<p>This prospective, exploratory, single case study is about health care simulation as a learning approach for faculty to develop as teams of interprofessional facilitators. The research was aimed at understanding how simulation-based team training, designed around an interprofessional theme, promotes both teamwork and interprofessional facilitator competencies among participants representing 6 health care professions (medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant and pharmacy). The central research question asked how faculty attitudes, knowledge, and skills/behaviors in the areas of teamwork and interprofessional education (IPE) facilitation are characterized after experiencing a faculty development workshop designed as interprofessional simulation based team training (IP-SBTT). Four sub-questions focused inquiry into the workshop&rsquo;s: use of TeamSTEPPS^&reg;, unique instructional design, impact on the peer-to-peer attitudes of faculty, and impact on faculty&rsquo;s personal perspectives about simulation-based learning (SBL). </p><p> The examined case was the shared experiences of 9 faculty who participated in a 2-day, 14-hour workshop conducted in a university based simulation center. The workshop entailed immersion in team-based scenarios involving IPE issues. Learning objectives focused on facilitation skills. Data from multiple sources included video recordings of all activities, media material, observation notes/tool, surveys and a focus group interview. An iterative analysis of the evidence employed the use of HyperRESEARCH, qualitative data analysis software for video and text. Twelve key findings are based on triangulation of the frequency of coded behavioral markers on 12.5 hours of video, quantitative and qualitative data from post-simulation survey data, as well as focus group interview results. </p><p> Triangulation via analysis using 3 theoretical constructs lead to the study conclusions which are presented in 3 thematic clusters: (a) IP-SBTT enhances attitudes of mutual trust and team orientation, and the knowledge achievement of shared mental models; (b) the TeamSTEPPS framework is an effective approach to developing teams of IPE facilitators, and the Tension Triangle framework closely aligns with SBL components; and (c) Interprofessional-Meta-Simulation Based Team Learning (IP-M-SBTL) fosters an increased awareness of the emotional vulnerability associated with SBL, and enhanced self-reflection skills, increasing competence in interprofessional facilitation. The IP-M-SBTL model for faculty development is strongly recommended for building teams of interprofessional facilitators. </p>

<p> This study examines African American student perceptions of persistence in engineering. The research design is methodologically qualitative using a purposefully selected population of engineering students. Semi-structured interviews were designed to develop an in-depth understanding of what completion of the engineering degree means to African American engineering students. This research seeks insight into the linkages between African American student perceptions of persistence as it relates to both the academic and social culture of the engineering department. </p><p> Vincent Tinto&rsquo;s model of Institutional Departure (1975, 1987) is one of the most commonly cited models of persistence in higher education (Braxton, Milem, Sullivan, 2000). Tinto&rsquo;s model was leveraged in this study to understand perceptions obtained through student interviews. Tinto suggests that exploration of student goal commitment and perceptions of institutional commitment are key to understanding student persistence. Results of this study suggest that African American students have perceptions about the university that may influence the decision to persist in engineering. Ultimately, this study may prove useful to researchers and administrators interested in improving access and success for African American engineering students.</p>

<p> This study explored the interplay of a community college&rsquo;s vision, its leaders&rsquo; behaviors, strategic planning, and the use of data that contributed to an organizational culture that led to the improvement of student success. The researcher used a grounded theory approach to delve into the relationships and connections between these four institutional characteristics at three award-winning institutions: Bunker Hill Community College, El Paso Community College, and Guilford Technical Community College. The overall goal of the study was to develop a grounded theory regarding organizational success factors necessary to improve student success. The researcher visited each college for a two-day site visit, conducted twenty-three interviews of college leadership, faculty, and staff along with a document review of select publically available documents. The study yielded five findings leading to a grounded theory of five organizational characteristics that promote improving student success in the two-year institution. At all three award-winning colleges, there was a shared vision built upon a collective, unwavering commitment to student success along with frequent and consistent communication on student success. All three award-winning colleges believed their participation in Achieving the Dream which is focused on increasing student success was a key factor and pivotal point in propelling these colleges forward in their student success initiatives. The three award-winning colleges took action to effectuate the desired future. The college&rsquo;s cultures invited innovation and supported initiatives resulting in engaged employees. All three award-winning colleges understood the importance and transformational power of being accountable to themselves and to others. The colleges were growing in their use of data, were courageous in reviewing data, and cultivated a continuous improvement mindset. Finally, each college had a firm belief in understanding that people, passionate and purposeful, are the institution&rsquo;s greatest asset.</p>

