698 resultados para Academic students
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<p>Empirical studies of education programs and systems, by nature, rely upon use of student outcomes that are measurable. Often, these come in the form of test scores. However, in light of growing evidence about the long-run importance of other student skills and behaviors, the time has come for a broader approach to evaluating education. This dissertation undertakes experimental, quasi-experimental, and descriptive analyses to examine social, behavioral, and health-related mechanisms of the educational process. My overarching research question is simply, which inside- and outside-the-classroom features of schools and educational interventions are most beneficial to students in the long term? Furthermore, how can we apply this evidence toward informing policy that could effectively reduce stark social, educational, and economic inequalities?</p><p>The first study of three assesses mechanisms by which the Fast Track project, a randomized intervention in the early 1990s for high-risk children in four communities (Durham, NC; Nashville, TN; rural PA; and Seattle, WA), reduced delinquency, arrests, and health and mental health service utilization in adolescence through young adulthood (ages 12-20). A decomposition of treatment effects indicates that about a third of Fast Tracks impact on later crime outcomes can be accounted for by improvements in social and self-regulation skills during childhood (ages 6-11), such as prosocial behavior, emotion regulation and problem solving. These skills proved less valuable for the prevention of mental and physical health problems.</p><p>The second study contributes new evidence on how non-instructional investments such as increased spending on school social workers, guidance counselors, and health services affect multiple aspects of student performance and well-being. Merging several administrative data sources spanning the 1996-2013 school years in North Carolina, I use an instrumental variables approach to estimate the extent to which local expenditure shifts affect students academic and behavioral outcomes. My findings indicate that exogenous increases in spending on non-instructional services not only reduce student absenteeism and disciplinary problems (important predictors of long-term outcomes) but also significantly raise student achievement, in similar magnitude to corresponding increases in instructional spending. Furthermore, subgroup analyses suggest that investments in student support personnel such as social workers, health services, and guidance counselors, in schools with concentrated low-income student populations could go a long way toward closing socioeconomic achievement gaps.</p><p>The third study examines individual pathways that lead to high school graduation or dropout. It employs a variety of machine learning techniques, including decision trees, random forests with bagging and boosting, and support vector machines, to predict student dropout using longitudinal administrative data from North Carolina. I consider a large set of predictor measures from grades three through eight including academic achievement, behavioral indicators, and background characteristics. My findings indicate that the most important predictors include eighth grade absences, math scores, and age-for-grade as well as early reading scores. Support vector classification (with a high cost parameter and low gamma parameter) predicts high school dropout with the highest overall validity in the testing dataset at 90.1 percent followed by decision trees with boosting and interaction terms at 89.5 percent.</p>
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For the past several years, U.S. colleges and universities have faced increased pressure to improve retention and graduation rates. At the same time, educational institutions have placed a greater emphasis on the importance of enrolling more students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs and producing more STEM graduates. The resulting problem faced by educators involves finding new ways to support the success of STEM majors, regardless of their pre-college academic preparation. The purpose of my research study involved utilizing first-year STEM majors math SAT scores, unweighted high school GPA, math placement test scores, and the highest level of math taken in high school to develop models for predicting those who were likely to pass their first math and science courses. In doing so, the study aimed to provide a strategy to address the challenge of improving the passing rates of those first-year students attempting STEM-related courses. The study sample included 1018 first-year STEM majors who had entered the same large, public, urban, Hispanic-serving, research university in the Southeastern U.S. between 2010 and 2012. The research design involved the use of hierarchical logistic regression to determine the significance of utilizing the four independent variables to develop models for predicting success in math and science. The resulting data indicated that the overall model of predictors (which included all four predictor variables) was statistically significant for predicting those students who passed their first math course and for predicting those students who passed their first science course. Individually, all four predictor variables were found to be statistically significant for predicting those who had passed math, with the unweighted high school GPA and the highest math taken in high school accounting for the largest amount of unique variance. Those two variables also improved the regression models percentage of correctly predicting that dependent variable. The only variable that was found to be statistically significant for predicting those who had passed science was the students unweighted high school GPA. Overall, the results of my study have been offered as my contribution to the literature on predicting first-year student success, especially within the STEM disciplines.
