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<p> While there is an abundant amount of research relative to coaching and mentoring programs, there is little understanding about the interaction between coaches/mentors and students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate student perceptions of their academic coaching and mentoring experiences at two Southern California community colleges. Alexander Astin's input-environment-output (I-E-O) model and theory of involvement was used alongside an interpretive model to help explain students' understanding of their experiences with coaches and mentors. One-on-one interviews and a focus group were conducted and provided data that led to the emergence of themes related to role models, empowerment, and motivation. In addition, the one-on-one interviews and the focus group also illustrated students' strong desires to pursue advance and professional degrees. In addition the findings highlighted the importance of race and ethnicity in the establishment of rapport and the need to validate individuals as college students with the abilities to peruse advance degrees in higher education. Lastly, the research identified role modeling, cultural connectedness, opportunities for mentoring, and the various institutional agents who may occupy the status of a mentor or coach as important factors in the mentoring and coaching experiences. </p>

<p> Developmental math currently poses a hurdle that many community college students are unable to overcome. Eighty percent of developmental math students do not successfully complete any college-level course within three years (Bailey, Jeong, &amp; Cho, as cited by Strother, Van Campen &amp; Grunow, 2013, p. 1). Despite numerous reform attempts, there has been a lack of consistent improvement and a lack of understanding regarding which methods are the most successful and the reasons why. Faculty need a new pedagogy to connect with developmental math students and effectively engage them in order to improve student learning outcomes. Proponents regard game-based learning as a way to leverage the intense engagement of video games in an educational context to increase engagement, increase the amount of time on task, and improve overall student success metrics. </p><p> The author has reviewed the studies and the evidence; weighed the value and legitimacy of the studies; synthesized the weight of the evidence of introducing a game-based learning pedagogy, and then examined the potential efficacy of game-based learning in the developmental math environment. The author has created an evidence-based implementation plan to incorporate game-based learning into developmental math education in a way that has the highest potential to improve student learning. </p><p> Key words: Game-based learning, gaming, serious games, developmental math, developmental education reform, innovation.</p>

<p> Due to changes in economic and social climate, including a decrease in state and federal funding, Associate's Colleges began to supplement their search for funds by fund raising. Associate's Colleges' fund raising has evolved and the purpose of this research was to scrutinize philosophies, perspectives, practices, relationships, and experiences of collegiate staff involved in institutional fund raising in large rural Associate's Colleges in a southeastern state in order to promote prosperity in resource development. The researcher's objective was to endeavor to document the roles of institutional actors in the fundraising process, their training, background, organization, and how their tactics differ when approaching corporations and individuals. In addition, the study looked at governance of foundations and fundraising staff specifics (job descriptions, student use, size related to funds generated). This included the roles of governance, philosophies, resources, methods of procuring funds, and reporting. This study displayed differences and similarities in fund raising practices at large rural Associate's Colleges in a southeastern state and described the setting in which these events took place. The participants in this study were ten fund raisers connected with Associate's Colleges of varying ages, educational backgrounds, and fund raising experience. Data for the study were derived from semi-structured interviews with each fund raiser, a foundation meeting observation, and a review of fund raising related documents. Using basic qualitative methods, the researcher conducted a thematic analysis of the data which enabled him to organize that data into manageable segments where he coded it. This process enabled the researcher to establish connections between the collected data and the research questions. Three major themes emerged from data analysis: (a) Relationship Management is Fund Raising; (b) Relationship Management is a Product of Resources and Communication; (c) Profitable Fund Raising Involves Maximizing the Potential of Four Factors: Participants, Environment, Experiences, Philosophy. Moreover, the study answered how large rural Associate's Colleges in a southeastern state developed fiscal resources in a climate of reduced state and federal funding.</p>

<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> 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> 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.