The purpose of this study was to describe the factors that helped to increase the academic success of 13 low-track Hispanic students who attended a local community college. The participants graduated from a nearby high school within the service district of the community college in 1991 or 1992. They were chosen from among other low-track students at the community college using the following criterion: At the conclusion of their freshman year in college, they had completed at least 24 units with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. These students, who were designated as "outlying students," provided the data for the study. Data were collected using (1) the students' high school and college permanent records, (2) a personal survey form, and (3) a personal interview with each student. The data provided the researcher with evidence that the students perceived the following factors as key to increasing their academic success at the community college: (1) The students' high personal perceptions of themselves and their high regard for receiving a postsecondary education and a degree. (2) The college instructors' concern for them, which provided a support system that enabled them to complete their courses successfully. (3) The college's remedial program, which provided the outlying students with a means for bringing their academic skills up to a level that would allow them to cope successfully with college academic demands. (4) The support system provided by their parents, which furnished not only "human support" (money, clothing, etc.), but also "emotional support" (encouragement and purpose). Although this research was limited in sample size, it provided the researcher, a community college instructor, with several suggestions for helping the community college to provide services to help low-track students to achieve academic success.

The central purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship of locus of control and academic success in selected medical office assisting students. The instrument for locus of control assessment was the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale (ANSIES). Structured interviews were used to elicit personal responses for the purpose of confirming the locus of control direction that was indicated by the instrument. The research questions addressed the relationship of locus of control to the degree of internality or externality associated with the grade point average (GPA) for the Fall term. The findings concluded that there was a relationship of locus of control to academic success as measured by GPA in two of the four subsets of the study population. The students in the study population that received the highest GPA had the most internal locus of control. The students in the study population that received the least academic success with a GPA below 2.00 had an external locus of control. The subset with a GPA range of 2.00-2.99 demonstrated a more internal locus of control. However, the subset with a GPA range of 3.00-3.99 scored the most external direction of all groups. The findings from the structured interviews illustrated the phenomenon of shifting locus of control in response to a single question. The analysis from the structured interviews indicated more internality than was indicated on the ANSIES. The findings indicated that there was a relationship to internal locus of control and highest academic success (4.00 GPA) as measured by grade achievement. A more external locus of control was demonstrated in those individuals with the lowest academic success. The findings for the two middle subsets did not illustrate a relationship between internality and academic success or externally associated with a lower level of academic achievement. The principal implication of this research for education with regard to this study population is that locus of control is not a reliable predictor of academic success. The principal research recommendation entails further inquiry into selfefficacy, the phenomena of shifting internality, the measurement of this study population, characteristics of medical office assisting students, and locus of control as a predictors of academic success. / Graduation date: 1995

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2006. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Feb. 2, 2007). Thesis advisor: Vena M. Long. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study investigated the factors that influence community college students' attitudes toward technology, particularly in teaching and learning experiences. Studies on post-secondary students' attitudes reported in the literature are limited. Factors cited previously as having an effect on attitudes towards technology and toward computers included: gender; age; presence of a computer in the home; completion of a formal technology course; and comfort with technology. The subjects in this study were 372 students in freshman level credit English classes in the five colleges of the North Harris Montgomery Community College District located in the greater metropolitan Houston area. Previous research instruments and studies to measure students' attitudes toward technology were reviewed. A modified version of the Secondary Students Attitudes' Toward Technology (SSATT) was developed for this study because of the content, reliability, and applicability to the postsecondary population. The instrument was administered in the spring of 2005. The fact that 95.4% of the participants reported having a computer at home and that 70.2% reported having had a formal technology class provided insight into the integration of technology in the lives of this community college sample. A correlation matrix of all variables and analysis of variance were performed. Factor analyses were performed to identify subcomponents of the instrument. Eight factors were identified: (1) need for technology competence, (2) technology benefits, (3) negative aspects of technology, (4) technology and the workplace, (5) impact of increased use of technology, (6) video games, (7) technology and job creation, and (8) technology and safety. A conclusion of the study was that neither age nor gender had a significant effect on the post-secondary students' attitudes toward technology, which differs from the findings in some of the previous studies. Females reported being as comfortable, if not more so, with technology in teaching and learning experiences as the males in the study. Exposure to technology, completion of a formal technology class, and the use of computers appeared to positively affect community college students' attitudes toward technology.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1982. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-215).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed February 25, 2010). PDF text: vi, 170 p. ; 1 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3387279. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-157). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Studies on education evolve closely along the debates of social reproduction and students’ actual responses in the process of schooling. Structural influences of class, gender, race or ethnicity are often highlighted and resulted in more or less coherent and consistent student subcultures and typologies. The aim of this study is to capture and explain the neglected complexities and dynamics of schooling by studying a group of ordinary students in a community college in Hong Kong. Ordinary students are under-studied because of their assumed normality and uninteresting experience. By stepping into their world of everyday schooling using an ethnographic approach, it is found that their hopes in life are ordinary but their lives extraordinary with selectivity, inconsistency and transiency as the defining features. Such features result from the everyday interplay of school routines, connections with people, ethics of conduct, as well as visions in life of these students. These interactions shape a certain narrative of life over time and are deployed as cultural tools in particular situations of schooling. The deployment of cultural tools by ordinary students allows an understanding of culture in action although it is fragmented and incoherent, and the lives of them as a whole are characterised by drifting across states of being, rather than formation of any coherent, linear or cumulative narrative. The study contributes to existing scholarship by offering new empirical observations on how thirty two community college students went through and reflected on their schooling experience over a two year span. The study adds to the ongoing theoretical attempt to grasp the complex interaction among structure, institution and agency in social life by capturing the fluid states of drift in ethics and visions among students amidst the highly structured routines of competitive education. Through these we are able to better understand the lives and cultures of ordinary students in a world where to be ordinary is almost like an impossible dream. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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