INTERACTION IN THE INTERGENERATIONAL FRESHMAN CLASS: WHAT MATTERS

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe factors associated with participation of learners in the multi-age college classroom. Besides the multi-age component, we were interested in the perspectives of first-time freshmen because of the lack of research on participation for first-time freshmen in multi-age classrooms. The predominant means of data collection were semi-structured interviews with ten students who were first-time freshmen - six traditional-age and four adult students - and participant observations. Their ages ranged from 18 to 39 years of age. Two major themes associated with participation emerged from the data analysis, both of which were not related to age. The first, Classroom Environment, described how the classroom environment influenced participation. Three categories emerged from the data on the Classroom Environment : physical structure of the classroom, social climate, and instructor influence. The second theme, Nature of Interactions, described how different types of interactions influenced participation. Two categories emerged from the data on the Nature of Interactions : social interactions and course-focused interactions. Four conclusions were reached based on these findings: (1) the physical structure of the classroom influences student participation and student-to-student interaction; (2) the expectations and teaching style of the instructor influences participation; (3) discussion patterns are established early in the semester and hinders some students' participation; and (4) the social climate affects participation. Overall, findings yielded the same results for traditional-age and adult students. Implications for adult and higher education are presented, and recommendations are made for future research.     

Distance and intrastate college student migration

Most studies of student migration focus on interstate migration of college students, largely because the aggregate data typically used are limited in geographic specificity to states. However, interstate migration is only a small part of the total student migration. Public institutions generally get most of their students from within their state; for example, 88 percent of first-time freshmen who enrolled in University System of Georgia institutions in 2002 graduated from Georgia schools. Such intrastate migration is seldom considered. This paper examines intrastate college student migration, using data for Georgia. Aside from such traditional measures of benefits and costs like tuition, financial aid, and school quality, a crucial explanatory variable in our analysis is the distance from a student's home to the different Georgia state institutions. Our empirical results indicate that student intrastate migration is strongly discouraged by greater distance, but with effects that differ across types of higher education institutions.     

The Fourth-Year Experience: Impediments to Degree Completion

Undergraduates who persevere to the fourth year of their academic careers have invested a great deal of time, effort, and financial resources in their education. In spite of the effort, many do not succeed in graduating. Students from an entering class of first-time, full time freshmen from a large urban university were tracked through their undergraduate careers in an ex post facto study in search of correlates to degree completion. Stopping out, taking developmental classes, receiving an F, dropping to part time, and withdrawing from classes were all associated with failing to complete for students still enrolled in their fourth year.     

Negative Thought Patterns of Undecided Community College Students: Implications for Counselors and Advisors

The purpose of this study was to explore the negative thinking patterns of incoming community college freshmen who were undecided about choosing a major and to suggest an approach for addressing these issues on a community college campus. Sixty community college freshmen attending their freshman orientation (FO) were surveyed using the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI). Results indicated that the students who participated in the study scored higher on all CTI scales than high school or college students in the normative sample. There were no differences in scores in terms of ages, gender, or ethnicity. These results suggest that community colleges should design programming that can help new students, particularly freshmen; to identify and to address their unconstructive thoughts with the aim of helping these students learn how to manage their anxiety upon entering college. Counselors and advisors should work more collaboratively by shifting from an individual model of delivering services to a more holistic learning approach in order to help students to become more decisive about an educational career path.     

An examination of freshmen to senior general education gains across a national sample of institutions with different general education requirements using a mixed-effect structural equation model

This study investigated differences in freshmen to senior student general education gains across institutions with varying patterns of general education requirements using a mixed-effect structural equation model. The subjects were 6,409 students at 34 nation-wide colleges and universities. Students attending institutions where less than 40 percent of undergraduate curricular requirements were devoted to general education and where there was not equal distribution of general education courses within the requirement were found to have significantly higher general education gains than did students who attended institutions where 40 percent or more of the undergraduate curriculum was devoted to general education and there was equal distribution of courses within the general education requirement.Presented at the Association for Institutional Research Annual Forum, Atlanta, Georgia, May 10–13, 1992.     

Exploring first-time online undergraduate and graduate students’ growth mindsets and flexible thinking and their relations to online learning engagement

The present study was an attempt to help us reveal the characteristics and complexity of today’s first-time online students in a higher education setting. Data were collected from undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in fully online courses for the first time during spring semester in the 2016–2017 academic year at a Southern university in the United States. Primarily, path analysis was conducted to investigate the impacts of flexible thinking, mindsets, and self-efficacy on the 254 first-time online students’ online learning engagement. The results of the path analysis supported six out of the eight hypotheses and all standardized path coefficients have values between 0.14 and 0.31. In conclusion, growth mindset and learning self-efficacy appear to be important variables for first-time online students and have a positive relation to online engagement. The practical implications and future research are discussed.

