Education Commons^™

Untangling The Factors That Affect Student Retention: A Quantitative Study Of The Relationships Among First-Year Seminar Program Characteristics And Instructor Type (Full-Time And Part-Time), Christina Marie Shafer

Dissertations and Theses

Each fall first-year college students have met and overcome many challenges and transitions. However, one-third of first-year students who enter college in the U.S. do not return for their second-year. Making the first-year a critical juncture for students, administrators, and institutions. First-Year Seminars were created to help assist students with their transition to college and have been identified as an effective initiative to aid in first-year retention.

What role do institutions play in addressing the issue of retention? Some say that those who teach the Seminars matter. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship among Seminar characteristics …

Medical Faculty Engagement In Curricular Revisions: An Inquiry Into Individual And Organizational Factors That Support Participation, Tomoko Tanikawa

Dissertations and Theses

In efforts to facilitate the education of highly qualified and best-prepared medical professionals, many medical schools are either planning for or engaging in curriculum revisions including a complete overhaul of the curricular structure, academic and medical content, and pedagogical delivery modalities. To be effective, such changes require faculty buy-in, participation, engagement, and innovation. Unfortunately, despite medical schools' efforts to support faculty involvement in curricular revision, a range of reactions exist, including resistance. Thus, understanding the interactions between individual faculty attitudes and behaviors toward organizational initiatives and structural support is critical in advancing the educational mission of medical schools. Based on …

Exploring How Community College Transfer Students Experience Connection In A Commuter University, Christa Michelle Zinke

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last 40 years, the expansion of the U.S. community college system resulted in a growing number of students choosing to begin their undergraduate education at a two-year institution and then transfer to a four-year institution. However, many students struggle to establish connection after transferring, especially if they transfer into a commuter university. For many college students, feelings of engagement and connection influence their persistence decisions. Using Tinto's (1975; 1993) and Astin's (1984) theories of student persistence as a framework, the purpose of this in-depth interview study is to explore how commuter community college students who transfer to Portland …

Student Sustainability Leadership Development At Portland State University: Developing Holistic Sustainability Leaders, Megan Suzanne Schneider

Dissertations and Theses

In order to address the myriad of social, economic, and environmental challenges the world is facing, we need to be able to engage in leadership that fosters collective action towards sustainable solutions. Higher education is an institution that can equip people with the abilities to engage in sustainability leadership. This master's thesis research explores how students develop sustainability leadership through their college experience. Nine students, who had been identified as sustainability leaders through their participation in the Student Sustainability Center (SSC), a co-curricular sustainability program at Portland State University, were selected to be part of this grounded theory research project. …

The Relationship Between Undergraduate Research Training Programs And Motivational Resources For Underrepresented Minority Students In Stem: Program Participation, Self-Efficacy, A Sense Of Belonging, And Academic Performance, Jennifer Lindwall

Dissertations and Theses

Although calls for a more diverse workforce in biomedical fields have been widespread, racial and ethnic gaps in biomedical degree attainment persist. In order to succeed, URM STEM students must persevere despite numerous challenges and stay continuously motivated on the long road to degree attainment in biomedical disciplines. Past higher education research has identified two key self-appraisals, a sense of belonging and self-efficacy, as crucial for student success. These beliefs, which can serve as motivational resources for students, include students' convictions about whether they are a valued member of their academic community and whether they have what it takes to …

Engaging In A Rural Deaf Community Of Practice, Kara Gournaris

Dissertations and Theses

The number of students taking American Sign Language (ASL) at the post-secondary level continues to increase as more Deaf-related graduate programs and employment settings require fluent ASL skills. Western Oregon University (WOU) is one of the few existing programs in the United States that offers four years of ASL instruction; however, as a rural university it has limited access to a Deaf community. The problem of practice is that students often have little exposure to rich language models who are fluent in ASL, which impacts their legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) in the local Deaf communities of practice (CoPs) and reduces …

The Role Of The Academic Analyst In Shared Governance, Rebecca Ann Mathern

Dissertations and Theses

This research explores the roles of academic professionals in higher education, specific to how they engage in decision-making processes. Academic professionals provide important functions in higher education work but there is little in the literature about these actors and their contributions to leadership and governance. A literature review triangulated role theory, organization theory, and the shared-governance field of study to bring together actors within higher education and compare their involvement based on the shared-governance model in operation at different institutions. The researcher introduced the hypothesis that when registrars are not involved in curriculum management, there may be negative effects on …

The Gender Gap In Postsecondary Enrollment Intentions: The Mediating Role Of Student Attitudes And Behaviors, Paul J. Deppen Iii

