Despite numerous interventions, Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students continue to display extremely high rates of attrition. Typically these students are mature-aged and work full-time while studying part-time. The mature-age part-time student is considered by attrition researchers to be at the extreme end of high-risk for non-persistence in courses, having intrinsic characteristics (e.g. a long period of absence from the educational environment) and an exposure to external influences (e.g. family and work commitments) that generally make them vulnerable to dropout. Whilst there have been recent advances in self-concept theory and research, studies examining the role of self-concept in relation to attrition remain rare. The primary purpose of this research was to capitalize on recent advances in self-concept theory and research to identify the relation of the self-concept construct to attrition in the TAFE setting and the nature of self-concept for working adults. The findings provide support for : the salience of the self-concept measurement instrument used in this investigation and the research and theory on which it is based; the effectiveness of the interventions used in the present investigation to enhance persistence; and the important role of self-concept in relation to attrition / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Understanding one’s own personal journey provides for effective learning, growth, and development of self (Madsen, 2010). Reflection on the influences and experiences of successful women leaders is essential to understanding the factors that have enabled them to obtain and sustain leadership positions in nontraditional career fields. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lives of women deans in agriculture in an attempt to conceptualize the leadership styles they have developed as a result of their positions as deans in a predominantly male field, as well as their upbringing and life experiences. Six women deans of agriculture were interviewed and observed in an attempt to recognize the impact their personal journeys have had in developing their leadership styles and sustaining their leadership role. Reflection on the influences and experiences of the women deans produced five overall conclusions: 1) the women deans were essentially all first-born children; 2) encouragement from parents and mentors as well as spousal support were crucial factors in obtaining and sustaining their role as deans of agriculture; 3) challenges imposed by gender discrimination motivated these ambitious women to achieve their leadership goals; 4) each of the women deans exhibited traits of The Big Five Personality Trait Model such as surgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment, and intellectance which correspond to specific characteristics found relevant for leadership emergence, advancement, or effectiveness; and 5) participants lead with a transformational leadership style, an asset which has been valuable to their success as deans.

Though the pervasive rumor that the “traditional” dissertation persists because of the “I suffered, so they too should suffer” mentality — the professor revenge theory — students are often the ones eager to pin down writing genres so that they can master them. However, hopes to stabilize and thus capture the secret or equation of the dissertation genre are futile, since genres, like language, are alive: rhetorical, evolving, and flexible. Thus, to demonstrate the contemporary context of the dissertation genre, the conflicting perspectives of university stakeholders, the forces working on the genre to enact change, and the process by which genre knowledge develops and transfers in the highest levels of university writing, Mapping Dissertation Genre Ecology explores the discourse, both written and spoken, which constitutes the dissertation as a discursive construct — what I call the dissertation genre ecology. To better understand how dissertations are shaped institutionally, I ask the following questions: How is the dissertation as a genre constituted by various stakeholder groups at the university? How do these myriad accounts contribute to a larger system, a dissertation genre ecology at the university? And, ultimately, how does the dissertation genre ecology affect genre change? Through the use of rhetorical genre theory, my study develops a broad, interdisciplinary conception of genre, one that is not mired in formalistic worries about fixing genre in place. I use the voices of students and faculty from the humanities and social sciences as well as interdisciplinary documents as data for this project. By examining these discursive artifacts and making institutional tensions explicit, my project has broad implications for WAC/WID literature in transfer and genre studies.