     

专科院校学生心理幸福感研究

采用Ryff心理幸福感量表对专科院校学生心理幸福感进行研究,结果表明,不同年级的学生在心理幸福感中的掌控环境、自我接纳方面有显著性差异;男生和女生在自我接纳、生活目标方面存在显著性差异;不同来源的学生自我接纳、自主性方面存在显著性差异．建议充分利用心理咨询、课堂教学、开设心理教育必修课、加强校园文化建设等途径提高学生的心理幸福感．     

家庭教养对塑造大学生人格的心理影响

目的从父母教养方式角度揭示大学生人格成因,阐释影响大学生人格特质的家庭教育因素,以求促进大学生人格状况的改善。方法对山西省某高校350名2009级大学生进行父母教养方式、人格特质测评。结果男女生人格特征在P因子和L因子上存在显著差异（P〈0.01）;大学生人格特征与父母教养方式之间相关显著（P〈0.05）;父母教养方式中的多项因子对大学生人格特征有预测作用。结论新时代父母教养方式对大学生人格特征依然有一定的影响。     

谈高校图书馆新生入馆教育

高校图书馆是高职学生在校学习的重要课堂,结合我校新生入馆教育的具体实践工作,探讨新生入馆教育必要性和重要作用及开展新生入馆教育的方式方法。     

A technique for producing a double-entry expectancy nomograph from observed proportions without distributional assumptions

A procedure for smoothing the proportions of a double-entry expectancy table is described. The product of the procedure is a nomograph from which can be read expectancies from combinations of values of two predictor variables. The nomograph might be used in admissions advising or in establishing standards for the admission of freshman students. The procedure is used to construct nomographs for predicting proportions of freshman-year grade point averages greater than or equal to 2.0 and for proportions greater than or equal to 3.0 from high school class percentile ranks and ACT composite scores for a sample of first-time freshmen. Effects of sample size and of the minimum size of groups of students used in estimating nomograph curves on the stability of the curves are examined. Suggestions for additional work on deriving expectancy nomographs are given.Presented at the Thirty-First Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Francisco, May 26–29, 1991.     

The continuity of college students’ autonomous learning motivation and its predictors: A three-year longitudinal study

This study examined change in Chinese students’ autonomous learning motivation in the first three years of college and how this change is accounted for by intra- and inter-individual variables. The sample included 633 (328 female) college freshmen. Results showed that students’ autonomous learning motivation decreased over years in college. Students’ perceived parental autonomy support and peer relatedness demonstrated different change patterns over time, but each variable positively predicted students’ autonomous learning motivation. Students majoring in science showed a more rapid decline in motivation than liberal arts students. Students studying a major of their own choice showed a higher initial level of motivation than students who were studying a major not of their own choice, but no group difference in the declining trend of motivation was observed. The positive effects of students' perceived institutional support on motivation were limited to the freshmen year.     

Measuring Determinants of Student Return VS. Dropout/Stopout VS. Transfer: A First-to-Second Year Analysis of New Freshmen

To reflect academic challenges and enrollment patterns of today’s freshmen, this study measures the impact of high school preparation, first-year academic performance, multi-institution enrollment, and financial aid support on second-year persistence. Using multi-year cohorts at a public research university, results confirm the importance of including first-year math experience, math intensity of the declared major, simultaneous enrollment at another college/university, and second-year financial aid offers when measuring freshmen retention. The positive impact of a large-scale, state-funded scholarship program in widening access to college must be balanced against findings that show academic performance and readiness to take on and pass first-year math to be more important than aid in explaining freshmen dropout and transfer-out during both first and second semesters. Middle-income students with greater levels of unmet need face an elevated departure risk, while academically well-prepared freshmen with unmet need are more likely to transfer to other institutions.     

An analysis of predictors of early academic dismissal

As a first step in developing a model of academic dismissal, logistic regression was employed to analyze predictors of academic performance (academic dismissal versus satisfactory performance) for first-time freshmen after one semester in an eastern state university. The analyses for each of two entry years produced very similar results. The analyses indicated that academic performance was highly related to high school academic grade point average (gpa). After controlling for SAT Verbal and SAT Math scores and high school academic gpa, race and the academic grouping of the student's major were significantly related to academic performance. However, for students of a given race and in a given academic grouping with the same SAT Verbal scores, the same SAT Math scores, and the same high school academic gpas, there was no significant difference in the predicted probability of academic dismissal for (1) men and women students, (2) dormitory and commuter students, and (3) full-time and part-time students.     

