Factors associated with college attendance of high-school seniors

Demographic, locational, family background, economic, attitudinal and school-related variables are studied to determine factors which lead high-school seniors to go directly on to college. The data come from the 1979 and 1980 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth Labor Market Experience, and probit analysis is used. Some factors found to be significant imply possible changes in college enrollment patterns: delayed plans for marriage by females, population growth in the South and increasing education among the youths' fathers could portend higher rates of enrollment. While minority and poor youth were less likely to go directly from high school to college, it appears that factors associated with these variables, such as father's education and lower scores on the proxy ability measure, are causal. Finally, school characteristics appear to have a very limited influence on the probability of going directly from high school to college.     

An analysis of multiple factors affecting retention in Web-based community college courses

The current study examined four factors affecting retention in Web-based community college courses. Analyses were conducted on student demographics, student learning styles, course communication and external factors. The results suggest that Web-based courses are more attractive to busy students who are also more likely to fail or drop the course. The combined results from the four factors provided evidence that time management and procrastination are the primary reasons that community college students fail or drop a Web-based course. The study also found evidence that inability to get feedback from instructors may contribute to student dropout and failure in Web-based community college courses.     

External factors associated with adopting a CMS in resident college courses

Course management systems (CMSs) have become a common resource for resident courses at colleges and universities. Researchers have analyzed which CMS features faculty members use most primarily by asking them which features are used. The study described builds on previous research by counting the number of CMS features a faculty member used and by analyzing how three external factors are related to the use of CMS features. The external factors are (a) the college in which a course was offered, (b) class size, and (c) the level of a class—such as 100 or 200. The only external factor showing a statistically significant relationship to the use of CMS features was the college in which a course was offered. Another finding was that CMSs are primarily used to transmit information to students. Implications are described for using external factors to increase effective use of more complex CMS features.     

Assessing community college transfer performance

Transfer education is one of the most important, most criticized, and most difficult to measure of the functions performed by community colleges. If the performance of community colleges is to be properly assessed, problems of measuring and analyzing the transfer function must be solved. This paper seeks to answer several basic questions about community colleges' transfer performance, using California as a case example, and to show that useful conclusions may be reached even in the absence of perfect information. Many criticisms of the transfer function focus on the decline in numbers of students transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions that began in the late 1970s. This paper suggests that criticism about the transfer function, insofar as it stems from the number or rate of students transferring (as most of the criticism does), is unfounded. Until there is more precise information on students, research on particular problems like minority underrepresentation, students' course selection and outside employment, and the reverse transfer should prove more fruitful than looking simply at transfer numbers.     

Factors contributing to the retention of natural mentors among underrepresented students across the first year of college

The current study examined characteristics of natural mentoring relationships (NMRs; i.e. mentoring relationships that develop organically with adults in one’s pre-existing social network) among underrepresented college students as contributors to NMR retention across the first year of college. The sample consisted of 209 underrepresented college students (73% female; mean age = 18.1, SD = .35) who reported having a natural mentor during the first semester of college. Each participant could report up to five natural mentors and a total of 550 NMRs were reported. We found that more frequent contact and greater relational closeness with natural mentors during the Fall semester of mentees’ first year of college increased the likelihood that NMRs were retained through the Spring semester of the first year. These findings shed light on aspects of NMRs that may be most central to fostering their duration during difficult transitional spaces.     

Developing a sense of belonging in the classroom: community college students taking courses on a four-year college campus

In 2005, Louisiana implemented the Master Plan for Public Postsecondary Education: 2001 (Board of Regents, State of Louisiana, 2001) to restructure its higher education system in an effort to provide its citizens with high quality postsecondary educational choices. This restructuring forced its two-year and four-year institutions to redesign their developmental education programs. Subsequently, several two-year institutions partnered with four-year institutions to offer developmental courses on the four-year college campuses. However, little is known about the experiences of the two-year students in these settings, especially as they relate to classroom experiences. Thus, this phenomenological study explored the academic-social experiences of 20 students enrolled at the two-year college and taking classes at a four-year institution. The study was done in hopes of garnering a better understanding of factors that impact integration and persistence. This article focuses on how the students developed a sense of belonging in the classroom, and it makes connections as to how these students’ experiences may impact integration and persistence and/or transferability to four-year institutions. Additionally, recommendations for research and practice are presented.     

