A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Academic and Social Integration and Commitment on Retention

NASPA Journal ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Beil ◽  
Carol A. Reisen ◽  
Maria Cecilia Zea ◽  
Robert C. Caplan
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Academic Integration ◽  
Research University ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Academic And Social Integration ◽  
Private Research

This longitudinal study predicted retention from academic integration, social integration, and commitment to remain in college in a sample of first-year students at a residential, private research university. When assessed separately, first-semester reports of commitment mediated the effects of both academic and social integration on retention six semesters later.

scholarly journals Navigating social integration into university on Facebook: Insights from a longitudinal study

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Young People ◽  
University Students ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Real World ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Transition

This article reports on the experiences of 26 first year students as they record on Facebook snapshots of their experiences navigating social integration into university. There is still a substantial gap in student transition success research conceptually framed by the understanding that first year transition is about becoming. Transition as becoming expands current conceptions of transition by situating it within the real world rather than just within university. Facebook status updates were used as data because social media are integral to the life experiences of the young people and is a means to hypothesise where and how students were becoming university students. This article reports findings that acknowledge the tumultuous, cyclical, and chaotic experiences of first year students consistent with the idea that university is a part of a person’s becoming.

scholarly journals First-year students’ math anxiety predicts STEM avoidance and underperformance throughout university, independently of math ability

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Daker ◽  
Sylvia U. Gattas ◽  
H. Moriah Sokolowski ◽  
Adam E. Green ◽  
Ian M. Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Math Anxiety ◽  
First Year ◽  
Math Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Math Ability ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Attitudes Toward Math ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Stem Outcomes

AbstractMath anxiety is widely considered a potential barrier to success in STEM. Current thinking holds that math anxiety is directly linked to avoidance of and underperformance in STEM domains. However, past evidence supporting these claims is limited in important ways. Perhaps most crucially, it is possible that math anxiety predicts STEM outcomes merely as a proxy for poor math skills. Here, we tested the link between math anxiety and subsequent STEM outcomes by measuring math anxiety, math ability, and several covariates in 183 first-semester university students. We then tracked students’ STEM avoidance and achievement through four years at university via official academic transcripts. Results showed that math anxiety predicted both a reduction in how many STEM courses students took and, separately (i.e., controlling for one another), lower STEM grades. Crucially, these associations held after controlling for math ability (and other covariates). That math anxiety predicts math-related academic achievement independently of Math Ability suggests that, contrary to current thinking, math anxiety’s effects on academic performance likely operate via mechanisms other than negatively affecting math ability. Beyond this, we show evidence that math anxiety can account for associations between math ability and STEM outcomes, suggesting that past links between math ability and real-world outcomes may, in fact, be at least partially explainable by attitudes toward math. These findings provide clear impetus for developing and testing interventions that target math anxiety specifically and suggest that focusing on math ability without additional attention to math anxiety may fail to optimally boost STEM outcomes.

scholarly journals Faculty perceptions of teaching information literacy to first-year students: A phenomenographic study

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Dawes
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Research University ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
Information Use ◽  
First Year ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Information Behaviors ◽  
Perceptions Of Teaching ◽  
Teaching Information

This study examines faculty perceptions of teaching information literacy and explores the influence of these perceptions on pedagogy. The study adopted an inductive phenomenographic approach, using 24 semi-structured interviews with faculty teaching first-year courses at an American public research university. The results of the study reveal four qualitative ways in which faculty experience teaching information use to first year students that vary within three themes of expanding awareness. The resulting outcome space revealed that faculty had two distinct conceptions of teaching information literacy: (1) Teaching to produce experienced consumers of information, and (2) Teaching to cultivate intelligent participants in discourse communities. When information experiences are intentional, and involve using and teaching information use while learning the discipline content, this becomes “informed learning”, which is a pedagogical construct developed by Christine Bruce (Bruce and Hughes, 2010) that involves experiencing information in new ways while learning disciplinary information behaviors and content. This study gives new insight into the nature of this “informed learning” in first-year college courses and reveals that faculty create cultures of inquiry in their classes and, in so doing, treat information literacy as central to their disciplines. In addition to providing a more substantial understanding of faculty perceptions of teaching information use, the study indicates that the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy and the changes to SCONUL Framework reflect an approach to teaching information literacy that will be welcomed in the college classroom.

scholarly journals The Students’ Speaking Skill Analaysis on Local Wisdom- Based Topics (A Study at the First Year Grade of Mathematics Department of Unswagati)

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Devi Siti Afiah
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Speaking Skill ◽  
Math Students ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Local Materials ◽  
Mathematics Department

The goals of this research are (1) to know what students’ responses toward WH question tehnique; (2) to know whether the WH Question can improve students’ math in English. This research used the descriptive qualitative method. The writer described and analyzed the students’ mistakes in speaking skill using local materials. The research was carried out at the first year students of math department in 2016/2017 academic year. It was strated from September 2016 to January 2017. The population was the first semester students of math department in academic year of 2016/2017. The number of population were 21 students. The results of this research were (1) the tudents gave good responses toward the WH Questions learning, and (2) the WH questions improved the Math students’ ability in learning English. Keywords: Speaking, Local-wisdom, WH-questions

scholarly journals THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUBSTANTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VALUE-MOTIVATIONAL COMPONENT OF STUDENTS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL READINESS FOR PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY AT VARIOUS STAGES OF STUDYING AT THE UNIVERSITY

