Introduction of a peer mentoring scheme within biomedical sciences education – easing the transition to university life

The transition from school to university can prove problematic for a number of academic and social reasons and first-year attrition rates are high. Research suggests that first-year students need help adjusting to a new phase of learning in a larger community of practice and that a student’s decision to leave represents a negative combination of multiple integration variables. One practice that may help to reduce stress and subsequently assist in lowering first-year attrition rates is a peer pentoring (PM) scheme. Within the Centre for Biomedical Sciences Education (CBMSE) at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) a PM scheme was designed to engage new students in informal supportive relationships with more experienced students. Qualitative reports indicate that the scheme provided an avenue for new students to reappraise their previous expectations of university and develop a sense of identity within their course. An added benefit from this PM scheme was that it also allowed older students to gain transferrable employment-related skills in communication, teamwork and organisational expertise. In 2009–10, 9.1% of Biomedical Science (BMS) students, studying at QUB, did not return to the second year of their degree; however, following implementation of a PM scheme in 2011–12, figures show a reduction of first-year attrition to 3%. While such improvement is characteristic of many transition initiatives, not just those associated with PM, it is likely that implementation of PM is intrinsically linked to student retention within a course.     

College Counseling and Student Retention:

Although it is commonly believed that college counseling positively affects student retention and further, that there are convincing data and evidence to support such a belief, an extensive literature search found no objective evidence at all on the relationship of a counseling center's conventional one-to-one counseling and therapy activities with short-term student retention. Two program evaluations which attempt to relate one-to-one individual counseling and psychotherapy to student retention rates at an urban regional state university are discussed. Changes in attendance rates, such as dropping out or retuning between quarters are the criteria used to evaluate program effects for both studies. The first study searched for discernible statistically significant effects. Three-quarters of comparisons of upperclassmen found conceivable retention advantages of students receiving counseling center services over a base-rate group. Yet the freshmen results suggest that counseling may be associates with student attrition, not retention. The second study investigated the relationship between retention and possibly relevant presenting problems and demographic variables of students undergoing individual counseling. No attendance differences among counseled students were found due to age, gender, or presenting problem. Following a discussion of the results, suggentions for future research are presented. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental controlled study of the impact counseling on student retention is clearly needed.     

What does it take to be a “successful teacher”? Universities’ role in preparing the future early-years workforce

Within the knowledge era, Early Childhood Education has been attracting continued interest from scholars globally. In this regard, several studies have been conducted, with results identifying the multifarious attributes which members of the early years workforce should possess. But what does this imply for Early Childhood Teacher Education Departments? An exploratory quantitative study was conducted with a random sample of first-year and graduate students of the Department of Early Childhood Education of the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, with the aim of recording students’ perceived views on the skills, knowledge and attitudes required for working in early years and their expectations of their studies. Results have identified some divergence between freshmen’s and graduates’ perceptions on required attributes, as well as on the role of their studies in preparing them to enter the early childhood teacher profession, with significant implications for improving university curricula, as well as for undertaking further research in the field.     

Pathway to success: using students’ insights and perspectives to improve retention and success for university students from low socioeconomic (LSE) backgrounds

In an increasingly complex landscape of diversification and massification, universities are grappling with challenges of student attrition. This paper presents findings from a project investigating how students from low socio-economic backgrounds at a regional Australian university perceive challenges and supports associated with retention and success. Twenty-seven students received intensive one-to-one support from a Faculty-embedded ‘academic advisor’, and reflected on this support, their overall student experience, and strategies to enhance student success. Students identified a range of challenges that they experienced across an academic year (personal circumstances, lack of preparedness for university study, timely access to support, course/programme difficulties) and what worked well for them (academic advisor, University support services, growing confidence in self as competent student, peer support). A range of strategies for enhancing student success were identified by students, namely consistency across teaching design and delivery, transparency of delivery modes, mandatory orientation, access to a dedicated academic advisor, and increased peer connectedness. The applicability and viability of the proposed strategies within current higher education settings are explored.     

