Education Commons^™

Service-Learning: A Powerful Pedagogy For Promoting Academic Success Among Students Of Color, Michelle C. Sterk Barrett, Isabelle Jenkins

Scholarship and Professional Writing from the J.D. Power Center

This article discusses a mixed-methods study that investigated the service-learning experiences of students of color at College of the Holy Cross to better understand how service-learning may be an effective pedagogical tool for reducing cultural dissonance and addressing related achievement gaps. Quantitative data were collected from over 1,500 students who had enrolled in 59 different service-learning classes. In addition, interviews were conducted with 13 students of color who had participated in service-learning. Findings indicated that students’ service-learning experiences paralleled study participants’ descriptions of how they learned most effectively. Furthermore, the findings suggest that service-learning may resonate for students of color …

“College Material” Structural Care At A New York City Transfer School, C. Ray Borck

Publications and Research

Based on ethnographic research at Brooklyn Community High School (BCHS), a transfer high school in New York City I demonstrate that students narrate their educational histories in terms of their experience of care, or lack of care, from teachers. Contributing to research on student-teacher relationships, care, resilience and retention, I develop the concept structural care, arguing that teachers’ ability to demonstrate care for their students, and students’ ability to perceive that care, is enabled or constrained by larger, socio-structural forces such as the national educational policy landscape, widespread cultural beliefs about schools and students, and processes of racialization, criminalization, and …

Recruiting And Retaining K9–16 Students Through Field- And Laboratory - Based Geoscience Experiences, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Arif M. Sikder, Krishna Mahabir, Ality Aghedo, Charren Cabaroy, Mildred M. Selby, Gugu Ginindza, Leonardo Sanchez

Publications and Research

Since 2004, we have been directly involved with the GSA to provide access and opportunities for K9-16 students, particularly those interested in the broader aspects of geoscience-related topics, to present their field-and- laboratory based research outcomes at professional conferences and to learn from each other. So far, well-over 400 students from the U. S. and abroad have taken advantage of this opportunity and participated our topical sessions. It is quite gratifying to report that many of these students, as a result of their attendance at the GSA conference, felt a continuing need for exposure to high-level professional venues with effective …

Ouachita Baptist Sets Retention Record, Enrollment Increases, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia begins the fall semester with a record freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 83.4 percent and student enrollment of 1,660, an increase of 7.45 percent from a year ago.

The Relationship Between English Language Proficiency And Academic Achievement For English Language Learners, Laura Grisso

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to test the threshold hypothesis as it applied to the performance of English language learner students on the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (OCCT) in third grade reading and the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State for English language learners assessment, also known as the ACCESS for ELLs. The OCCT assesses student performance on third grade reading content and the ACCESS for ELLs assesses the English language proficiency levels in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This study specifically proposed to analyze the relationship between the ACCESS for ELLs reading …

An Analysis Of Grit Scores On First-Year Undergraduate Students' Persistence At A Large Private University, Nina Shenkle

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Student persistence in higher education has become an increasingly high priority as institutions seek to improve undergraduate completion rates. Traditionally, cognitive abilities such as aptitude and intelligence have been used to measure and predict whether a student will be successful in college. However, there is evidence that noncognitive abilities such as determination or effort are as important and as indicative of success as cognitive abilities. This nonexperimental, causal-comparative study utilized a multivariate analysis of variance to analyze archival data of 832 undergraduate students from a large private university to determine the differences between the overall grit score, perseverance of effort …

Exploring The Relationship Between Students' Sense Of Community, Student Satisfaction, And Doctoral Program Retention, Adam Roberson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This is a study examining the interaction between certain doctoral student engagement indicators (peer, institution, curriculum, faculty, spirituality) and student satisfaction. The scope is to understand if student sense of community is a significant moderator to this interaction in order to address the issue of student attrition. It is important to understand these interactions and the influence of sense of community so that institutions of higher education better analyze student commitment. The outcomes of this study may be used as a means to design and implement engagement strategies that are effective in student retention and completion. Doctoral students were invited …

