An increasing number of students entering college lack the academic skills necessary to perform well at the college level, forcing professors and academic institutions to lower standards. Students approach higher education as a commodity, and as consumers they assert their desire for easier course work by giving poor evaluations to instructors whose courses they find too demanding or difficult. Eliminating student evaluations is one necessary change that will help reverse declining standards in higher education and increase performance; providing effective venues for supplemental instruction is another. Teaching basic writing skills in freshman composition courses would waste valuable instruction time that must be spent on higher-order concerns, such as critical thinking, abstract reasoning, essay development, and research skills. Online writing labs offer lower-order instruction in grammar, punctuation, syntax, and style for students at any level, as do the learning programs that accompany composition textbooks and handbooks, yet these resources are under-utilized by students who need the most help. Usability studies would reveal site-specific reasons students avoid or abandon them. This paper includes an initial view of two online writing resources from the perspective of usability: what works about the design and functionality, and what most likely does not.

The number of students with learning disabilities (SLD) at post-secondary institutions continues to grow. Research has found that SLD who use accommodations at their post-secondary institution are more successful in university than those who do not. Yet, research suggests that SLD do not request accommodations at expected levels. Disability self-disclosure is important to SLD because they need to self-disclose their disability to university personnel to obtain accommodations. The reasons for lower levels of self-disclosure by SLDs to university personnel remain unclear. Self-determination, attitudes towards requesting accommodations, and level of self-disclosure (i.e., psychological factors) has individually been identified as possible factors that affect disability disclosure. To date, no study has investigated the effects of these factors on SLD disability disclosure in higher education. This study’s purpose was to investigate differences in psychological factors between two SLD disclosure groups (i.e., no disclosure and university and classroom disclosure). In addition, the study examined what factors SLDs consider when deciding if they will self-disclose their disability to university personnel. To achieve these goals, 31 undergraduate students with learning disabilities completed a mixed methods study comprised of quantitative scales and a qualitative interview. The Self-Disclosure Scale, the Attitudes Towards Requesting Accommodations Scale, and the Revised Self-Disclosure Scale were utilized to measure psychological factors. A 30 minute semi-structured interview was administered to 15 participants to further explore what factors SLD take into consideration when making self-disclosure decisions. Results indicate that the total scores on the Attitude Towards Requesting Accommodations scale, Self-Determination Scale, and the Self-Disclosure Scale were significantly different between self-disclosure groups. Data from student interviews uncovered nine factors that seemed to influence SLDs’: (a) decision to disclose and (b) how deeply they disclosed. Four key qualitative findings that arose from this study were: (a) all SLD report having extensive academic difficulty; (b) students who do not disclose seem to rely solely on informal compensating mechanisms rather than formal accommodations; (c) even in favorable circumstances SLDs may not wish to disclose their disability; and (d) SLD experiences with faculty seem to influence why some students disclose more deeply while other students disclose at a surface level. / text

This study investigates the individual outcomes of blind adults after completing residential post-secondary training. Their reflections on life before during and after the program provide understanding into complex personal issues. The narrative data revealed program factors that had an influence on individual outcomes. This study uses Snyder's hope theory as a conceptual framework to aid in the understanding and interpretation of these individual outcomes. Hope has been found to have significant positive impact on rehabilitation issues; it is a mediating factor in the adjustment to blindness (Snyder, Lehman, Kluck & Monsson, 2006). This study extends the work of Jackson, Taylor, Palmatier, Elliott & Elliott (1998) who investigated the relation of hope to visual impairment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was two-fold. First, the investigation seeks knowledge about how blind adults negotiated life after completing a residential post-secondary program. The second purpose was describing and understanding the role of hope in this negotiation of life. This systematic inquiry relies on a qualitative design in which case study methods are incorporated. Interviews and follow-up interviews were conducted with 7 participants over a period of 18 months. Recurring themes and sub-themes were identified through use of the constant comparative method of coding. Further reduction across the cases highlighted thematic concepts through the use of multi-case displays. The findings resulted in 4 main themes with 2 sub-themes each. Major themes include how participants establish housing and post-secondary activities such as work or training after the program, how they respond to expectations, whether or not they continue using the skills learned during their residential training and what they have done to establish goals and vocational pursuits. There is evidence of differences among the individual outcomes though each participant experienced equivalent training. Results highlight the influences on motivation such as family, blind mentors, vocational development and reliance on alternative techniques. Results indicate there are differences among participants regarding the hope construct specifically in pathway and agency thinking. Individual and programmatic recommendations and implications for future research are addressed; strategies for incorporating the emerging issues of this study into early education of blind children are presented. / text

