Education Commons^™

Influence Of Student Evaluations On College Instructors’ Professional Practice, Veronda Hutchinson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many post-secondary institutions make significant use of student evaluations of teachers (SETs) to evaluate teacher effectiveness and students’ perceptions of their learning experiences in the course. However, it is unclear how teachers use SETs to inform their professional practice. Hence, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how SETs influenced instructors’ professional practice at a local community college from the perspective of the instructors, which the research question was centered on. The conceptual framework for the study was the cognitive dissonance theory, because it explains the changes in the individual’s behavior through the need to reduce mental …

Persistence Towards Graduation Of First-Year Native American Students At A Local College, Dolores Becenti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the graduation rate for Native American (NA) college students was less than 1%. As enrollment increases in local colleges and universities, so do concerns about the persistence, retention, and completion of NA students. The purpose of this study was to investigate what influenced first-year NA students to persist toward graduation at a local college. The conceptual framework concentrated on social integration perspectives based on Tinto's student integration model. A qualitative case study design was chosen to gain insight into the phenomenon. Purposeful sampling procedures were used to recruit 6 first-year NA students …

Person Factors Affecting Student Persistence In College Reading And Writing Remediation, Loretta J. Morris Barr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has the highest college attrition rate among industrialized nations. Community college students face a much higher risk, particularly those who lack requisite reading/writing skills. Using the theory of planned behavior and self-determination theory, this study explored the relationship between persistence in college for students in traditional or corequisite remediation. Person factors under study were frustration discomfort, academic motivation, and self-reported symptoms of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). After 7 semesters, 72 adult student volunteers from the 2 remediation programs were recruited from 2 community colleges. They completed an online survey, which included a demographics questionnaire, the Frustration …

Supports And Services Helpful To Working Adult Nursing Students, Cheryl Green

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has experienced historically low graduation rates in public and private 2-year, degree-granting institutions. Many of these institutions are community colleges, which account for 60% of all student enrollment. This study was conducted to explore supports and services that may be helpful to working adult students over the age of 25 enrolled in a 2-year associate degree nursing program in a community college. Tinto's interactionalist theory of student persistence and retention and constructivist theory were the conceptual frameworks for this qualitative case study. The two guiding questions were focused on the types of support that would be helpful …

Instructional Behavior And Its Impact On Student Engagement, Debra Joan Crumpton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this quantitative study was to expand understanding of leadership behaviors and their influence on follower engagement. Researchers have shown that engagement is a predictor of retention and organizational performance. Leadership theory and the conceptual framework of worker engagement were the study's theoretical anchors. Despite a proliferation of leadership studies, engagement antecedents are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to narrow the gap in the literature by examining the extent to which there may be a relationship between college instructors' behaviors and student engagement. Although not traditionally regarded as frontline leaders, extant leadership literature affirmed college …

Community College Transitioning Experiences Of Dual Enrollment Students, Sandra Lucille Fuline

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Dual enrollment transitioning experiences of students are poorly understood, leaving higher education stakeholders without the proper information to smooth the transitioning process and keep students in college. This basic qualitative study using interviews explored how 10 dual enrollment students described their transitioning experiences from high school to community college by investigating their motivations, ability to acknowledge self-efficacy, and understanding of social interactions using Badura's self-efficacy model and Keller's motivational theory and the attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction model. Data were analyzed through an open coding method to categorize themes and patterns as well as discrepant information. Key findings indicated that …

Relationship Between Active Learning Methodologies And Community College Students' Stem Course Grades, Cherish Christina Lesko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Active learning methodologies (ALM) are associated with student success, but little research on this topic has been pursued at the community college level. At a local community college, students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses exhibited lower than average grades. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the use of ALM predicted STEM course grades while controlling for academic discipline, course level, and class size. The theoretical framework was Vygotsky's social constructivism. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression were performed on data collected through an anonymous survey of 74 instructors of 272 courses during the 2016 …

