Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Electronic books Languages : en Pages : 36
Book Description
Past research suggested that pre-college experiences contribute to first-generation (FG) students' belonging concerns during their transition to college. Results from an archival longitudinal survey study of freshman science majors ( N = 546) revealed that variability in on-campus experiences during the first semester, in particular, perceived science faculty support, predicted changes in the sense of belonging in the first semester. This relationship was especially stronger for FG students. Additionally, the sense of belonging measured at the first semester further significantly predicted student persistence in science at the end of sophomore year, controlling for students' expected faculty support and belonging to science measured at the beginning of their college. The findings suggest that creating an environment where incoming students can easily perceive their science faculty's intention to care and support students might be beneficial to reduce FG students' belonging concerns and support their pursuits in science.
Author: Jamia Wiley Stokes Publisher: ISBN: Category : Belonging (Social psychology) Languages : en Pages : 126
Book Description
It has been suggested that low-income, students of color, and first-generation students face major impediments to feeling like they belong on campus (Ostrove & Long, 2007). Because first-generation students come to college with a myriad of challenges that directly impact their first-year experience, understanding how best to support this population is a crucial responsibility. Sense of belonging has been shown to be related to academic achievement, retention, and persistence to degree completion for students from historically marginalized groups (Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Rhee, 2008; Strayhorn, 2008d; Walton & Cohen, 2011). The purpose of this study was to understand how first-generation students achieve a sense of belonging in the first-year of college and how their sense of belonging contributes to their persistence. The following research questions guided the study: 1) How do first-generation students achieve a sense of belonging; 2) How did their sense of belonging affect their persistence from the first to second year? Interviews were conducted with 12 first-generation students who completed their first year of college during the 2015-2016 academic year. Data were analyzed using an ongoing process that began with reviewing and coding each interview and consolidating codes recursively within and across interviews to derive the themes that addressed the research questions (Anfara, Brown, & Mangione, 2002; Corbin & Strauss, 1990). Three themes described how students tried to achieve a sense of belonging in the first year of college: (a) by building relationships with other students, faculty and staff, (2) by getting involved in activities on campus, and (3) by becoming engaged in the residence hall experience. Not all participants developed a sense of belonging, nevertheless they all persisted from the first to second year. The majority of participants (7) attributed their persistence to having achieved a sense of belonging. Four of the remaining participants, none of whom reported having achieved a sense of belonging, attributed their persistence to personal reasons and motivations; and one, who achieved a sense of belonging, felt it played no part in her persistence.
Author: George D. Kuh Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 1118046854 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 422
Book Description
Student Success in College describes policies, programs, and practices that a diverse set of institutions have used to enhance student achievement. This book clearly shows the benefits of student learning and educational effectiveness that can be realized when these conditions are present. Based on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, this book provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.
Author: Robert S. Feldman Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1316819469 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 367
Book Description
This book is premised on a very powerful social/educational concern about college retention rates: one-third of first-year students seriously consider leaving college during their first term, and only half of all students who start college ultimately graduate. This book examines the first year of college from a variety of perspectives to paint a comprehensive picture of the intersecting challenges facing today's students and higher education institutions. Technological advances, increases in college attendance costs, and increasing political pressure on colleges to prove their value have changed the landscape of the first year of college, but researchers have identified new approaches to improve student and institutional success that have shown considerable success and promise. In this comprehensive volume, top educational researchers explore topics of student success, persistence, and retention in the first year of college.
Author: Sarah H. Bang Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 104
Book Description
The first-generation student population continues to grow and yet they are still one of the most high-risk populations for college non-persistence. A promising intervention with research-based potential for combating first-generation drop-out rates in college is university-assisted schools. This study examines what first-generation students who attended a university-assisted high school say helped them persist through college. It also investigates potential ways that university-assisted high schools can better support first-generation students to persist in college. Utilizing a qualitative research design, participants were interviewed and their perceptions of experiences were coded and analyzed. This study's findings point to first-generation students from a university-assisted school creating and relying on networks to persist in college. These networks filled areas that first-generation students generally tend to lack: sense of belonging and social and cultural capital. This study also found that the traditional "deficit" model used to support first-generation students needs reframing and rethinking to change the way high schools and institutes of higher education approach supports for first-generation students.