On Campus Social Support And Hope As Unique Predictors Of Perceived Ability To Persist In College, Deanna D'Amico, Veronica Fruiht

Psychology | Faculty Scholarship

The psychological construct of hope, characterized by goal-directed thinking rooted in personal agency and the ability to develop pathways to achieve goals, has long been demonstrated to predict academic success. A sample of 994 undergraduates participated in this study to better understand the role of hope and on-campus social support in predicting students’ perceived ability to persist and succeed in college. Results demonstrated that on-campus support, particularly from teachers and professors, significantly predicted academic outcomes and hope. In addition, we found evidence of a support gap in which students from underrepresented ethnic minorities were far more likely to report that …

Why Do You Go To College? Shaping Student Beliefs And Success. A Dissertation Summary., Mitchell Colver

Publications

Students enter the realm of higher education with a wide variety of beliefs about the purposes of attending university, which often relate to or reveal their various motivations for pursuing a post-secondary education. Research demonstrates that some student motivations align more fully with intrinsic factors, such as the love of learning or quest for excellence, while other student motivations align with extrinsic factors, such as vocational preparedness and monetary incentives (Vallerand et al., 1989). Using a Bourdieusienne lens, this study sought to place these student motivations in the larger sociocultural context and argue for greater opportunities for democratic equity in …

The Relationship Between Financial Literacy, Financial Status, And Academic Success In College Students, Brian Douglas Brausch

Dissertations

As the cost of college continues to rise, an increasing number of students are relying on loans and credit cards to fund their postsecondary education. In an effort to curb student debt and increase retention and graduation rates, many universities have begun to offer financial literacy initiatives to stimulate financial knowledge and promote positive money management behaviors.

This study examines the relationship between a for-credit personal financial literacy course and student academic success and economic status. Students who took a personal finance course during their first or second year of college are compared to a random sampling of students who …

Advanced Placement And Dual Enrollment As Related To College Readiness And Retention At A Tennessee University, Diana Bowers, Virginia P. Foley

ETSU Faculty Works

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between students who entered a Tennessee university for the first time in the fall of 2014 who had earned either Advanced Placement (AP) or dual enrollment credit and their college readiness and 1-year college retention. College readiness was defined by students’ American College Testing (ACT) sub scores in English, reading, and mathematics. The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) regulates the minimum sub score for each sub section that a student must obtain to be college ready. College retention was defined by students who enrolled at the …

The Relationship Between The Number Of Hours Taken In A Senior Practicum Course In Prelicensure Nursing Education And The Score Of Preception Of Professional Competence By The Newly Graduated Nurse, Arlene Holowaychuk

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study determined whether there is a relationship between the number of direct acute care hours completed in a senior practicum course during pre-licensure nursing education and the scores of perception of Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) in newly graduated nurses between the third and sixth month of employment. A sample of new hires of newly graduated nurses within a large, nonprofit healthcare system was used. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained from Liberty University’s IRB and the healthcare organization’s IRB prior to the survey being sent out to prospective participants and data collected. A non-experimental, correlational design was used …

Ouachita Trustees Approve Director Of Nursing, Receive Positive Updates On Enrollment, Retention And Fundraising, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Members of Ouachita Baptist University’s Board of Trustees have affirmed a major step in Ouachita’s plans to establish a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, endorsing the appointment of Dr. Brenda Trigg as director of nursing.

