Education Commons^™

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 …

Tenure For Teaching Intensive Appointments At Portland State University: A Green Paper For The College Of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Patricia A. Schechter

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explores alignment between 2012-13 CLAS visioning and planning reports and state and national trends around faculty mix in higher education. It argues for pursuing the instructional excellence highlighted in many of the CLAS reports by investing in tenure. Tenure anchors authentic academic freedom through robust peer review and shared governance, the pillars of academic life. Tenure also provides the tested and proven means for providing a faculty stability, professional development, and an appropriate reward structure. This paper recommends expanded pathways to tenure, particularly for teaching intensive appointments traditionally described as "full-time fixed-term" at Portland State University. This adjustment …

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 …

Application Of Active Learning In Microwave Circuit Design Courses, Branimir Pejcinovic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Application of active learning in microwave circuit design courses. We have recently expanded our undergraduate labs to include four 20 GHz VNA-s and four high-speed TDR oscilloscopes. They were obtained initially for junior electromagnetics labs but this opens up obvious opportunities for more hands-on approaches to teaching and learning microwave circuit design. We have redesigned our two quarter, senior-level sequence with these goals in mind: a) Emphasize complete design cycle, from "paper" development, to simulation, to prototype development and testing, followed by more advanced prototyping, testing and redesign. b) De-emphasize face-to-face lecture and emphasize in-class activities and peer interaction c) …

Global Learning Outcomes Of A Domestic Foreign Language Immersion Program, Kathleen Ann Godfrey

Dissertations and Theses

There is a critical need for college students to receive an education that fosters global learning in preparation for life in an increasingly interdependent and interconnected world. Universities recognize this need and endeavor to provide a range of programs that target global knowledge and skills, and meet the needs of traditional and non-traditional students. Domestic foreign language immersion programs can contribute to student global learning and development by providing students with an opportunity to participate in a rich global learning experience in the U.S. While some researchers have investigated impacts of domestic foreign language immersion on language proficiency, few studies …

Undergraduate Research And Metropolitan Commuter University Student Involvement: Exploring The Narratives Of Five Female Undergraduate Students, Jolina Jade Kwong Caputo

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to explore the lived experiences of five female, first-generation, low-income students who attend a metropolitan commuter university, and investigate how a structured undergraduate research experience exerts influence on the women's academic and social involvement. A qualitative case study with a narrative and grounded theory analysis was selected as the most appropriate approach for exploring this topic and addressing the guiding research questions. Interview and journal data were collected and analyzed to identify significant themes. The importance of finding an academic home, the significance of interacting with faculty and peers, and the validation of a metropolitan commuter university …

A New Approach To Explain Policy Reforms In Vietnam During Ðổi Mới By Developing And Validating A Major Policy Change Model For Vietnam, Huan Van Dang

Dissertations and Theses

The Renovation Program - Ðổi Mới in Vietnam since 1986 have posed a puzzling policy question: why have some policy areas experienced radical changes while others have experienced only limited and incremental changes? This policy puzzle provided the focus for this dissertation in which a model of major policy change was developed to provide a new way of explaining the policy reforms in Vietnam over the past two decades. The model was developed based on three bodies of literature: (1) the most well-developed theories and models of policy change process created in the U.S and their application to the non-U.S …

Educating For The Twenty-First Century, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

In his first inaugural speech, President Obama declared that "our schools fail too many" and an essential component of laying "a new foundation for growth" will be "to transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. " Concerns about our nation s position in the global education race have led to a focus on college completion. Policymakers and foundations are setting goals for degree completion and are pressing colleges and universities to shorten the degree programs offered, address the barriers to degree attainment, rethink how best to help underprepared students be successful in …

Matching International Enthusiasm With Diversity Commitment, Michael J. Smith, Akiko Ota

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article discusses the need for diversity and commitment from U.S. universities to increase enthusiasm for foreign student recruitment. It notes that cooperative societies have been formed by universities to attain efficiency and cost control. It mentions that partnership between schools and private sector recruiting firms have risen.

Meaningful Sustainability Learning: An Action Research Study Of Sustainability Pedagogy In Two University Courses, Heather Burns

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Educators are increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability and the need to educate for sustainable change within higher education. This article addresses the growing need to focus on how teaching and learning can be re-oriented towards sustainability, and more specifically how educators can effectively address increasingly well-known sociocultural and ecological problems in ways that transform learners and empower them to make change based on a sense of civic responsibility and sustainability. This research study draws on the Burns Model of Sustainability Pedagogy, which integrates ecological design, systemic and interdisciplinary learning, multiple perspectives, an active and engaged learning process, and …

Developing And Assessing Curriculum On The Physics Of Medical Instruments, Warren Christensen, James K. Johnson, Grace R. Van Ness, Elliot E. Mylott, Justin C. Dunlap, Elizabeth A. Anderson, Ralf Widenhorn

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate educational settings often struggle to provide students with authentic biologically or medically relevant situations and problems that simultaneously improve their understanding of physics. Through exercises and laboratory activities developed in an elective Physics in Biomedicine course for upper-level biology or pre–health majors at Portland State University, we aim to teach fundamental physical concepts, such as light absorption and emission and atomic energy levels, through analysis of biological systems and medical devices. The activities address the properties of electromagnetic waves as they relate to the interaction with biological tissue and make links between physics and biomedical applications such as microscopy …