This study examines different factors' relative importance for students' performance in the transition to university mathematics. Students' characteristics (motivation, actions and beliefs) were measured when entering the university and at the end of the first year. Principal component analysis revealed four important constructs:…

This study investigated the interaction of disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning in a team-taught, first-year, interdisciplinary sustainability course. We surveyed (pre/post) both STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and non-STEM majors (N = 241), assessing attitudes and content knowledge. Responses were analyzed using…

This study addressed the links between first-year college students' motivations to volunteer, gender, and past volunteering practices. We surveyed 149 first-year students using items from the Volunteer Functions Inventory (Clary et al., 1998). The results of a series of one-way ANOVAs determined significant differences in motivations when…

The purpose of this study was to explore the motivational characteristics and learning behaviors affecting at-risk college students. To explore how motivation and learning behaviors are related to academic achievement, the relationships between (a) self-efficacy; (b) learning and study strategy indicators; and (c) academic outcomes were assessed.…

Idaho State University's Bengal Bridge is a summer program designed to help students successfully transition from high school to their first year of college at Idaho State University. All Bridge students at ISU take two general education courses, plus an additional credit of supplemental instruction focused on academic strategies specific to the…

Medical education reform is underway, but the optimal course for change has yet to be seen. While planning for the redesign of a renal physiology course at the Duke School of Medicine, the authors used a Q-sort survey to assess students' attitudes and learning preferences to inform curricular change. The authors invited first-year medical students…

Higher education in the United States is replete with inventories and instruments designed to help administrators to identify students who are more likely to succeed in college and to tailor the higher education experience to foster this success. One area of research involves the Holland vocational personality type (Holland 1973, 1985, 1997)…

Introduction: This study examined the predictive value of four learning-related emotions--Enjoyment, Anxiety, Boredom and Hopelessness for achievement outcomes in the first year of study at university. Method: We used a large sample (N = 2337) of first year university students enrolled over three consecutive academic years in a mathematics and…

This study explored the effects of collaborative writing instruction on undergraduate nursing students' writing performance and self-efficacy beliefs within an online learning system. A single-group experimental study utilized two instruments, the NCEEC (National College Entrance Examination Center) writing grading criteria (the SRCT) and a…

Based on a cognitive motivational process model of learning, the impact of studying behavior on learning outcome is investigated. First-year students (N = 488) participated in the study. Two research questions were addressed: (1) Can cognitive-motivational variables and objective study behavior predict individual learning? (2) Which factors drive…

Purpose: This study presents institutional research and aims to explore the underlying factors that contribute to hospitality management students' satisfaction and perceptions of service quality at a higher education college in Ireland. Research focusing on hospitality and leisure management education argues for greater cognisance of the relevance…

In order to ease the academic and social transition, to forge a solid foundation for the rest of the academic career, and to increase the likelihood that students will persist through the second year and beyond, curricula and cocurricular programs are designed to meet the needs of first-year students and facilitate learning and development.…

This study re-examined three previous studies on creativity in an attempt to address the question of whether creativity is content general or content specific. Statistical re-examinations were conducted that involved inferential statistical analyses (factor analysis and multivariate analysis) of correlation matrices representing student scores on…