Persistence At A Tribal University: Factors Associated With Second Year Enrollment, Thomas C. Motl, Karen D. Multon, Fei Zhao

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications

Participants include 89 college students from a tribal university in the Midwestern United States. A survey regarding attitudes and adjustment to campus was administered to all students during their first semester of college. Variables assessed included psychosociocultural integration factors, such as educational goals, trust of others at college, longing for home, school pride, and fair treatment from others (Motl et al., 2009). Objective variables indicating level of academic preparation for college (high school GPA, ACT scores, and class percentile), academic integration (college GPAs), and persistence (2nd-year enrollment status) were gathered from the university. Using logistic regression procedures, a model was …

Factors That Contribute To Job Satisfaction And Teacher Retention In Title I Versus Non-Title I Elementary Schools, Janice Tolliver

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The public school systems in the United States are facing a major teacher shortage in the near future due to the fact that teachers are leaving the profession by the thousands each year. It is imperative that this trend is stopped and reversed to ensure that quality teachers remain in schools. The current study employed a causal-comparative design to determine if working conditions in Title I schools versus non-Title I schools were associated with teacher job satisfaction and teacher retention using the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions (NC TWC) Survey. The qualifications of the selected participants were that they were …

A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Non-Academic Factors That Cuban Female Non-Native English Speakers Perceived To Have Been Principal Influences On Their Successful Attainment Of A Baccalaureate Degree In The U.S., Nelson Magana

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cubans arrive in the U.S. with more formal education than other Latino immigrants, and they arrive to communities with long standing networks of support. Though their baccalaureate degree attainment is better than their non-Cuban Latina counterparts, Cuban women still lag behind White, non-Latina women. The qualitative study aims to explore the principal influences and non-academic factors that 15 adult Cuban non-native English-speaking women in South Florida attribute to the successful attainment of their baccalaureate degree.

There are many differences among the various immigrant Latino communities in the U.S., and Cuban women are largely absent from the research. Nearly 75% of …

2017 Student Outcomes Report, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Assessment

The 2017 Student Outcomes Report includes UNO retention rates, completion rates, student engagement in high-impact practices (NSSE), student learning (CLA+), and post-graduate and alumni employment outcomes and satisfaction (post-graduate and alumni surveys). The report is based on the most recent data available at the time the report was published.

Online Course Enrollment In Community College And Degree Completion: The Tipping Point, Peter Shea, Temi Bidjerano

Educational Theory and Practice Faculty Scholarship

Recent research indicates that certain students are at risk of lower levels of academic performance in online settings when compared to peers who study only in the classroom. Community college students have been a population of particular concern. In this paper, we hypothesize that online course load and institutional quality may impact outcomes for such students at risk for lower levels of degree attainment. Using comprehensive data from the 30 community colleges (n=45,557) of the State University of New York (SUNY), we conducted a state-wide study to examine whether there is a "tipping point" at which online course load becomes …

2017-18 Student Success And Service-Learning Report, Lynn Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

Institutional data across multiple academic years were used to assess the impact of undergraduate service-learning class participation on three critical student success metrics: Inclusive excellence, Degree completion, and Quality of learning. Results indicate that traditionally underrepresented student groups participated in VCU service-learning classes at expected rates given their proportion in the overall student population. Thirty-seven percent of undergraduate service-learning students were from underrepresented minority groups and 30% were Pell grant recipients. The average three-year retention rate across four matriculating cohorts of first-time, full-time undergraduate students was 84% for service-learning students compared to 70% for non-service-learning students. Seventy-two percent of undergraduate …

Lgbtq Students, Tammy R. Johnson, Daniel Weber

Admissions Faculty Research

As with any sub-population of college stu­dents, there is a great deal of variance among individual LGBTQ students in terms of their ex­pectations and desires when it comes to choos­ing or persisting at a particular college. Perhaps the one unifying objective among members of this group is a goal common to almost every student at every level of study: to find an edu­cational environment in which the student will feel valued and supported while pursuing his or her educational goals. To this end, LGBTQ stu­dents have unique needs that historically have gone unaddressed.

Speak And Sketch: Improving Academic Retention In Students With Language-Related Learning Disabilities, R. J. Risueño

Research on Capitol Hill

Note-taking can be a powerful learning tool for students. Effective note taking asks students to condense information for recall and then expand ideas back into paraphrased full sentences to use in presentations and essays. However, note-taking is hard for students with learning disabilities.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are educational specialists who can help. This case study is a follow-up to a larger Speak and Sketch treatment study. Students were taught three learning strategies: pictography, written notes, and verbal (or whisper) rehearsal of their own spoken, well-formed sentences.