Dissertations and Theses

Current literature on the gender gap in higher education lacks in-depth exploration of how the gap between males and females in postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment differs among racial/ethnic groups and among students of differing socioeconomic status (SES). This thesis explores the potential mediating role of student attitudes and behaviors and whether or not inclusion in certain racial/ethnic or SES groups moderates the relationship between gender and intentions to continue one's education immediately after high school graduation. This study uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. Results suggest that student attitudes mediate more of the relationship between …

A Million Piece Jigsaw Puzzle: Transition Experiences Of Foster Youth Accessing Higher Education Through Community College, Karen A. Sullivan-Vance

Dissertations and Theses

A college education offers people social and economic benefits, yet youth from foster care backgrounds are less likely than their peers to attain a college education, which places this already vulnerable population at higher risk for a lifetime of living on the margins of society. Foster alumni face multiple obstacles to accessing and persisting in higher education. To facilitate and support the success of this frequently overlooked population, professionals in higher education need to understand these obstacles. Little is known about the experiences of youth with foster care backgrounds as they transition into and through higher education. Although existing research …

Does Avid Higher Education (Avid He) Increase Student Term-To-Term Progression, Persistence Toward Credited Classes And Social Capital For First-Generation College Students Placing Into Developmental Education: A Mixed Methods Study, Christie M. Plinski

Dissertations and Theses

Often considered the gateway to the middle class in the United States, community colleges are struggling to find ways to support all students in career planning and preparation. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of first generation students who enter community colleges through the door of open access, place into developmental education (remedial) courses and must satisfactorily complete this often-rigid sequence before beginning college level classes. For many first-generation, under-prepared, underresourced students, this is a frustrating and often insurmountable barrier, causing many students to abort their postsecondary training.

Creating intentional conditions and instructional strategies that support student learning is essential in increasing the …

Perception Of The Online Degree By Accounting Hiring Gatekeepers Of Mid-Size Firms In The Northwestern U.S., Domanic Thomas

Dissertations and Theses

The latest research shows over 2.8 million higher education students or one-in-seven are enrolled in fully online programs. In fields such as accounting, students are able to complete their degree, pass a standardized exam, and enter the workforce with little to no work experience. Accounting firm human resources managers are primarily responsible for the recruitment and selection of candidates. Prior studies conducted show that these hiring gatekeepers prefer candidates with earned degrees in a traditional classroom environment when holding constant for all other factors. While many students invest in online degrees as an ideal pathway to employment, career advancement, and …

How Persevering Latina/O First-Generation College Students Navigate Their College Experience: Keeping Who They Are While Learning And Persisting In The Culture Of College, Angela Judith Balcacer

Dissertations and Theses

Latina/o first-generation college students, along with their families, are learning a new culture when considering going to four-year universities. While the conversation involving Latina/o first-generation college students can often focus on attrition, I am interested in exploring what, from participants' point of view, are the successes they experience as well as the most challenging obstacles they encounter on their journey to graduating from four-year universities. Employing the theoretical frameworks of constructivism, critical race theory, and cultural capital, the purpose of this study was to go beyond the conversation of Latina/o first-generation college student attrition by examining how they navigate postsecondary …

Development Of The Global-Self Through Collegiate Recreational Sports, Alexander Rocco Accetta

Dissertations and Theses

Today's student has more access to global issues than any previous generation. Nearly one million higher education students study abroad worldwide, the workplace reflects a need to be interculturally competent, and students rarely have opportunities to learn how to thrive in the new global environment. This study explored how higher education, and specifically collegiate recreation, is responding to this reality. The development of Killick's global-self is a guiding theme and was used to investigate how students perceive the development of their global-self after experiencing interventions designed to introduce the concepts of internationalization and globalization into a collegiate recreation intramural program. …

Conventionalizing And Axiomatizing In A Community College Mathematics Bridge Course, Mark Alan Yannotta

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation consists of three related papers. The first paper, Rethinking mathematics bridge courses--An inquiry model for community colleges, introduces the activities of conventionalizing and axiomatizing from a practitioner perspective. In the paper, I offer a curricular model that includes both inquiry and traditional instruction for two-year college students interested in mathematics. In particular, I provide both examples and rationales of tasks from the research-based Teaching Abstract Algebra for Understanding (TAAFU) curriculum, which anchors the inquiry-oriented version of the mathematics bridge course.

