While attitudes are difficult to assess, a qualitative research study can produce results to give insight into how a student feels a writing center has improved his or her confidence and attitude towards writing. This study reviews the minimal discussion of students‟ attitudes towards writing in past and current writing center research and builds upon the conversation by following three students‟ journeys in the writing center and discussing whether their experiences with the tutors has improved their attitudes about writing.

The St. Paul Redevelopment Project was unique and touted as the first-of-its-kind to feature cooperation from all three levels of government. Several government agencies helped St. Paul accomplish an “impossible dream,” spending an estimated thirty million dollars to rechannel the Clinch River in the 1970s and 1980s. The small town of 1,000 residentsrelocated 100 families from South St. Paul to carry out the project, much to the dismay of many of the residents. A primary factor in enforcing the power of eminent domain in the St. Paul Redevelopment Project was the idea of “progress,” a commonality of many redevelopment projects. The St. Paul Redevelopment Project serves as a small case study of government intervention in the Appalachian region and of resistance. St. Paul as a community and “place” has been shaped by elected officials and government agencies, but ‘place’ also belongs to individuals. The example of redevelopment in St. Paul, Virginia, and the use of eminent domain exposes a complex system of power relations at work in Appalachia, that at least in the case under study, suggests how the response of one family, the Couches, reflected both participation in the dominant system of commodification and a rejection of it.

abstract: Promoting student engagement is a critical performance indicator for undergraduate success and is, therefore, a priority for academic institutions as they seek to improve teaching and learning practices (Meyer, 2014). Educators need to improve their instructional pedagogy by developing unique methods for engaging students with educational opportunities. Instructors who facilitate courses online face an even greater challenge in engaging students. A virtual learning community is a potential solution for improving online engagement. This mixed methods action research dissertation explores the implementation of an online learning community and how it influences the engagement of students in distance learning environments. The primary research question guiding this inquiry is: How and to what extent does the implementation of an online learning community influence undergraduate student engagement in online courses? A sequential triangulation design was used to analyze data collected from surveys and responses collected from study participants during a synchronous online focus group. The analysis of the results of the study provide interesting insight into the online engagement of students. Key findings from the study are: 1) the inclusion of diverse perspectives is important for students and they value having opportunities to share their knowledge with peers; 2) an online learning community is beneficial for student engagement and this type of model is one they would participate in the future; 3) students experience a disconnect with peers when engagement opportunities in online discussion platforms feel insincere. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2019

The academic benefits and enhanced social responsibility that students derive from service-learning (SL), defined as experiential learning that ties community service to academic courses, have been well documented. However, for a college to fully institutionalize SL, a high proportion of faculty needs to include SL in their courses. Based in Kolb's experiential learning theory, the purpose of this study was to enhance planners' understanding of how college faculty's past experiences assigning SL influence their inclination to assign SL in future courses. In this basic qualitative interpretive study, data were collected from 13 individual interviews with faculty who assigned SL at a Southern metropolitan university. Findings were interpreted using Chickering's 7 vectors of student development from the conceptual framework and other relevant perspectives from the literature. One of the major themes from emergent coding of data was that faculty viewed some difficulties as challenges to be overcome rather than as deterrents to using SL. To reduce deterrents, institutions could compensate for extra time required for SL by providing stipends, released time, and support databases; recognizing SL in tenure and promotion; and helping faculty brainstorm how to incorporate SL into courses. To increase incentives to use SL, institutions could provide a full range of training and support for faculty. More courses with SL, besides increasing benefits of SL for all stakeholders, may mean that students form the habit of serving in the community and continue serving and contributing to positive social change, perhaps for a lifetime.