<p> The AACN has asked academic leaders to align the performance of their organizations to the prescribed standards within the <i>Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice</i> document and has provided indicators of quality suggestions for program enhancement as a means of promoting continuous performance improvement. However, the AACN has not prescribed a strategy that specifies the manner in which colleges should achieve these benchmarked standards, which has created uncertainty among administrators about whether the indicators of quality lead to improvements that are actually indicative of improved performance.</p><p> This dissertation used multiple linear regression research design to determine whether predictive relationships exist between the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) indicators of quality and the Baldrige core values and concepts of performance improvement within Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredited baccalaureate colleges of nursing.</p><p> The purpose of this study was to determine whether the behaviors associated with specific AACN indicators of quality reflect behaviors that the Baldrige core values and concepts have already proven to be successful in achieving continuous performance improvement. The results revealed nine AACN indicators of quality behaviors most likely to enhance performance improvement outcomes within baccalaureate colleges of nursing. They include; (1) Resources are budgeted for research, development, business operations, public relations, marketing, and human resources; (2) Establishing and upholding policies that reflect faculty and leadership development resources; (3) Student experiences include service learning opportunities; (4) Practice partnerships include collaborative practice initiatives; (5) Collecting data and making program changes that focus on the level of graduate satisfaction with their preparation for the profession; (6) Faculty have input into the governance of the college/school; (7) The majority of faculty have a presence in state, regional, national, and international professional activities; (8) Opportunities for baccalaureate graduate's employment with practice partnerships; and (9) Formal mentoring program for clinical preceptors.</p><p> The results underline the fact that continuous performance improvement within baccalaureate colleges of nursing is a deliberate and dynamic analysis-driven endeavor dependent on an organization's ability, willingness, and initiative to continually strive to narrow the chasm between actual and potential performance results.</p>

<p> The current trends observed in 4-year college graduation and retention rates (ACT 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; Tinto, 2006) demonstrate a need for improvement in student academic achievement outcomes. Overwhelmingly, research finds that the first year in college is the time of greatest risk for student academic failure and drop out. Challenges associated with academic-oriented forms of stress and anxiety (Baillie &amp; Fitzgerald, 2000; Bembenutty, 2008; Cassady, 2010; Collier &amp; Morgan, 2008; Jean, 2010; Pike &amp; Kuh, 2005; Soria &amp; Stebleton, 2012; Turner et al., 2012) coupled with limitations in effective coping strategies (Hofer et al., 1998; Kitsantas et al., 2008; McInerney, 2011; Pintrich &amp; Zusho, 2002; Robbins et al., 2004; Zimmerman &amp; Schunk, 2008) lie at the center of the difficulties these first-year students experience, which ultimately play a significant role in persistence and achievement outcomes. This is particularly true for students from at-risk populations (e.g., first-generation students, ethnic minorities; Balemian &amp; Feng, 2013; Borman &amp; Overman, 2004; Choy, 2001; Engle, 2007; Jones et al., 2010; Pascarella et al., 2004; Toldson, 2012).</p><p> The wide body of research confirms that no single factor reliably predicts college academic success or failure, although institutions have traditionally relied upon indicators of prior achievement (i.e., H.S. GPA and college entrance exams) for such inferences (Alarcon &amp; Edwards, 2013; DeBerard et al., 2004; Harackiewicz et al., 2002; Kowitlawakul et al., 2013; Randsell, 2001; Zypher et al., 2007). Rather, it is the collective of factors from environmental, behavioral and personal domains that interact and have the potential to positively or negatively influence college student achievement (Bandura, 1986; 1997; 1999; Lazarus &amp; Folkman, 1984; Snow et al., 1996). As such, the Transactional Stress and Coping model (Lazarus &amp; Folkman, 1984) provides a comprehensive model through which the influence and interaction of multiple factors associated with student stress-appraisals, coping responses, and eventual outcomes can be examined within investigations of college academic achievement. </p><p> The main purpose of this study was to examine the degree of influence student background characteristics, indicators of prior achievement, anxiety-laden cognitive belief states, and self-regulated learning had on first-year college student achievement. Informed by the Lazarus and Folkman (1984) framework, a proposed academic-oriented stress-appraisal and coping model was tested for viability in predicting student achievement outcomes at the conclusion of their first-year in college. This study investigated research questions specifically associated with: 1) the influence of gender, ethnicity and first-generation status on first-year achievement; 2) the influence of student prior achievement (i.e., H. S. GPA and SAT scores) on first-year achievement; 3) the potential mediating influence of cognitive appraisals on first-year achievement; and 4) the potential moderating role of self-regulated learning in first-year achievement. For this archival study, all student demographic data, measures of prior achievement, first-year college achievement (cumulative GPA) and self-report responses to the LASSI-HS (Weinstein &amp; Palmer, 1990) instrument were accessed from a large sample (<i>N</i> = 29,431) of first-time, first-year students enrolled at a mid-sized, Midwestern 4-year university during years 2004-2012. Using an established model of stress-appraisal and coping (Lazarus &amp; Folkman, 1984) within an academic context, five models were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to answer the specific research questions and investigate the utility of the models in predicting first-year college achievement. </p><p> The results revealed that although all background factors (i.e., gender, ethnicity, first-generation status) were statistically significant predictors of first-year achievement (GPA), their influence on first-year GPA was minimal. Additionally, prior achievement had a statistically significant, but weak, influence on first-year GPA. Although the direct path relationships for all pre-existing personal factors were statistically significant, the results also indicated anxious cognitive appraisals served a mediating role between these factors and first-year GPA. Thus, a partially mediated model best represented the relationships among these variables. The potential moderating effects of motivational regulation and active coping strategies did not have any meaningful impact in the two self-regulatory coping models tested. Although some statistically significant relationships were observed and provided evidence that background factors, prior achievement, anxious cognitive appraisals and self-regulated learning are associated, their influence was minimal and offered little practical utility in explaining first-year college student achievement. </p><p> Overall, the results of the study were unexpected given the strong theoretical and empirical support for the measures utilized in the study and literature supporting meaningful and rather robust relationships among the variables of interest. This atypical finding seemed to be due primarily to the first-year student GPAs, and suggests attending to concerns related to the evaluation of student performance and achievement in the first year of college. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