Nationwide reform efforts strive to improve schooling through a range of approaches including improving the quality of campus leadership, restructuring organizational design, and revamping instruction. National and state education policies reflect the reforms addressed in educational research literature and drive state, district, and campus based improvement initiatives. For example, the more recent influence of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) accountability system has led to a significant increase in the use of data to drive instructional decision-making. Campus leadership is key to both the successful implementation of data initiatives (Wayman and Stringfield, 2006) as well as comprehensive reform efforts (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005). The literature provides a wide array of leadership theories that offer promise in understanding more effective approaches to leading school improvement efforts; however, much of this literature remains conceptual and vague (Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins 2008). Data use has gained increasing attention in the literature as well, but the research lacks a strong conceptual framework for leadership. The purpose of this paper is to view data use through the lens of Leithwood’s model of Transformational Leadership in order to explore the linkages between the leadership theory and data use practices and to offer a framework that situates data use as a tool to increase all students’ academic performance and build a democratic and socially just learning organization. The linkages between Transformational Leadership and data use are presented as both bodies of literature are reviewed. The study was guided by the following questions: 1) What are the levels of Transformational Leadership Behaviors exhibited at each campus? 2) What are the data use practices being implemented on each campus? 3) What is the relationship between Transformational Leadership and data use? Two schools served as the sites for the research which drew on both quantitative and qualitative data sources to address the research questions. Results and findings show evidence of Transformational Leadership Behaviors that linked closely with the data use practices. The final discussion offers a preliminary conceptual framework delineating the intersection between the theory of Transformational Leadership and data use in schools. / text

This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of study components in order to aid in design refinements for a larger randomized controlled trial (RCT). A total of 38 post-secondary students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were randomized into a waitlist control group, or standard-length (45 minute) or shortened-length (15 minute) WM training group. Criterion measures included the WAIS-IV Digit Span (auditory-verbal WM), CANTAB Spatial Span (visual-spatial WM) and WRAML Finger Windows (visual-spatial WM). Transfer-of-training effects were assessed using indices of everyday cognitive functioning. Participants in the standard- and shortened-length groups showed greater improvements at post-test on auditory-verbal WM and reported fewer cognitive failures in everyday life than waitlist controls. Participants in the standard-length group showed greater improvements in visual-spatial WM at post-test than participants in the other two groups. Preliminary findings suggest that shorter training may have similar beneficial outcomes as documented for the standard-length training, indicating that a larger-scale RCT is warranted.

By employing an Indigenous methodological framework and a community based research approach, I assess the role that the Aboriginal Resource Centre (ARC) has in the lives of Aboriginal students at the University of Guelph, and drawing on the ARC as a case study, I conceptualize space from an Aboriginal perspective. Drawing on interviews with a key informant, prior and current students, I demonstrate that the ARC is more than just a student service or physical centre on campus; it is a community full of meaning and lived experiences. In ARC, the students have found a safe place in which to express themselves and feel safe to explore Aboriginal identity formation. I capture the importance of conceptualizing a shared space, specifically between people who share the same cultural worldview, within a reconceptualization of space.

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Despite concerted research effort over the last thirty years, social capital remains a variably, and at times, ill-defined concept. A lack of a clear causal theory has made social capital difficult to explore in an empirical setting. In addition, limited understanding of the concept’s operation has restricted its ability to provide valuable insight into policy development. The three papers that compose this thesis examine the concept, measurement, and consequences of social capital. The first provides a theoretical discussion of the conceptual origins of the term, its common criticisms, and suggests an alternative approach to its understanding. The second applies this alternative approach to an empirical model of child enrolment in post-secondary education. Finally, the third critically examines a recent federal policy research initiative related to social capital, identifying key policy development advantages to this thesis’s alternative approach. This thesis argues that antecedents to the modern social capital literature along with more recent criticisms suggest a dual approach to understanding social capital. This dual approach involves two distinct frameworks for understanding the concept – one literal and one figurative. These frameworks guide alternative approaches to empirical social capital work, demonstrated through the analysis of social capital’s impact on child post-secondary enrolment. It further identifies how the two frameworks provide more relevant information on the operation of social capital, facilitating prospective policy development. Overall, the thesis concludes that the literal and figurative approaches represent a more useful way of understanding and applying the social capital concept.

This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of study components in order to aid in design refinements for a larger randomized controlled trial (RCT). A total of 38 post-secondary students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were randomized into a waitlist control group, or standard-length (45 minute) or shortened-length (15 minute) WM training group. Criterion measures included the WAIS-IV Digit Span (auditory-verbal WM), CANTAB Spatial Span (visual-spatial WM) and WRAML Finger Windows (visual-spatial WM). Transfer-of-training effects were assessed using indices of everyday cognitive functioning. Participants in the standard- and shortened-length groups showed greater improvements at post-test on auditory-verbal WM and reported fewer cognitive failures in everyday life than waitlist controls. Participants in the standard-length group showed greater improvements in visual-spatial WM at post-test than participants in the other two groups. Preliminary findings suggest that shorter training may have similar beneficial outcomes as documented for the standard-length training, indicating that a larger-scale RCT is warranted.