The purpose of this study was to examine three components of Donaldson and Graham's (1999) model of college outcomes for adults: (a) Prior Experience & Personal Biographies, (b) the Connecting Classroom, and (c) Life-World Environment, and to assess their application to traditional and nontraditional students in community colleges in both technical and nontechnical courses. The study sample was comprised of 311 community college students enrolled in technical and nontechnical courses during fall 2005. A survey instrument was developed based on the three model components through a review of the literature. Demographic data collected were utilized to classify students into a technical or nontechnical grouping as well as four classifications of traditionalism: (a) traditional, (b) minimally nontraditional, (c) moderately nontraditional, and (d) highly traditional. This study found that nontraditional students vary from traditional students in regards to the three model constructs. A post hoc descriptive discriminate analysis determined that the Life-World Environment component contributed the most to group differences with the minimally nontraditional group scoring the highest on this construct.

The following study evaluates the impacts intercultural training has on student development of global perspective and of intercultural competence, on social support networks of international students, and on internationalization goals at a community college in Southern California. Data reveals that participants in the extra-curricular student volunteer program benefit from a combination didactic-experiential training program that focuses on culture-general frameworks and provides tools for accessing culture-specific knowledge. Participants enter with high levels of openness and respect, and develop throughout the program, demonstrating increased cultural self-awareness, knowledge of cultural worldview frameworks, curiosity, and comfort with ambiguity. Students acquired role behaviors associated with multiple functional support network 4 systems. Internationalization efforts may be promoted through extra-curricular programs due to increased intercultural contact, stronger international student support systems, and through the actions of an interculturally inforn1ed group within the student body.

The objective of this correlation study was to describe the association between the self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) and academic achievement among community college students enrolled in student success courses. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 35 community college students enrolled in student success seminar courses in central New Jersey. Total scores obtained from the administration of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) were used to measure participants’ degree of SDLR. Participants’ GPA and final student success course grade was used as metrics of academic achievement. Additional analyses were conducted to determine if participants’ age and gender changed the association between SDLRS score and academic achievement. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

To determine the relationship between computer intensive classwork and change in critical thinking skills exhibited by college students, the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, which generates Inference, Assumptions, Deduction, Interpretation, Arguments, and Total scores, was administered as pretest and post-test to students enrolled in four sections of a freshman level writing class at a community college, where two sections each were taught by computer intensive (computer) and traditional (non-computer) methods. Students completed a Demographic Questionnaire regarding previous computer experience, gender, and ethnicity. Where available, reading skills information was obtained from college records.

The present study compared the academic stress levels of 450 college sophomore students at a public university and a public two-year college. This investigation also explored the levels of academic stress by institutional type, age, gender, and ethnicity. Data were obtained from having the subjects complete the Academic Stress Scale, a questionnaire which lists thirty five stress items found in the college classroom. Analysis of variance and t-tests were used to analyze the data. There were 225 subjects each in the community college group and the university group. The university group had a statistically significant higher mean stress score than the community college group. 294 traditional age (23 and younger) and 156 nontraditional age (24 and over) subjects stress levels were compared. It was found that the traditional age college student group experienced a statistically significant higher academic stress level in both academic settings. Group means were compared between the stress scores of 245 female and 205 male subjects. At both the community college and university levels, the female group had a statistically significant higher level of academic stress. The academic stress levels were also compared according to ethnicity. The minority group consisted of 104 subjects and 346 subjects comprised the non-minority group. At the community college, the minority group had a statistically significant higher level of academic stress. However, at the university level, there was no statistically significant difference by ethnicity. Examinations, final grades, term papers, homework, and studying for examinations were ranked as being stressful by the largest percentage of all the subjects. It was found in this study that levels of academic stress differ significantly by institutional type, age, gender, and ethnicity. Implications for college students, instructors, and administrators , based on this study's conclusions, are offered.

The aim of this study is to examine argumentative writing produced by students of differing language backgrounds and skill level to inform future instructional approaches and program design. An archival corpus of opinion essays written by native Spanish speaking students and native English speaking students enrolled in community college developmental education courses was utilized. The essays consisted of one to two paragraphs expressing an opinion on a controversial topic. In the study, the essays were assessed for the overall persuasiveness of the text, the use of academic words, the incorporation of connectives as a measure of lexical cohesion, the use of argumentative structural elements, and the inclusion of functional elements within the text produced. The relationship between native language and six structural and lexical features were examined utilizing a one-way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). After controlling for paragraph length and reading ability, results indicated that native Spanish speaking students produced more standpoint structural elements than English speaking students. None of the other dependent variables were significant. A Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) was employed to explore the variability in the persuasiveness of the opinion writing. Utilizing this mode of analysis, it was revealed that overall persuasiveness in the students’ opinion writing was mainly a function of higher word counts, a higher percentage of academic words, more standpoint structural elements, and being a native English speaking student. Finally, pedagogical implications are discussed.

Roughly 60% of first-year community college students attending a community college in Idaho need to take remedial courses. Such a high percentage of first-year community college students in remedial courses indicates that students are not being properly prepared for collegiate studies. The purpose of this study was to understand college readiness through the perception of first-year community college students who were taking remedial courses. The framework for this study builds on Conley's multidimensional model of college readiness. Data from 10 semi structured interviews conducted with community college students taking remedial courses provided information about the opinions and ideas about college readiness, in addition to evaluations regarding what was missing in their K-12 education to prepare them for collegiate studies. Through open-ended data coding, interrelated themes were analyzed, and the interpreted meaning was shared through a qualitative narrative. The findings from this study suggest that college readiness is more than academic knowledge and understanding. The K-12 education system shall help students to focus on specific skills such as time management and note taking and to seek out their passions and goals. The findings also suggest that the K-12 education system within the United States needs to be restructured to incorporate a system that encourages and supports student success through more individualized learning that places focus on student passions. When students are given the opportunity to seek after their passions, they gain more interest and motivation to learn and build a strong sense of self-efficacy.

