In response to the student retention and diversity issues that have been persistent in undergraduate engineering education, many colleges have developed Engineering Student Support Centers (ESSCs) such as Minority Engineering Programs (MEPs) and Women in Engineering Programs (WEPs). ESSCs provide underrepresented students with co-curricular support using student interventions in the form of programs, activities, and services. However, ESSCs have a relatively short history and there are gaps in our knowledge about these support systems. While the practice of providing students with co-curricular support has been evaluated, theories of co-curricular support have not been as thoroughly investigated; we know very little about how co-curricular support functions alongside engineering curricula. In an effort to help close the gaps in current literature, the purpose of my study was to explore how the student interventions offered alongside engineering curricula influence the undergraduate experience. To address this purpose, I used a multi-case study design to explore the particulars of six ESSCs housed at four institutions. I focused on the ESSC administrators (those who provide support) and undergraduate students (those who receive support) using multiple qualitative data collection methods. The primary result of this study was the Model of Co-curricular Support (MCCS), which is a version of Tinto's Model of Institutional Departure that I repurposed to demonstrate the breadth of co-curricular assistance required to comprehensively support undergraduate engineering students. The MCCS illustrates how a student's interaction with the academic, social, and professional systems within a college–as well as the university system surrounding the college–could influence the success he or she has in an undergraduate engineering program. More specifically, the MCCS is a conceptual model for constructing and evaluating support systems and individual student interventions that prioritize undergraduate engineering students. Within my study, I also identified several classifications of ESSCs and highlighted some pros and cons associated with various classifications and configurations. Ultimately, this research combines student-retention theory with student-support practice in a way that could facilitate future collaborations among educational researchers and student-support practitioners. / Ph. D.

The purpose of my study was to explore what and how university students learned from their experiences working as peer educators. In my study, I was only interested in investigating peer educators working in formal peer education programs within the post-secondary setting. I defined learning as “a comprehensive, holistic, transformative activity that integrates academic learning and student development” (italics in original, ACPA & NASPA, 2004, p. 2). I used a modified version of the CAS 2009 learning outcomes framework to understand what peer educators learned. Those six CAS learning outcomes are: knowledge acquisition, construction, integration, and application; cognitive complexity; intrapersonal development; interpersonal competence; humanitarianism and civic engagement; and practical competence. I adopted a qualitative, descriptive, exploratory approach to the study of the content and context of peer educators’ learning. I selected participants for my study from a pool of peer educators of a student affairs’ learning assistance peer education program at a mid-sized Ontario university. I conducted face-to-face, in-depth interviews with seven peer educators. My research revealed what peer educators in a single peer education program learned; it also provided insight into their experience of learning within the peer education program, i.e., how they learned. This study offers some insight into the potential for learning, as well as potential facilitators of learning, in the university peer educator role. The findings of my research indicate that the peer educators whom I studied learned in each of the six CAS learning outcomes. The facilitators of learning that these peer educators described in their interviews include learning from experience, interactions with others, reflection, and training. The findings of my study suggest that further research could be conducted, at various institutions as well as within and across peer education programs. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-15 11:35:06.19

