abstract: The impact of peer-leadership programs on undergraduate students has been studied since the inception of higher education. Programs such as peer-mentoring, peer-counseling, and peer-advising are regularly used within the college environment as there are proven benefits to both student leaders and mentees. However, there is limited content on students who plan to pursue higher education careers and experiential programs that prepare them for the field. Thus, this action research study is designed to examine the influence of a peer-advising program on participants who have identified their interest in various careers in the college setting. Employing a mixed-method approach to inquiry, the study connects Kolb’s (2005) Experiential Learning theory, and Chickering’s (1964) Vectors of Student Development to a hands-on learning experience designed to improve participants’ competency and clarity in their potential career choice. This study was conducted with the purpose of illustrating the role of experiential learning opportunities in higher education, particularly with a unique focus on undergraduate students desiring careers in the higher education field. Four senior students were positioned as peer-advisors assisting fellow students with academic related matters over one semester as a means of gaining competency and clarity in their pathway toward working in higher education. The results of the study indicate that peer-advising participants attributed program participation to increased career competency and clarity. There were also 64 student-advisee participants who found the program to be beneficial to their overall advising needs, as well as one professional advisor who found the program to be effective in decreasing her advising load during the study. The results of this study align with outcomes of pinnacle research and scholarship on experiential learning, and support the growing acknowledgment of the importance of applied learning experiences in higher education. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2017

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study is an investigation into the scope, role, and function of student development and support (SDS) within higher education in South Africa. The underpinnings and frameworks of SDS were explored during the research, as well as its integration into the institution and into organisational structures, the relationship between SDS and the policies of the Department of Higher Education and Training, and the influences from the national and international context of SDS. Policies emerging from the Department of Higher Education and Training heralded dramatic changes after the first democratically elected government in South Africa. The changes were amplified by the shifts in the international context of global explosion of knowledge production and neo-liberal influences on higher education in general and SDS in particular. The higher education system in South Africa has changed from an elite system to broad “massification”, which addresses issues of equity, access, participation and relevant skills development at medium and high level (DoE, 1997, p. 4). Changes have not only been in terms of governance and institutional mergers but also in terms of notions and discourses in education, teaching and learning, student development, and student support. The higher education system has become open, responsive, and relevant, and knowledge is understood to be relative and context-bound, co-created within the relationship to a heterogeneous group of students who have a range of capabilities and challenge traditional notions of inclusivity and diversity. The findings are extensive and liberal use of quotations from the participants substantiates the emerging themes. The key themes that emerged are clustered under the headings of: scope, role and function; theoretical framework; professionalisation; paradigms and alignments; SDS integration into the organisational structure; SDS in relation to the Department of Higher Education and Training; and SDS within the national and international context of globalisation. The discussion synthesises the findings and reveals that SDS is facing many challenges which require attention. Some challenges concern the lack of clarity around scope, role, and function, as well as issues around the lack of theoretical grounding and the paucity in local theory development. Challenges also surfaced regarding the integration of SDS into the academic life of the institution. Similar concerns appeared around the exclusion of SDS from governance issues. Tensions emerged from discussions on the need for a guiding framework for SDS, while preserving autonomy and acknowledging the heterogeneous character of institutions. The findings also suggest that non-elective operational standards and some kind of monitoring and evaluation systems for SDS are required. Despite these challenges, it appears that SDS is perceived as a key contributor to the shared goal of student success and that an expressed commitment to and alignment with national and institutional goals exists. This utilisation-oriented study, it is hoped, will make significant contributions to the understanding of the scope, role and function of student development and support within higher education. It may help illuminate the challenges and provide suggestions to enable more articulated contributions to the shared goals of higher education in South Africa. Recommendations include the development of an epistemic community which can generate contextual and constructivist paradigms for SDS in South Africa. This research study reveals the pressing need for a normative framework for SDS and identifies areas which need to be given serious consideration when developing such a framework.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Curriculum Studies / Unrestricted

