web 2.0 technologies, which allows for direct publication to the Internet, presents two conundrums for community colleges: the conundrum of control and the conundrum of adaptability. As the oldest implementation of Web 2.0 technologies, …