Expectations for college and student persistence

Tinto postulates that students enter college with expectations. If these expectations are unmet, there is early disenchantment with the social and academic communities. Such disenchantments hinder academic and social integration which, in turn, influence subsequent institutional and goal commitments and ultimately student departure. These formulations are tested in a multi-institutional study of 263 first-time freshmen who entered four-year colleges and universities. The findings indicate that both academic and social integration are positively influenced by the meeting of expectations for academic and career development. Social integration is positively influenced by expectations for opportunities for personal involvement, but negatively affected by expectations for a collegiate atmosphere. Indirect effects on intentions to remain in the focal college are indirectly influenced by collegiate atmosphere and academic and career development. Implications for enrollment management and the development of linkages between theories of college choice and student departure are drawn.An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Atlanta, GA, April 12–16, 1993.     

Rethinking Graduation and Time to Degree: A Fresh Perspective

Graduation and time to degree are paramount concerns in higher education today and have caught the attention of policy makers, educators and researchers in recent years. However, our understanding is limited regarding the factors related to graduation and time to degree beyond students’ pre-college characteristics (demographics and academic preparation), especially how student decision and performance in college affect their graduation. This study employs longitudinal data and applies event history analysis to track 12,096 first-time freshmen in a large public university from 2002 to 2014. Students’ academic progress is conceptualized into eight time-dependent variables whose values change over time, including major status (major change, double majors/minors and major declaration), enrollment intensity (enrolled term units and extra enrollment), and academic performance (term GPA, cumulative units and cumulative GPA). Discrete-time hazard models were used to answer the following question: beyond pre-college characteristics, what aspects of students’ decisions on majors and enrollment and their performance affect graduation and time to degree? The findings reveal that academic performance is the most important factor, followed by students’ decisions on majors (such as having double majors/minors). Pre-college characteristics only accounted for a very small proportion of the total variance after students’ performance and decisions are controlled. The study goes further in investigating how the effects of these factors change over time by enrolled terms.     

一般本科院校新生适应状况调查及对策——以福建师大福清分校为例

目的:探讨一般本科院校新生入学后的适应情况,以便为新生入学教育奠定坚实的理论基础。方法:采用大学新生适应量表(FARS)修订版,对福建师大福清分校2012级的520名新生进行问卷调查。结果:(1)一般本科院校大学新生适应困扰主要表现在资源利用和独立生活两个方面。(2)从专业上来看,不同专业的新生在总体适应性水平上差异不显著,但在专业与职业目标困扰和学习困扰这两个因子上差异却非常显著。(3)从性别上来看,男生在入学适应过程中遇到的困扰明显多于女生,尤其在资源利用困扰维度上,男生得分显著高于女生。     

Access,attrition, test scores,and grades of college entrants and persisters: 1965–1973

This study contrasts the distributions of indices of academic abilities and achievements of entering freshmen classes and of classes at the end of the first year of college over an eight-year period. The data reported are based on two groups of students: one comprised of all students who completed the ACT Assessment Program and subsequently enrolled in college, and the other group comprised of all students in the first group completing their first year of college. Data collected show a decline in ACT test scores, an increase in the high school grades of college entrants, and the stability of test scores and increases in college grades of freshmen completing their first year of college.Presented at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers National Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April, 1975.     

大学生情绪智力的初步研究

研究采用自编的情绪智力问卷,了解大学生情绪智力的现状并探讨不同性别、不同年级学生在情绪智力上的差异.结果发现:(1)大学生在情绪智力上的总体表现尚佳,但情绪管理仍有待加强;(2)男生在情绪管理上表现优于女生;(3)四年级大学生可能受大学教育影响较深导致在情绪智力上表现优于其他年级,而大学新生则表现较差.据此,建议大学应加强情绪管理的教育及重视有情绪困扰学生的心理辅导,并加强对新生的情绪智力教育.     

新生学风建设的初效分析及对策建议 ——以山西农业大学园艺学院为例

"育才造士,为国之本."高等教育是一个国家发展水平和发展潜力的重要标志,高校是培养高素质人才的重要基地,良好的学风建设是人才诞生的重要保障.对2018级、2019级学生在大一第一学期的学业情况进行对比,针对2018级学业情况,学院采取改进措施,分析新生学风建设初见成效的原因,并积极为新生学风建设的优化提供思路及建议.     

高职高专英语听说学习策略的构建与自主学习能力的培养

本文以建构主义教学理论为基础提出高职高专英语教学需要培养学生的自主学习能力;针对新生的英语基础比较薄弱,结合教学大纲的目标要求提出从听说学习策略的构建着手培养学生的学习自觉性,最终养成自主学习的良好习惯。