The fact that girls and women suffer a loss of self-esteem disproportionate to boys and men is without argument. There are an increasing number of books, magazine articles, and resource kits being made available to begin to comprehensively address the issue with young girls. However, less effort is being directed toward the older adolescent, the college-age woman. The problem with which this study was concerned was that of determining the impact of a mentoring program on the self-esteem of college-age women. The Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI) was administered as a pre- and posttest, to 40 sophomore women, 20 of whom were in a control group and 20 who participated in the structured mentoring program. Using the MSEI, it was possible to gain statistically significant data which indicated that the self-esteem of the women could be positively impacted as a result of the mentoring experience. In addition to the instrument, the participants kept journals about their mentoring experience. Therefore, this research was able to report both qualitative and quantitative findings. The findings regarding the control group were not statistically significant for any of the 11 characteristics on the inventory. The findings from the mentored group however, were determined to be statistically significant for 5 characteristics: global self-esteem, competence, lovability, body appearance, and identity integration. From the statistical findings, as well as, from the journal entries it appeared that mentoring is a valuable experience. Also it was determined that there was a pattern to a positive mentoring experience. The women felt that their mentors were individuals in whom they could place their trust, the women felt the mentors could be helpful to them because of the wisdom that comes from life experience.

Current evidence suggests that non-medical prescription stimulant (NMPS) use is on the rise, particularly among college students. Identifying individuals at risk for regular and problematic use is a critical step towards the development of effective intervention efforts. A growing body of work has noted that individuals with elevated levels of social anxiety (SA) or social anxiety disorder are at an enhanced risk for developing substance use problems, including NMPS use disorder. Despite the relevance of SA and NMPS use among college students, no studies have attempted to examine subclinical SA or the relation between SA and NMPS use among college students specifically. Thus, the present study sought to extend this area by testing the relation of SA symptoms and NMPS use frequency among college students. A large online study of college students was conducted (N=1604) to identify 252 NMPS users (18-25 years; 68.3% female). A hierarchical linear regression was used to test the moderation of positive prescription stimulant expectancies on SA symptoms in predicting past year NMPS use frequency. A subsample of 15 participants was also brought into the lab to assess subjective (State Anxiety) and physiological (salivary cortisol) responding to a social stressor task. Overall, the current study did not provide evidence that SA, via retrospective self-report or real-time responding was related to past year NMPS use frequency. Additional research is needed to resolve the discrepancies between the present findings and prior work.

The use of simulation as a clinical learning activity is growing in nursing programs across the country. Using simulation, educators can provide students with a realistic patient situation using mannequins or actors as patients in a simulated environment. Students can practice multiple aspects of patient care without the risk of making mistakes with real patients, and faculty can reinforce course objectives and evaluate student learning. Because of the technology, the environment, and the methods by which simulation is implemented, it may cause anxiety in learners, which may interfere with the learning process. Anxious students may miss an opportunity for learning valuable aspects of nursing care that are reinforced in simulation. This paper will describe a study of the student perspective on simulation, particularly related to the anxiety experienced by many learners. Nursing students in a baccalaureate program who participate in simulation in their clinical courses were recruited for the study, which consisted of a survey and a focus group. Participants were asked to rate nineteen aspects of simulation in regards to the feelings they elicit, from confidence to anxiety. The survey, completed by 73 of the 178 eligible participants, also included open-ended questions in which students could elaborate on their responses. A focus group was held after the survey, during which nine volunteer participants were asked further questions about their feelings and reactions in simulation, specifically as related to their effect on learning. During a facilitated discussion, they also offered suggestions for interventions that they believed would decrease their anxiety and improve the learning environment in simulation. After an analysis of the data, a "comfort-stretch-panic" model (Palethorpe & Wilson, 2011) emerged as a useful framework for understanding the student perspective. Students in the "stretch" zone, in which they perceived a manageable amount of stress, were motivated to perform and experienced optimal learning from the simulation session. The student suggestions for interventions which would aid their learning may be useful for transitioning them into the "stretch" zone, and should be considered as potential tools in simulation practice.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether differences exist between characteristics and attitudes of graduates and those of non-graduates of doctoral programs in education. The subjects were the 256 students who had successfully completed the qualifying examinations in the College of Education at North Texas State University during the years of 1978 through 1980. Although the data findings from this study are too numerous to list within the restrictions of this abstract, the most notable findings include that (1) 74.2 per cent had graduated; (2) graduates were more likely to have selected the dissertation topic before the qualifying examinations; (3) graduates rated personal motivation higher than did non-graduates; and (4) there were no significant differences in Graduate Record Examination scores (verbal, quantitative, or total) between graduates and non-graduates. Among the conclusions drawn from this study are that (1) the process of going through a doctoral program discourages the less serious students before they reach the qualifying examinations and (2) graduates have high personal motivation and receive high support for dissertation efforts from many segments of life (spouse, family, friends, major professor, and doctoral committee). The recommendations drawn from this study are for (1) further research into the personal motivation of the candidate, (2) further research as to the effect of the candidate's attitudes toward and grades for courses in research and statistics, (3) universities to maintain records that allow for determination of completion rates of doctoral students and to consider these rates in the evaluation of doctoral programs, and (4) graduate faculty to encourage doctoral students to give serious consideration to possible dissertation topics early in their graduate programs.

One of the major problems of the modern educational system is scholastic under-achievement by talented students. Until recently the typical study had been chiefly concerned with the correlation between level of ability and academic success, while many studies referred to the presumed relationship between emotional stability and academic achievement. On the college level such characteristics as failure to adjust to college life, poor study habits, lack of awareness of his real level of ability on the part of the student, and other such Causes have been tacitly assumed as the explanation for under- achievement

This study describes certain characteristics of mature women students in a community college in a large metropolitan district. Three standardized instruments gathered data on self-actualization, self concept, and locus of control. A questionnaire collected demographic and education data as well as information on attitudes, motivations, problems encountered, and suggestions. The women perceived attitudes of their families as positive toward their education. They were motivated by desires to gain knowledge, get degrees, obtain promotions, and improve themselves. They cited themselves, long-time ambition, friends, and husbands as influential in motivating them to attend college. They selected this community college because of its convenience. The majority were married, had children, and were of the middle to upper-middle class. Over half were employed. Their average age was thirty-seven. They were active outside the home, although continuing to perform most traditionally feminine home responsibilities. The majority were part-time students, classified as freshmen. Education, business, nursing, accounting, and psychology were popular majors. Over half planned to obtain bachelor's degrees. Most felt they encountered no problems in pursuing their education; lack of sufficient time was their major complaint. Most were pleased with their community-college experience. their suggestions included special counseling, flexible class schedules, a club for mature students, and child care.

The overall aim of this grounded theory multiple-case study was to better understand how K-12 independent schools (“schools”) in the United States cultivate a connection between children and adolescents (“students”) and the natural world (“environment”) by exploring the interplay between this connection and (a) the school community (“community connectedness”) and (b) personal sense/belief about spirituality. The aim was guided by key research questions, which include: (Q1) How do schools in the United States cultivate a connection between students and the natural environment? (Q2) Why do schools cultivate a connection between students and the natural environment? (Q3) What is the interplay between the natural environment and the school community? And (Q4) What is the interplay between the natural environment and personal sense/belief about spirituality? This study utilized a grounded theory multiple-case study approach to conduct a secondary analysis on data previously collected as part of a parent study. Representative data from 4 of the 20 schools (Cedar Highlands, Mapleton, Tabiona, and Rocky Ridge) in the parent study were analyzed for the purposes of this grounded theory multiple-case study. Data were collected by conducting 1- to 2-day site visits to each school. Data collection methods included: (a) face-to-face individual interviews and group discussions with key school personnel (including teachers, faculty, staff, and parents); (b) general observations (including, but not limited to, classes, student groups/activities, faculty meetings, campus life, school culture, and extracurricular activities); (c) desk review of reports and documents (including organizational documents, such as strategic reports, and public documents, such as blogs and articles); and (d) audiovisual materials primarily in the form of photographs. For the current study, an inductive analytic strategy was utilized to identify emergent concepts from the previously coded data. Within the inductive framework of the current study, cross-case synthesis, with a case-based approach, was utilized to compare within-case patterns across the four individual cases and to address the research questions. Emergent themes and results from cross-case synthesis were utilized to develop an initial working theory of environmental education that is spiritually formative as a component of overall healthy development.

Although the importance of problem solving as an essential component of mathematics learning and doing has consistently been recognized, recent research has only just begun to identify and describe the complex set of variables influencing the endeavor. Therefore, the aim of this study was to empirically investigate the relationships between several of these variables: mathematical expertise (as measured by the advanced nature of the mathematics courses students have taken, and are enrolled in), the cognitive ability known as inhibitory control (the ability to inhibit or suppress an immediate response to a stimulus, and engage in deeper, more reflective thought), and facets of college students’ psychoeducational profile (e.g., academic habits of mind, future orientation, self-limiting beliefs), which provide information about the nature of college students’ learning and development. In this study, one hundred and thirty college students, enrolled in different levels of mathematics courses (from introductory courses to major courses in mathematics) were administered a modified version of the Cognitive Reflection Test (an instrument designed to measure the ability to activate one’s inhibitory control capacities) and a survey instrument designed to measure domain-general and mathematics-specific psychoeducational facets of their academic profile. Information about membership to other subgroups (e.g., gender, academic major, mathematics courses taken in high school) helped to further contextualize the findings. The majority of all participants did not correctly solve any of the problems of the modified version of the Cognitive Reflection Test which required inhibitory control. However, those with a greater level of mathematical expertise (i.e., those taking more advanced mathematical courses) performed significantly better than their peers on these problems and exhibited more desirable responses on the psychoeducational survey instrument. Responses to items of the survey instrument that measured behaviors, habits, and experiences that limit students in their conception of, approach to, and engagement with mathematics indicate the presence of a psychoeducational facet specific to mathematics that cannot be sufficiently explained by domain-general facets also under measure. These limiting characteristics related to mathematics were also significantly related to students’ performance on the modified version of the Cognitive Reflection Test, indicating a potential relationship between such characteristics and problem solving success on inhibitory control tasks. Considering the measures of mathematical expertise utilized in the current study, the social nature of mathematics learning may help explain the development of both inhibitory control ability and limiting beliefs in mathematics. The current study extended the methods utilized in previous research to examine the relationships between inhibitory control and mathematical expertise in college students while also investigating these in relation to particular psychoeducational variables known to influence learning and development of college students. The findings of this small-scale empirical study provide a modest step forward in these areas of research by providing another lens through which to view several phenomena already being extensively investigated by other researchers.

Previous research has shown that instruction followed by problem solving (I-PS) is an effective pedagogical approach in many procedural domains, but engaging students in problem solving before instruction (PS-I) can benefit conceptual learning and transfer. However, it is unclear which order of instruction is optimal for domains that rely heavily on both procedural and conceptual knowledge, such as symbolic modeling. This study investigates optimal order of instruction for learning modeling when instruction is based on incorrect examples. In an experiment with 97 eighth graders, we tested which order of instruction, I-PS or PS-I, was most beneficial for learning to create and evaluate mathematical models of rate-based situations, and for transferring learning to create models with different structures. The study also investigated whether optimal order of instruction depended on a student’s prior knowledge. Students in the I-PS condition performed better on model generation, regardless of prior knowledge, but no condition differences were found in model evaluation or transfer outcomes. Students in the PS-I condition reported more instances of confusion. Confusion negatively predicted transfer and showed a trend toward negatively predicting model evaluation. However, confusion did not mediate the relationship between condition and learning outcomes. This study extends the research on the role of instructional order in learning, and its impact on students’ affective experiences.

Despite widespread agreement about the importance of stress for health and well-being, scholars disagree about the types of variables that matter most. On one side, some argue that stress reactivity depends mostly on person-level variables, such as personality, while others contend that stress reactivity depends mostly on situation-level variables, for example chronicity. Researchers from a more integrative perspective assert that stress reactivity depends on an idiosyncratic interaction between person-level and stressor-level variables, for example the finding that lonely people are especially reactive to interpersonal tension. My dissertation reconciles these perspectives by leveraging crossed random effect modeling to determine the percent of stress reactivity attributable to each of these types of variables; the person, the situation, and the person-by-situation interaction. In Study 1, 368 undergraduate college students reacted to 60 unique situations in the context of normal daily life on two separate occasions. In Study 2, 955 adults from the Midlife in the U.S. study self-reported their reactivity to stressful situations encountered on each of eight days. Results from both studies suggest that these three types of variables account for the bulk, at least 70%, of stress reactivity in daily life. Moreover, all three types of variables emerged as important, as each factor contributed at least 20% of the overall variability in stress reactivity. Interestingly, both studies also found that situation-level variables mattered relatively more than the other two types of variables. I discuss these findings in relation to stress theory, stress-reduction interventions, and methodological innovations.