社区教育与社区学院建设的若干思考

我国社区教育正由大城市向县级城市及其农村延伸。在社区教育发展过程中,对社区教育的内涵和功能特点,社区学院的办学职能等尚有不同的认识。文章总结归纳了社区教育的四个功能特点,对基层干部群众提出的发展社区教育的一些模糊、片面认识,以及对社区学院的办学职能提出了一些看法,同时,对以基层电大为基础创办社区学院提出了若干对策建议。     

Factors associated with student plagiarism in a post‐1992 university

A model intended to explain the incidence of plagiarism among undergraduates in the Business Studies department of a post‐1992 university was constructed and tested on a sample of 249 students completing Business Studies units at a post‐1992 university in Greater London. It was hypothesised that the occurrence of plagiarism could be predicted via three attitudinal considerations (individual perceptions of the ethicality of the practice, fear of penalties if caught and fear of failing a degree); two personal traits (goal orientation and academic integration), and three situational factors (financial, current grades achieved, and how strictly lecturing staff enforced anti‐plagiarism rules). Proposals concerning possible inter‐relations and interactions among these variables were also formulated and assessed.     

The community college and the disadvantaged

The objective of this study is to empirically explore the extent to which public two-year colleges in this country are characterized by open admissions policies and by comprehensive curricula, as well as the extent and nature of programs for the disadvantaged within these institutions. Utilizing a stratified sampling design developed by the research staff of the American Council on Education, a precoded original questionnaire was mailed in the spring of 1971 to the chief administrative officer for each institution in the sample. It was found that only a little over half of the colleges have the curricula offerings and admissions policies of exemplary community colleges, but that all reported special courses, programs, or services for the academically disadvantaged minority group. However, only 40% of our sample indicated that they have developed special programs (as opposed to courses or services). Too, community colleges with programs require (1) more resources in preparing faculty for dealing effectively with the disadvantaged, (2) additional emphasis on recruitment of the disadvantaged, and (3) more attention to developing courses in ethnic studies.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, February 1973. Partial support for the project from which this paper was developed was provided by the U.S. Office of Education (Contract #OEC-0-70-4283 (399) to the Pennsylvania State Department of Education). The author also wishes to acknowledge the contribution of Reynolds Ferrante, graduate student, Pennsylvania State University, who assisted in the literature review and questionnaire development of the project.     

The demand for community college education

This article describes a model of Community College (CC) enrollment which is tested using cross-sectional data for the 1969–1970 academic year. The sample consists of 126 relatively homogeneous CCs divided into sixty-two separate markets. Tuition, income, proximity of four-year schools, and the age of a CC are found to have significant influences on enrollment.An estimate is made of the marginal cost to a CC of attracting more students by lowering tuition.     

Factors associated with successful learning in pupils with dyslexia: a motivational analysis

In 2002, Neil Humphrey and Patricia Mullins published their research into personal constructs and attribution for academic success and failure in dyslexia in BJSE's 'Research Section'. Their work suggested that pupils with dyslexia, in a range of settings, experience real challenges to their self-esteem and that dyslexia leads to 'negative consequences for their self-development'. This article by Robert Burden, Professor of Applied Educational Psychology at the University of Exeter, and Julia Burdett, an experienced teacher and part-time research assistant, challenges those findings.
Robert Burden and Julia Burdett interviewed 50 boys, aged between 11 and 16, attending an independent special school for pupils with dyslexia. The research tools explored the pupils' attitudes to learning and their sense of personal identity. The general levels of depression and 'learned helplessness' revealed were low in sharp contrast to the positive feelings of self-efficacy, locus of control and commitment to effort as an essential learning strategy reported by the pupils. Burden and Burdett explore the consequences of such cognitive self-appraisal for successful learning outcomes in pupils with dyslexia and speculate about the influence of specialist provision upon the positive self-image of the pupils in their study. They state their intention to take their research further with pupils in mainstream settings.     

