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 - 3 of 3
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- All Subjects: pedagogy
- Creators: Smith, Stephanie
- Creators: Brown, Andrea
Description
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.
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.
ContributorsHutchinson, Anika L (Author) / Caterino, Linda C (Thesis advisor) / Brown, Andrea (Committee member) / Sullivan, Linda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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
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