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The present study examines how mothering and fathering impact child academic outcomes in divorced and intact families, and if there are unique influences of mothering and fathering variables for sons and daughters. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,714 university students from Florida International University (n=1371) and Florida State University (n=343) responded to measures on a questionnaire that included the Nurturant Fathering and Mothering Scales (Finley & Schwartz, 2004; Schwartz & Finley, 2005; Finley & Schwartz, 2006), the Mother and Father Involvement Scales (Finley, Mira, & Schwartz, 2008), demographic measures, and academic outcome measures. In intact families, mothering and fathering variables were significantly correlated with each other, and positively correlated with child academic outcomes including grades, GPA, academic satisfaction, and academic importance. In divorced families, mothering and fathering variables were not correlated with each other. Furthermore, when analyzing divorced families, significant effects were found for both parent and child gender. Mothering variables were found to have the greatest positive impact for sons academic outcomes. Maternal nurturance and maternal involvement were correlated positively with academic outcomes for sons from divorced families and accounted for 3-4% of the unique variance explained. Consistently, desired mother involvement, how much involvement the child wished they had received, was negatively correlated with academic outcomes for sons from divorced families and accounted for 10-15% of the unique variance explained. This means that when the amount of maternal involvement that sons in divorced families received matched or exceeded their desired level of involvement, sons had more positive academic outcomes including grades, GPA, satisfaction with academics and academic importance. This suggests that in intact family forms, nurturant and involved mothering and fathering have a positive effect on academic outcomes for sons and daughters. In divorced family forms, the effects of fathering on child academic outcomes were not significant. Therefore, in divorced families, the positive effects fathering on academic outcomes of sons and daughters drop out, and mothers are uniquely important for sons academic success.
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The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of underprepared college students who had participated in learning communities and who persisted to complete developmental classes and earned at least 30 college-level credit hours to graduate and the perceptions of their peers who had dropped out of college. The theories posed by Tinto, Astin, and Freire formed the framework for this case study. The 22 participants were graduates or transfer students now attending a public university, currently-enrolled sophomores, and students no longer enrolled at the time of the study. Semi-structured individual interviews and a group interview provided narrative data which were transcribed, coded, and analyzed to gain insights into the experiences and perspectives of the participants. The group interview provided a form of member checking to increase accuracy in interpreting themes. A peer reviewer provided feedback on the researchers data analysis procedures. The analysis yielded four themes and 14 sub-themes which captured the essence of the participants experiences. The pre-college characteristics/traits theme described the students internal values and attributes acquired prior to college. The external college support/community influence theme described the encouragement to attend college the students received from family, friends, and high school teachers. The social involvement theme described the students participation in campus activities and their interactions with other members of the campus. The academic integration theme described students use of campus resources and their contacts with the faculty. The persisters reported strong family and peer support, a sense of responsibility, appreciation for dedicated and caring faculty, and a belief that an education can be a liberatory means to achieve their goals. The non-persisters did not report having the same sense of purpose, goal orientation, determination, obligation to meet family expectations, peer support, campus involvement, positive faculty experiences, and time management skills. The researcher offers an emerging model for understanding factors associated with persistence and three recommendations for enhancing the academic experience of underprepared college students: (a) include a critical pedagogy perspective in coursework where possible, (b) integrate co-curricular activities with the academic disciplines, and (c) increase student-faculty interaction.
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This study describes recent high school graduates perceptions about their use of technology for educational purposes outside the classroom. Graduates were asked a series of questions on how they used technology outside of the classroom. The questions focused on what technology resources helped academic achievement throughout their high school experience.
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Background: Academic integrity (AI) has been defined as the commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility with courage in all academic endeavours. The senior years of nursing studies provide an intersection for students to transition to professional roles through student clinical practice. It is essential to understand what predicts senior nursing students intention to behave with AI so that efforts can be directed to initiatives focused on strengthening their commitment to behaving with AI. Research Questions: To what extent do students differ on Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) variables? What predicts intention to behave with academic integrity among senior nursing students in clinical practice across three different Canadian Schools of Nursing? Method: The TPB framework, an elicitation (n=30) and two pilot studies (n=59, n=29) resulted in the development of a 38 question (41-item) self-report survey (Miron Academic Integrity Nursing SurveyMAINS: >0.70) that was administered to Year 3 and 4 students (N=339). Three predictor variables (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control) were measured with students intention to behave with AI in clinical. Age, sex, year of study, program stream, students understanding of AI policies, and locations where students accessed AI information were also measured. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that background, site, and TPB variables explained 32.6% of the variance in intention to behave with academic integrity. The TPB variables explained 26.8% of the variance in intention after controlling for background and site variables. In the final model, only the TPB predictor variables were statistically significant with Attitude having the highest beta value (beta=0.35, p<0.001), followed by Subjective Norm (beta=0.21, p<0.001) and Perceived Behavioural Control (beta=0.12, p<0.02). Conclusion: Student attitude is the strongest predictor to intention to behave with AI in clinical practice and efforts to positively influence students attitudes need to be a focus for schools, curricula, and clinical educators. Opportunities for future research should include replicating the current study with students enrolled in other professional programs and intervention studies that examine the effectiveness of specific endeavours to promote AI in practice.
