Demand for the skill of critical thinking is extensive in both higher education and in the workforce. The purpose of the current research is to examine the relationship between critical thinking educational efforts (e.g., programs incorporating high impact practices) and higher education student outcomes. For this study, student outcomes were defined as cumulative grade point average and student program retention. The study used existing data which were obtained from a large public research university in the southwest United States. The study found that higher critical thinking was significantly associated with higher overall GPA, and this relationship was stronger in males as compared to females. However, students' critical thinking was not significantly related to program retention. Findings from this study appear to confirm previous studies indicating a positive relationship between students' ability to think critically and GPA. The study also suggests that elements promoting critical thinking can be successfully embedded into undergraduate curricula through various means, including the use of high impact practices.

This study investigates the relationship of student engagement with the design of structured group learning experiences (SGLEs) implemented by increasing numbers of community colleges. Using data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and the Community College Institutional Survey (CCIS), I employ Vygotsky's activity systems theory as a framework for interpreting the results of hierarchical linear models where student engagement measures are outcome variables, and the several covariates selected in terms of SGLEs as a social activity system. The results provide evidence that, among 24 different curricular elements of SGLEs, engagement is positively related to only a few of them, in particular co-curricular and community activities (campus or community service project(s), participation in campus activities/events outside the classroom, and service learning). There was limited evidence that engagement is related to duration and intensity of the programs; instead the evidence suggests that the people involved, both the personnel that teach and facilitate the programs, and the characteristics of the student participants, matter most to engagement. Even as this study provides the first views of the contours of student engagement within high-impact practices on a national scale, it also suggests that what may be important for engagement is that the programs bring people together for a purposeful experience at all. The results suggest the need for increased attention to co-curricular and community activities and professional development by practitioners; and for research, they propose hypotheses for further research such as the relative import of participation vis-à-vis program design, and they suggest new conceptual approaches to the study of high-impact practices generally. / text

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / U.S. Jesuit Catholic universities are called not only to be excellent academic institutions but also to carry out a mission to educate and form “students in such a way and in order that they may become men and women of faith and of service to their communities” (Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, 2012, p. 3). This formative goal calls Jesuit institutions to engage in practices that provide students with experiences that support the continued growth of a strong and engaged religious faith. Based on the American Association of Colleges & Universities’ nine high impact practices and seven additional Jesuit Catholic high impact practices, this study investigated the relationship between individuals’ engagement in these specific high impact practices and their middle adult religiosity or strength of religious faith. In this research, 483 alumni from 16 Jesuit colleges and universities reported high levels of religiosity in middle adulthood, as measured by the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (Plante & Boccaccini, 1997b). Descriptive statistics and OLS multiple regression analysis showed a statistically significant, positive relationship between adult religiosity and participants’ engagement in Jesuit Catholic high impact practices as undergraduates, both across practices and specifically associated with participation in the Jesuit practice of the Examen of Conscience. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between the 3-year completion rates of first-time, full-time, transfer degree-seeking community college students, participation in activities that may encourage persistence and retention, and the demographic variables of ethnicity, Pell grant recipiency, gender, and ACT or Compass subscores in English/writing, reading, and math/algebra. The researcher used a snapshot of students’ degree completion three academic years after initial enrollment to determine 3-year completion. The study focused on first-time, full-time students who were pursuing associate of arts or associate of science degrees at a nine-campus community college in eastern Tennessee. Students who were pursuing applied science degrees, workforce certificates, or other credentials were excluded from the population. Students first enrolled in Fall 2010, 2011, and 2012, and their 3-year completion windows ended in Spring 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. The population consisted of 398 degree completers and 964 non-completers. The dependent variable in this study was 3-year completion. The independent variables in this study were participation in service learning courses, participation in courses that involved study abroad, and participation in student athletics, as well as ethnicity, Pell grant recipiency, gender, and ACT or Compass subscores in English/writing, reading, and math/algebra. Two-way contingency tables and Chi square were used to examine the associations between each independent variable and the dependent variable. Multiple logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between all variables. The quantitative findings indicated students who participated in service learning, study abroad, and student athletics were more likely to complete their degrees within three years. Additionally, findings revealed Pell grant recipiency, gender, and ACT or Compass subscores in English/writing, reading, and math/algebra predicted students’ 3-year degree completion. Ethnicity was found to have no significant effect on the 3-year completion rate.