Higher education in South Africa faces severe challenges due to the under preparedness of many students entering the system. Research (Perkins 1991; Pretorius 2000, 2005; Balfour 2002) has shown that many students who enter higher education do not have the required academic literacy knowledge and strategies to engage meaningfully with the relevant texts in their disciplines. A major obstacle to students’ success is their limited reading strategies. A significantly large number of students are not able to read at the appropriate grade and/or age level. Yet, reading is one of the most important academic tasks encountered by students. This thesis focuses on the use of reading strategy interventions together with integrated reading/writing activities to enhance reading comprehension. The study is located at the Durban University of Technology, using as participants the students who were registered on the first year extended Dental Technology programme in 2004. The interventions are implemented through an action research project. The piloting phase of the interventions reveals the need for an understanding of the students’ backgrounds in, amongst others, their reading and writing practices, attitudes, approaches to learning, and motivational factors. Consequently, the action research project was conducted in parallel with an ethnographic inquiry into students’ reading worlds and practices. Given that reading and writing are complementary processes whereby the enhancement of the one has a positive effect on the other, the ethnographic inquiry also explores students’ attitudes and practices towards writing. Using the ideological model (Street 1984) and, in particular, the new literacy approach to teaching and learning as a framework for the thesis, I argue that the students’ early childhood and schooling experiences of reading and writing impact on their current attitudes and practices. I further suggest that for children from disadvantaged backgrounds learning and retaining literacy is more difficult than for children from advantaged, middle class backgrounds. The ethnographic inquiry involved a series of interviews with students, as well as a questionnaire to ascertain students’ attitudes and practices towards reading and writing. In addition, a questionnaire was designed for lecturers to obtain their attitudes and practices towards reading and writing in their disciplines. A major finding of the ethnographic inquiry was that the majority of participants in the study come from a background that can be described as traditionally oral in the sense that it is one in which very little or no emphasis is placed on reading. For some participants story telling was a more common form of interaction or communication with the elders. Also, the majority of participants come from lower socio-economic backgrounds where the purchasing of reading materials is considered a luxury. In addition, for many of the English additional language students, their school environment and experiences were not adequate enough to foster the need for reading and/or any engagement in reading. Based on my research, as well as the findings of other researchers, I argue that reading strategy interventions are essential in order to raise awareness and promote the use of reading strategies so as to enhance the learning (reading) process. The review of literature on reading development and the findings from the interviews indicate that the explicit teaching of reading strategies is essential for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds (Heath 1983; Delpit 1986; Cope and Kalantzis 1993). To this end the action research component of the study was implemented through the explicit teaching of three reading strategies, namely, identifying the main idea in a paragraph, using context clues to guess the meaning of unknown words in a text, and summarization. The focus of the intervention was on the process and on raising students’ levels of metacognitive awareness. The approach is novel in two ways. First, via the process approach to reading the chosen reading strategies were initially taught independently to the students using the explicit explanation approach which involved scaffolded tasks involving explanations, modeling (using the think-aloud protocol), practice, and transfer exercises. Thereafter, using the cognitive apprenticeship approach, students were taught to use all three strategies simultaneously during reading. Second, discipline specific materials were used as reading sources during the interventions which were conducted with integrated reading/writing activities. Data was collected by means of a language proficiency pre-and post-test, a reading strategy pre-and post-test, worksheets, student reflective pieces, portfolios, and observations. An analysis of the pre-and post-test data showed that the reading strategy interventions were highly successful. Students performed better in the reading strategy post-test than in the pre-test. Furthermore, their performance was better than that of a control group of students who were registered for the first year mainstream programme and who wrote only the reading strategy post-test. A marked improvement was also noted in the language proficiency post-test. These results stress the need for the teaching of reading strategies through integrated reading and writing activities. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

