<p> What and how much an individual eats largely defines his/her health. The most used dietary intervention models target individuals' concern for personal health, thereby undermining the interdisciplinary trajectory of the nutrition field. The purpose of this study was to compare the food choice motives of students enrolled in an interdisciplinary learning community (LCOM) to students enrolled in a non-integrated nutrition course and gain insight into student experiences with interdisciplinary nutrition education. A two-phase sequential mixed methods design was used. The first phase compared the personal health and ethical concern motives of the LCOM (n = 13) and non-integrated students (n = 60). The secondary phase employed a web-based interview to explore the LCOM experiences. Both groups highly valued the ability of food to improve personal health. There was no statistically significant difference in the ethical concern motives between the two groups however, interview responses revealed that LCOM participants made dietary changes as a result of ethical concern. The study concluded that participants made dietary choices based on personal health, regardless of the type of nutrition education received, and the LCOM was effective in developing a greater value for ethical concern. The learning community framework could provide a rich education experience that helps students develop an improved sense of social responsibility and initiate behavior change. Recommendations included how health and nutrition departments could integrate related disciplines into nutrition curricula. Future research examining the longevity of motives is needed to explore the effectiveness of this educational framework in producing lasting behavior change.</p>

<p> Preparing students to become effective citizens in an increasingly interdependent world is one of today's most critical challenges. Effective global citizens need to be able to do more than imagine themselves in another's position, a common definition of perspective-taking. To bridge current divides of culture, religion, and nationality, they also must be willing to deeply question and sometimes revise their own prior beliefs and assumptions.</p><p> This study explored how interactions with diversity at a highly diverse and international community college impact students' capacity for perspective-changing. Through a hermeneutic inquiry, it brought community college students' voices into the scholarly conversation about the impact of campus diversity. Eighteen students from 11 countries participated in semi-structured interviews, discussing their pre-college experiences with diversity, their own definitions of diversity, critical incidents in their interactions with diversity, and the impacts of those interactions. </p><p> Several strands of scholarship informed this research. The first was the literature on perspective-taking particularly Piaget's original work as it was extended by Robert Selman and Jack Martin and his colleagues. Other core contributions included Jack Mezirow's theory of perspective transformation, Robert Kegan's work on self-authorship, and recent research on campus diversity conducted by educational researchers including Patricia Gurin, Sylvia Hurtado, Rona Halualani, and Victor Saenz. </p><p> Findings suggest that pre-college experiences shaped students' interactions with peers and the benefits they accrued. Almost all benefited from their interactions with diversity, but they benefited differentially. Work and family demands, limited English speaking ability, lack of prior experience with diversity, and deeply engrained cultural norms sometimes hindered their ability to engage with diverse peers and perspectives. </p><p> The analysis indicates that interactions with peers led to a range of outcomes including learning about and becoming more open to diversity, being able to engage with diversity, questioning and revising prior beliefs, and changing behaviors. A key finding was that engaging with diverse viewpoints did not occur informally, only in structured settings and almost always with the support of faculty or staff. Findings pointed to a need for more opportunities for engaging with diverse viewpoints, more targeted approaches, specific professional development for faculty and staff, and more research on community college campuses.</p>

<p> Community colleges in California are the primary source for preparing the early childhood care and education (ECE) workforce. The California child development lab school mission is to prepare ECE practitioners, provide a laboratory where college students can study and research child development/education, and offer a service to children and families. There are many benefits that are derived from laboratory schools but many community college lab schools have been reduced and/or closed over the past three years. The purposes of this Delphi study were (a) to examine the most pressing issues, problems and barriers facing California community colleges child development labs schools; (b) rate the importance of the issues, problems, and barriers identified; and (c) elicit experts' recommendations for the most viable solutions to help California child development laboratory programs maintain viability. A Delphi method was utilized procuring a panel of ECE experts that identified and rated the most pressing issues, problems and barriers, and generated viable solutions for California child development laboratory schools' viability. The key statistical processes used in this Delphi research were measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion. The ECE experts recommended solutions to increase a greater understanding of early childhood care and education, allow more support, and secure more financial assistance for the lab schools. A comprehensive infrastructure approach of government, policymakers, and community college leaders is required for California community college child development lab schools' viability. The data gathered from this study develops five potential benefits for laboratory schools including: (1) providing rationale for policy construction regarding statewide community college lab programs; (2) deciphering the most pressing problems and barriers that California community college child development laboratories are facing; (3) soliciting solutions to maintain viability for child development lab programs; (4) contributing to the development of statewide recognition and possibly legislation on funding sources for California community college child development laboratories; and (5) ensuring the survival of California community college child development laboratory schools.</p>