Women In Stem: The Effect Of Undergraduate Research On Persistence, Jodi Christine Wilker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers constitutes a major issue in postsecondary science education. Perseverance of women in STEM is linked to a strong science identity. Experiential learning activities, such as undergraduate research, increase science identity and thus should help keep women in STEM. Most studies on research program development are from 4-year institutions, yet many women start at community colleges. The goal of this study was to fill this gap. Science identity and experiential learning theories provided the framework for this case study at a local institution (LECC). Semistructured interviews determined college science …

Effect Of Response To Intervention On Developmental Education Students' Persistence, Retention, And Completion, Cheryl Garayta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2012, national rates of degree or certificate completion for students beginning college in developmental education courses were 35%. At a Midwestern state community college completion rates were even lower, with only 27% of developmental reading/writing (DRW) students completing their program. Therefore, the purpose of this causal- comparative study was to compare success rates for DRW students beginning college in a multileveled (MLI) program and in a response to intervention (RtI) based program. The MLI program was grounded in a scaffolded learning framework, and the RtI program was grounded in a transformative learning framework. Four research questions were posited to …

Type Of First Term Course Failure And Community College Degree Completion, Jill Stearns

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Community colleges are the largest segment of higher education institutions in the United States providing access to historically underserved populations and growing numbers of first generation college students. Increasing college degree attainment is a national priority with new expectations of accountability. Despite decades of educational research, community colleges have startling low completion rates. Within the framework of Tinto's theory of retention, a predictive analytics model could provide community colleges the opportunity to drive custom intervention and support services to students. The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of Biglan's taxonomy for categorizing courses for potential use in …

Strategies For Organizational Sustainability In Higher Education, Angela D. Reese

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The defunding of higher education at the state and national level following the 2008 recession created the need for administrators of public higher education institutions to develop and implement funding strategies to maintain organizational sustainability. State government administrators reduced spending approximately 26% per student across the nation, leaving higher education administrators challenged with adjusting organizational budgets to compensate for the reduction in state monetary support. A multiple case study design was used to explore funding strategies that community college business leaders used to support budget decisions that maintain organizational sustainability. Four leaders from 3 community colleges in Central Texas participated …

Outcomes Of Professional Development For Rural Community College Leaders, William Thompson Thompson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

To mitigate the loss of experienced administrators, community college leaders create internal grow-your-own (GYO) leadership development programs. Although the purpose of these programs is to ensure institutional efficacy by developing a pipeline of administrative and faculty leaders, little attention has been given to learning about the participants' post-program career advancement over time. Consequently, the value of GYO leadership training for participants is not well known. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the post-program professional development of a group of participants 2 years after completing a rural community college GYO leadership program. The conceptual framework was guided …

Influence Of Nontraditional Students On Traditionals In The Community College Classroom, Angela J. Richart-Mayfield

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

An increase in nontraditional student enrollment continues in community colleges nationwide. Little is known about the interactions between mixed-age groups of students. This qualitative collective case study explored the academic and social influences of non-traditional students on their traditional peers in the community college classroom at a large, midwestern 2-year college. Tinto's interactionalist theory framed the study. Purposeful sampling was used to select 30 participants (13 traditional students, 13 non-traditional students, and 4 instructors) who represented the college population in terms of gender and racial and ethnic diversity. Interview questions were guided by the research questions, and data were also …

Career Mobility Patterns Of Aspiring Female Leaders At California Community Colleges, Tracy Lynn Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many women struggle to move up the career ladder. Women aspiring to executive positions in community colleges within the United States may face gender barriers, family-work life barriers, and barriers regarding their leadership ability. The problem studied was a gap in knowledge of how women succeeded in attaining executive positions in community colleges. The purpose of this study was to examine ways that female leaders at Southern California community colleges assumed executive-level roles at their institutions and the barriers they faced to attain those positions . The theory of upward mobility and the concept of self-efficacy comprised the study's conceptual …