The second paper, the role of past experience in creating a shared representation system for a mathematical operation: …

Information Literacy In The First Year Of Higher Education: Faculty Expectations And Student Practices, Meredith Esther Michaud

Dissertations and Theses

Information literacy is widely acknowledged as important for student success in higher education. Information literacy is the ability to sort through a large amount of available information, decide what is useful and believable, and apply it in an effective and ethical way. Faculty members have expectations regarding information literacy for students in the first year of college, while students have information literacy practices that may or may not match those expectations. In my study, I examined the alignment of faculty member information literacy expectations and student information literacy practices, focusing on freshman students and faculty members who teach freshman students …

"Like Drinking Water Out Of A Fire Hydrant" Medical Education As Transformation: A Naturalistic Inquiry Into The Physician Assistant Student Experience, Patricia Kenney-Moore

Dissertations and Theses

Physician assistants are medical professionals educated in an allopathic medical education model in the United States. In order to successfully matriculate, educate and graduate safe and effective health care providers in a 2-year time frame, the 4-year M.D. curriculum has been abbreviated and condensed leading to an intense, full-time cohort educational experience that taxes physician assistant students to their limits. The demanding workload can lead to fluctuations in mood and morale along with increased levels of psychological distress. This dissertation explores this under examined student experience by first introducing the physician assistant profession and the process by which it educates …

The Design And Validation Of A Group Theory Concept Inventory, Kathleen Mary Melhuish

Dissertations and Theses

Within undergraduate mathematics education, there are few validated instruments designed for large-scale usage. The Group Concept Inventory (GCI) was created as an instrument to evaluate student conceptions related to introductory group theory topics. The inventory was created in three phases: domain analysis, question creation, and field-testing. The domain analysis phase included using an expert consensus protocol to arrive at the topics to be assessed, analyzing curriculum, and reviewing literature. From this analysis, items were created, evaluated, and field-tested. First, 383 students answered open-ended versions of the question set. The questions were converted to multiple-choice format from these responses and disseminated …

Developing Key Sustainability Competencies Through Real-World Learning Experiences: Evaluating Community Environmental Services, Erin Lorene Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

This study focuses on sustainability in higher education and the competencies essential to address sustainability issues. Because sustainability issues are complex, "wicked", and dynamic, sustainability education programs need to reflect the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the field. Graduates who are competent in sustainability research and problem solving will have the knowledge, skills, and attitude necessary to analyze a sustainability problem systemically and comprehensively, then will construct and implement interventions to reach optimal sustainability solutions. To prepare graduates, sustainability education programs should facilitate the development of key sustainability competencies (Wiek, Withycombe, & Redman, 2011). Such programs provide an interdisciplinary approach …

A Corpus Based Analysis Of Noun Modification In Empirical Research Articles In Applied Linguistics, Jo-Anne Hutter

Dissertations and Theses

Previous research has established the importance of the nouns and noun modification in academic writing because of their commonness and complexity. However, little is known about how noun modification varies across the rhetorical sections of research articles. Such a perspective is important because it reflects the interplay between communicative function and linguistic form.

This study used a corpus of empirical research articles from the fields of applied linguistics and language teaching to explore the connection between article sections (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion; IMRD) and six types of noun modification: relative clauses, ing-clause postmodifiers, ed-clause postmodifiers, prepositional postmodifiers, premodifying nouns, and …

The Impact Of Documentation Status On The Educational Attainment Experiences Of Undocumented Hispanic/Latino Students, Brittanie Alexandria Roberts

Dissertations and Theses

The issue of undocumented immigration has recently taken center-stage in the media and national politics in the United States. A large population of undocumented youth grows up with legal access to public education through high school, following the Supreme Court decision of Plyler vs. Doe, but faces legal and economic barriers to post-secondary education. Following high school, undocumented Hispanic/Latino youth legal protections end, greatly limiting chances for upward mobility through traditional post-secondary education pipelines. In some cases, knowledge of future barriers to post-secondary education leads to a decline in educational motivation.

The current political atmosphere makes this study a bit …

Adult Returning Students And Proportional Reasoning: Rich Experience And Emerging Mathematical Proficiency, Ann Sitomer

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores adult returning students' mathematical experience and ways of thinking prior to enrolling in a community college arithmetic review course. It further examines one student's experience of the course. The first part of the study documents everyday activities adult students perceive as mathematical using Bishop's pan-cultural mathematical activities (Bishop, 1994), and queries students' prior experience with mathematics in school. The second part examines students' ways of thinking about proportion prior to instruction, using a framework developed from previous research (e.g., Lamon, 1993). The third part of the study examines the interaction between informal ways of thinking about mathematics …

Classroom Engagement As A Proximal Lever For Student Success In Higher Education: What A Self-Determination Framework Within A Multi-Level Developmental System Tells Us, Una Ji Chi

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the role of course engagement in college student success, especially for students who have multiple life commitments and few social supports. Building on previous measurement work and based in self-determination theory, the study was organized in five steps. Relying on information provided by 860 undergraduates from 12 upper and lower division Psychology classes, the first step was to improve the measurement of course engagement, by mapping the increased complexity found in self-reports of college students (by incorporating items capturing engagement in "out-of-classroom" activities and general orientation, to standard items tapping classroom engaged and disaffected behavior and emotion). …

Facilitating Master's Student Success: A Quantitative Examination Of Student Perspectives On Advising, Sarah Brooks Drummond Hays