<p> In libraries around the world there are people asking librarians for research assistance. As technology has advanced and communication strategies have moved outside the physical library buildings, librarians now respond to reference queries online. This study analyzed two forms of virtual reference; instant messaging (IM) and log-in chat. The purpose of this study was to find out if there is any inherent difference between the way the patrons or the librarians used these two virtual services. </p><p> An exploratory research design focused on numerous aspects of virtual reference communication. During the spring terms of academic years 2011 and 2012 at a community college, 1,341 transcripts of IM and log-in chat sessions were recorded. Using a systematic sampling process, 320 transcripts were sampled and their content analyzed. </p><p> Findings indicate that a length of the transaction significantly affected the outcome of all transactions. Log-in chats were generally longer than IM chats and it was found that; they were more complicated, the librarians were more responsive and friendly, patrons were more satisfied and the librarian was generally able to conduct a reference interview more often. Additionally the findings indicated that both IM and log-in chat were very similar in three aspect; patron formality, completeness/accuracy of the librarians' answer and the reference interview adding/changing or clarifying the patrons question. </p><p> There were four major conclusions of this study: The log-in chat portal had longer online reference transactions and better overall outcomes; instant messaging portal queries, although similar in many aspects to log-in chat, were ultimately treated in a less formal manner by patrons; librarians gave reference interviews and complete/accurate answers equally in both platforms and there were similar overall success rates in both platforms. </p><p> Based on the findings in this study it is recommended that academic libraries serving a general population of students use both the IM and log-in chat portals on their library websites. Patrons appear to appears to be using each portal for different and equally important reasons. Further study of virtual communications practices is needed to enhance the findings of this study as more institutions expand their patron base beyond those who can physically meet with a reference librarian.</p>

<p> Student retention poses a major challenge to higher education in America. Research has demonstrated colleges that foster student engagement have higher retention rates than colleges that fail to do so. Writing centers are student services that improve student engagement and retention. This study focused upon the Fall 2013 cohort of developmental composition students in one Missouri community college, to determine if students' use of the writing center made a positive difference upon student engagement or successful completion of their course. The study was designed with a two-pronged approach to answer four questions. The first question was posed to determine a statistical difference existed between the retention rates of developmental composition students who visited the writing center and students who did not. A Chi-square Goodness of Fit statistical analysis determined with 95% accuracy that a difference did exist. The remaining questions were posed to obtain student perceptions regarding prospects for persisting in school, level of engagement with the college, and effects the writing center made upon engagement and persistence. These questions were answered with an online survey employing 19 Likert-scale statements to which the student could express level of agreement; responses were subjected to descriptive analysis. Student respondents expressed nearly 100% belief they would persist in school; expressed a high degree of engagement while claiming they were not engaged with the college; and expressed over 75% belief that the writing center had improved their engagement and persistence in school. These findings suggest writing centers do offer a valuable tool for improving student engagement and persistence. Future studies should be designed to provide a more global assessment of what writing centers do and how they might improve their services.</p>

<p> Social networking sites (SNS) have become the major media through which millions of college students develop and maintain their personal online networks. Several recent studies have explored why college students use social networking sites and the factors that affect users joining these sites. However, little is known about the relationship between the amount of SNS use and an under-represented community college student's academic success. The main objective of this study was to examine relationships between SNS activities, academic performance, the type and frequency of SNS use, student engagement, and other socio-psychological characteristics that may affect school achievement. This study surveyed 567 low-income students enrolled in six community colleges in Southern California. This cross-sectional structured survey used a sample of 567 low-income students enrolled in six community colleges in Southern California that are predominantly attended by low-income students. Both bivariate (ANOVA and Chi-Squared test) and multivariate (logistic regression) techniques were employed. The present research study clearly detected a strong association between SNS and college performance among community college students, even after demographic and socio-economic characteristics were held statistically constant. This study documented an excessive use of SNS is associated with poor performance in college. While it was expected that the excessive use of SNS associated with college performance; however, it is interesting that many college students realized this potential negative association between inappropriate use of SNS and college performance. Yet, it seems that motivation and skills to modify their behaviors associated with excessive use of SNS are not in place. SNS usage has great potential to prepare students for college by bridging their online social life with the world of academic discourse. It is important to design, develop, and implement educational curriculum that encourage use of SNS as an alternative and substitute for excessive use of SNS for non-educational purposes. Educational interventional projects are needed to promote knowledge and awareness of students of potential negative impact of SNS on their college performance, particularly among students that are using SNS extensively for non-educational purpose. Leadership at higher educational institutions also needs to be encouraged to promote use of SNS for educational use.</p>

<p> Journaling is an effective tool for the development of writing skills and creative thinking; however, research has not revealed how it improves writing skills in the college classroom. The majority of the studies related to journaling are elementary school studies, which do not provide statistics on how journaling can improve writing skills for undergraduates. The purpose of this study is to compare the writing skills of students in freshman college composition classes who make journal entries at the beginning of each class, and those who do not. The theoretical base for the study was provided by Thorndike's laws of exercise and effect and Mezirow's transformational learning theory. This is a quantitative, quasi-experimental study, and data were gathered using a pretest-posttest design using a sample of 106 freshman students in a small two-year community college in the Midwest. A rubric was used to score a writing sample from each student at the beginning and end of the semester, and the samples were independently evaluated by three experienced college writing instructors. The significance for the study was measured by using an independent t-test. Results indicated no significant difference between the pretest and posttest writing scores of the students who wrote in journals and those who did not. The study can foster social change by helping teachers to understand the potential benefits of journaling in the development of critical thinking skills. Further study with a larger sample and an advanced writing class would be beneficial in examining whether extensive journaling would result in improved writing skills.</p>

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0447. Adviser: Debra D. Bragg. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-192) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: P. Sawchuk.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1985. / Bibliography: leaves 72-74 [i.e. 72-73].