This thesis examines the processes and outcomes of a composer-teacher's practice in the context of a New Zealand secondary school. The research was undertaken by the composer-teacher/researcher as a case study that integrates an investigation of the context with four action research music composition projects developed as a creative response to that context. Chapters One to Three comprise the background theory. Chapter One provides an introduction and overview of the research; Chapter Two explains and justifies the research methods. Chapter Three peels away and examines five layers of the secondary school context identified as significant in shaping the perceptions of the participants: approaching the context in a multi-layered way enabled coherent synthesis and appraisal of the relevant literature. Chapters Four to Seven comprise the four action research music composition projects. Each action research project focuses on a music score composed by the composer-teacher/researcher for a specific group of students at Macleans College, Auckland. The composition, production, and performance processes are investigated from the perspectives of all the participants. Each music project comprises a four part progression - plan (composition process), data (music score), data analysis (recordings of performances, surveys, and interviews with all participants) and reflection (feedback, and feedforward into the next project). Each phase of the research generated significant outcomes, such as the four original music scores. Chapter Eight summarizes the themes, issues, and patterns that emerged, and makes recommendations for further research. A model of co-constructive practice emerges from this research: teacher and students co-construct artistic worlds through performance. The model is not new (it is common practice, adopted by generations of musician-teachers) but is rarely acknowledged and currently un-researched. This research demonstrates the validity of the practice from both musical, and teaching and learning perspectives, and examines the strengths and limitations of the model. At its best, the creative processes co-constructed by a teacher with her students are shown to provide a crucible within which intense and creative learning experiences occur. Students of all levels of ability are shown to gain confidence in this context, and subsequently develop skills with apparent ease. The co-constructive model is limited in that it cannot meet the musical needs of all students: co-construction should be considered as one model of practice, appropriate for use in association with many others. This research provides 'virtual access' to a particular world of performance practice, revealing the secondary school context as a realm of authentic and valid musical practice.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the students’ perspective on their use of Facebook to further their studies. There were three research questions: (1) To what extent do students use Facebook to further their studies? (2) In what ways do students use Facebook to further their studies? (3) What do students believe are the ways that Facebook can be used by colleges and universities to help students with their studies? There were three major themes relating to usage of Facebook: non-academic usage, curricular, and co-curricular. Most of the students indicated they used Facebook to stay in touch with people they already knew. With regard to academic usage, the answers given related mostly to professors’ offers of support, collaborations with projects and assignments, and cheating on exams. There were mixed responses about whether students wanted professors to make use of Facebook in classes and how, with many indicating that they wanted to keep Facebook separate from their curricular activities. Students that were in the education fields were more than willing to use Facebook to help them in their studies than students in other majors.

No description available.

Incoming first year students have varying expectations for their college experience. As Florida public education budgets are more closely aligned with student persistence and graduation rates, it is vital institutions retain more first time in college students. The purpose of this study was to better understand how first year student college expectations on academic preparation, co-curricular involvement, socializing, and institutional commitment relate to persistence into the second year of college at one of Florida’s large, preeminent public research universities. This quantitative study utilized the Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) in order to better understand incoming student expectations. The study sample consisted of 3,723 first time in college students and was collected during orientation for the summer and fall 2015 cohort. Tinto’s Model of Student Departure (1975b), which served as the theoretical framework, states a student’s individual characteristics he/she possess when starting college influence his/her persistence as well as initial commitment to the institution and ultimately a degree. Logistic regression was used to determine the strength of the relationship between students’ expectations and persistence into the second year of college. The overall findings of this study contribute to the increased understanding of first year student expectations and help administrators understand how to best support students. The findings illustrate a statistically significant relationship between high school GPA and persistence into the second year. Expected involvement in organized campus co-curricular activities, self-perception of academic preparation, and a first year student’s commitment to the institution were not found to be statistically significant to first year student persistence into the second year. Additional key findings and their implications for practice in higher education are presented along with recommendations for future research.

As a best practice, many postsecondary institutions in the United States use internships to provide students the option of maximizing their classroom learning with practical experiences. These experiences are not only intended to enhance students’ classroom learning but also to increase their employment marketability upon graduation. The internship process involves three stakeholders—the institution, the students, and the employers—and is often managed by curricular and co-curricular departments. However, the manner in which the program is structured varies from institution to institution and even within the institution. Thus, understanding which structures of undergraduate student internship programs are most effective as an academic component of experiential learning is critical for the overall success of the internship programs. This mixed-methods case study research was designed to examine the Mass Media Arts Department internship structure at the selected institution to identify the components most effective in the students’ experiential learning experience. The study investigated the alignment between the institution’s academic and co-curricular programs, as well as their participating interns’ preparedness and their partner employers readiness. The study also examined the industry’s best practices used by other institutions and recommended by national professional associations to align these variables. Based on the findings of this study, the following four emergent themes were identified to effectively align and integrate the curricular and co-curricular departments, the interns, and the employers: (a) program structure, (b) student preparation, (c) employers’ relations, and (d) program evaluation. Future researchers can further examine these emerging themes to improve the relationship between student preparation as part of human capital and the roles of faculty and administration in aligning internship program processes.

