Education Commons^™

A Forgotten Demographic: Low-Income First-Generation College Students, Ryan Joseph-Lee Haynes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone is on the need for support for low-income first-generation college students. An evidence based argument is made that these students are at a major disadvantage as compared to their counterparts. Consideration of the issue, should include the perspectives of high school students who will be the first in their family to apply and go to college. Three action options emerged from the analysis of data. Based on an analysis of the data and the relevant research literature, the researcher used what he learned to formulate an action that responded to the focus issue in a …

Roundtable – Teaching Human Rights: Challenges And Best Practices, Shayna Plaut, Kristi Kenyon, Joel Pruce, William Simmons

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Over the past 20 years, courses addressing human rights have grown dramatically at both the undergraduate and graduate levels worldwide. Many of these courses are housed in specific disciplines, focus on specific issues, and require practical experience in the form of internships/practicums. Amid this growth there is a need to reflect on teaching human rights including the challenges, fears, and best practices.

Recognizing that education takes place inside and outside a classroom, this roundtable brings together scholars teaching human rights in a variety of settings to examine the current state of university human rights education. This includes a discussion of …

Institutional Investment In Teaching Excellence, Steven C. Taylor, Catherine Haras, Emily Daniell Magruder, Eva Fernández, Margery Ginsberg, Jake Glover

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Using Data To Evaluate Performance And Inform Decisions, Lynn D. Akey

Lynn D. Akey, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

From Collaborative Initiatives To Collaborative Culture, Lynn D. Akey, Karen A. Boubel, Margaret A. Healy, Rene Hersrud

Lynn D. Akey, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Designing An Outcomes-Based Student Affairs Assessment Program, Lynn D. Akey, Rene Hersrud

Lynn D. Akey, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Creating Communities Of Learning, Lynn D. Akey

Lynn D. Akey, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Adventure Education And Learning Communities: Linking Classroom Learning With Everyday Life, Andrew J. Bobilya, Lynn D. Akey

Lynn D. Akey, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Occupational Therapy Students In Norway: Do Their Approaches To Studying Vary By Year In The Program?, Tore Bonsaksen, Mikkel M. Thørrisen, Talieh Sadeghi

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Approaches to studying may be influenced by students’ age, maturity, and experience in higher education. Students’ approaches to studying may develop toward deep and/or strategic approaches and away from a surface approach as they move through the curriculum, which is generally considered a positive development. This study aimed to identify differences in approaches to studying among first-, second-, and third-year students enrolled in an occupational therapy program. Three cohorts of students (n = 160) from one university college completed the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) along with sociodemographic information. One-way analyses of variance were used to …

Roundtable – Teaching Human Rights: Challenges And Best Practices, Shayna Plaut, Kristi Kenyon, Joel Pruce, William Simmons

Joel Pruce

Over the past 20 years, courses addressing human rights have grown dramatically at both the undergraduate and graduate levels worldwide. Many of these courses are housed in specific disciplines, focus on specific issues, and require practical experience in the form of internships/practicums. Amid this growth there is a need to reflect on teaching human rights including the challenges, fears, and best practices. Recognizing that education takes place inside and outside a classroom, this roundtable brings together scholars teaching human rights in a variety of settings to examine the current state of university human rights education. This includes a discussion of …

The Inclusion Of Self-Assessment In Merit Evaluation, Kenneth L. Rigler, Lorie Cook-Benjamin, Regi Wieland, Carrie Tholstrup

Kenneth Rigler

The purpose of this survey study was to collect faculty perceptions toward changes made to the faculty merit evaluation process in a college of education at a state comprehensive university. The changes in the evaluation occurred over a two-year period, where a formative rubric and faculty self-assessment were incorporated into the merit instrument. The sampling frame for the study included the college of education faculty members at the university. The data for the study were collected in two different phases using a field-tested online survey that was created to collect the faculty perceptions of the newly developed instrument and process …

University Sustainability: Assessing College Sustainability Rating Systems, James M. Albis

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

This paper seeks to assess the three major university sustainability rating systems in the United States on their ability to drive positive sustainability outcomes. Since the mid-2000s the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Princeton Review, and the Sierra Club have attempted to rate universities on their sustainability policies and practices. A wide range of actions are rated by these organizations, from energy usage to transportation to procurement to academic offerings in the field of sustainability. This analysis shows that each organization values sustainability in different ways – for example, academics/co-curricular activities accounted for anywhere from 16%-49% …

