The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of "discontinued enrollment" for military veteran students at western Virginia community colleges. The theory guiding this study was Schlossberg's (1981) transition theory, as the military veteran students were in transition from the military to the community…

The importance of quality instruction in motivating students in higher education cannot be overemphasized. Without quality instruction, students' motivation to learn recedes. Five focus groups of graduate students aided the data collection for this study. More than one-third of the 119 participating graduate students involved in this study claimed…

Interest in the effect of positive and negative emotions in foreign language acquisition has soared recently because of the positive psychology movement (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014, 2016; MacIntyre, Gregersen & Mercer, 2016). No work so far has been carried out on the differential effect of positive and negative emotions on foreign language…

The number of nontraditional students enrolled in higher education is rising, but retention of these students is a challenge. This study used a qualitative framework to examine the experiences of nontraditional undergraduate students in a university setting. Nine participants completed open-ended questionnaires, and we transcribed and coded the…

Acting as the lead agency for the "National STEM Consortium" (NSC), Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) engaged Hezel Associates to provide an independent program and impact evaluation of the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL)-funded STEM certificate initiative. This report is comprehensive and covers the findings from all 4 years of the…

As access to higher education has continuously risen throughout the second half of the twentieth century, community college student success has not kept pace. Within this climate, institutions look to cost-effective initiatives and programs to encourage student success in order to produce more certificate and degree earners. While many first-year…

Context: Student motivation has been linked to persistence until graduation for athletic training students. There is little research, however on ways athletic training programs (ATPs) foster student motivation. Objective: To expand upon the existing literature regarding retention of students in ATPs, specifically examining the concept of student…

This paper reports on the metaphors that 36 third-year university mathematics education students have about mathematics. These metaphors were investigated through a questionnaire with five open-ended items. An inductive analysis of the students' metaphors for mathematics indicated that students had well developed and complex metaphors about…

Students' perceptions during their first semester at university may be critical in the decision to continue or discontinue studies. In this study we consider students' perceptions of what factors enable successful transition to university. Using qualitative research, students' perceptions are obtained by in-depth interviews and focus groups that…

Academic intensity or academic rigor of students' high school curriculum is positively related to several college outcomes including the avoidance of remediation and graduation attainment. However, research on academic rigor has been limited possibly due to the difficulty in obtaining a quantitative measure applicable across schools and districts.…

This paper reports on early findings from a pilot study into student retention beyond Year 10. Located in rural, regional and disadvantaged communities in Tasmania, the research has implications at State, national and international levels. It is being funded by a nationally competitive Australian Research Council Linkage grant and the Tasmanian…

According to the American Association of Community Colleges (2010), more than 40% of all African American students enrolled in postsecondary education are enrolled in two-year colleges. A review of the literature indicated that improving persistence and completion rates for African American students is a challenge that two-year colleges face. This…

In an effort to better understand the factors associated with college persistence and attrition, the Survey Research Center at Princeton University, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is conducting the College Student Attrition Project. As part of that project, Mathematica Policy Research conducted the College Experiences Survey.…

This paper reports the strategies used to track and follow 3,828 Alaska Native and American Indian study participants in the city of Anchorage and more rural areas of Alaska and provides characteristics of respondents and non-respondents. Over 88% were successfully followed-up, with 49% of respondents completed in three or fewer attempts.…

As part of an ESRC-funded longitudinal study, "Student Experiences of University Mathematics," we followed a cohort of undergraduate mathematics students at two traditional universities with high ratings for research and teaching. This report centres on interpretations of successful students' engagement with their course as gleaned from in-depth…