Author: Jessia Bettencourt Wojciechowski Publisher: ISBN: Category : College freshman Languages : en Pages : 130
Book Description
This mixed methods study evaluated the perceptions, performance and retention of students participating in the inaugural year of a living-learning program designed to support the needs of underprepared students of color. A survey was distributed to 1,004 FTFT students (N = 278) taking first-year English followed by a focus group (N = 9) to further understand program participant experiences. Institutional data were used to analyze student performance and retention across three comparison groups. This student support program was designed to close the performance and persistence gap for underprepared students of color living in residence at a medium sized university in the California Central Valley. Program participants reported frequent use of professional academic advising and major advising, which had a positive effect on student performance. Utilization of support services, including the writing center, disability resources, peer mentoring, was high among program participants, a positive outcome from program participation. Results of the study indicate the program was successful in closing the gap between students participating in the program and comparable students not participating in the program. Students participating in the program reported higher rates of satisfaction with their support program compared to other students participating in programs without a residential component. Findings indicate faculty mentoring had a positive outcome on student success. Understanding program design and outcomes can inform practitioners of effective Student Affairs and Academic Affairs partnerships with positive impacts to students’ performance and decisions to persist.
Author: Melissa M. Lantta Publisher: ISBN: Category : Active learning Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
The first year of college is critical to the growth and retention of the freshman college student. Students enter college with a wide range of backgrounds, skills and dispositions and it is the responsibility of the institution to do all it can to assist students in achieving their education goals. The purpose of this mixed methods research design was to understand the perceptions of higher educational stakeholders' on what impacts student persistence from freshman to sophomore year in order to bring forth recommendations for institutional action through Tinto and Pusser's (2006) model for institutional action. The following questions guided the study: a) What differences in perception, if any, are there between higher educational stakeholders on the impact of academic advising, relationships with a faculty and/or staff member, Supplemental instruction, feedback, and active learning on student persistence from freshman to sophomore year?, b) How do faculty members perceive their impact on student persistence?, c) How do academic advisors perceive their impact on student persistence?, d) How do faculty members' and academic advisors' perceptions on student persistence align with students' perceptions of their impact on their persistence? Case study methodology was employed to explore the retention efforts at a single university through the data collection techniques of mixed methods descriptive surveys, interviews and focus group. Approximately 250 sophomores and 25 administrators, faculty and academic advisors at a four-year public university in the Midwest participated in a survey. Following the survey, 9 students and 3 faculty participated in individual interviews and 6 academic advisors and 1 administrator participated in a focus group. The results were generally consistent with Tinto and Pusser's (2006) model of institutional action. Although support and feedback are necessary retention tools, in this study, participants claimed that involvement in extra-curricular activities and active learning experiences have a greater impact on freshman to sophomore year persistence. The research concludes that in order to increase student retention, a model of institutional action should immediately connect students to extracurricular activities that fit their interests and then link the outcomes of these activities to the learning objectives in an active learning classroom environment.
