Some students are entering college and graduating with the inability to write scholarly and professionally. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine the perceptions of college instructors and students about the essential writing skills of entering first-year college students within a Southwestern university. This study provided insight into strategies to engage students in the writing process, both before and after entering college. Vygotsky's social constructivism provided the framework for this study. The research questions included an examination of the perceptions of students' writing skills based on what instructors, students, and writing center personnel observed; what instructors and students believed to be essential writing skills necessary for entering first-year college students to be academically successful; and what the writing center personnel and students' perceptions were regarding writing resources that were deemed beneficial to entering first-year college students to help improve their writing skills. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 12 participants: 4 instructors, 5 students, and 3 writing center personnel. Data analysis included theme identification based on key words from the interviews. According to study results, findings revealed factors that contributed to poor writing, common writing errors, required writing skills to be academically successful, and writing resources. These findings led to the development of a 3-day professional development (PD) workshop. Participation in the PD workshop may lead to modifications in the curriculum at local high schools and entry-level courses taught to entering first-year college students, resulting in positive social change.

Thesis (MEd)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019. / The objective of initial teacher education is to prepare teachers to teach effectively in schools. The quality of schools of a country depends on the quality of teachers (Femin-nemser, 2001). Provision of good teachers is, thus, crucial for the quality of teaching in schools. This research seeks to explore newly qualified teachers experiences of learning to teach and how it supports their classroom practices. A mixed method study with an interpretivist emphasis was conducted with teachers, who were in their first year of teaching. Data generation ensued through questionnaires and discussions whereby only some aspects of these were used to complement the main data generation which was the focus groups. Pedagogic Content Knowledge is a knowledge base that allows teachers to effectively pass their content knowledge on to students. Drawing on existing literature, a conceptual framework was developed. The study used the content analysis method where data was categorised according to the themes. The findings show that the Newly Qualified Teachers found their Initial Teacher Education to have had both positive and negative influences on their classroom practices. The heavy administrative duties, adapting to school contexts, relationships with people of influence like lecturers during Initial Teacher Education and mentor teachers, teaching practice (which had the most profound influence on their classroom practice) and the professional knowledge and skills as taught during Initial Teacher Education all played a part in supporting the classroom practices of Newly Qualified Teachers. The implications for policy makers, initial teacher education providers and mentor teachers therefore suggest some adjustment to the structure of Initial Teacher Education programs that would enable improving the development of Pedagogic Content Knowledge including enhanced involvement of schools in Initial Teacher Education to support classroom practice of Newly Qualified Teachers.

The primary aim of the present study was to determine whether impairment on neuropsychological measures of decision making predicts increased alcohol use among college students. It was hypothesized that poorer performance on measures of decision making would predict linear increase on indicators of alcohol consumption across the first year of college. An additional aim was to assess whether established risk factors for college student drinking would moderate the association between decision making abilities and increased alcohol consumption, with the expectation that decision making would be more strongly associated with escalation in alcohol use for participants that are male, have a family history of alcohol abuse, report a longer history of pre-college alcohol use, hold more positive alcohol expectancies, and are more impulsive. Aims were pursued in a relatively homogeneous sample of first year college students (N = 136), using a prospective, longitudinal design in which decision making and drinking were assessed at three time-points during the first year of college. Participants additionally provided sociodemographic information and completed self-report impulsivity and alcohol expectancy questionnaires at each assessment. Results showed that drinking and associated negative consequences increased over time during the participants first year in college. However, there was generally little support for the hypotheses that poor decision making abilities are a risk factor for increased alcohol consumption, and that the association is moderated by established risk factors for drinking. Results suggest the need to consider whether drinking is indeed indicative of impaired decision making and underscore the importance of including other factors, especially perceived benefits and influence of social pressure, in models of decision making striving to predict drinking among college students.

One of the primary objectives of education in the United States is to prepare young people for adult life. They are expected to become a part of the social and civic life of the community, and by working in a vocation to contribute to their own personal welfare and that of the society in which they live.

Performance-based funding is becoming the norm in higher education. High-impact practices like first-year seminars hold promise for improving some of the key metrics in the funding model, such as first-year retention rate and first-year institutional GPA. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of retention rate and institutional GPA between first-time-in-college (FTIC) students who completed a first-year seminar and those who did not. Additional data regarding pre-college experiences and expectations for college were investigated to gain insight into retention and academic success behaviors of FTIC students. Three years of data including institutional Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) scores, high school GPAs, enrollment data, and student grades were collected. Due to a significant difference in high school GPA between summer and fall admits, all analyses were conducted separately for each group. For both summer and fall admits, results from the chi-square tests of homogeneity and independent samples t tests indicated no significant difference in retention rates or mean institutional GPA between FTIC students who completed a first-year seminar and those who did not. Logistic and multiple linear regression tests were conducted to determine whether FTIC student retention and institutional GPA could be predicted by pre-college experience and expectations as measured by the BCSSE. For fall admits only, two of the nine BCSSE scales, expected academic perseverance and perceived academic preparation were significant predictors for retention. For predicting institutional GPA, summer and fall admits shared two significant predictors from the BCSSE: high school learning strategies and importance of campus environment. For fall admits only, there were three additional significant predicators: high school quantitative reasoning, expected collaborative learning, and perceived academic preparation. The results of this study may encourage higher education institutions to consider assessment of their own first-year seminars. The impact of a first-year seminar may be improved by developing curriculum that addresses the skills, experience, and expectations unique to each institution’s first-year students.

