Education Commons^™

Cultivating Connectedness To Nature In The College Classroom: A Consideration Of Nature-Based Pedagogy In Undergraduate Education, Cody H. Nygard

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Nature-based environmental education, and research around the cultivation of connectedness to nature, has focused primarily on younger learners without paying close attention to the development of nature-based college curriculum (Leiflander et al., 2013; Ernst & Theimer, 2011; Cheng & Monroe, 2010). Additionally, spirituality as a mechanism for engaging students in the development of connectedness to nature has largely been neglected in higher education pedagogical research (Crowe, 2013). The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a nature-based, spiritually engaging undergraduate environmental course on students’ connectedness to nature. This quasi-experimental, mixed methods case study compared changes to connectedness …

The Effect Of Volunteering On Philanthropic Giving To American Higher Education, Jess Metzmeier

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

To explore the effect of volunteering on philanthropic giving to U.S. higher education, the study considered the giving rates of first-time alumni participants in an alumni-student career mentor program as measured over three periods: the year prior to their first year as a mentor, their first year as a mentor, and the year following their first year as a mentor. Using a repeated measure ANOVA statistical method, the study sought to determine if there is a statistically significant variance in the giving rates of these volunteers across the three measures. The study also explored the influence of a participant’s prior …

The Influence Of Martial Arts On The Quality Of Life Of College Students, Benjamin Harris

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Students come to college in order to attain a degree that allows them to improve their quality of life (QOL) after graduating (Morris, 2017). However, the stressors associated with attending, including anxiety depression (Beiter et al., 2014), insomnia, and headaches (Caldwell et al., 2017), negatively impact their ability to be successful. It is then necessary for higher education institutions to address those issues by exploring and creating opportunities that can improve student QOL. The objective of this study is to understand the health-related experiences of students enrolled in a university martial arts club during college.

This qualitative case study is …

From The Margins: Impact Of Academic Advising On First-Generation Student Retention, Xavia Harrington-Chate

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

This study examines the influence of academic advising on first-generation student retention using secondary data via data from an online survey. Specifically, the researcher explored advising experiences to explain the retention of freshman first-generation college students from Year One to Year Two. A total of 1,716 freshman students during the 2017-2018 academic school year participated in this study. The survey's setting is a mid-sized, four-year public university in the Midwestern United States. The research questions seek to identify if first-generation students' status or self-reported data of academic advising experiences affect student retention during the critical first year of college enrollment. …

Impacts Of Website Visibility And Family Income On Use Of The Net Price Calculator, Hunt Chouteau Helm

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Higher education attainment benefits individuals and society. But access to higher education is not equitable. Students from low-income families, even those with equal qualifications, are underrepresented throughout the education pipeline, and the gap by family income increases at each educational milepost. The major impediments to increasing college-going rates for lower-income families are financial, experiential, motivational and informational. A key informational impediment is the difficulty families have in understanding information about college costs and financial aid. In 2011, the federal government attempted to improve information access for all by requiring colleges and universities to post a Net Price Calculator on their …