No description available.

This phenomenological study addressed the factors of an institutionalized peer to peer mentoring program that fostered academic success and persistence among Black male students graduating from a predominantly White four-year public university in Tennessee through the lens of the critical race theory. Data was gathered through face-to-face, open-ended, semi-structured interviews via Zoom with twelve participants that graduated between 2014 and 2022. Study participants were grouped into group 1 as those Black male students that were not impacted by the global pandemic and group 2 as those Black male students that were impacted by the global pandemic. Emerging themes and categories were identified by coding and analyzing the interview data. The themes that were identified were early intervention, impact of peer led mentoring, benefits of building strong relationships, safe spaces on campus, and the integration of mentorship programs into communities. The findings may provide higher education institutions with best practices models on how to further design or redesign strategies, policies, and practices that promote a mentorship culture that assist in the academic success for Black male students. The findings from this study may have implications relevant to the growing body of research on Black male achievers; as well as educational and community leaders; and policy makers on the development of practices, strategies, and recommendations to further provide effective mentorship programs that enhance Black male success on college campuses.

University peer-mentoring programs have shown to increase the retention rates of students, including students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and improved satisfaction with the college experience. The perceived quality of a mentee-mentor relationship may predict satisfaction with a peer-mentoring program; therefore, teaching peer mentors to engage in behaviors that could contribute to a high-quality mentee-mentor relationship may be beneficial. The current study identified target outcomes, operationally defined target behaviors, and developed a computer-based instruction (CBI) training module. The CBI training module was divided into four submodules that incorporated teaching through examples and nonexamples and discrimination training. The efficacy of each CBI submodule was evaluated using a pretest/posttest design with two mentors in a university peer-mentoring program. Results suggested that the CBI training module produced an increase in the frequency of correct responses in seven out of eight submodule posttests across both participants. The CBI training program also produced an increase in the frequency of target behaviors emitted by both participants across all submodules. These findings suggest that this CBI training module can be used to teach peer-mentors the behaviors that may improve their relationship with their mentee.

Improved metacognitive thinking can impact student’s success. A novel homework method called Solved Problem Analysis (SPA) was developed with the intent to foster metacognitive thinking. It was hypothesized that supporting metacognition would lead to increased performance on in-class exams and the ACS final exam. Results showed SPA was effective at increasing performance on both. In order to more directly measure student’s metacognitive thinking, a knowledge survey was implemented to measure the difference between student’s perceived understanding of the material and their actual performance. These knowledge surveys showed students were able to predict how much of the material they understood. Monitoring one’s thinking is an important part of metacognition. This cognitive monitoring can be mimicked in study group interactions. The effect of self-assembled study groups on student exam performance was also examined, where it was found that self-assembled study groups did not effectively increase exam performance.

High attrition rates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields are major challenges in undergraduate education. Many students enrolled in STEM fields end up switching their majors to non-STEM fields or leave college without earning any academic qualification. Due to these reasons, the United States is facing a critical shortage of future talented STEM personnel in the domestic workforce. Therefore, graduating a sufficient number of talented students in STEM fields has come to national attention. It is important to examine strategies for improving STEM-major retention and undergraduate education in STEM disciplines. The main purpose of this study was to investigate methods to improve students’ social and peer-mentoring interactions within the undergraduate chemistry program at Mississippi State University to improve student learning and their attachment to chemistry and the STEM major. In Chapter II, a study performed to examine peer-mentoring interaction patterns that occur between laboratory partners in the General Chemistry I laboratories is discussed. In this study, five different laboratory partnership types were created. In the development of some partnership types, Math ACT score and lecture section were used as metrics for matching lab partners to create supportive peer-mentoring interactions. Also, students were encouraged to participate in external study groups during the semester. This research study determines whether valued peer-mentoring interactions in the laboratory could support students to be more successful in their chemistry coursework and to have improved social interactions. In Chapter III, a peer review writing assignment that mimics the publication process is presented. This writing assignment supports students to improve their writing skills by reviewing peer write-ups and practicing critical analysis of their work. This assignment is introduced to upper-level undergraduate students to improve their scientific literacy skills in order to prepare them for future scientific communication. In Chapters IV and V, two new laboratory experiments that are connected to real-life scenarios are presented. These laboratory experiments are designed to improve student interest in laboratory learning and to enhance their learning in chromatography techniques and hands-on experience with the GC-MS instrument.

People with intellectual/developmental disabilities experience exclusion from social spaces. In this dissertation, I address social inclusion in: a) research and b) peer relationships in the context of mental health services. To address inclusion in research, we conducted key informant interviews with academic researchers (n = 8) and co-researchers with intellectual disability (n = 6) who have expertise in inclusive research (study 1). Using principles of grounded theory we analyzed the data and developed a conceptual model describing the contextual factors and team-level factors that coalesce to foster and maintain inclusive research collaborations. We found that team members’ values and characteristics influence inclusive research collaborations and drive a commitment to accessibility. Additionally, perceived personal and societal benefits contribute to co-researcher involvement. Contextual factors, including funding and partnership duration, influence teams’ processes and structures. These processes and structures influence the extent to which co-researchers perceive the inclusive research team to be co-facilitated or academic-facilitated. This model describes how contextual and team-level factors and processes may be optimized to support co-researcher engagement in inclusive research. To address peer relationships in the context of mental health services, I used a stakeholder-driven approach to develop a peer mentoring intervention for young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions (study 2). This approach included partnership with 3 young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions and a 7 member advisory board composed of self-advocates and professionals. In addition, I conducted focus groups with mental health clinicians (n = 10), peer support specialists (n = 9), and transition specialists (n = 20) to identify the desired peer mentoring outcome and intervention components and content that may facilitate these outcomes. The focus group participants identified several relationship-driven and outcome-driven actions peer mentors may use to support outcome achievement. Stakeholders also identified five components relevant to the intervention: safety considerations, mentor matching, degree of intervention structure, mentor training and support, and collaboration with mentees’ support teams. These findings draw attention to the importance of social relationships and individualization of both mentoring and supports for mentors. Together, these two studies highlight the importance of valuing the unique strengths of people with disabilities and the need for task and environmental adaptations to foster social inclusion of people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. / 2021-06-18T00:00:00Z

This qualitative study explored a number of paradoxes embedded in the mentoring phenomenon. Designed as cross-dimensional case study, the questions sought to better understand: (a) what challenges and barriers did the mentor and mentee face in their cross-racial, cross-cultural, and/or cross-age peer mentoring relationship in this specific organization? (b) How did the mentor and mentee address cross-racial, cross-cultural, and cross-age barriers? (c) What skills and/or competencies, as perceived by the mentor and mentee's experiences are needed to make a cross-racial, cross-cultural, and cross-age peer mentoring relationship successful? The unit of analysis for this investigation was one pair - female mentor and mentee- with cross-dimensional differences, thus setting the framework for different cultural perspectives. Data collected for this study were transcriptions from three interviews, the mentee, mentor, and the dyad together. Characterized by the case and field method of research, combined data sources were used concurrently â at different times to compare the participants, views, values, perceptions, experiences and philosophies. The study's goals involved examining the challenges and experiences, of mentoring in a multicultural work setting, and identifying issues relating to cross racial, cross-cultural, and cross-age mentoring relationships. Although linguistic and cultural barriers crested challenges for this mixed pair, their co-created relationship helped to overcome cultural differences. Thematic findings that embodied the foundations of the multicultural relationship were categorized into six areas: Trust and respect, willingness to participate, cultural understanding, mutual compatibility and psychosocial support, knowledge sharing and role modeling, and leadership. Trust emerged as the overarching construct, which laid the foundation for the mentoring relationship structure, linking The Five C's (Characteristics) - compatibility, confidence, capabilities, communication, and cultural understanding. Unique in this pair was a source of motivation that transcended their individual selves for a greater cause, which has profound implications for future research. The study's conclusions addressed: a) mentoring at a macro level for the community, and for a greater good, and b) a form of dialogue to foster an appreciation of multiculturalism — an appreciation of human differences and commonalities. Recommendations were made for future research. / Ph. D.

Research has identified that one limitation of traditional mentoring occurs when there is a mismatch between the mentor and the protégé in work styles and personalities. Further, most of the literature on mentoring has not examined the informal mentoring that occurs between college students. Recent research has identified this type of peer mentoring as collaborative mentoring. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of interpersonal attraction in the development and success of collaborative mentoring relationships and to further examine which attraction dimension was the best predictor of the success of the relationship. Multiple regression analysis showed task attraction was the best predictor of the overall success of a collaborative mentoring relationship. This work is significant because it shows a person's perceived level of competence directly influences the success of a collaborative mentoring relationship more than likeability or physical appearance.

abstract: The purpose of the research conducted and presented in this thesis is to explore mentoring programs for ASL/English Interpreters, with a focus on the question "Is a Peer Mentoring Program a successful approach to mentoring working and novice interpreter?" The method of qualitative data collection was done via questionnaires and interviews with past participants of a Peer Mentoring Program and questionnaires to identified persons who have experience creating and running mentoring programs. The results of the data collection show that a Peer Mentoring Program is a successful approach to mentoring working and novice interpreters. This research provides valued information in regard to the experience of persons in a Peer Mentoring Program as well as successful aspects of such a mentoring approach. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education 2012

abstract: The rise in the number of students found to have autism has been staggering over the past ten years. Accommodating these students effectively and appropriately in a public school is a challenge many teachers are deemed with, sometimes without adequate training. This study was aimed at affecting the underlying social misunderstandings inherent to students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and an at-risk general education peer through a comprehensive intervention consisting of peer mentoring, interactive social stories and video modeling strategies. Observations, student interviews, vignettes and student and researcher journals served as data sources. Three fourth grade boys, including a student with autism, a peer with behavioral concerns and a model peer, participated in an intervention designed using a multiple baseline across behaviors. The target students, including the student with autism and the peer with behavioral concerns increased their ability to demonstrate three distinctive skills, attending to task, raising hand and academic responding. Analysis of the data also showed an overall increase in levels of engagement and motivation. Strong friendships developed among all three participants. Implications suggest that a comprehensive approach is effective in reducing unwanted social behaviors and promoting positive social skills and gives further insight into the target students' motivation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Leadership and Innovation 2013