This research was concerned with furthering theoretical and practical understanding of student learning at university through a longitudinal, cross-sectional, in-depth study of first year students in a specific learning context, namely Educational Psychology. The main aim of the study was to investigate ways of assisting students to be effective learners. The particular role that affect played in learning and the relationship between learning behaviour and learning outcomes, was explored. A Conceptual Model of student learning incorporating student cognition, metacognition, motivation, affect and academic performance in a specific social and cultural context, underpinned the study. The study documented the design, implementation and evaluation - from both the students' and teacher's perspectives - of an in-context learning support program for first year students, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.The program was based on a theoretical framework which integrated cognitive, behavioural and social learning perspectives and focussed on increasing students' repertoire of learning strategies, promoting their higher level thinking and understanding, developing their metacognitive skills and managing their affect. It included an emphasis on student goal setting and time management, reading and writing strategies, learning for tests and exams, self-management, reflecting on and evaluating learning, and dealing with test anxiety.The main findings of the study were that providing in-context learning support was associated with positive changes in students' learning strategy use, motivational orientations, and affective reactions. Students valued teacher support and instructional strategies that promoted active learning. The instructor found that providing learning support was more challenging and rewarding than teaching content alone. The role of context - ++ / in particular, assessment tasks - in learning, was highlighted. The implications for teaching and learning were examined and the Conceptual Model was further refined. The research resulted in a more holistic and integrated perspective on learning support provision and on the role of cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and affective factors, and academic performance, in student learning.

This program of research had two related aims: (1) to explore the problem of student attrition in the context of an Australian higher education institution, and (2) to investigate the efficacy of peer-mentoring as a retention strategy. Participants in this program of research were students commencing first-year studies in the School of Applied Psychology across two cohort years: 1996 and 1997. In 1996, a classic pre-test/post-test experimental design was adopted, with students (N = 118) randomly assigned to either a peer-mentoring treatment group or a control group. In 1997, while a classic pre-test/post-test design was also adopted, all students from this year (N = 162) participated in the peer-mentoring program. Thus, it was intended that the 1996 control group would be utilised for comparison with both the 1996 and 1997 treatment groups. Students were surveyed pre- and post-intervention across a number of personal, demographic, and academic achievement (e.g., tertiary entrance rank, and grade point average) variables. Students’ academic integration, social integration, institutional commitment, and goal commitment were measured using the Institutional Integration Scales (adapted from Pascarella and Terenzini, 1980). Students participating in the peer-mentoring program also completed a range of measures in order to evaluate its efficacy. The first part of the research program focused on the measurement and prediction of student retention and academic performance. The results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a six first-order factor solution provided the most parsimonious explanation of students’ responses to the Institutional Integration Scales. The six Institutional Integration Scales demonstrated moderate to good levels of reliability, with results being comparable to those achieved in previous studies. The results of structural equations modelling analyses suggested that students’ peer group interactions influenced their interactions with faculty, and both of these factors, along with their faculty concern for student development and teaching, influenced students’ academic and intellectual development, which in turn influenced students’ institutional and goal commitments. These results were taken to indicate the potential value of peer-based processes in aiding students’ institutional and goal commitment and subsequently reducing levels of student attrition. Given that significant differences were found between the 1996 and 1997 cohorts on a number of pre-test measures and other key indicators, investigations regarding significant predictors of students’ re-enrolment into second year and their first year grade point average were conducted separately for the two cohorts. The results of logistic regression analyses indicated that students’ first year grade point average was the only consistent and significant predictor of their re-enrolment into the second year of study across the two cohorts. Multiple regression analyses revealed that students’ tertiary entrance ranks and previous university attendance were consistently significant predictors of their first year grade point average across the two cohorts. Equipped with a better understanding of the factors that affect student attrition and academic performance, as well as the relationship between those factors, the second part of the thesis focused on the efficacy of two formal, group-based peer-mentoring relationships in assisting first year students make a successful transition to university. However, given that significant differences were found between the 1996 and 1997 cohorts on a number of pre-test measures and other key indicators, it was not possible to evaluate the efficacy of the 1997 peer-mentoring program relative to either the 1996 peer-mentoring program or control group. Nevertheless, the 1996 treatment and control condition groups were found to be equivalent on pre-test measures and indices, and thus were able to be compared. Overall, the results of a series of one-way ANOVAs revealed that the 1996 peer-mentoring program was found to have a positive effect on enhancing students’ re-enrolment into second year, persistence intentions, academic performance and self-reported adjustment, which was consistent with the direction of findings in previous studies. However, for a range of reasons, the effect of the 1996 peer-mentoring program on a number of these variables was not strong enough to reach statistical significance. Although there were trends towards significant differences between the 1996 treatment and control groups on a number of variables (i.e., students in the 1996 peer-mentoring program evidenced higher grades in PB11002: Introduction to Cognitive and Biological Psychology; and PB11008: Research Methods and Statistics; as well as higher scores on the Peer Group Interactions scale than students in the control group), the only significant positive difference of the 1996 peer-mentoring program was the improvement of students’ academic performance in one first year subject (i.e., PB11006, Introduction to Research in the Behavioural Sciences). Finally, exploratory factor analyses and reliability analysis of a mentoring functions scale revealed strong support for the presence of one, highly reliable, general mentoring function. Both the 1996 and 1997 program participants’ ratings of the performance of this general mentoring function were significantly and positively correlated with their self-reported academic and intellectual development. In addition, the 1997 program participants’ ratings of the performance of this general mentoring function were significantly and positively correlated to their self-reported peer group interactions, institutional commitments, goal commitments, and persistence intentions.

