This study explores three understudied facets--quadratic effects, change over time, and gender as a moderator--of the otherwise well-documented relationships between statistics anxiety and academic performance. Using pre- and post- course survey data among a sample of 111 undergraduate students in Social Statistics courses at a U.S. Midwestern…

Racial/cultural awareness workshops constitute a salient form of co-curricular diversity engagement in higher education. Although these workshops are generally quite short in duration (often no more than two hours), previous research suggests that workshop participation is associated with undergraduate civic growth. The current study uses…

In higher education, many of the new teaching interventions are introduced in the format of audio-visual files distributed through the Internet. A pedagogical tool consisting of questions listed as learning objectives and answers presented using online videos was designed as a supplement for a molecular biology course and made available to a large…

Empirical studies of personality traits in creative writers have demonstrated mixed findings, perhaps due to issues of sampling, measurement, and the reporting of statistical information. The goal of this study is to quantify the personality structure of aspiring creative writers according to a modern hierarchal model of trait personality. A…

Do undergraduates whose native language is not English have writing deficiencies leading to academic struggles? The present study showed that the answer to this question was "no" at an American West Coast public university. This university's nonresident undergraduates on average earned B- to B+ in their colleges' English…

As more undergraduates have taken out loans to attend college, the number of borrowers who fail to repay their student loans has increased. While previous research has focused on students' likelihood to default, this study employed institutional cohort default rates (CDRs) as an outcome variable. Using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data…

This study examined the effects of differential grading in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM fields over eight consecutive semesters. Using data from 62,122 students at 26 four-year postsecondary institutions, students were subdivided by institutional admission selectivity levels, gender, and student major…

Imagery training has been shown to improve reading comprehension. Recent research has also shown that the quality of visual mental imagery used is important for reading comprehension. A review of literature shows that there has been relatively little detailed research on the quality of imagery used by learners, especially in the case of students…

This dissertation examines the relationship between an instructional style called Interactive-Engagement (IE) and gains on a measure of conceptual knowledge called the Calculus Concept Inventory (CCI). The data comes from two semesters of introductory calculus courses (Fall 2010 and Spring 2011), consisting of a total of 482 students from the…