Education Commons^™

Life After Graduation: Current Seniors' Perceptions Of Alumni Engagement And Their Expectations Of The Institution Once They Graduate, Jessica Burns Fugate

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alumni participation in the life of an institution is more important now than ever before as state and federal funding continue to shrink and alumni are called on for financial support and to serve as resources for current students. Institutional leaders are hard-pressed to bring in external revenue to bridge the gap as budgets shrink to successfully balance operational costs (Barr & McClellan, 2011), which is done mostly through fundraising efforts targeted toward parents of students, alumni and often current students before they graduate to establish a culture of philanthropy. This need for external revenue increases the necessity for engaged …

Students' Perceptions On Alternative Break Experiences And Selecting An Academic Major In A Four-Year College, Bianny Fernández Collado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that 50-80% of college students are exploratory/undecided or appear as declared and will change their major at least once. Although higher education institutions have developed and implemented several initiatives to assist students with selecting an academic major, students are struggling to reach this milestone. According to Gebhard (2015), real-world and experiential opportunities successfully prepare students to select an academic major. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative exploratory study is to describe in-depth a phenomenon: how a service-based experience, offered through an Alternative Breaks (aB) program may prepare student participants for the selection of an academic major. The study …

Epistemological Developmental Level And Critical Skill Thinking Level In Undergraduate University Students, Monnie Huston Wertz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Epistemological development and its relationship to critical thinking has been postulated in educational psychology since the 1970’s. By empirically examining epistemological development in relationship to thinking critically, a richer understanding of overall student development and instructional needs could be achieved. By taking into account a student’s epistemological development, issues unique to these stages could inform how to most effectively work with students to promote critical thinking development.

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential relationship between collegiate epistemological development and critical thinking skills by examining differences in critical thinking skills at different levels of epistemological development. The …