This study examines the extent to which high school students from an affluent, college preparatory high school were able to transfer their knowledge about reading and writing from high school to college. The participants’ perceptions of the transition from high school reading and writing to college reading and writing revealed that they did not perceive college work to be harder, but faster paced. They generally perceived similarities between high school writing and college writing; those similarities were both literal and conceptual. The participants were able to transfer content knowledge and procedural knowledge about reading and writing from high school to college. The participants who were most successful in their knowledge transfer demonstrated transfer enabling dispositions. This study raises questions about the nature of preparation for college. Implications are discussed for high school students and faculty, for college students and faculty, and for those interested in educational reform. / Dr. Bennett A. Rafoth Dr. Kathleen Blake Yancey Dr. Gian S. Pagnucci

The goal of the research project was to assess the effect of a written intervention on the state anxiety of new mathematics teachers. Twenty-eight beginning mathematics teachers in Washington, Oregon, and California were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Treatment was a survival guide, Green Broke, carefully designed to meet the needs of beginning mathematics teachers. A Delphi panel determined topics for the guide, beginning with suggestions from the literature. The panel included mathematics teachers in grades 7 to 12 from all three Pacific states, and both urban and rural areas. School administration and college mathematics education were also represented on the panel. A subset of the panel and a writer edited the guide. Trait anxiety of subjects was determined prior to the 1989-90 school year using the trait anxiety portion of Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The state anxiety inventory was administered at that same time and again three times during the school year. All subjects also completed a teacher report twice during the year regarding their teaching experiences. In addition, the treatment group was asked to complete two questionnaires regarding the effectiveness of Green Broke. Subjects perceived that they were part of two studies, one involving the guide and one involving anxiety inventories. Analysis of covariance for repeated measures was used to assess differences between groups in state anxiety, using trait anxiety as covariate. Level of significance was set at .05. There was no significant main effect, but a significant interaction effect was found. The nearly linear relationship between state and trait anxiety found in the control group disappeared for the group having the guide. Mini case studies, using responses to the teacher reports, were done for seven subjects, including those with very high state anxiety. In addition, a subgroup of the treatment group, for which a linear relationship between state and trait anxiety did exist, was examined for common characteristics. Locus of control was hypothesized to be a variable that would differentiate this group. Other suggestions for further study include use of audio-visual forms of the survival guide, extension to other subject areas, and replication of the study. / Graduation date: 1991

Mentor teachers are currently seen as a solution to education's dilemma of how to orient beginners into the profession and provide educational advancement for its most capable, experienced teachers. One goal of Oregon's mentor program is to have mentors provide their proteges with instructional assistance through an observation process. The purpose of this study was to explore the quantity and types of observations being conducted by mentors and discover what factors most affect their ability to complete observations for instructional assistance. In order to determine the possible need for differentiation in training, comparisons were made between elementary and secondary level mentors for the quantity and types of observations conducted and for needs related to attitude, skills, and context. A literature survey provided an initial list of needs and attitudes previous researchers have found to be critical to mentors' success. This list was refined through the work of a Delphi Panel. The resulting survey gathered observation-related information from a random sample of two hundred and twenty-five Oregon mentors distributed throughout the state. Data was analyzed using Analysis of variance and Chi square tests at the .05 level to determine if there were significant differences between elementary and secondary level mentors and between twenty-four observation-related factors. A significant difference was found between observation-related factors, the most important being trust between the mentor and protege, availability of release time, the mentor's teaching in the same building as his/her protege, and the protege's willingness to be observed. No significant differences were found between elementary and secondary level mentors in either the quantity and types of observations conducted or in the perceived importance of various observation-related factors. / Graduation date: 1991