Traditional measures of student success like retention and graduation rates are dismally low among community colleges. One of the most commonly used strategies to increase these bleak success rates is through the incorporation of first-year experience (FYE) courses. However, data indicate that their impact on such measures of student success are mixed and what’s more, many of these studies are limited by their use of predominantly quantitative methodologies that aggregate outcomes across students, masking the features of the FYE that may be more and less effective in promoting academic success among diverse students. Application of identity theories can help to fill this gap in understanding by offering theoretical frameworks from which to study this diverse population and deepen our understanding of their experiences. However, studies of identity with community college students are even fewer in number and often focus only on one narrow aspect of identity, such as racial and ethnic identity or age. Thus, they fail to fully capture the dynamic, complex, multifaceted, and context-dependent construct of identity. In this dissertation, I explore the unique experiences, challenges, and needs of four community college students taking the same FYE course at a large metropolitan community college in the Northeast United States and offer information about the course's features that most promoted development adaptive college student role identities (CSRIs) among participants. In this study, I conceptualize students' experiences in the FYE course as based in their emerging identities as community college students and adopted two theoretical frameworks to guide this study. The PRESS model designates the professor as an agent for prompting identity exploration among her students by creating triggers the students designate as self-relevant, creating a sense of safety in the classroom, and scaffolding exploratory activities while the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) explicates the content, structure, and formation processes of identity and how they relate to experiences and actions. Utilizing a case study approach, one section of an FYE course was selected, and from it, four participants, and the professor, were interviewed. Course artifacts, such as homework assignments, were also used for data analysis. The findings from the PRESS analysis showed that many aspects of the course organically promoted many of the model's four principles; however, some were observed more often than others and they were not as meaningful for all participants equally. The findings from the DSMRI analysis revealed some commonalities among the four components of the model across participants but more so, the data revealed variations and divergence in their CSRI exploration and formation in the FYE context. The study ends with implications for theory, practice, and future research. / Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine the means of scores on three forms of a standardized reading comprehension test taken by community college students in developmental reading classes. The three forms of the test were administered as a timed multiple-choice test, a constructed response test, and an un-timed multiple-choice test. Scores on the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) were used to classify the students who participated in the study as having field dependent (LOW GEFT), mid-field dependent/independent (MID GEFT), or fieldindependent (HIGH GEFT) tendencies. The paired samples test was used to analyze the scores among the students classified as LOW GEFT, MID GEFT, and HIGH GEFT for mean differences in scores on the three test formats. The data revealed that for LOW GEFT students, the format of the test impacted their scores, with the mean of the scores of the un-timed multiple-choice test being significantly higher than the timed multiple-choice test and the constructed response format. The data also showed that for the MID GEFT students the mean of the scores for the un-timed multiple-choice test was significantly higher than the means for the timed multiple-choice test scores and the constructed response test scores. However, no significant mean difference was found between the timed multiple-choice test scores and the constructed response test scores. For the HIGH GEFT students, significant mean difference existed only between the un-timed multiple-choice and the timed multiple choice scores. The means of reading comprehension test scores on the three formats between the LOW GEFT, MID GEFT, and HIGH GEFT students indicated significant mean difference between the timed multiple choice test scores but not between the means of the scores for the constructed response and the un-timed multiple-choice test scores. Demographically, when the means of the reading test scores were analyzed with ethnicity as the controlling variable, the Hispanic students had a significantly higher mean on the scores for the constructed response test format. No other significant mean differences were found between the scores of the African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, or Native American students. When the means of the reading test scores were analyzed with gender as the controlling variable, no significant mean difference was found between the reading comprehension scores of the men and women. This study indicated that cognitive style had more impact on students’ performance on a standardized test of reading comprehension than did ethnicity or gender. The un-timed multiple-choice format also had an equalizing effect on the means of the scores for these students.

Community college students often have more complex needs and access to fewer resources than their four-year university counterparts. While there is some research on community colleges, it tends to be narrowly focused on students' initial degree aspirations, previous academic record, and demographic characteristics and less on the students’ experiences and perceptions. This dissertation identifies and illuminates the gaps between the existing research and the perceptions of community college students. This research draws on empowerment theory and the theory of democratization and diversion to comprehensively explore the complexities of community college students' lives. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with two groups of current Pell Grant eligible community college students: 1) those who meet their institution's criteria for satisfactory academic progress towards an Associates in Arts degree (n=31); and 2) those who do not meet the criteria (n=31). The purpose of these interviews was to uncover barriers and enablers contributing to students' abilities to meet their educational goals. Braun & Clarke's (2006) six phases of iterative thematic analysis were followed to analyze the data and ATLAS.ti software was used to assist in the coding. The data were grouped so that the overlapping experiences of participants could be clearly noted without losing the unique perceptions and words of the participants. Four major themes were identified: sources of motivation; responsibilities to resources ratio and external barriers; informational capital and knowledge; and powerlessness. Motivation and access to sufficient resources in order to meet a student's responsibilities were noted by participants as requirements to enable educational attainment. Additionally, the need for students to decode the rules of higher education in the institution and classroom were identified, and different levels of powerlessness were noted between groups. These findings have implications for theory including updating Brint & Karabel's democratization and diversion theory and presenting an emerging theoretical construct. Recommendations for policy and practice are made. Further, areas of further exploration for community college students and employees are presented in order to continue to add these expert voices in to the larger community college conversation.