ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4
Filtering by
- All Subjects: pedagogy
- All Subjects: student retention
- Creators: Smith, Stephanie
Description
The trend of increasing mental health issues for undergraduate students is a worrisome and important topic for research in higher education. College students become the backbone of society as they graduate, start families, and enter the workforce. To increase the mental health of students on campus, many institutions have implemented university-wide interventions that ask students to engage with written or visual models. I propose that this large-scale intervention that uses a one-size-fits all narrative is leaving behind important students on campus who do not relate to the written or video narratives that are often used in these settings. My current research employed a classroom-based intervention in which students were asked to discover intergenerational narratives themselves. This mixed methods design used pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys to investigate changes in levels of resilience, belonging, and mattering among a group of college students at a university in the southwest United States. My sample was predominantly young (m = 19.4, SD = 1.2) female students (85.7%) who identified as white (54%) and in their freshman year of college (48.6%). Additional qualitative thematic analyses were performed to investigate the adherence of student narratives to restorative elements and representative quotes were pulled to elaborate on the convergence and divergence of data. Although no statistically significant differences were found, individual students reported positive change and future research is warranted.
ContributorsWhetten, Jason LaMont (Author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Stephanie (Committee member) / Dunbar, Nora (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
With increasing costs of higher education, community college pathways to baccalaureate transfer degrees are attractive student alternatives to starting at a traditional four-year institution. However, disparate student outcomes, particularly for underserved student populations, continue to be a concern when considering equitable four-year degree completion rates. Previous literature demonstrates that student satisfaction and student informational capital play key roles in the success of community college transfer students to persist to four-year institutions and attain their educational and career goals. The role of academic advising in the transfer context provides a uniquely collaborative opportunity to address factors of success and student outcomes. Via this mixed methods action research study, I utilized archival student enrollment data, a student survey, and student and advisor interviews to examine an academic advising model that I created in partnership between Cochise Community College and the University of Arizona (i.e., the Colaborativo Advising for Transfer Success Model, or CATS Advising Model), whereby I assigned a singular academic advisor (i.e., a CATS advisor) a student caseload across the two institutions in a deliberate effort to facilitate successful transfer. I used a combined framework of the Model of Student Departure, Transfer Student Capital, and Appreciative Inquiry to inform the advising intervention. I found that students who received the advising intervention were significantly more likely to a) be satisfied with their transfer advising experience, b) perceive increased transfer knowledge (capital), and c) retain through transfer and university enrollment, in comparison to their peers who received advising via a more traditional transfer advising model. Importantly, the students experiencing the advising intervention were also able to articulate their appreciation and recognition of the impact of their relationship with the CATS advisors on their transfer success.
ContributorsWieland, Sarah (Author) / Beardsley, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Stephanie (Committee member) / Urquídez, Kasandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This action research investigated the predictors of academic adjustment, as measured by grade point average in the first year and persistence to completion, as measured by graduating on time, among undergraduate students at the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, the University of Guyana, from 2018 - 2022. The experiences of students in a chosen program were also examined to provide a qualitative deep dive into the tertiary journey of undergraduate students, using the self-efficacy framework to map this journey. Multiple regression and logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the effect of age, gender, geographic location, and academic preparation on academic adjustment and persistence to completion. The models explained 15% and 13% of the variance, respectively, in academic adjustment and persistence to completion. Geographic location and academic preparation proved to be significant predictors of academic adjustment while age, gender and academic preparation increased the likelihood of persisting to completion. While qualitative findings substantiated the role of academic preparation, students also spoke of the role of peer and familial relationships, opportunities for social modeling and the design of the chosen program which largely met the parameters of social persuasion as being integral to their adjustment and subsequent completion. In keeping with the principles of action research, students participated in a seminar on self-efficacy for university and beyond. The seminar, which was well received by students, introduced them to the concept, in a format that allowed for discussion and reinforced the importance of managing physical and emotional states at university and beyond.
ContributorsConnelly, Aletha Maria (Author) / Smith, Stephanie (Thesis advisor) / Basile, Carol (Committee member) / Ross, Lydia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The physician assistant (PA) profession is lacking in diversity, both in practicing PAs and the PA student population. PA organizations, including the PA Education Association and the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the PA, have been advocating for action to address this lack of diversity, and many educational institutions have responded by innovating their recruitment and admissions strategies. Another appropriate response to address the lack of diversity in PA education would be to critically evaluate the curriculum, specifically professionalism curriculum, for inclusiveness. Professional identity formation (PIF) provides a framework for teaching professionalism that focuses on the evolving identities of medical learners (Irby & Hamstra, 2016) as influenced by their individual, relational, and collective identities (Cruess et al., 2015). However, PIF has been critiqued for lacking inclusion of sociocultural contexts (Wyatt et al., 2020). Through this mixed methods action research study, I utilized community of inquiry (CoI; Garrison et al., 1999) as a theoretical framework for creation and facilitation of a professional development workshop for PA educators aimed at evaluating academic medical journal articles focused on the topics of professionalism in medical education, PIF, and PIF experiences in underrepresented in medicine students. My goal was to increase awareness of PIF as a pedagogical framework which has the potential to alter the learning environment toward one of inclusion and belonging. Additionally, through my CoI, I further aimed to expand upon the PIF conceptual framework to include elements of intersectionality by focusing on how sociocultural factors influence student perspectives on professionalism and their PIF process. I used Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior to evaluate participants’ intention to incorporate PIF into their professionalism curricula and to prioritize sociocultural factors in their professionalism pedagogies. Using pre- and post-intervention surveys, participant interviews, and workshop session exit questions, I determined that my professional development workshop contributed to an increased likelihood of PA educators to integrate PIF and prioritize sociocultural factors into their professionalism curricula, and further, changed perspectives regarding the definition of professionalism in PA education to include an understanding and appreciation for how professionalism is influenced by a student’s sociocultural factors.
ContributorsFeirstein, Jennifer (Author) / Beardsley, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Stephanie (Committee member) / Piemonte, Nicole (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024