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This study examines how one secondary school teachers use of purposeful oral mathematics language impacted her students language use and overall communication in written solutions while working with word problems in a grade nine academic mathematics class. Mathematics is often described as a distinct language. As with all languages, students must develop a sense for oral language before developing social practices such as listening, respecting others ideas, and writing. Effective writing is often seen by students that have strong oral language skills. Classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and collected student work served as evidence to demonstrate the nature of both the teachers and the students use of oral mathematical language in the classroom, as well as the effect the discourse and language use had on students individual written solutions while working on word problems. Inductive coding for themes revealed that the teachers purposeful use of oral mathematical language had a positive impact on students written solutions. The teachers development of a mathematical discourse community created a space for the students to explore mathematical language and concepts that facilitated a deeper level of conceptual understanding of the learned material. The teachers oral language appeared to transfer into students written work albeit not with the same complexity of use of the teachers oral expression of the mathematical register. Students that learn mathematical language and concepts better appear to have a growth mindset, feel they have ownership over their learning, use reorganizational strategies, and help develop a discourse community.
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This paper focuses on two basic issues: the anxiety-generating nature of the interpreting task and the relevance of interpreter trainees academic self-concept. The first has already been acknowledged, although not extensively researched, in several papers, and the second has only been mentioned briefly in interpreting literature. This study seeks to examine the relationship between the anxiety and academic self-concept constructs among interpreter trainees. An adapted version of the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986), the Academic Autoconcept Scale (Schmidt, Messoulam & Molina, 2008) and a background information questionnaire were used to collect data. Students t-Test analysis results indicated that female students reported experiencing significantly higher levels of anxiety than male students. No significant gender difference in self-concept levels was found. Correlation analysis results suggested, on the one hand, that younger would-be interpreters suffered from higher anxiety levels and students with higher marks tended to have lower anxiety levels; and, on the other hand, that younger students had lower self-concept levels and higher-ability students held higher self-concept levels. In addition, the results revealed that students with higher anxiety levels tended to have lower self-concept levels. Based on these findings, recommendations for interpreting pedagogy are discussed.
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Introduction <br/>This paper reports to an exercise in evaluating poster group work and poster presentation and the extra learning and skill acquisition that this can provide to nursing students, through a creative and stimulating assessment method. Much had been written about the benefits of using posters as an assessment method, yet there appears to be a lack of research that captures the student experience. <br/>Aim<br/>This evaluative study sought to evaluate the student experience by using a triangulation approach to evaluation:<br/>Methodology<br/>All students from the February 2015 nursing intake, were eligible to take part (80 students) of which 71 participated (n=71). The poster group presentations took place at the end of their first phase of year one teaching and the evaluation took place at the end of their first year as undergraduate. Evaluation involved;<br/>1. Quantitative data by questionnaires<br/>2. Qualitative data from focus group discussions<br/>Results<br/>A number of key themes emerged from analysis of the data which captured the added value of learning from the process of poster assessment including:<br/> Professionalism: developing time keeping skills, presenting skills.<br/> Academic skills: developing literature search, critic and reporting<br/> Team building and collaboration<br/>Overall 88% agreed that the process furnished them with additional skills and benefits above the actual production of the poster, with 97% agreeing that these additional skills are important skills for a nurse. <br/>Conclusion<br/>These results would suggest that the process of poster development and presentation furnish student nurses with many additional skills that they may not acquire through other types of assessment and are therefore beneficial. The structure of the assessment encourages a self-directed approach so students take control of the goals and purposes of learning. The sequential organization of the assessment guides students in the transition from dependent to self-directed learners. <br/><br/><br/>
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Much of the current literature relating to international students at university level tends to highlight their experiences from a deficit perspective and in some cases even problematises the experience for the student and university. Other studies tend to focus on recruitment and motivation rather than the lived experiences of the student, thereby providing little assistance to guide the student, academic and host university in their preparation for, and working with, the international student. International students choose to study in the United Kingdom for a variety of positive reasons. However, these factors have the potential to become stressors as the student makes the transition to studying in a foreign country. Rather than viewing these stressors from a negative perspective, this literature review identifies how, with planning, support and understanding, universities can provide and develop a positive experience for all concerned.