A Model for Developing a Parent Resource Center on Campus

This study describes the development of a parent resource center at a university child care center. The parent resource center is funded by a federal grant and is designed to provide support to low-income student-parents on campus. Early childhood education interns work in the center to learn how to build family relationships. The program has been beneficial to families and the early childhood education interns. Recommendations for creating parent resource centers on university campuses to support the learning of early childhood professionals are provided.     

The student departure puzzle: do some faculties and programs have answers?

University attrition prevention strategies are typically generic, centrally managed, whole of university strategies that have emerged from an examination of whole of university attrition data. This paper takes an intra‐organisational comparative approach, through the examination of faculty and program attrition rates of students who joined an Australian university in the first term of 2004. The faculty with the highest attrition had a rate two‐and‐a‐half times that of the faculty with the lowest rate, and in programs with 40 or more students enrolled the program with the highest attrition had a rate over five times that of the program with the lowest rate. The paper identifies five practical implications of these findings and concludes that investigating the causes of these differences will help in understanding student attrition. It also suggests that universities wishing to reduce student attrition may benefit from adopting integrated and situated strategies that take into account faculty and program differences.     

An approach/avoidance behavioral model of college student attrition

We used approach/avoidance theory to develop a conceptual model of student attrition that we estimated using 262 first- and second-year students at a major midwestern research university. We found that we could use psychological theories to enhance our understanding of the retention process; that psychological and sociological factors accounted for 37 percent of the variance in student attrition; and that institutions can enhance retention by developing programs that increase appropriate academic and social approach behaviors and reduce avoidant behaviors.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Pittsburgh, PA, November, 1994.     

“Because uni is totally different than what you do at TAFE”: protective strategies and provisions for diploma students traversing their first professional experience placement at university

Students who enrol in a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, with a Diploma in Children’s Services attained from a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institution or a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) often experience challenges in their first professional experience unit. Utilising a phenomenological approach to understand the students’ previous knowledge and experiences as they navigated through their first professional experience unit, this qualitative study identified factors including institutional structures and course content as challenging to the diploma student. To ensure diploma students can successfully transition to and participate in their first professional experience unit at university, all stakeholders including the university, the academics teaching the students, and the students themselves need to commit to a multilevel support programme. Key findings from this study support the previous research on this student cohort.     

The Reading Lab: ‘failure’, dynamic teaching and reflective practice in growing the skill of reading

ABSTRACT

University educators have observed the concurrent problems of student attrition, higher than normal or desired failure rates and students struggling to complete assessable and non-assessable work, for instance, set readings. Recent public commentary has pointed to the widening participation agenda with its lowering of university entrance scores and consequent increase in university places as factors contributing to the problem: many students are entering university without the preparation or dispositions that helped their predecessors succeed. University teachers are at the coalface of this problem. These teachers do not set entrance scores or course caps but are tasked with supporting an increasingly diverse student population.

This article offers a case study: a university teacher’s encounter with a university’s Key Accountability Measures around failure and attrition, and offers a teaching response to this policy. In response to these changing conditions, The Reading Lab was designed as a large-group learning and teaching activity in the form of a series of interactive lectures devoted to the practices of reading. The Lab sessions sought to address a problem that many scholarship-of-reading researchers have communicated: our university students are often not resilient readers and as a result often do not complete set readings. This article evaluates what the Reading Lab achieved (and failed to achieve). For instance, if it is possible (in the current climate) that the failure and attrition rates might never radically improve, how can teaching and learning activities be more positively directed towards the student experience, for even minor gains in the inclusion and the retention of students?     

Success or Failure in a Core University Unit: What makes the difference?

Factors which have been identified as contributing to student academic success at the degree and program level in tertiary study include mode of study, student age, previous tertiary qualifications and past academic performance. Limited published Australian research is available, however, on student academic success in individual subjects. This study investigated identifiable patterns related to the academic success of three separate cohorts of students in an Early Childhood second-year Language, Literature and Literacy unit (N = 601). The data support previous research findings with regard to the effect of mode of study, previous university qualifications and past academic performance on academic success in this subject. In contrast with most previous studies, this study found a significant relationship between previous study at TAFE (college study at a Technical and Further Education institute) and failure in an academic unit, perhaps due to the timing of this unit in the students' overall program. Further implications for Early Childhood teacher education are discussed.     

