Matching Items (20)
Description
Historically, institutions of higher education focused their efforts on programs and services to support traditional students' integration (i.e., the eighteen year old who enrolls in college immediately after graduating from high school) into the college environment. Integration into the university environment contributes to student retention. Underrepresented students, specifically community college transfer students, are left out of the retention planning process. With the increase of transfer students transitioning to four-year universities, this study explored transfer students' integration experience within their initial six weeks of attendance at a receiving institution. This action research study implemented an E-Mentoring Program utilizing the social media platform, Facebook. Results from the mixed-methods study provided evidence that classroom connection interwoven with social rapport with peers, cognizance of new environment, and institutional and peer resources matter for integration within the first six weeks at HUC (a pseudonym). The information gained will be used to inform higher education administrators, student affairs practitioners, faculty, and staff as they develop relevant services, programs, and practices that intentionally support transfer students' integration.
ContributorsAska, Cassandra (Author) / Puckett, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Kleinsasser, Robert (Committee member) / Cook, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This action research study took a mixed methods approach to examine junior and senior student engagement at the honors college in the downtown campus of Arizona State University. The purpose of the study was to better understand the lack of engagement with junior and senior students within the college. The study sought to examine the usage of year specific programs and the possibility of influence on the target populations’ engagement. In addition, the study focused on understanding the usage of such programs and its ability to influence student perception of coping with transitions. The growth of honors education and the value of student engagement lead the study. Life Hacks is a series of programs designed to engage the target population by addressing an anticipated transition. This study focused on exploring junior and senior honors student engagement and the utilization of programs to address the student’s ability to cope with transitions. The program was divided into six workshops that spanned the semester and were taught by college partners who were deemed a resource on the subject matter. Two surveys were deployed: one at the beginning of the semester and the other at the end of the semester. Participants were selected based on their academic status as a junior or senior within the honors college on campus and their age rage. All participants traditionally matriculated from high school and were between the ages of 18-25. Two focus groups, with a total of eight participants (4 juniors and 4 seniors), were conducted at the end of the semester to gather qualitative data. Findings indicated that participants allowed their emotions to influence their ability to cope with transitions. Relationships with peers and staff were important to decision making processes and network building for junior and senior participants. Students within the study set expectations for the college and themselves that influence how they relate to college and their relation to adulthood. The implications of practice that resulted from the study involved improving student access to information and assisting students with understanding the need for the resource and how to apply it to their current and future challenges.
ContributorsGatewood, Kira Kevanah (Author) / Harris, Lauren (Thesis advisor) / Aska, Cassandra (Committee member) / Weatherly, Kimberly (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The purpose of this research is to explore Latina/o students' involvement at Arizona State University West and how it affects their sense of belonging, and thereby, their retention. I operationalize a "sense of belonging" as being able to express and feel comfortable with one's ethnic identity in the context of a higher education institution (Hurtado, 1997). I operationalize student involvement by the extent to which an individual student is devoted to their academic experience, invests time studying on campus, participates in student organizations, and interacts with faculty and their peers (Astin, 1984). I draw from Astin's theory of student involvement and Hurtado's sense of belonging as a base for this inquiry because they are critical components to understanding retention among the Latino/a community at Arizona State University West.
ContributorsGuerra, Luis D. (Author) / Cuadraz, Gloria (Thesis director) / Aska, Cassandra (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Collaborative learning is a potential technique for teachers to use to meet the diverse learning needs of the students in their classrooms. Previous studies have investigated the contexts in which the benefits of collaborative learning show greater presence. The most important factor found was the quality of the interactions. Studies have suggested that high achieving students are capable of improving the quality of interactions. This bears the question if prior knowledge plays an influence in the learning outcome of students in collaborative learning. Results show that high prior knowledge students do not face a detriment in having low prior knowledge students as a partner comparing to having another high prior knowledge student and that low prior knowledge students show significantly higher learning outcome when partnered with a high prior knowledge partner than with another low prior knowledge student. It is therefore likely that having a high prior knowledge student within a dyad improves the quality of interaction, resulting in greater learning outcome through collaborative learning.