This study explored certain leadership methods that eSupervisors were utilizing with eInterns through the theoretical lenses of House’s (1971) path-goal theory of leadership and the effectiveness of these methods on learning outcomes. The overarching research question that guided this study was: How do eSupervisors contribute to the learning growth of eInterns? A qualitative multi-case study was conducted on a population of eSupervisors, current eInterns (students), and past eInterns (graduates) that were associated with the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) program. VSFS is a program aimed at exposing students to working opportunities in the government. The findings from this study imply that there are a number of ways in which eSupervisors can contribute to the learning growth of eInterns. These contributions will vary depending on the eInterns, the environmental characteristics, the leadership approach taken, and the motivational factors involved. The significance in applying this research today falls in line with the booming growth of distance education programs the trend of incorporating technology in the classrooms.

This three-manuscript formatted dissertation interrogated the effectiveness of high-impact educational practices for marginalized students through the use of critical quantitative inquiry. The first empirical manuscript used data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts education to explore the role of race and class on students’ engagement in and effects from high-impact practices. Findings from this manuscript suggest significant differences in academic motivation change over the first year of college when race and class were examined together, while no differences when just class was examined. The second empirical manuscript used data from the National Study of LGBTQ Student Success to examine the intersections of environment and participation in and effect from high-impact practices for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ+) students. Findings from this manuscript suggested that students’ perceptions of overall support and their relations with instructors mediated the influence that participation in high-impact practices had on students’ academic development. Finally, the third main manuscript considered the utility of critical quantitative inquiry and ways researchers can combine critical theory into quantitative research.

In western societies, the persona of the artist has largely been associated with prevailing myths of the creative individual including the artist as genius and outsider. In my inquiry I endeavored to understand what it means to be an artist from the perspective of budding “creatives”. In this study I explored the process of becoming an artist that is how college students construct and navigate an artistic self (selves), and the factors that influenced this process. My purpose in this multiple text narrative inquiry was to discover how undergraduate art majors construct and navigate their artistic identity/identities, particularly while engaged in an artistic undergraduate research (UR) experience. I selected to explore students engaged in an undergraduate research project as a way to understand the process of artistic becoming within a unique educational practice, and to determine the role of creativity within this process. My study involved students who participated in an undergraduate research scholarship program developed by the Office for Undergraduate Research at a large research university in the southeast of the United States. Ten undergraduate art majors participated in this study. Data included in-depth interviews, and participant writings in the form of “artist” reflective journal entries (which included both written and visual text), and a final self-reflection essay. I analyzed the interview data through a holistic- content approach (Lieblich et al., 1998). I identified specific themes in order to understand the complex, “whole” individual, which assisted me in understanding participant “artistic selves”, and how creativity played a role in this process. I analyzed participant art products using methods adapted from Riessman (2008) and Keats (2009). Three key findings emerged from my inquiry. First, for the majority of participants, the construction of artistic identity/identities involved a significant evolution in their meaning making structures. Second, the notion of “doing” for oneself through research was profound for most individuals, which resulted in a stronger sense of artistic identity/identities. The third major finding was how participants weaved their artistic identity/identities through creativity. Implications of my research underscore the need for more robust institutional support and resources to assist emerging artists with developing career skills, creating supportive environments for art majors from a variety of backgrounds to help them succeed and thrive in college, the design and implementation of additional educational practices in the arts that promote self-authorship, and the expansion of UR activities within the arts.

This study examines how one college in a large private university sought to benefit its students by implementing a program of faculty-mentored, co-curricular high impact practices (HIPs). This qualitative single case study uses confirmatory and exploratory document analysis to examine how an educational leader translated institutional purpose via unit leaders and program managers into the educational practice of faculty mentors. The researcher found stronger and weaker areas of alignment of institution purpose to educational practice across a systems theory-based purpose-to-practice continuum. Variety in the concentration of themes across the data may be due to how these themes were emphasized in the administrative directives and could indicate a training gap in HIPs. In addition, the researcher found that certain HIPs were used more frequently, first- and second-year undergraduates rarely participated, and themes emerged from the educational practice narrative that were important to participants that did not appear in institutional purpose documents. The study offers recommendations to leaders in higher education to (a) use institutional purpose language clearly in administrative directives; (b) educate faculty to create high-quality HIP opportunities for underserved students; and (c) acknowledge program impacts that fall outside declared institutional purpose.

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