<p> This quantitative correlational non-experimental study examines some major implications of student loan debt that Hispanics face upon graduation from institutions of higher learning. It provides both descriptive and correlational statistics to help view how Hispanics differ from non-Hispanics graduate students in their plight to live the American dream of social mobility. Hispanics now represent over 50 million and are the fastest growing (43% between the 2000 and 2010 U.S. Census) segment of the U.S. population. </p><p> The belief that gaining a college degree will enhance social mobility may in fact impede it, or at least, delay it for Hispanics. With the increase in borrowing to gain college access, Hispanic families may face financial constraints impeding social mobility. This study explores the surveys conducted (2008&ndash;2012) by the National Center for Education Statistics and consisting of approximately 13,500 students in postsecondary schools across the United States. The statistical analysis suggests that for Hispanic student graduates in higher education there may be a relationship between student loan debt and financial difficulties, including home affordability, getting married, and having children. The analysis explores the differences between Hispanics and non-Hispanics along these four dimensions. </p><p> Additionally, this study suggests several leadership practices as a way of influencing initiatives that may help address student loan debt for Hispanics. Recommendations for additional research include assessing measures that address the rise in borrowing by Hispanic graduates.</p>

<p> Based on indicators of educational achievement in the United States, Latinos have lagged behind most other demographic groups. This study explored Latino students&rsquo; social identity through a qualitative research design that privileged student voice as a vehicle to addressing educational disparities. The research design employed a phenomenological approach within the framework of practitioner research to explore students&rsquo; constructions of identity in reference to school in one suburban community. Research has shown that students&rsquo; experiences and sense of social identity can have significant impacts on academic performance (Aronson &amp; Good, 2002; Moya, 2002; 2009; Steele &amp; Aronson, 1995; Steele, Spencer, &amp; Aronson, 2002). As a Latino school district leader who desires to improve practice by better understanding Latino students in a suburban school setting in which they have a minority presence, in this study I created a forum where students could speak to their experiences and reality in that setting. This study&rsquo;s conceptual framework was grounded in the following areas of scholarship: social identity theory, critical race theory, and the concepts of student voice. Data collection included interviews, focus groups, and identity mapping with 15 high school participants. The study resulted in four main findings: Latino students feel stigmatized and isolated; they perceived and replicated racial microaggressions; there are elements of school they appreciate; and institutional practices create and support bias. This study is only a start to a fuller review and exploration of these themes at the school level. For such conversations to be productive, students&rsquo; voices must be included.</p>

Notions of Widening Participation to Higher Education are characterised by perceptions of an inherent "goodness" for (Western) democracy. This is based around a premise that predicates social justice upon access to education to ensure sufficient preparation for successful participation in the Knowledge Economy. This correlation between social justice, Higher Education and the Knowledge Economy can be identified as part of the neoliberal ideology that has underpinned political, economic and subsequent educational policies and practices with a rigorous promotion of the Free Market. This thesis examines Widening Participation as a mechanism through which neoliberal ideology has enabled the development of a market model of Higher Education. To understand this, a range of conceptual apparatus is utilised to reframe the common perceptions of what Widening Participation is and what purpose it has, by establishing Widening Participation as a critical part of the discourse relating to the commodification of Higher Education. The proposition of neoliberal Widening Participation is examined through the lens of Commodity Fetishisation (Marx), Educational Fundamentalism (Alvesson) and Stultification (Rancière). Together, these theories form a framework to understand the narratives surrounding the conceptualisation of Widening Participation within neoliberal ideology. These narratives are argued here to have cultivated expectations for a consumerist student population through the transformation of the perceived benefits of a traditional Higher Education into reified concepts of pedagogical practice. As such, Widening Participation is positioned here as a way in which the saturation of Higher Education was justified as social justice. This Widening Participation positions learners and teachers within a Higher Education that is part of a Debt Economy expressed as a Knowledge Economy. The result is a role for neoliberal Widening Participation in propagating pedagogical myths that Rancière describes as suppressing Intellectual Emancipation even when appearing to be facilitating it.

<p> The purpose of this case study was to evaluate a multi-campus university program designed to support STEM faculty in redesigning bottleneck courses, with integration of technology as one strategy. Despite the positive student learning outcomes in course redesign programs with an aim to support faculty in technology integration, there remains a need to evaluate how technology integration professional development (PD) programs impact faculty instructional practice, and determine the effectiveness of these programs in that effort. </p><p> This study researched the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor Course Redesign with Technology (CRT) Program, and employed the logic model of program evaluation to document the activities of the PD program to study the impact of the activities on what faculty learned about technology and their application of the program to develop instructional strategies that incorporate technology. Data were collected from the first two academic years of the CRT program (2013-2014 and 2014-2015) and frameworks related to andragogy as well as the theories of Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK), Diffusion of Innovation, and Communities of Practice frameworks were used to analyze archived professional development training content and faculty-produced electronic portfolios. </p><p> The findings reveal that while the training content focused on simple technology adoption, most course redesigns involved changes in technology and instructional strategies in which faculty sought to understand students&rsquo; challenges, support scientific thinking of course content, and enhance reflective teaching practices. This investigation showed strong, significant, and positive relationships among high levels of technology integration, awareness of innovation characteristics, and faculty collaboration in course redesigns. High occurrences of these variables were also significantly associated with grade point average increases in course redesigns. This study&rsquo;s findings and methodology have the potential to inform the development and evaluation of further efforts to redesign university courses using technology.</p>

