Knowledge and stewardship are essential factors in developing perceptions of the environment. This research determines if gaps in environmental knowledge and concern exist between genders as well as students majoring in science and those seeking non-science degrees. Approximately 1,229 first-year university students participated in this study.…

In seeking to close equity gaps within a first-year student seminar course, course designers leveraged emerging research on intrapersonal competency cultivation, known to significantly predict student success across diverse students (NAS, 2018). After re-designing the course to intentionally cultivate specific intrapersonal competencies,…

Clustering, a prevalent class of machine learning (ML) algorithms used in data mining and pattern-finding--has increasingly helped engineering education researchers and educators see and understand assessment patterns at scale. However, a challenge remains to make ML-enabled educational inferences that are useful and reliable for research or…

Conceptual physical education (CPE) courses play a critical role in promoting physical activity (PA) among students in American higher education settings. To date, however, very limited knowledge is available about the effectiveness of such courses. Aims: The primary purpose of the study was to examine effects of a CPE course on altering freshmen…

The demands and pressures during the first study year at university are likely to arouse a variety of emotions among students. Nevertheless, there are very few studies on the role of emotions in successful studying during the transition phase. The present study adopts a person-oriented and mixed-method approach to explore, first, the emotions…

Our study focused on describing first-year university students' motivational profiles and examining differences in academic achievement based on these profiles. Data on academic motivation of 755 students in the field of mathematics and natural sciences were collected before the start of their bachelor's degree program; data on GPA were collected…

This study extends a line of research focused on motivational factors that contribute to first-year students' reasons for engaging in service-learning. Among first-year students, altruistically-motivated students (Christensen, Stritch, Kellough, & Brewer, 2015) and minority students (Pearl & Christensen, 2016) were not only more…

Research in Science Education has shown that often students need to learn how to identify differences and similarities between descriptive and explicative models. The development and use of explicative skills in the field of thermal science has always been a difficult objective to reach. A way to develop analogical reasoning is to use in Science…

The authors present and empirically test a multivariate model of the use of mental health counseling services. Use of such services by 1st-year college students is directly a result of need for these services and willingness to use them. Beliefs about mental health services and demographic characteristics are not directly related to use, but…

Purpose: Conceptual physical education (CPE) classes have been widely offered to promote a healthy lifestyle in higher education settings. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a CPE course on health-related fitness (HRF) levels among college freshmen. Design/methodology/approach: A pre- and post-test research design was used. In…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether, and how, electricity consumption by students in university residence halls were impacted through three intervention strategies. Design/methodology/approach: The current investigation uses a quasi-experimental design by exposing freshman students in four matched residence halls and the…

As universities worldwide rapidly internationalise, higher education classrooms have become unique spaces for collaboration between students from different countries. One common way to encourage collaboration between diverse peers is through group work. However, previous research has highlighted that cross-cultural group work can be challenging…

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:…

Item analysis is essential in improving items which will be used again in later tests; it can also be used to eliminate misleading items in a test. The study focused on item and test quality and explored the relationship between difficulty index (p-value) and discrimination index (DI) with distractor efficiency (DE). The study was conducted among…

Drugging victimization is an understudied phenomenon. This study examines the relationship between the campus party culture and drugging victimization. Campus party culture has been shown to influence risk of other types of victimization, and there is reason to believe it may also influence drugging victimization. Using three behavioral indicators…