Pioneering the community college movement in Hong Kong

As part of the reform of the overall education system in Hong Kong, the government set a target in October 2000 of raising the percentage of senior secondary school graduates who could receive higher education from the current 30% to 60% within a period of ten years. Prior to this announcement, however, the School of Professional and Continuing Education of The University of Hong Kong (or HKU SPACE for short) had already taken the lead by establishing the first Community College in March 2000. The Associate Degree programme of the College offered an alternative route to higher education to many aspiring young people. The broad-based curriculum with its equal emphasis on science and humanities (as well as solid generic skills) is a new attempt to produce people that can meet the challenges of the knowledge society. The first intake of 740 students in 2000 was followed by a second intake of more than a thousand in 2001. This paper examines the experience gained during the first two years of this new development, and explores the role of community colleges in general in the education reform movement and human resources development strategy of Hong Kong     

Active learning not associated with student learning in a random sample of college biology courses

Previous research has suggested that adding active learning to traditional college science lectures substantially improves student learning. However, this research predominantly studied courses taught by science education researchers, who are likely to have exceptional teaching expertise. The present study investigated introductory biology courses randomly selected from a list of prominent colleges and universities to include instructors representing a broader population. We examined the relationship between active learning and student learning in the subject area of natural selection. We found no association between student learning gains and the use of active-learning instruction. Although active learning has the potential to substantially improve student learning, this research suggests that active learning, as used by typical college biology instructors, is not associated with greater learning gains. We contend that most instructors lack the rich and nuanced understanding of teaching and learning that science education researchers have developed. Therefore, active learning as designed and implemented by typical college biology instructors may superficially resemble active learning used by education researchers, but lacks the constructivist elements necessary for improving learning.     

Factors influencing success in introductory college chemistry

Previous research has found a wide range of predictors of student performance in introductory college chemistry. These predictors are associated with both the students' backgrounds and their high school learning experiences. The purpose of this research study was to examine the link between high school chemistry pedagogical experiences and performance in introductory college chemistry while accounting for individual educational and demographic differences. The researchers surveyed 1531 students enrolled in first‐semester introductory college chemistry courses for science and engineering majors at 12 different U.S. colleges and universities. Using multiple regression analysis, the researchers uncovered several interesting high school pedagogical experiences that appeared to be linked with varying levels of performance in college chemistry. Most notably, the researchers found that repeating chemistry labs for understanding was associated with higher student grades, whereas overemphasis on lab procedure in high school chemistry was associated with lower grades in college. These results suggest that high school teachers' pedagogical choices may have a link to future student performance. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 987–1012, 2005     

Factors associated with child protection recurrence in Australia

The aim of the current research was to advance understanding of child protection in Australia by examining the factors associated with recurrence of child protection notifications to the formal child protection system. Extant research has been primarily undertaken in the USA and it is important to understand whether similar factors associated with recurrence actually hold in the Australian context. Administrative data were obtained for a sample of 9608 children first subject to a screened-in report in 2011–12. Children were followed for 12 months. Cox Proportional Hazard models were used to measure associations between 26 independent variables and four types of recurrence: subsequent reports, subsequent investigations, subsequent substantiations, and subsequent intervention. Factors associated with recurrence in Australia were broadly similar to those identified in other jurisdictions, including reports and substantiation for neglect, younger age, prior child protection involvement in the household, and parental characteristics including drug use, mental health problems, and history of maltreatment as a child. As in previous studies, post-investigative service provision was positively associated with recurrence. In prior US research, race did not predict recurrence. However, in the present study, Indigenous Australian children were significantly more likely to be subject to all types of recurrence measured. Future research on recurrence should aim to disentangle the complex relationships between child protection recurrence, child maltreatment, and service delivery. Recurrence is not a good proxy indicator of child safety. The findings have implications for the equity of recurrence-based risk assessment tools as they are applied to indigenous populations.