Preliminary Evaluation Of The Psychometric Quality Of HeightenTm Quantitative Literacy, Katrina C. Roohr, Hyesun Lee, Jun Xu, Ou Lydia Liu, Zhen Wang

Numeracy

Quantitative literacy has been identified as an important student learning outcome (SLO) by both the higher education and workforce communities. This paper aims to provide preliminary evidence of the psychometric quality of the pilot forms for HEIghten quantitative literacy, a next-generation SLO assessment for students in higher education. We evaluated the psychometric quality of the test items (e.g., item analyses), individual- and group-level reliability, the relationship with student performance and related variables (e.g., grade point average) as well as student perceptions, and differences across college-related and demographic subgroups. Our study used data from a pilot test administered to over 1,500 …

The Case For Urgency: Advocating For Indigenous Voice In Education, Kevin P. Gillan, Suzanne Mellor, Jacynta Krakouer

Australian Education Review

In 2004 the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) published an Australian Education Review (AER) on Indigenous Education: The Case for Change: A review of contemporary research on Indigenous education outcomes, AER 47 (Mellor & Corrigan, 2004). In the 13 years since its publication, the state of Indigenous education outcomes has remained substantially unaltered. All the social indicators demonstrate that Australia’s First Nations people continue to be the most socio-economically disadvantaged population cohort in Australian society. This is after decades of continued policy efforts by successive Commonwealth, state and territory governments to ameliorate Indigenous education disadvantage. We still struggle with …

The Case For Urgency: Advocating For Indigenous Voice In Education, Kevin P. Gillan, Suzanne Mellor, Jacynta Krakouer

Jacynta Krakouer

In 2004 the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) published an Australian Education Review (AER) on Indigenous Education: The Case for Change: A review of contemporary research on Indigenous education outcomes, AER 47 (Mellor & Corrigan, 2004). In the 13 years since its publication, the state of Indigenous education outcomes has remained substantially unaltered. All the social indicators demonstrate that Australia’s First Nations people continue to be the most socio-economically disadvantaged population cohort in Australian society. This is after decades of continued policy efforts by successive Commonwealth, state and territory governments to ameliorate Indigenous education disadvantage. We still struggle with …

The Case For Urgency: Advocating For Indigenous Voice In Education, Kevin P. Gillan, Suzanne Mellor, Jacynta Krakouer

Suzanne Mellor

In 2004 the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) published an Australian Education Review (AER) on Indigenous Education: The Case for Change: A review of contemporary research on Indigenous education outcomes, AER 47 (Mellor & Corrigan, 2004). In the 13 years since its publication, the state of Indigenous education outcomes has remained substantially unaltered. All the social indicators demonstrate that Australia’s First Nations people continue to be the most socio-economically disadvantaged population cohort in Australian society. This is after decades of continued policy efforts by successive Commonwealth, state and territory governments to ameliorate Indigenous education disadvantage. We still struggle with …

A Challenge To Inclusive Excellence: What We Can Learn From A Jesuit Catholic University, Terri Lewis-King

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper draws attention to the ethics of the organization (institutional structure) to fulfill its mission by examining what does it mean that a Jesuit higher education institution strives for "inclusive excellence". From a staff member lens, what does the campus climate tell us about how that impact is felt. The result of this project are tools for professionals to use in their assessment and development of organizational support for staff.

Student Engagement And Post-College Outcomes: A Comparison Of Formative And Reflective Models, Courtney Sanders

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Student engagement is a complex construct that is thought to be related to positive outcomes during and after college. Previous research has defined engagement in diverse ways and there are inconsistencies in the models that are used to measure this construct. Many studies have used a reflective measurement model (i.e., exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis), wherein changes in a latent construct are thought to precede and in some sense, explain variation in observed variables. Others have argued that engagement is best measured using a formative model in which the relationship flows in the opposite direction. In other words, within formative …

Student Learning Gains In Higher Education: A Longitudinal Analysis With Faculty Discussion, Catherine E. Mathers

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Student learning is the primary desired outcome of a college education. To understand how educational programming and curricula affect students, colleges and universities must collect evidence of student learning gain. In this study, a longitudinal design was employed to investigate how a math and science general education curriculum impacted college students’ quantitative and scientific reasoning. Quantitative and scientific reasoning gain scores were computed and predicted from personal (i.e., prior knowledge, gender) and curriculum (i.e., number of completed courses in the domain) characteristics to uncover what factors relate to learning gain. Collapsing across personal and curriculum variables, gain scores were moderate …

Argument Education In Higher Education: A Validation Study, Paul E. Mabrey Iii

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Argument education can play an important role in higher education for leadership development and responding to increasing calls for post-secondary accountability. But to do so, argumentation teachers, scholars, and practitioners need to develop a clearer definition and research agenda for the purposes of teaching and assessing argumentation. The research conducted here contributes to this project by first establishing a definitional construct and observable behaviors associated with learning and practicing argumentation. Second, an argument education assessment instrument was created based off of the literature-supported definition of argumentation. Third, debate and argument education subject matter experts reviewed the definition, behaviors, and assessment …

Investigating The Relationship Between Equity And Graduate Outcomes In Australia, Sarah Richardson, Dawn Bennett, Lynne Roberts

Dr Sarah Richardson

Australian higher education equity policy focusses mostly on access and participation with the implicit assumption that disadvantage will be ameliorated through educational achievement. Less is known as to whether patterns of disadvantage continue post-completion. In a context in which graduate employability is becoming an important yardstick against which to measure institutional effectiveness, this question is of fundamental importance to higher education equity practitioners and policymakers. This study employed Commonwealth graduate outcome data to investigate relationships between disadvantage and graduate outcomes in Australia, with disadvantage defined as a graduate belonging to one or more of the following groups – low SES, …

The Perceptions Of Accounting: What Do You Think?, Brianna Darin

Honors Projects in Accounting

Accounting is often considered “the language of business,” but is sometimes perceived to be a difficult topic. This study seeks to get a deeper understanding as to why business students and other students perceive accounting to be such an intimidating subject. The ultimate research question addressed is: What are the perceptions of accounting among accounting students, non-accounting business students, and non-business students? A review of the relevant background literature led to two hypotheses that assist in answering the research question. Following the literature review and hypotheses development, a two-part process took place: (1) we conducted focus groups and (2) we …

An Investigation Of Accounting Education To Help Students Improve Important Job Skills, Alec Schuberth

Honors Projects in Accounting

Upon graduation, many college students embark on their professional careers in accounting. These graduates have completed their degree and moved to their new, exciting, and challenging jobs; but have these corporations recently expressed satisfaction with the performance of these young employees? Some studies suggest that many executives do not think that their new employees have developed the skills needed to be successful in today’s competitive business landscape. This project extends the literature by examining professional development in college graduates and applying it within the context of accounting education in college and universities nationwide. Overall, this project aims to investigate why …

Looking Through The Webcam Lens: Reflections On Moving Assessment Courses From Face-To-Face To Online, Jessica Rueter, Frank Dykes

Frank Dykes

This article presents one university’s transition from a traditional face-to-face graduate program of special education with certification as an educational diagnostician to an online format. More specifically, the authors describe the development of assessment courses when teaching norm-referenced instruments in online environments. Strengths and weaknesses are presented and recommendations for other faculty members are discussed.

Redesigning Field Supervisor Evaluations Based On Results Of A Factor Analysis, Amy Scott Brown, Justin Low, Amy Burns

Pacific's Annual Assessment Conference

No abstract provided.

Multi-Year Improvements In Campus Safety Based On Assessment Results, Mike Belcher

Pacific's Annual Assessment Conference

No abstract provided.

From Isolation To Connection: Assessing The Effectiveness Of An Intervention Model For Students With Social/Communication Challenges, Daniel Nuss, Kim Derushia

Pacific's Annual Assessment Conference

No abstract provided.

Leadership Identity And Critical Thinking Development In Cip Cohort Projects, Allison Dumas

Pacific's Annual Assessment Conference

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Computer-Based Testing On Dental Students, Sinky Zheng, Daniel Bender

Pacific's Annual Assessment Conference

No abstract provided.

The Discipline Of Evaluation: Teaching Students Expert Level Reading Skills, Eleanor Wittrup

Pacific's Annual Assessment Conference

No abstract provided.