Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on May 14, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Linda Lyman (chair), Beth Hatt-Echeverria, Joe Pacha, Nancy Sherman. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-154) and abstract. Also available in print.

The first year of teaching has profound implications for career length, job satisfaction, and teacher effectiveness. Establishing relationships with multiple colleagues has been found to help new teachers improve their practice and create a sense of identity within their schools and within the profession. Lack of physical proximity among teachers, however, has been shown to inhibit the formation of these professional relationships. Despite these findings, research involving a close examination of how socio-physical arrangement of space can foster or hinder a sense of professional community is sparse, particularly with relation to new teachers. Hence, the purpose of this study was to better understand how first-year teachers’ interactions with their colleagues influenced the novices’ establishment within their school communities, their conceptions of teaching, their sense of place and identities as teachers, and the learning that occurs over the course of the first year. Using interviews and observations as primary sources of data, and supplementingthese with several other sources such as video tours, interaction logs, and relational maps, this study examined the interactions of three first-year teachers (in the same middle school) with their colleagues, while paying specific attention to the role of the spatial structures of the school in shaping these interactions. Ultimately, this study found that the arrangements of school structures, including space, time, and task, as well as the interrelatedness of these structures, influenced the frequency and nature of the novices’ interactions with their colleagues, thus playing a crucial role in their learning, identities, and conceptions of teaching as a collaborative versus independent endeavor. This dissertation concludes with implications for practice and research aimed at arranging these structures so as to make the first years of teaching more constructive and more satisfying for novice educators.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the retention rate and 9 firstyear student programs at Liberal Arts Colleges in the Mountain South, a region in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the United States. Nine first-year programs were studied: Summer Bridge Programs, Preterm Orientation, Outdoor Adventure Orientation, Targeted Seminars, Learning Communities, Early Warning/Early Alert Systems, Service Learning, Undergraduate Research, and Assessment. The data for this study were accessed via the college database of The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2013). Chi Square tests were used for analysis to identify associations between first-year student retention and the presence of each of the 9 programs. The results indicated that the presence of each of the 9 first-year programs was not significantly related to first-year student retention.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges faced by first-year students as they negotiated the transition from the wrting environment of high school to the writing environment of university. The research for the dissertation was undertaken using a mixed-method explanatory design. This yielded a description of students' perceptions of the differences between their high school writing and first-year university writing environments. The research questions were as follows: what are high school students' perceptions of their writing environment; and what differences, if any, do students perceive as different in the writing environment between high school and first-year university? A total of one hundred and forty-four Grade 12 students completed a quantitative survey asking for their perceptions of the high school writing environment, and twenty students took part either in qualitative focus groups or individual interviews. A follow-up interview was conducted with fourteen of the original twenty participants while they were in the process of completing their first term at university. The results indicated that students' perceptions were very much influenced by individual teachers and instructors and by their own expectations. Recommendations, implications for further research, and implications for program development are offered as a way to extend the knowledge in this area.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges faced by first-year students as they negotiated the transition from the wrting environment of high school to the writing environment of university. The research for the dissertation was undertaken using a mixed-method explanatory design. This yielded a description of students' perceptions of the differences between their high school writing and first-year university writing environments. The research questions were as follows: what are high school students' perceptions of their writing environment; and what differences, if any, do students perceive as different in the writing environment between high school and first-year university? A total of one hundred and forty-four Grade 12 students completed a quantitative survey asking for their perceptions of the high school writing environment, and twenty students took part either in qualitative focus groups or individual interviews. A follow-up interview was conducted with fourteen of the original twenty participants while they were in the process of completing their first term at university. The results indicated that students' perceptions were very much influenced by individual teachers and instructors and by their own expectations. Recommendations, implications for further research, and implications for program development are offered as a way to extend the knowledge in this area.

Published Article / Under-performance and failure in first year accounting is a problem experienced in many higher education institutions world-wide as well as in South Africa. Literature shows that the problem is relatively well researched. Most of the research has taken place within the quantitative paradigm and in many cases focused on a search for determinants of possible success and / or failure in the subject or the factors contributing to the situation. The findings of all these research projects are varied and often inconclusive. It also becomes clear that the contexts of the studies are diverse, which makes it difficult for institutions and concerned lecturers to apply the findings in their specific situations. In this article the authors provide an overview of some of the most prominent research findings on factors determining or influencing success / failure in the field. They also attempt to organise these findings in a digestible way for the concerned lecturer and interested researcher. This is followed by a report on the first phase of an investigation into possible factors contributing to the low performance levels of students at a South African higher education institution. The unit of analysis is the first year accounting class of the first author (a lecturer at the institution). The research is quantitative in nature and statistical analyses are employed. In addition to factors such as age, gender, matric performance in key subjects, M-scores, class attendance and nationality, the investigation also looked at the levels of learning approach of the students as a possible determinant of success or failure. The findings are compared with the findings from literature and the implications of the research are discussed.

Although retention has become a critical priority for most institutions, this interest has not yielded significantly increased retention rates over the past 30 years. Understanding how each individual institution could increase retention rates will help to avoid the critics of higher education who have grown wary over the increasing costs. In order to justify the increases in tuition, higher education must show that students can persist, graduate, and succeed in the 'real world'.This exploratory study seeks to provide insight into persistence by focusing on understanding the common themes of students who persisted. In 2001, Woodard, Mallory, & DeLuca published a research article providing a comprehensive structure that incorporates an extensive body of student retention research along with the authors' own research. The framework provides institutions with a model to explore the areas that affect student retention. The authors describe four major components to retention: the student sphere, institutional sphere, academic affairs sphere, and student services sphere. Within each of these spheres is a number of characteristics that research indicates effects retention. The Retention Self-Study Framework (2001) draws heavily from the research of Vincent Tinto (1975, 1987, 1993), John Bean (1980, 1983), Alexander Astin (1984), and Ernest Pascarella (1980).This study investigates the extent to gender, race, high school class rank, socio-economic status, institutional choice, financial aid package, and parents' education relate to the experiences within the Retention Self-Study Framework (Woodard, Mallory, & DeLuca, 2001).Utilizing the Retention Self-Study Framework, the author created a survey that asked students about each of the various characteristics within the four spheres described in the framework. The research was conducted at a large Research-Extensive university in southwest United States of undeclared majors. Utilizing both mixed methods, the research provides a fresh look at issues of retention and those experiences that are related to persistence and suggests implications for practice and future research.