<p> The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, ACA) stipulates a full-time employee, defined as one who works an average at least 30 hours per week, merits a prescribed set of insurance benefits. Higher education institutions must determine whether a part-time employee meets the ACA definition of a full-time employee by calculating the average weekly working hours. Although challenges exist when defining and measuring academic instructional work, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the effect of various workload formulas as a means to measure the average weekly working hours of part-time faculty and to compare the results to the ACA definition of a full-time employee. The results, grounded in the Parametric Estimating Model framework, indicated that if the ACA was in effect in FY2013 several part-time faculty members met the ACA definition of full-time employee at one institution when utilizing workload formulas as a means to measure instructional work. The three common salient characteristics of these part-time faculty members include that they were either potentially loaded greater than 50% of a full-time faculty workload, reported excessive hourly-compensated work, or worked during the summer term. An organization risks the potential financial penalty of $2,000 annually for each full-time employee employed when an ACA defined full-time employee is not offered healthcare benefits. Therefore, the study recommends that the organization create methods to control and monitor hourly work and course assignments particularly of those offered in the summer term in order to avoid the risk of the ACA penalty or alternatively, provide access to healthcare coverage that meets the ACA requirements to its part-time employees. Part-time employees, including part-time faculty play a critical and important role for institutions of higher education.</p>

<p> This quantitative study examined the transfer and degree aspirations of African-American and Latino males enrolled in California community colleges. Carter's (2002) theoretical and conceptual framework on the degree aspirations of African-American and Latino students was utilized to frame this study. Using secondary data from CCSSE, t-tests, factor analyses and logistic regression analyses were completed to compare the experiences of African American and Latino males and predict their transfer and degree aspirations. Findings include that self-reported data on GPA, obtaining or updating job skills, changing careers, and institutional size were predictors of associate degree aspirations. For the outcome transfer aspirations, predictors were race, sources used to pay for their tuition, and experiences that contributed to their academic, cognitive, and technical skills at the community college. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.</p>

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1993. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2805. Abstract precedes thesis as 2 preliminary leaves. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-51).