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Although business simulations are widely used in management education, there is no consensus about how to optimise their application. Our research explores the use of business simulations as a dimension of a blended learning pedagogic approach for undergraduate business education. Accepting that few best-practice prescriptive models for the design and implementation of simulations in this context have been presented, and that there is little empirical evidence for the claims made by proponents of such models, we address the lacuna by considering business student perspectives on the use of simulations. We then intersect available data with espoused positive outcomes made by the authors of a prescriptive model. We find the model to be essentially robust and offer evidence to support this position. In so doing we provide one of the few empirically based studies to support claims made by proponents of simulations in business education. The research should prove valuable for those with an academic interest in the use of simulations, either as a blended learning dimension or as a stand-alone business education activity. Further, the findings contribute to the academic debate surrounding the use and efficacy of simulation-based training [SBT] within business and management education.
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Lkehoidon turvallinen toteuttaminen edellytt sairaanhoitajalta hyv lkehoidon osaamisperustaa. Sairaanhoitajakoulutuksen tehtvn on mahdollistaa tmn osaamisen kehittyminen. Kansainvlisiss tutkimuksissa on kuitenkin osoitettu, ett lkehoidon opetuksen laajuudessa, sisllss ja toteutuksessa on vaihtelevuutta. Aikaisemmissa tutkimuksissa on raportoitu mys puutteita lkehoidon osaamisessa sek sairaanhoitajilla ett sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoilla. Koulutuksen ja lkehoidon osaamisen kehittmiseksi lkehoidon opetuksen ja sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoiden lkehoidon osaamisen monipuolinen arviointi ja osaamista selittvien tekijiden tarkastelu on tarpeen. Tmn tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli i) arvioida lkehoidon opetusta suomalaisessa sairaanhoitajakoulutuksessa, ii) arvioida sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoiden lkehoidon osaamista sek iii) tunnistaa sairaanhoitajaopiskelijan lkehoidon osaamiseen yhteydess olevat tekijt. Tutkimus toteutettiin kolmessa vaiheessa. Ensimmisess vaiheessa kahden integroidun kirjallisuuskatsauksen kautta mriteltiin tutkimuksen kohteena oleva sairaanhoitajan lkehoidon osaaminen ja aiemmin tunnistetut sairaanhoitajaopiskelijan lkehoidon osaamiseen yhteydess olevat tekijt. Toisessa vaiheessa toteutettiin valtakunnallinen lkehoidon opetukseen liittyv kysely hoitotyn koulutusohjelmasta vastaaville koulutuspllikille (n=22) ja opettajille (n=136). Tutkimuksen kolmannessa vaiheessa opintojensa alku (n=328) ja loppuvaiheessa olevien sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoiden (n=338) lkehoidon osaaminen arvioitiin ja osaamiseen yhteydess olevat tekijt tunnistettiin. Aineistojen analyysiss kytettiin posin tilastollisia menetelmi. Tulosten perusteella lkehoidon opetuksen laajuus vaihteli eri ammattikorkeakouluissa, mutta opetuksen sislt oli kuitenkin monipuolista. Lis huomiota tulisi kiinnitt lkehoidon teoreettiseen perustaan ja itsehoitoon sek lkehoidon ohjaukseen liittyviin sisltalueisiin. Opiskelijoiden lkehoidon osaamista arvioitiin snnllisesti kaikissa ammattikorkeakouluissa. Sairaanhoitajaopiskelijan lkehoidon osaamista arvioitiin tutkimuksessa tietotestill, lkelaskentatehtvill ja lyhyiden potilastapausten ratkaisemisen avulla. Lkehoidon osaamiseen yhteydess olevia tekijit tarkasteltiin kolmesta nkkulmasta: 1) yksillliset tekijt, 2) kliiniseen oppimisympristn ja 3) ammattikorkeakouluun liittyvt tekijt. Lkehoidon teoreettista osaamista arvioivassa tietotestiss opiskelijat vastasivat keskimrin 72 prosenttiin kysymyksist tysin oikein; lkelaskuista tysin oikein oli 74 % ja potilastapauksissa 57 % valitsi parhaan mahdollisen toimintatavan. Tulosten perusteella sairaanhoitajaopiskelijan osaamista selittivt eniten yksillliset tekijt. Lkehoidon osaamiseen yhteydess olevien tekijiden vlill oli eroa opintojen alussa ja lopussa. Opintojen alkuvaiheessa opiskelijan aikaisempi opintomenestys oli yhteydess lkehoidon osaamiseen, kun taas opintojen loppuvaiheessa siihen olivat yhteydess opiskelijan kyky itseohjautuvaan oppimiseen sek opiskelumotivaatio. Johtoptksen voidaan todeta tutkimuksen tulosten olevan samansuuntaisia kuin aikaisemmissa tutkimuksissa. Lkehoidon opetuksen laajuus vaihtelee opetussuunnitelmatasolla, mutta tsmllinen arviointi on vaikeaa opetuksen sisltjen integroimisen takia. Sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoiden lkehoidon osaaminen oli hieman parempaa kuin aikaisemmissa tutkimuksissa, mutta osaamisessa on edelleen puutteita. Lkehoidon opetuksen ja osaamisen kehittminen edellytt kansallista ja kansainvlist tutkimus ja kehittmisyhteistyt. Tutkimuksen tulokset tukevat lkehoidon opetuksen sek osaamisen tutkimusta ja kehittmist.