<p> An increasing number of women are returning to school as nontraditional students to complete their bachelor&rsquo;s degrees. These women may have specific needs related to life transitions and re-entry into postsecondary education that traditional students do not. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the experiences of women who are nontraditional students, including their everyday supports and challenges. The guiding research question for this study was: Upon identifying the challenges for women at a branch campus, what changes can the university make to better serve the women? Study participants included 12 students currently enrolled in a bachelor&rsquo;s program in social work. Participants also included four university social work faculty and five campus administrators from the study site. A participatory action research methodology was used to collect data from multiple stakeholders. Interviews with social work faculty and university center and branch campus administrators were conducted. Data were coded using open and axial coding. NVivo 11 was employed to help facilitate the coding of the data for the study in order to assure accuracy in identifying common themes. The two main themes to emerge from this study were Experiences and Challenges. Participants&rsquo; experiences included personal and academic. Personal challenges that the women described included abuse, childcare, and health. The two forms of abuse described were substance abuse and domestic abuse, and the health subthemes included personal and family issues. Women&rsquo;s academic challenges included finances, academic writing, and class schedules. Study results may be used to raise stakeholders&rsquo; awareness of students&rsquo; needs, explore and change university processes, and develop workshops to assist nontraditional female students with career development and financial literacy.</p>

<p> Student retention is considered a complex human behavior. Adding to the complex nature of student retention is the ever changing landscape of higher education due in large part to the growth of Hispanic undergraduate student enrollment on college campuses. While notable gains have been made increasing the number of Hispanic students graduating from high school and going on to college, little progress has been made in increasing the college graduation rate of this group. Narrative inquiry and autoethnography methods were used in this study to explore the family background and lived experiences of the researcher along with those of a sample population of 19 current and former Hispanic undergraduate students of a private Christian university. Tinto&rsquo;s Theory of Student Departure (1993) served as a theoretical framework for this study because it was well suited for exploring student persistence as longitudinal process impacted by a multitude of institutional factors, external influences, family background characteristics, and student attributes. Primary data was collected using demographic questionnaires, individual interviews, focus groups, and reflective journaling. Several common themes emerged from data analysis and interpretation which shed light on the topic of Hispanic undergraduate retention at a private Christian university. The emerging themes from this study were comprised of: family, family support, motivation, religion, transition, institutional support, and supportive relationships. These themes point toward a connection between a student&rsquo;s family background, individual skills and abilities, and pre-college academic readiness to the development of initial academic goals and commitments to earn a college degree. This study provided evidence that the cultural beliefs, values, and language reflected in the emerging themes converge with the cultural elements of the university in a way indicating connections between students and institutions were important determinates of student success. The findings revealed that a university&rsquo;s ability to effectively engage and retain Hispanic students may be a function of a broad and supportive network of persons dedicated to the success of minority students throughout the university. This study provided evidence that supportive relations provided by agents of the institution and sources external to the university played a major role in a participant&rsquo;s educational journey. </p>

<p> The current study is a replication and extension of Wilson and Ryan (2013), the goal of which study was to reduce the size of the 34-item Professor-Student Rapport Scale via principal components analysis. In light of several shortcomings of their methods, including use of an inadequate sample size, we sought to determine whether or not the two factors were replicable. An exploratory factor analysis conducted using an adequately large sample (>300) failed to replicate the factor structure previously found. Instead, we describe the emergence of two new factors: &ldquo;Professor Cares about Students&rdquo; and &ldquo;Professor Creates an Engaging and Constructive Atmosphere.&rdquo; The new factor-structure exhibited adequate model fit in a confirmatory factor analysis (<i>N</i> > 300) and significantly predicted five of the six student and course outcomes examined through multiple linear regressions (<i>N</i> >= 109 for all regression analyses). Importantly, in addition to methodological improvements, our results appear to have produced two factors &ndash; &ldquo;Professor Cares about Students&rdquo; and &ldquo;Professor Creates an Engaging and Constructive Atmosphere&rdquo; &ndash; that better capture the broader construct of professor-student rapport than did the previously identified factors. Implications of our findings for instructors wishing to establish rapport with their students are discussed, as are directions for future studies and remaining problems for the scale not addressed by the current research (namely, a need for discriminant validity). </p>