Improving Math Performance In Adult Female Community College Students: An Evaluation Of Project Independence, Robin Tim Frodsham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Project Independence (PI) is a community college immersion program dedicated to assisting women returning to college. The focus of this study and associated summative evaluation was to understand how the PI program addresses anxiety and other learning deficiencies associated with math. Knowle's andragogical models portray adults as motivated and self-directed, and the American college campus fosters a culture of independence. This culture is foreign to many minority, first-generation, and working class adults who learn through interdependence. This qualitative instrumental case study and evaluation is the first to examine the efficacy of PI. The guiding questions of this study concern early …

A Comparison Of Preservice Teachers' Responses To Bullying Scenarios, Cynthia Louise Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This nonexperimental study was conducted to determine differences that exist between PreK to 4th grade preservice teachers' beliefs about the severity of bullying, their empathy with victims of bullying, beliefs about their ability to cope with bullying in the classroom, and their ability to intervene in bullying issues. Bandura's self-efficacy theory and Ajzen's theory of planned behavior provided the study's theoretical base and demonstrated a connection between participants perceived ability to cope with bullying behavior and willingness to intervene. The participants (N = 112) were students in a 2-year community college PreK to 4th grade education transfer degree program. Data …

The Role Of Local History In The Curriculum At A Rural, Southeastern Community College, Sandra Lee Walker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Local history knowledge informs citizens of the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of their communities. Community colleges are uniquely situated to address citizens' educational needs because of their historic mission to serve local people. The problem at a rural college located in a southeastern region of the United States was the perception of a lack of local history in the curriculum. Dewey, Schon, Brookfield, and Mezirow's perspectives on reflection guided this case study. Two research questions focused on how faculty and staff at the college perceived the role of local history and its relationship to the curriculum and how …

Listening To First-Year Community College Students, Mary Elizabeth Drake

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

First-year community college students are often from underrepresented groups who are unaccustomed to voicing their needs or to being recognized for having more and varied needs than other groups. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain an understanding of the factors that may engender or prevent success through listening to what first-year community college students have to say. Research questions addressed what students identified as challenges and successes during their first year and how first person accounts can contribute to the information college personnel need to understand.

Human development theories and models of student persistence informed this study. …

Nontraditional Hispanic College Students' Perceptions Of Their Sense Of Belonging At A 2-Year College In Southwest Texas, Ronald Eugene Zawacki-Maldonado

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to understand how a sense of belonging contributes to graduation persistence among nontraditional Hispanic college students. The collectivist culture among these adult learners often results in family and work obligations that curtail their pursuit of higher education. The voices of these students are mostly absent in the current literature and warrant the current research study. Sense of belonging and retention theory formed the conceptual framework for this phenomenological study. A purposeful sample of 16 nontraditional Hispanic students enrolled in a 2-year community college in Southwest Texas participated in interviews. Data analysis focused on themes …

Students' Perceptions And Experiences Of A Diversity And Inclusion Training Program At A Community College, Norma I. Corral-Chandler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A community college developed a diversity and inclusion training program, Maximizing Our Strengths as an Inclusive Community (MOSAIC), to address the lack of diversity training for students and staff. However, the program had not been evaluated. The purpose of this study was to learn about students' perceptions and experiences of the MOSAIC program. Guided by theories of constructivism and components of critical race theory related to critical studies in Whiteness, social identity theory, and best practices for diversity and inclusion training, this study explored how students described the effectiveness of the program. Interview data for this responsive program evaluation using …

A Professional Development Approach To Improve Practice At An Upstate Community College, Lisa K. Antalek

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A federal Call to Action was mandated to reform community colleges across the nation, challenging college officials to enhance instructional methodology on college campuses towards increasing student completion rates. In addressing this mandate, college officials at the upstate NY community college identified a need for professional development that would increase student learning and enhance the instructional methodologies of facilitating faculty through improved alignment. Accordingly, this study investigated the alignment of faculty instructional effectiveness with the institution's core mission. The purpose of this study was to examine faculty perceptions of the instructional methodologies used to facilitate student learning. Informed by Knowles's …