ContributorsKeyvani, Kewmars (Author) / Chi, Michelene (Thesis director) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Education plays a key role throughout many different fields of study. My question has to do with not what we are learning, but how we are learning it, therefore focusing more on the teaching and instructional design aspect of the learning process. Specifically, the goal of my thesis is to theoretically define collaborative learning and develop a framework that demonstrates how collaboration and interactivity can be successfully implemented in a language learning classroom. Language learning is essential in schools because it enables students to be culturally aware. According to the Modern Language Teachers' Association of South Australia, language learning plays a significant role in 21st Century learning. It assists students in being more community engaged as well as culturally diverse. They state that "knowing additional languages and cultures involves connecting, engaging, and interacting with others and negotiating boundaries based on diverse ways of understanding the world." (MLTASA) Collaboration can be very beneficial in the human learning process. According to Webb, students that collaborate with each other engage in challenging conversations and produce joint solutions whereas students that don't collaborate engage in conversation about practical rather than abstract matters (Webb, 2009). The success of collaboration is defined by the content of the dialog, groups won't necessarily engage in beneficial dialogue without help and facilitation by the teacher. It's important for teachers to keep groups on task and monitor their progress throughout the lesson. Through collaborative learning the student is able to take more from the lesson and view each concept from an alternate perspective. With teacher facilitated group discussions, students preform knowledge construction and challenge individual thoughts in order to come up with a joint solution that's takes everyone's point of view into perspective (Nastasi, 1999). Many researchers have concluded that collaborative learning, is a very beneficial learning method when it comes to challenging thoughts and concepts between students. Because each individual has a different thought process and ideas, each student brings a different concept that can be challenged and discussed among the group. Many researchers have previously studied the benefits of collaborative learning as well as the teacher's role in correctly facilitating and implementing it. Webb, highlights the importance of teachers actively pushing students to collaborate and challenge ideas. She states "In classrooms in which teachers pushed students to make explicit the steps in their mental processes (whether students' answers and strategies were correct or incorrect), collaborative groups engaged in frequent explaining and provided explanations that were correct and complete" (Webb, 2009, pg.18). Similarly, researchers such as Rijkje Dekker and Marianne Elshout-Mohr argue that collaboration in classrooms is especially important in terms of the type of work that is assigned. Assignments that require collaboration generally go more in depth and are considered more challenging than those given in individual assignments "Collaborative learning tasks are in general designed as complex, challenging and authentic problems. Such problems motivate students to attempt different strategies and co-construct and justify solutions" (Elshout-Mohr and Dekker, 2000, pg.40). Collaboration in language learning classrooms is beneficial and quite easy to implement (Elshout-Mohr and Dekker, 2000).
ContributorsAhmad, Nshwah Khalil (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis director) / Li, Na (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The quality of support provided to students in higher education can have a powerful impact on the student’s experience, their perceptions of challenges, and their overall academic success, particularly retaining in and completing their degree. Though many universities create robust services to support undergraduate students, existing literature and efforts by universities may be lacking when it comes to doctoral student support. The purpose of this action research, mixed methods study was to evaluate academic support to first year doctoral students in the School of Life Sciences (SOLS) at Arizona State University, specifically addressing the following concepts related to their doctoral study: development of self-efficacy, awareness of requirements and policies, and sense of belonging. With Communities of Practice and self-efficacy theory providing a framework for this study, first year doctoral students in SOLS were invited to participate in a twelve-week, two-condition study during their first semester. The two-condition study involved a Personal Support and a Social Support condition, wherein Personal Support participants (n=8) received 1:1 academic advising and biweekly newsletters, while Social Support participants (n=14) engaged in biweekly advising sessions within groups of 3-6 students and an academic advisor. Results suggest Social Support significantly impacted SOLS doctoral student self-efficacy scores (z = -1.96, p = .05), it created an avenue for students to cultivate community with doctoral student peers thus benefiting sense of belonging, and collaborating with peers influenced awareness to the point of Social Support participants becoming a resource for other students not participating in the study. In contrast, Personal Support appeared to have less of an impact on self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and awareness. For students with vulnerable needs to disclose, Personal Support has the potential to reinforce self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and awareness, but the impacts are nominal otherwise. Furthermore, by the end of their first academic year Social Support participants had retained their self-efficacy and sense of belonging scores. Ultimately, the findings suggest the need for reevaluating how doctoral students are supported in and outside SOLS, with a specific discussion about incorporating Social Support as a permanent model for academic support.
ContributorsFranse, Kylie Rae (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis advisor) / Vogel, Joanne (Thesis advisor) / Farmer-Thompson, Antoinette (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
As an administrator, it is essential to understand the varying theoretical perspectives and frameworks surrounding leadership and organizational development that support employee and student success. After conducting the first two cycles of action research, it was confirmed that there was a need for an intentional focus on the employees’ experience and their professional development. This focus led to administering a distance mentoring program for higher education administrators. The distance mentoring program was a mixed-methods action research project that ran a total of eight weeks with an orientation, mentoring sessions and individual activities during the first five weeks, and individual interviews three weeks following the intervention. There were eight participants in the study who were paired into four groups of two in order to foster a mentoring relationship using the “other” mentoring model. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of the distance mentoring program with respect to increasing educational outcomes, innovation, job satisfaction, productivity, and strategic action planning for higher education professionals. The distance mentoring program was successful in generating innovative thoughts relevant to the participant’s workplace challenge, increasing job satisfaction, stimulating better solutions for strategic action planning, and creating in a positive impact on the mentoring relationship. Results surrounding productivity were mixed and inconclusive. The implementation of the distance mentoring program was designed to initiate dialogue, brainstorming, planning, and supportive measures by each participant and delivered the social and strategic elements necessary to achieve a more positive, productive, and successful work environment.