Author: Jeff Davis Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1000981037 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 221
Book Description
Co-published with More first-generation students are attending college than ever before, and policy makers agree that increasing their participation in higher education is a matter of priority. Despite this, there is no agreed definition about the term, few institutions can quantify how many first-generation students are enrolled, or mistakenly conflate them with low-income students, and many important dimensions to the first-generation student experience remain poorly documented. Few institutions have in place a clear, well-articulated practice for assisting first-generation students to succeed. Given that first-generation students comprise over 40% of incoming freshmen, increasing their retention and graduation rates can dramatically increase an institution’s overall retention and graduation rates, and enhance its image and desirability. It is clearly in every institution’s self-interest to ensure its first-generation students succeed, to identify and count them, and understand how to support them. This book provides high-level administrators with a plan of action for deans to create the awareness necessary for meaningful long-term change, sets out a campus acclimation process, and provides guidelines for the necessary support structures.At the heart of the book are 14 first-person narratives – by first-generation students spanning freshman to graduate years – that help the reader get to grips with the variety of ethnic and economic categories to which they belong. The book concludes by defining 14 key issues that institutions need to address, and offers a course of action for addressing them. This book is intended for everyone who serves these students – faculty, academic advisors, counselors, student affairs professionals, admissions officers, and administrators – and offers a set of best practices for how two- and four-year institutions can improve the success of their first-generation student populations.An ACPA Publication
Author: Charnell Gilbert-Thomas Publisher: ISBN: 9780438032644 Category : Education, Higher Languages : en Pages : 166
Book Description
One-third of the entering freshman class is a first-generation college student. Prior studies show that first-generation college students are low-income, they tend to graduate in six-years, and likely to leave college after their first year. Researchers have found that high-impact practices is one way to help remedy the various challenges that first-year, first-generation students' encounter. A learning community as an example of a high-impact activity makes a positive difference for students which helps first-generation students build their identities as learners. This study examined the experiences of first-generation students about how they perceive their FLC. A basic interpretive qualitative research study was conducted which incorporated personal stories from 13 first-year, first-generation college students. To help frame this study, Sense of Belonging was used as a conceptual framework. My approach to themeing the data was generating theoretical constructs. The four themes are: (a) Writing Intensively is Reflective and Impactful; (b) Academic Support is Beneficial, Utilizing Resources, and Engaging; (c) Making Connections is Relational and Transitioning; (d) Participating is Motivation, Awareness, and Structure. Findings from this study show that students' perceptions regarding their experiences in a freshman learning community were positive. Participants mentioned how they benefited from the learning community, created a sense of community and belonging, and successfully transitioned into college. This study has important implications for expanding knowledge and informing institutional practices aimed to enhance the experiences of first-generation students enrolled in FLCs.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Undergraduate populations at colleges and universities have become increasingly diverse in recent years, and one of the greatest shifts has been the steadily increasing numbers of first generation college students (FGCS), students whose parents did not attend college. Studies of FGCS have concluded that retention is less likely for FGCS than continuing generation college students (CGCS). According to the literature, FGCS are more likely to be academically under prepared, come from low income and minority backgrounds, and be less engaged in the college experience than CGCS. In exercising this attention, many colleges and universities have developed retention strategies focusing on characteristics of FGCS that might put them at risk for not completing a degree. Initially, these contrasts between FGCS and CGCS were regarded widely as deficits of the first-generation population. In recent years, however, some institutions of higher education have shifted in their approach from an "individual deficit model" focused on the shortcomings of individual students to a deeper understanding of how institutional conditions encourage or discourage students from staying in school. This evolving emphasis includes a shift in responsibility for students' college going success -- from the individual to the institution. These contrasting and evolving ideas present a complex but incomplete picture of how colleges work or do not work for first-generation college students. This study explored the characteristics and perspectives of FGCS and the institutional conditions, policies and practices affecting first year persistence at a low persisting rural four-year university. I examined three broad questions: What are the critical characteristics of FGCS who persist past their first year at the University? What implications do these characteristics have for retaining FGCS beyond the first year of college at the institution? What implications do these attributes hold for other colleges and universities seeking to retain FGCS? Confounding results were found after analyzing demographic and academic data on FGCS; although similar to other FGCS in terms of at-risk characteristics, they were out-persisting and performing their CGCS peers. In order to understand this counterintuitive finding, institutional policies and practices were explored, and focus groups were conducted investigating the perceptions of FGCS towards college persistence. The findings suggest that the restricted focus on external attributes of students fall short in explaining FGCS persistence. This study illustrates that institutions of higher education can better support first generation college students if they make available the freedom for individuals to develop naturally, learn through experience, and engage in the formation of their purpose (based on Dewey's 1938 work). It is up to leaders in institutions of higher education and researchers to extend the focus and support beyond external attributes of first generation students and include a focus on internal characteristics, providing a more complete picture of how colleges work or do not work for them.
Author: 
Author: Jamia Wiley Stokes
Author: George D. Kuh
Author: Robert S. Feldman
Author: Sarah H. Bang
Author: Jessia Bettencourt Wojciechowski
Author: Melissa M. Lantta
Author: Jeff Davis
Author: Charnell Gilbert-Thomas
Author: