Education Commons^™

Instructor's Employment-Level, Instructor-Efficacy, And Knowledge Of Effective Classroom Strategies For Emotional Disorders, Andrea Karen Haglin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Community college instructors are responsible for creating learning opportunities for all students, including adult students affected by emotional disorders (ED). Concerns in the literature have grown over how invested part-time instructors are in their teaching; however, limited data were available regarding instructor knowledge of ED, instructor-efficacy, and the impact of employment status. The purpose of this study was to address the gap in the literature and analyze relationships between instructor knowledge of ED strategies (as assessed by Teaching Students with Emotional Behavior Disorders scale) and instructors' efficacy beliefs (as assessed by the Ohio State Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale). It also evaluated …

Community College Basic Skills Math Instructors" Experiences With Universal Design For Learning, Sunny Greene

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Multiple approaches have been used in U.S. community colleges to address the learning needs of postsecondary students who are underprepared in basic skills math. The purpose of this exploratory interview study was to gain a deeper understanding of community college basic skills math learning through instructors' lived experiences using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach and its technology tool, a computerized pen. The conceptual framework for this study used Knowles's adult learning and Kolb's experiential learning theories with UDL principles. The central research questions investigated the professional development and teaching experiences of community college basic skills math instructors in …

Exploring Mentoring And Career Advancement: A Community College Case Study, Latonya Steele

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Senior administrators' retirement rates between 2012 and 2022 will create a shortage of community college leaders. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore how the mentoring programs at community colleges may contribute to the career advancement of potential academic leaders for senior leadership positions. Kram's mentor role theory grounded the study. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with a purposeful sample of 3 academic, senior administrative leaders from 3 North Carolina community colleges who have participated in leadership mentoring programs, a review of organizational documents, and a review of the literature. Using Yin's 5 step analytic …

Exploring Online Community College Course Completion And A Sense Of School Community, Kathleen Stone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found low online course completion rates to be a complex problem in higher education. Meanwhile, theory on adult learners' online persistence highlights the importance of a sense of school community. At the small, rural focus community college (FCC) for this study, general education online course completion rates are lower than the national average. FCC has not addressed the low online course completion rates. Using Rovais' composite persistence model as the conceptual framework, this instrumental case study examined how students' experiences and perceptions of a sense of school community contribute to their ability to complete online general education courses. …

How Discourse In Public Community College Documents Supports The Learning College Philosophy, Terri Ackland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the late 1990s, community colleges have changed strategies to enhance student success, moving from a traditional faculty-focused teaching model to a student-focused learning paradigm using O'Banion's 6 college learning principles to define and guide the learning college model. However, it is unclear how much the model is being used by community colleges or shared with stakeholders. The learning college model, supported by transformational language research on decision making and innovative thinking, provided a conceptual framework for this discourse analysis study. The purpose of this study was to discover the extent to which the language of the learning college model …

Impact Of A California Community College's General Education Information Literacy Requirement, Phyllis Usina

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Budget cuts at a California community college prompted stakeholders to consider dropping the college's general education information literacy (IL) requirement. Broad institutional outcomes data showed learning gains, but no targeted assessment existed regarding the IL requirement's impact on those gains. This quantitative study used Astin and Antonio's Inputs-Environment-Outcomes (I-E-O) assessment model to address relationships among student characteristics of demographic and prior preparation (Inputs), the IL requirement (Environment), and student reports of information critical analysis behavior and confidence (Outcomes). Study participants were 525 students aged 18 years and older who had completed the IL course with a grade of 2.0 or …

College Mission Change And Neoliberalism In A Community And Technical College, Christine Mollenkopf-Pigsley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Administrators of 2-year colleges are working in an environment where they seek to balance the social development of the student and the community's demand for a trained workforce to achieve economic development. This balance has resulted in ambiguity about the mission and purpose of 2-year colleges. The purpose of this case study was to explore a community college's experiences with mission change by exploring the interaction between a neoliberal public policy environment and the traditional social democratic mission of academia. Harvey's conceptualization of neoliberalism was used as the theoretical framework. Data were collected through 15 semi-structured interviews with members of …

Why Latino American Community College Students Drop Out After One Semester, Rosa Delia Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate why many Latino America students at an urban community college in the state of Maryland who were enrolled at least part-time and were U.S. citizens or permanent residents did not continue their education into the second semester. Guided by Tinto's model of student integration and student persistence, this study explored the reasons these students dropped-out using the students' words to describe barriers to success, factors that influenced their decisions not to return for their second semester, and what they believed could have made a difference in their decisions. Five Latino …

The Effects Of A Varied Method Of Instruction On Student Achievement, Transfer, Situational Interest, And Course Retention Rates In Community College Developmental Mathematics, Kevin L. Mccandless

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the effects of a varied method of instruction on student achievement, knowledge transfer, situational interest, and course retention rates, relative to a non-varied method of instruction, in community college developmental mathematics. The varied method of instruction consisted of active learning teaching practices with foundations in social constructivism, whereas the non-varied method of instruction was founded in Cognitive Load Theory and consisted primarily of explicit instruction and individual practice.

An initial sample of 139 students who enrolled in six sections of Beginning Algebra at an urban community college in Northern California participated …

Access Barriers To Higher Education For Rural Community College Students, Shanda Carter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting the study was to examine factors related to rural low-income, first generation college students' obstacles to community college enrollment. The study examined barriers students overcame to attend college and focused on rural college students from two community colleges in Missouri and Arkansas. The following questions guided the research:

1.What attendance barriers did rural community college students identify as being most difficult for them to overcome?

2.Were there differences between the self-identified attendance barriers based on gender for male and female rural community college students?

3.Were there differences in attendance barriers for rural community college students based …

Relationship Of Self-Efficacy In Community College Students From Critical Need Areas With First Semester Academic Achievement, Elmira Ratliff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if a relationship existed between the self-efficacy levels of freshman year community college students from critical need areas and their first semester academic achievement during their freshman year. Additionally, this research determined the strength of the relationship between self-efficacy levels and first semester grade point average of students from critical need areas. The study was conducted using three community colleges in the state of Mississippi during the 2013-2014 academic school year. The sample included one hundred and fifty males and one hundred and fifty females with a permanent address and school …

Effects Of Learning Communities On Community College Students' Success: A Meta-Analysis, Keith Allen Wurtz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low graduation rates are a significant issue for colleges. The majority of higher education institutions in the United States offer learning communities (LCs), which have been found to be effective for improving course success and persisting to the next semester. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the effectiveness of LCs with different types of populations and different types of LCs. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to identify the most effective types of LCs. Research questions addressed the effects of different types of LCs on different student success outcomes for community colleges. The study was based on …

A Study To Determine Whether A Relationship Exists Between Attending A Public, Two-Year Community College In The United States With Or Without Campus Housing And The Retention Of First-Year Students, John F. Yaun

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Student retention is a growing and common concern among community college administrators across the United States given the low retention rates at two-year institutions. With little change in the retention rates of first-year students at community colleges, administrators are searching for successful strategies and models within these heterogeneous educational environments to address the costs and consequences associated with low retention rates at two-year institutions.

The purpose of this study was to determine what relationship existed, if any, between attending a public, two-year community college in the United States with or without campus housing and the retention of first-year students. This …

A Study Of Prior Learning Assessment In Degree Completion, Jean Marie Chappell

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of prior learning assessment (PLA) in postsecondary degree completion for adult community college students at Mountwest Community and Technical College (MCTC). The study group consisted of 339 MCTC graduates, who applied PLA credits toward degree completion between the academic year 2006 and 2011. A comparison group was comprised of 321 MCTC graduates from the same time period, who did not apply PLA toward degree completion. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis found statistically significant relationships between time to degree completion and the application of PLA from military credits and institutional …

Education Is Like A Magic Carpet: Transfer Perceptions Of Urban Latino Community College Students, Catharine Mary Anne Penfold Navarro

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Latino students are the only ethnic group more likely to enroll in community colleges than four-year institutions. However, they transfer to four-year institutions at much lower rates than their white counterparts. This gap in transfer rates for Hispanic students is of significant concern to higher education researchers and policy makers because of its broad impact on overall educational attainment for Hispanics.

Research on Latino transfer rates has focused predominantly on quantitative data, which paints a clear picture of what is happening, but falls short in explaining why transfer rates continue to be low. Researchers have offered both structural (social reproduction …

Ethical Perspectives And Leadership Practices In The Two-Year Colleges In South Carolina, Shirley Butler

All Dissertations

This study examined the ethical perspectives and leadership practices of leaders in community colleges. The participants consisted of 68 presidents and chief institutional officers from the two-year colleges in South Carolina. All participants completed the Ethics Position Questionnaire and the Leadership Practices Inventory. Demographic data were also gathered on the participants. The survey responses were collected electronically, and analyzed to determine what relationships existed between the leaders' ethical ideologies and perspectives and their leadership practices. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's Product-moment Correlation tests, and ANOVA tests were computed to examine the data. The findings from the study indicated several associations between leadership …

Developing A Model For The Organization, Administration, And Programs For Community Colleges In Malaysia, Boni Thadius Gaban

Dissertations

Problem

The large number of Malaysian students studying overseas indicates that there is a paucity of extant institutions of higher learning in Malaysia to cater to the increasing number of secondary school graduates. It was therefore the purpose of this study to develop a model for the organization, administration, and programs for community colleges in Malaysia.

Method

Documentary and survey methodology was used. This study covered the philosophy, purposes, organizational structures, personnel, programs, and roles for community colleges in Malaysia. From the review of related literature, interviews with administrators of community colleges in the United States, and the survey to …