Strategizing computer-supported collaborative learning toward knowledge building

The purpose of this paper is to explore how university students can develop knowledge in small task-based groups while acquiring hands-on computer skills. Inspired by the sociocultural perspective, this study presents a theoretical framework on co-construction of knowledge and on computer-supported collaborative learning. The participants were selected from student teachers in Rwanda after a training program on searching, retrieving and exploiting web-based literature. The findings show that university students working together in small groups to acquire hands-on computer skills can adopt one of three major learning patterns: individual-led, group-led or individual-group hybrid-led. Moreover, the results indicate that the group-led framework seems to create a supportive environment for knowledge building. Nevertheless, university students showed a need for teacher support to enable them to focus on criterion-referenced reflection to regulate their learning.     

Factors affecting intention to leave in the first,second and third year of university studies: a semester‐by‐semester investigation

As most research into attrition and retention has focused on attrition during the first year of studies, we know little about the relationship between students’ experience of subsequent years and their decisions to withdraw from university. This paper addresses this gap in research by examining the relationship between students’ intention to withdraw from studies and their experience of university in each of the three years of Business degree studies. This empirical research indicates that the factors affecting intention to withdraw are differentiated not only by year but also by semester of study.     

The Gateway Science Workshop Program: Enhancing Student Performance and Retention in the Sciences Through Peer-Facilitated Discussion

Minority student attrition and underachievement is a long-standing and widespread concern in higher education. It is especially acute in introductory science courses which are prerequisites for students planning to pursue science-related careers. Poor performance in these courses often results in attrition of minorities from the science fields. This is a particular concern at selective universities where minority students enter with excellent academic credentials but receive lower average grades and have lower retention rates than majority students with similar credentials. This paper reports the first year results of a large scale peer-facilitated workshop program designed to increase performance and retention in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics at a selective research university. After adjusting for grade point average or SAT-Math score, workshop participants earned higher final grades than nonparticipants in Biology and Chemistry, but not in Physics. Similar effects on retention were found. While, positive effects of the program were observed in both majority and minority students, effect sizes were generally largest for minority students. Because of practical constraints in Physics, implementation of the program was not optimal, possibly accounting for the differential success of the program across disciplines.     

Cross‐Validated Prediction of Academic Performance of First‐Year University Students: Identifying Risk Factors in a Nonselective Environment

Early prediction of academic performance is important for student support. The authors explored, in a multivariate approach, whether pre‐entry data (e.g., high school study results, preparative activities, expectations, capabilities, motivation, and attitude) could predict university students’ first‐year academic performance. Preregistered applicants for a bachelor's program filled out an intake questionnaire before study entry. Outcome data (first‐year grade point average, course credits, and attrition) were obtained 1 year later. Prediction accuracy was assessed by cross‐validation. Students who performed better in preparatory education, followed a conventional educational path before entering, and expected to spend more time on a program‐related organization performed better during their first year at university. Concrete preuniversity behaviors were more predictive than psychological attributions such as self‐efficacy. Students with a “love of learning” performed better than leisure‐oriented students. The intake questionnaire may be used for identifying up front who may need additional support, but is not suitable for student selection.     

Working an Academically Rigorous,Multicultural Program

In 1997 the California State University Monterey Bay Master of Arts in Education program began accepting students with the explicit intent of offering an academically challenging curriculum that grounds teacher-leaders in multicultural social justice education. By 2003, the program had successfully attracted and graduated a student population that is as racially and ethnically diverse as the state of California. As eight faculty members who designed and implemented this program, writing from a position of “insider knowledge” regarding how it functioned on a day-to-day basis, we show how culturally and linguistically diverse students, many of whom have been underprepared for rigorous academic work, can attain high levels of academic excellence in a challenging and supportive context. In addition, we explore the tensions and realities of doing this work, especially in a state university context that is experiencing decreased funding that jeopardizes programs such as this one. We write so that our work is not forgotten but rather narrates what is possible.     