This thesis examines the tenets and approaches of integrative learning for sustainability, and critiques the adequacy and effectiveness of conventional, higher education practices in preparing students for what is an increasingly uncertain future. At the centre of this inquiry is the study of a fourth year, undergraduate field course from the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria that took an integrative, whole-person approach to sustainability in light of integral systems theory. The course provided students with an experiential and integrative learning approach to the study of sustainability that sought to engage the multiple intelligences of students, issuing from their intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual dimensions. To support this process, the course aimed at meeting the needs associated with these facets through diverse learning experiences that included contemplative exercises, the development of a learning community, a critical examination of course readings and experience in service learning activities. The evaluative research of the course’s impacts examined the learning experiences from the students’ perspective to identify which experiences and approaches were most meaningful. The enquiry also investigated which, if any, of these experiences led to enduring personal transformation and/or community action. The methodology undertaken involved a phenomenological examination of two small group interviews with six of the participating students, as well as an analysis of the six students’ written reflection assignments. The results of this research show the effectiveness and impact of some of the distinctive approaches of the course, namely the powerful effects of experiential learning, community based learning and the provision of time and space for personal and group reflection. These activities supported students in broadening and changing their view of themselves, their sense community, as well as provided opportunities for students to engage in sustainable practices. / Graduate

As a student enrolled in the Claremont Colleges, there are a variety of different ways in which I can engage with the greater Inland Empire community. The community-based programs, classes, and projects offered by the Colleges all have specific focuses, whether they be community service, community studies, or language improvement. This Media Studies Senior Thesis focuses on two community programs offered by the Claremont Colleges, the first being the Spanish Practicum program offered at Pitzer College. This half credit course places a group of three students with a “Promotora” (Promoter) or a Mexican immigrant residing in the Ontario community. Once a week, students are expected to travel to their Promotora’s house, speak with her only in Spanish, eat meals with her, and explore her Ontario community. Secondly, I will include a section about Huerta del Valle, a community garden in Ontario, California, which was created by a teacher of the Spanish Practicum program and a Pitzer alumnus. Even though this garden functions completely separately from the Claremont Colleges, Pitzer students have the opportunity to enroll in the Ontario Program and complete a semester studying urban garden, social engagement, and community planning alongside Huerta del Valle volunteers and organizers. This Media Studies project completed in conjunction with the Spanish Practicum Program and the Huerta del Valle program is a photographic essay about my personal experience as a student of the Spanish Practicum program, an article recounting the history of the Spanish Practicum program from the perspective of its creator, and a transcribed interview and series of photographs of the founder of Huerta del Valle as well as a student participant/leader/alumnus of the Pitzer Ontario program. These collections of writing and photographs are presented in the form of a webpage with multiple sections that I have coded as to experiment with visual storytelling, color, and design techniques. Furthermore, through this project I explore the communal significance of personal narratives, and the work they do to construct and contribute to a shared understanding of a program, event, or experience. These personal narratives that I have collected as oral histories will serve to give the community-based programs offered at the Claremont Colleges a human face, illuminating the tendency of dominant histories to discredit their intimate back stories.

Community service learning, when integrated into the modules of academic learning programmes, has the potential to contribute to the value and effectiveness of learning by offering hands-on experience and placing the learners in real-life situations as part of their learning phase. Most of the research done on community service learning has investigated the benefits, outcomes and learning experiences of students engaged in service-learning programmes. As there is little or no research on students' attitudes to and perceptions of service learning before it is integrated into an academic programme, the purpose of this study was to determine teacher training students' attitudes to and perceptions of community service learning before it became integrated into their academic programmes. The research was quantitative in nature and followed a descriptive design, in which a survey employing a questionnaire as instrument was used for measuring the attitudes and perceptions of third-year teacher training students at the Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria. A purposeful or non-probability sampling strategy was used, yielding a sample size of 168 students (n=±168). The results of the study indicate that students with prior knowledge of and/or participation in a community service programme showed greater willingness to enrol for such a programme, especially if it would add value to their career development and bear credits. The conclusion is that teacher training students are career focused and need to know more about community service learning before such courses/modules are integrated into their curriculum, to ensure their positive participation and enhanced learning. Recommendations are made with the intention of providing information to academic staff, to assist them with the successful design and implementation of courses/modules which include community service learning and would be meaningful to the community and of value to the student. The recommendations are also intended to encourage students to participate more willingly in community service learning courses/modules. These recommendations include a discussion on a thorough introduction to the pedagogy before integrating it into their curriculum. / Dissertation (MEd (Education for Community Building))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Curriculum Studies / MEd / unrestricted

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