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Introduction: Most of entrepreneurial ideas does not appear ready or over. Any business opportunity needs to be developed and improved throughout the enterprise process. Educational institutions may facilitate the ability of the students had undertaken, identifying and building business opportunities, enhancing their knowledge and formative experiences along the learning process. Objectives: Evaluate the business influences the entrepreneurial ability of students of the Polytechnic. Methodology: Correlational quantitative study, conducted with 1604 students from 18 institutions of the Polytechnic of Portugal. Data collection took place between July and November/2015, with a questionnaire to assess the entrepreneurial profile, Carland Entrepreneurship Index (CEI) and sociodemographic variables of students. Results: We found four business factors that influence entrepreneurship, "availability of funds" (4:13, SD = .67); "Have stable customers and incentives" (3.99, SD = .58); "Social and economic instability" (3:08, SD = 1.17) and "opportunities in the sector and area of residence" (3:36, SD = 1.05). On a scale range between (1-5), we obtained an overall score of 3.86 (SD = .55), for the corporate influences on entrepreneurship. Conclusion: For students entrepreneurial influences are important, with a greater sense of fear with regard to economic instability, reinforcing the need for further training and academic investment in the business.
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Background Most entrepreneurial ideas do not appear ready or finished. Any business opportunity needs to be developed and improved throughout the enterprise process. Educational institutions may facilitate the ability of the students in undertaking, identifying and building business opportunities, enhancing their knowledge and formative experiences along the learning process. Objective: Evaluate business influences on the entrepreneurial ability of students of the Polytechnic. Methods Correlational quantitative study, conducted with 1,604 students from 18 institutions of the Polytechnic of Portugal. Data collection took place between July and November/2015, with a questionnaire to assess the entrepreneurial profile, the Carland Entrepreneurship Index (CEI) and sociodemographic variables of students. Results We found four business factors that influence entrepreneurship: "availability of funds" (4:13, SD = .67); "Having stable customers and incentives" (3.99, SD = .58); "Social and economic instability" (3:08, SD = 1.17) and "Opportunities in the sector and area of residence" (3:36, SD = 1.05). On a scale ranging between 1 and 5, we obtained an overall score of 3.86 (SD = .55), for the corporate influences on entrepreneurship. Conclusions For students, entrepreneurial influences are important, with a greater sense of fear with regard to economic instability, reinforcing the need for further training and academic investment in business.
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Prior to the 1970s, African Americans were essentially invisible in the science and engineering academic and professional communities (Babco, 2001a). The few who did earn degrees in these fields, obtained them primarily from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and these institutions also served as the primary employer for these graduates in science and engineering (Hines, 1997; Babco, 2001a, 2001b). Since the 1970s, African Americans have made considerable progress, but still are not on a level playing field with White males in terms of opportunities for preparation of science and engineering careers or for employment and advancement in those careers. The purpose of this study was to explore second and third-year African American male engineering students perceptions and examine what experiences have contributed to their access to and persistence in engineering. A qualitative research design was employed to gather data necessary to answer the research questions. Eight second and third-year African American male engineering students from Research University (pseudonym) participated in interviews with the researcher. The data from the interviews was used to consider the themes that emerged from the participants. The findings from this study suggest that African American male engineering students at Research University have specific experiences that influence their persistence and academic achievement. Themes identified from the interview data include: (1) pre-college experiences; (2) participation in academic and social networks; (3) institutional programming and organizational support; (4) personal accountability and motivation; and (5) goals outside of engineering. As a result of this research, several future implications are highlighted. These include acknowledging the value of diversity, continued support through organizations, and increased knowledge of best practices.