Dissertations and Theses

Faculty advising is crucial for student success, but little is known about the specific relationship between advising and master's students' success. Given that master's student enrollment is growing and diversifying, examining the relationships between advising and success is imperative for institutional efficiency and educational excellence. This quantitative study investigated nearly 1,000 master's students' experiences with two primary types of advising--administrative and mentoring. The study looked for correlations with multiple proxies of student success (e.g., graduation, retention, institutional commitment, and GPA). As well, other potentially influential individual, educational, and organizational variables (e.g., background characteristics, peer culture, and department climate) were examined …

The Retention Puzzle Reconsidered: Second Year Student Attitudes And Experiences With Advising, Michael Edward Walsh

Dissertations and Theses

College student retention has been described as a puzzle because retention rates have stagnated, and in some cases declined, despite over seventy years of research into the problem. The magnitude of the problem is that 50 percent of college students will leave their institution before obtaining a degree (Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2011). In an effort to improve retention rates, colleges and universities have concentrated their attention on first year students. But this concentrated strategy may have simply transferred the retention problem into the second year where retention rates for many schools are as low as first year rates (Amaury, …

Short-Term International Service-Learning: Faculty Perceptions Of And Pedagogical Strategies For The Design And Implementation Of Successful Learning Experiences, Thomas Jacob Van Cleave

Dissertations and Theses

Faculty-led short-term international service-learning (STISL) experiences are thought to have great potential in developing students' global citizenship through combining study abroad and community service pedagogies. However, thorough investigation of the pedagogical strategies employed in STISL courses to achieve such outcomes has yet to be conducted. This qualitative narrative inquiry of STISL faculty at 7 different institutions across multiple academic disciplines and country service sites sought to fill that void. Data reveal a new conceptualization of STISL teaching, learning, and service success that involves culturally contextualized solidarity, global civic engagement, and global competence, which culminate into students' global agency. Emerging from …

Exploring Online Community Among Rural Medical Education Students: A Case Study, Ryan Tyler Palmer

Dissertations and Theses

There is a severe shortage of rural physicians in America. One reason physicians choose not to practice, or persist in practice, in rural areas is due to a lack of professional community, i.e., community of practice (CoP). Online, "virtual" CoPs, enabled by now common Internet communication technology can help give rural physicians the CoP experience they traditionally have lacked, despite their remote practice locations. Therefore, it is important for rural medical education programs to provide technological experiences that give students the skills needed to create virtual CoPs in future rural practice contexts.

The Oregon Rural Scholars Program (ORSP) provides such …

Academic Advising Structures That Support First-Year Student Success And Retention, Brett Leland Mcfarlane

Dissertations and Theses

Academic advising has been touted as a key to student success and retention. Today's academic advising delivery models vary considerably and little is known about the efficiency and effectiveness of these models. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between how academic advising is delivered to first-year students at a four-year public, high research activity university located on the west coast and the students' satisfaction with advising, advising learning outcomes, and retention. In the study, responses of 628 first-year students to a survey which asked them about their attitudes toward and experiences with academic …

First-Generation Latinos At Pacific Northwest University: Their Adjustment And Experience During Freshman Year, Marco Antonio Aguirre

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis details the lived experiences of ten first-generation Latino students at a large public university in the Pacific Northwest. Their experience and adjustment reveal that they relied on their friends and family, especially their parents for the male participants, for support and encouragement. The help these students received in the form of caring and social capital from faculty and staff during their freshman year ensured that they made a successful adjustment to college. Participants cite influential people and programs that motivated them to succeed and become comfortable in the college student role.

Learning To Adapt: Online Social Science Instruction In Higher Education, Patrick Steven Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Online learning is a rapidly growing phenomenon in post-secondary education. Institutions of higher learning have embraced online learning for its perceived merits, but without the consideration of how instructors deal with this different learning medium. Little is known of the extent to which different disciplines are suited to the online medium; this is pertinent to disciplines that rely on spontaneous in-person discussion. Furthermore, as colleges continue to invest heavily in online learning, instructors who only possess face-to-face teaching experience may begin teaching online. This poses a pedagogical challenge for instructors who are unfamiliar with the medium. This qualitative, in-depth interview …

Strategic Evaluation Of University Knowledge And Technology Transfer Effectiveness, Thien Anh Tran

Dissertations and Theses

Academic knowledge and technology transfer has been growing in importance both in academic research and practice. A critical question in managing this activity is how to evaluate its effectiveness. The literature shows an increasing number of studies done to address this question; however, it also reveals important gaps that need more research. One novel approach is to evaluate the effectiveness of this activity from an organizational point of view, which is to measure how much knowledge and technology transfer from a university fulfills the mission of the institution. This research develops a Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) to measure the contribution …