abstract: It is commonly accepted that undergraduate degree attainment rates must improve if postsecondary educational institutions are to meet macroeconomic demands. Involvement in co-curricular activities, such as student clubs and organizations, has been shown to increase students' satisfaction with their college experience and the rates by which they might persist. Yet, strategies that college administrators, faculties, and peer leaders may employ to effectively promote co-curricular engagement opportunities to students are not well developed. In turn, I created the Sky Leaders program, a retention-focused intervention designed to promote commuter student involvement in academically-purposeful activities via faculty- and peer-lead mentoring experiences. Working from an interpretivist research paradigm, this quasi-experimental mixed methods action research study was intended to measure the intervention's impact on participants' re-enrollment and reported engagement rates, as well as the effectiveness of its conceptual and logistical aspects. I used enrollment, survey, interview, observation, and focus group data collection instruments to accommodate an integrated data procurement process, which allowed for the consideration of several perspectives related to the same research questions. I analyzed all of the quantitative data captured from the enrollment and survey instruments using descriptive and inferential statistics to explore statistically and practically significant differences between participant groups. As a result, I identified one significant finding that had a perceived positive effect. Expressly, I found the difference between treatment and control participants' reported levels of engagement within co-curricular activities to be statistically and practically significant. Additionally, consistent with Glaser and Strauss' grounded theory approach, I employed open, axial, and selective coding procedures to analyze all of the qualitative data obtained via open-ended survey items, as well as interview, observation, and focus group instruments. After I reviewed and examined the qualitative data corpus, I constructed six themes reflective of the participants' programmatic experiences as well as conceptual and logistical features of the intervention. In doing so, I found that faculty, staff, and peer leaders may efficaciously serve in specific mentoring roles to promote co-curricular engagement opportunities and advance students' institutional academic and social integration, thereby effectively curbing their potential college departure decisions, which often arise out of mal-integrative experiences. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

Employability skill development is being increasingly investigated among higher education scholars, corporate hiring managers, and governments around the world. Understanding employability skill development is important because it has implications on educational policy, teaching techniques, curriculum designs, and recruitment practices. This study was conducted at a public research university in a southwestern state of the United States. It was designed to understand the difference in employability skill development among students who participated in a leadership development program compared to those who did not. Additionally, the study investigated what skills were seeing the most change among student participated in the leadership development program, and if a student's major of study played any role in their overall employability development over the course of a year. Eight employability skills were tested in a pre- and post-test model. Results indicated that students in leadership development programs are more likely to see an increase in employability skill development. From the skills tested among participates, those in the leadership program found the most change over time in the area of problem solving skills. Finally, the results also indicate that a student's major does have an impact on their overall employability skill development. Students who major in business had significantly higher employability scores than those in other majors at the university.

Experiential learning in adult education is on the rise. A small private college in the southeast United States initiated a program that required 3 experiential learning projects to be completed in addition to coursework. The problem was that less than 8% of students had independently developed their first project. Instead, they completed a project proposed by faculty. This situation resulted in student dependency on faculty rather than promoting self-directed learning. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding about how to help students develop independent projects for the self-directed learning program. Experiential and self-directed learning theories formed the conceptual framework. The guiding question focused on how a select group of students described their ability to conduct a self-directed learning project. For this case study, individual interviews and documents were collected from 7 participants in the self-directed learning program. Analysis of the data by coding individual units of meaning revealed these 5 themes, which formed the basis of the findings: characteristics, self-motivation, lack of assistance received, personal gain, and advice for others. The commonly held major theme was personal gain. The second theme, goal setting, was discrepant. These were the major findings, which formed the basis for a proposed professional development training program for faculty facilitating the self-directed learning program. The implication for social change include emphasizing the importance of self-directed learning, supporting faculty for self-directed learning, and promoting lifelong learning. As a result of participating in this training, faculty will be better able to mentor students in the self-directed learning program.