ContributorsScott, Kristina (Author) / Ott, Molly (Thesis advisor) / Aska, Cassandra (Committee member) / Maxwell, Tanisha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This research aimed to analyze and ultimately understand the relationship between the four dimensions of the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) 2.0 (optimism, innovation, discomfort, and insecurity) when compared to self-efficacy and learning. The experiment design was a one-group pretest-posttest where a participant’s TRI 2.0 acted as a subject variable. This information was then correlated to changes in self-efficacy and content mastery (learning) from pre-/post-test scores pertaining to Google Sheets functions for introductory statistics. In-between the pre- and post-tests, a learning activity was presented which asked participants to analyze quantitative statistics using Google Sheets. Findings of this research demonstrated a statistically insignificant relationship between technology readiness and self-efficacy or learning. Alternatively, significance was observed in changes from pre- to post-test scores for both learning and self-efficacy where a relationship was found between the degree to which participants’ content mastery and self-efficacy change before and after a computer-supported learning activity is assigned. These findings directly contribute to current understanding of how and why individuals can effectively learn and perform in computer-supported learning environments.
ContributorsCervantes Villa, Sabrina Marie (Author) / Craig, Scotty D. (Thesis advisor) / Donner, Jodie (Committee member) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This three-paper dissertation explores the ways in which the skills, dispositions, tools, social norms, and ways of knowing associated with maker practices and design theory illuminate opportunities and challenges for changing education systems. Making and design are unique in that they provide alternative visions for the central aims of schooling as well as a novel set of approaches for the realization of such visions. This duality is explored at three organizational scales: student experience, educator practice, and school leadership. The findings of these investigations highlight major barriers to creating and sustaining innovative education systems while also suggesting ways that these barriers may be overcome. The first paper, which details a qualitative study of 27 young adult makers and their parents, suggests that even strong proponents of maker-based education are bound by the institutional logics of formal education and have a hard time imagining how making could be integrated into school. The second paper documents a design-based research study, in which 20 preservice teachers in an integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education course show that their current training emphasizes the delivery standards-based content over the design of student-centered learning experiences. These studies prompted and shaped the development of a theoretically grounded, design-based conceptual model, detailed in the third paper, which aims to help multi-stakeholder design teams more rigorously imagine new futures for existing schools using generative, participatory prototyping activities.
ContributorsWeiner, Steven (Author) / Jordan, Shawn S (Thesis advisor) / Lande, Micah (Committee member) / Mishra, Punya (Committee member) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Images are ubiquitous in communicating complex information about the future. From political messages to extreme weather warnings, they generate understanding, incite action, and inform expectations with real impact today. The future has come into sharp focus in recent years. Issues like climate change, gene editing, and smart cities are pushing policy makers, scientists, and designers to rethink how society plans and prepares for tomorrow. While academic and practice communities have increasingly turned their gaze toward the future, little attention is paid to how it is depicted and even less to the role visualization technologies play in depicting it. Visualization technologies are those that transform non-visual information into 2D or 3D imagery and generate depictions of certain phenomena, real or perceived. This research helps to fill this gap by examining the role visualization technologies play in how individuals know and make decisions about the future.
This study draws from three phases of research set in the context of urban development, where images of the future are generated by architects and circulated by built environment professionals to affect client and public decision-making. I begin with a systematic review of professional design literature to identify norms related to visualization. I then conduct in-depth interviews with expert architects to draw out how visualization technologies are used to influence client decision-making. I dive into how different tools manage the future and generate different forms of certainty, uncertainty, persuasion, and risk. Complementing the review and interviews is a case study on ASU at Mesa City Center, a development project aimed at revitalizing downtown Mesa, Arizona. Analysis highlights how project-specific visual tools affect decision-making and the role that client imagination and inference play in understanding and preference. This research unpacks the social, technical, and emotional knowledge embedded in visualization technologies and reveals how they affect decision-making. Information about the future is uniquely mediated by each technology with decision-making bound up in larger sociopolitical processes aimed at reducing uncertainty, building trust, and managing expectations. This suggests that the visual tools we use to depict the future are much more dynamic and influential than they are given credit for.
This study draws from three phases of research set in the context of urban development, where images of the future are generated by architects and circulated by built environment professionals to affect client and public decision-making. I begin with a systematic review of professional design literature to identify norms related to visualization. I then conduct in-depth interviews with expert architects to draw out how visualization technologies are used to influence client decision-making. I dive into how different tools manage the future and generate different forms of certainty, uncertainty, persuasion, and risk. Complementing the review and interviews is a case study on ASU at Mesa City Center, a development project aimed at revitalizing downtown Mesa, Arizona. Analysis highlights how project-specific visual tools affect decision-making and the role that client imagination and inference play in understanding and preference. This research unpacks the social, technical, and emotional knowledge embedded in visualization technologies and reveals how they affect decision-making. Information about the future is uniquely mediated by each technology with decision-making bound up in larger sociopolitical processes aimed at reducing uncertainty, building trust, and managing expectations. This suggests that the visual tools we use to depict the future are much more dynamic and influential than they are given credit for.
ContributorsSelkirk, Kaethe (Author) / Selin, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019