Research Question: Will the Speak and Sketch treatment improve students’ notes, presentations, written reports, …

Feeling Like A Fraud: Helping Students Renegotiate Their Academic Identities, Elizabeth Ramsey, Deana Brown

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

A sense of belonging is an integral aspect of success in a long-term, group-oriented endeavor such as the pursuit of a college education. When students feel their presence at college is fraudulent, their achievements unfounded, or that they will be further disenfranchised if their true self is discovered, it is less likely that they will connect to the people and services who can help them achieve their educational goals. This “imposter syndrome” or “imposter phenomenon” can be addressed and turned around through a concerted effort. While that effort involves a personal journey, like any journey it is often aided and …

Reducing The Confusion And Clicks And Its Impact On Learning, Rebecca Scriven, Carol Crevacore

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

With the increased importance placed on first-year university units to transition, retain and engage new students, there is a need to carefully design the navigation within a unit of study. The importance of reducing confusion for new students and the cognitive load placed on them during their first experience of university learning may assist with retention. This paper presents a collaborative project between a first-year Unit Coordinator and Senior Learning Designer to redesign the navigation of a core communications unit in a Bachelor of Science (Nursing) degree. The purpose was to reduce the confusion over what was required of the …

Retention In A Bachelor Of Education (Early Childhood Studies) Course: Students Say Why They Stay And Others Leave, Gillian Kirk

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The literature suggests that student attrition at the university level has been of growing concern in many countries. Student attrition has a number of implications for universities, chief amongst them are losses to revenue and investment in higher education. While many studies have examined causes for attrition from an institutional perspective, this study examines how the Bachelor of Education (Early childhood studies) that sits within the School of Education can support the retention of students from the students’ perspectives. Using a qualitative methodology that recorded up to 40 hours of interviews with 20 students provided insights into why they stay …

Do Same-Demography Mentoring Programmes Make Any Difference To Mentees’ Learning Outcomes? Reflections On The Top Up Programme, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Peer mentoring is considered an effective vehicle for addressing anti-social behaviours and improving students’ academic achievement and retention. Consequently, discussions on the subject have received considerable traction in the education literature in recent times, most of which depicts its usefulness as well as factors that contribute to successful design and implementation. One issue that has not received adequate attention in the peer mentoring literature, which this reflection paper seeks to address, relates to whether demographic attributes such as gender, race and ethnicity influence mentoring outcomes for mentors and mentees. Drawing on the Top Up mentoring programme at Edith Cowan University, …

Interpretative Analysis Of Adult Learners’ Lived Experiences In A Uniquely Designed Higher Education Program, Latonya M. Branham

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The lived and collegiate experiences of adult learners, who are among the fastest growing student population in 21st century higher education, is the essence of this study. The study was conducted using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Fifteen baccalaureate level degree-seeking study participants consented to share their respective journeys. Twenty-one interviews were conducted for the study. Code-listed categories, themes and sub-themes emerged from two interview sessions, and member-checking sessions. Several themes were aligned to two research questions: In what ways, if any, are the distinctive needs and expectations of adult learners fulfilled through a baccalaureate level adult learner program; and, what does …

Students' Perceived Value Of The Community College Experience: A Mixed Methods Study, Robin A. Duncan

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore students’ perceived value of their community college experience and its relationship to other factors often related to student persistence in college, namely satisfaction, academic quality, service quality, and engagement. The research was guided by three focused questions: How do students describe and define perceived value of community college; what components emerge from exploratory factor analysis of items designed to measure perceived value; and how, if at all, is a student’s perception of the value of a community college experience different from related measures such as satisfaction, engagement, or quality? Data were collected …