Adventure therapy employs a technique in which therapists use controlled amounts of stress to bring about change in the behavior of clients. One of the domains in which adventure therapy reports improvement is that of self-efficacy. Perceived self-efficacy is the belief that individuals have in their ability to overcome and change their situation in life. This study examines the effect of a modified adventure therapy program on the perceived self-efficacy of college students who were enrolled in an Outdoor Pursuits course at a major metropolitan university. Students received 16 weeks of outdoor adventure therapy programming that culminated in a voluntary weekend camping trip. The students were administered the General Self-Efficacy (GSE) scale on the second day of class to determine a baseline level of self-efficacy to be compared to the posttest completed on the last day of class. The study examined 3 consecutive semesters of archival data collected by the researcher while instructing the course. Fifty-six participants across the 3 semesters were usable for data analysis. The results show there is a significant difference between students' level of perceived self-efficacy from pre- to posttest, and no difference in the effect on gender, classification of students, or the participation of the student in the weekend campout. Therefore, the 16 week program improved students' perceived self-efficacy regardless of whether or not they participated in the weekend campout.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to discover some social and economic factors concerning the home background of the ninth and twelfth-grade students during their first and last years of high school; and (2) to study the physical status of these groups for the year 1949-1950, noting the development of each group in order to discover the relationship, if any, of social and economic status upon school marks of the students in the two grades.

The creation of learning outcomes inside and outside of the classroom on college campuses has been a growing trend based on a variety of publications which encouraged the fostering of diverse types learning and the measurement of student learning outside of the classroom (ACPA, 1994; Keeling, 2004). The creation of the learning outcomes is a positive step, however, assessment of the learning outcomes must be conducted to determine what students are learning and what areas are to be improved otherwise the learning outcomes are meaningless. This study was conducted at a large public research university where the Department of Housing and Residential Education had recently identified its Residential Learning Outcomes. Consequentially an assessment of the over attainment of the Residential Learning Outcomes, the impact the number of years a student resided on campus had on the attainment of the Residential Learning Outcomes and the impact the number of years a student was enrolled at the institution had on the attainment of the Residential Learning Outcomes may be useful to the university and the wider body of knowledge about residential education. Using targeted questions from the CSEQ the study found that there were significant levels of achievement for residential students for six of the seven Residential Learning Outcomes especially when isolating the Quality of Effort scales. When evaluating the number of years a student has been enrolled, however, no relationship was found.

Institutions of higher education have increased their efforts to improve retention and graduation rates by developing support services and programs targeted at specific student populations. The purpose of this descriptive case study was to describe and further understand the perspectives of students and academic coaches/administrators associated with the Academic Coaching and Career Enhancement for Student Success (ACCESS) Program at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, Florida. The program targets students who earned below a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) and were placed on academic probation. Data was collected through one-on-one interviews with previous ACCESS Program students and current ACCESS academic coaches/administrators. A document analysis was also conducted. The guiding research question for this study was: How useful, if at all, did participating students perceive the interventions of the ACCESS Program (e.g., meetings with an academic coach, tutoring, life skills workshops, meeting with a career advisor) in improving their academic performance (e.g., GPA) and why? The study also compared the perceptions of students to those of the ACCESS academic coaches/administrators about the interventions of the program and their usefulness. This study found that students and ACCESS academic coaches/administrators were most likely to find the academic coaching sessions to be the most useful intervention in helping students improve their academic performance and the academic workshops were found to be the least useful. Additionally, while there are elements of the program that can be improved, findings also suggest that those who had a positive overall experience in the program were more likely to perceive the program as useful because of the partnerships formed with their assigned academic coach/administrator/tutor/career counselor; the self-management skills they developed, such as accountability; and the academic and non-academic skills developed, such as improved writing and time management skills. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Undergraduate student leaders express increasing stress levels, often leaving them unprepared to lead in a complex world of challenge and change. While higher education heavily invests in preparing graduates to think critically and lead successfully, research shows an increasing number of students display low-stress resiliency and risk-aversion while struggling to cope with challenge and failure pre-and post-graduation. This study, conducted at faith-based Christian universities during the COVID-19 pandemic, used grounded theory to generate a generalizable leadership stress resilience model that explains: (a) Why and how undergraduate student leaders experience stress; (b)The influence of stress on student leaders at faith-based institutions; (c)The various processes and strategies student leaders employ to resolve their main concerns regarding the impact and consequences of stress; and (d) The role faith plays, if any, in how student leaders cope with stress. This study informs student leadership development for higher education professionals in the critical area of stress resilience and reveals insights into the formative role faith has on leaders, particularly the influence of faith on leadership stress coping. Three meta-themes of student leader expectations, processing student leadership stress, and the role personal authentic faith played in developing stress resilience versus an obligatory faith that compounded stress emerged. The leadership stress resilience model assists in mapping and forecasting stress to better understand the convergence and compounding effects of stress. While existing scholarship covers leadership development and leadership stress, little was previously known about the influence of stress on student leaders at faith-based institutions.

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