The engagement of mature distance students

An increasing proportion of tertiary students are aged 25 and over, and many of these students choose to study at a distance in order to more easily combine their studies with their family and work commitments. Higher attrition rates and lower course completion rates for this group highlight the need for a greater understanding of their student experience. To explore whether age and mode of study impact on student engagement, satisfaction, learning and departure intention, data from the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement from 1116 first-year undergraduate students from a single New Zealand university were analysed. Results confirm the influence of student engagement on both student satisfaction and learning, in particular the importance of a supportive learning environment. The findings suggest that while older and distance students are less likely to engage in active learning strategies with their fellow students, they have a much greater capacity to integrate their learning with their work experience. The finding that these students are as satisfied as the more traditional-aged, on-campus students suggests that their experience is different, but not second-rate. Universities need to build on the strengths of these students as well as provide greater opportunities for them to form collaborative relationships with similar students. Limitations stemming from the timing of the survey and the inherent limitations of cross-sectional surveys suggest the need for more in-depth longitudinal work to understand the changing nature of engagement for these students and to explore why they engage differently with their studies.     

Modelling success networks to improve the quality of undergraduate education

Discussions of support and intervention in undergraduate university education are dominated by discussion of attrition. This study quests more broadly in arguing that support and intervention for undergraduate students may also benefit from models of engagement and success as well as conventional risk and failure. Supporting this proposition is a study that involved multifactorial approaches based in a combination of aspects of social network theory and social ecology theory. Analysis was enacted through social network analysis of archival data sets derived from a single cohort of 4065 undergraduate students at a regional Australian university. The findings suggest that models of academic success are suited to examination of the broader issues of student agency and undergraduate university education. The success networks developed are uniquely student-centred and place-based and may serve as more nuanced models for university intervention and support structures and mechanisms.     

A High Impact Practice that Works: Connecting Mentors From the Professional Community to Teacher Education Students

A high impact mentoring program at a community college connected professionals from the special education and early intervention fields with small groups of teacher education students. Two federal grants from U.S. Department of Education funded tuition scholarships and mentoring for 76 Special Education students and 78 Early Childhood Education/Early Intervention students in associate degree programs. The mentor programs consisted of individual monitoring by project staff, consistent contact with a mentor from the professional community and with other students in mentor groups, and structured monthly dinner meetings. Students who participated in the mentoring programs showed increased persistence and higher grade point average when compared with the general population of similar majors. Within each grant-funded population, students who showed low participation in the mentor programming presented lower retention rates and lower GPA than grant-funded students who took full advantage of the mentoring program.     

A skill development program for native students: Preliminary results

The increasing enrolment of Native students has not been matched by increases in success or retention rates. A skill development program designed for support service delivery to high risk students was provided for Native students in a liberal arts university. Assessment of the program in terms of academic performance, a demographic and perceived problem questionnaire, and anecdotal evidence resulted in support for continuation of the program and in planned modification of the orientation component.Although there has been a gratifying increase over the last decade in the enrolment of Canadian Natives in post-secondary programs (Sloan, 1981), this trend has not been followed by an equally increased success rate. Rather, Native students have exhibited high attrition rates paralleling the well-documented rates found in the primary and secondary school system (Sealey, 1980). In light of the lack of evidence for the effectiveness of traditionally-delivered student support services for Native students, efforts have been made to develop programs for Native students prior to admission (Grindstaff, 1970) or for those enrolled in a professional program (Read, 1983). The results of these special programs are encouraging, and consistent with the concept of special service delivery systems for high risk students (Smith et al., 1981).The present paper will examine the results of the first year of operation of a skill development program for Native students in a liberal arts university.     

Predicting Engineering Student Attrition Risk Using a Probabilistic Neural Network and Comparing Results with a Backpropagation Neural Network and Logistic Regression

As the need for engineers continues to increase, a growing focus has been placed on recruiting students into the field of engineering and retaining the students who select engineering as their field of study. As a result of this concentration on student retention, numerous studies have been conducted to identify, understand, and confirm relationships between student attributes and attrition. Methods of prediction have also been evaluated and compared. Utilizing the attributes found in previous studies to have correlation with student attrition, this study considers the results of three different prediction methods—logistic regression, a multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network, and a probabilistic neural network (PNN)—to predict engineering student retention at a case study university. The purpose of this study was to introduce the PNN to the study of engineering student retention prediction and compare the results of the PNN to other commonly used methods in this field of study. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and overall results for each method are reported, compared, and discussed as the major contribution of this paper.