2016 ◽  
pp. 120-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. S. Morozova ◽  
E. V. Voronova
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
First Year ◽  
Life Meaning ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Semantic Component ◽  
The University

The paper discusses the problem of studying the relations of substantive characteristics of the value-semantic component of students’ psychological readiness for professional activity at various stages of studying at the Universityand presents the results of a longitudinal study of this issue. The results of the study indicated that the content characteristics (objective, process, result, overall rate of life-meaning orientations) are the basis of the value-motivational component of students’ psychological readiness for professional activity at various stages of studying at the University. According to the results of the study the axiological component of students’ psychological readiness of for professional activity into which first-year students includes orientation to the professional knowledge, skills. Students have 2 years of training to increase the value of the chosen profession, the desire to become a professional. In the 3rd year students’ valuemotivational component is represented in the experience of the crisis of professional development. In their 4th year of study, students have changing views about their professional future, orientation to future professional development.

scholarly journals Student Talent Enrichment Program

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Nix ◽  
Trevor Francis ◽  
Danielle Dunn ◽  
Brett Rankin
Keyword(s):  
Research University ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Major Research ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Term Retention ◽  
Grant Program ◽  
Enrichment Program ◽  
Financial Need

The Student Talent Enrichment Program was an experimental grant program conducted at a major research university to improve underfunded students’ retention outcomes. This program provided scholarships to 151 first-year students with $5,000 or more in unmet financial need. Participants received a one-time grant in the fall of 2017, with award amounts ranging from $2,500 to $10,000. Grant recipients' retention rates exceeded the control group by small margins. However, these grants failed to make a difference only among the few grantees already in academic jeopardy. For grant recipients who had early GPAs of at least 1.5 prior to receiving financial awards, term-to-term retention rates surpassed the control group by a substantial, expected, and statistically significant margin.

scholarly journals Entering Higher Professional Education: Unveiling First-Year Students’ Key Academic Experiences and Their Occurrence Over Time

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Willems ◽  
Liesje Coertjens ◽  
Vincent Donche
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Academic Experiences ◽  
First Year ◽  
Study Program ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Academic Transition ◽  
First Semester

To date, little understanding exists of how first-year students in professionally oriented higher-education (HE) programs (i.e., those that provide vocational education to prepare students for a particular occupation) experience their academic transition process. In the present study, we first argued how the constructs of academic adjustment and academic integration can provide complementary perspectives on the academic transition of first-year students in (professional) HE. Next, we examined what first-year students in professional HE contexts perceive to be the most important experiences associated with their academic transition process in the first semester of their first year of higher education (FYHE). To this end, we adopted the fundamentals of the critical incident technique and asked 104 students in a Flemish (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) university college (which offers professional HE programs, such as nursing) to complete “reflective logs” with open questions at the start of the second semester of their FYHE, wherein they reflected on three critical academic experiences during their first semester. An inductive, cross-case content analysis of the collected narratives showed that students reported on nine themes of academic experiences, which relate to five adjustment themes (dealing with the organization of the study program, organizing study work, committing to the study, following class and taking notes, and processing learning content outside class) and four integration themes (feeling competent, feeling stressed, feeling prepared, and feeling supported). Further analyses showed that although some of the nine themes of academic experiences appear to be more important at different times in the first semester, they all seem to be meaningful throughout the whole semester.

Ready for the Worst? Negative Emotional Anticipation is Associated with Greater Reactivity to an Emotional Event

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise Katherine Kalokerinos ◽  
Ella Moeck ◽  
Koen Rummens ◽  
Kristof Meers ◽  
Merijn Mestdagh
Keyword(s):  
Time Scale ◽  
Research Finding ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Bad News ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Emotional Outcomes

Lay wisdom suggests feeling negative in advance of an outcome – anticipatory negative emotion – shields against the blow of bad news. However, evidence is mixed, with different lines of research finding that anticipatory negative emotion is helpful, harmful, or has no effect on emotional outcomes. We set out to reconcile the competing findings by examining effects over a longer, but more granular, time-scale. First-year students (N=101) completed 9 days of experience sampling (10 surveys/day) as they received their first-semester exam grades, and a follow-up survey 5 months later. We investigated the association between anticipatory negative emotion and three negative emotional outcomes: (1) reactivity immediately after receiving grades, (2) recovery across the following week, and (3) recovery after 5 months. Anticipatory negative emotion was associated with increased reactivity and negative emotion 5 months later, suggesting that being emotionally ready for the worst has psychological costs.

Blended Collaborative Learning through a Wiki-Based Project

2013 ◽  
pp. 130-145
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Roussinos ◽  
Athanassios Jimoyiannis
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Collaborative Tools ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
On Line ◽  
University Course

Wikis are currently gaining in popularity in schools and higher education institutions and they are widely promoted as collaborative tools supporting students’ active learning. This paper reports on the investigation of university students’ beliefs and perceptions of a wiki authoring activity, designed to support blended and collaborative learning. The study was administered in the context of an authentic coursework project activity in a first semester university course on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), attended by 47 first year students. Research findings indicated that the students in the sample were generally positive about the collaborative experience offered through the wiki and the consequent learning outcomes. Students’ perceptions of the functionality and usability of the wiki environment were also positive. They considered the wiki as an effective and easy to use technology. In overall, they evaluated positively the wiki assignment, as well as the technical and learning support they received on-line, through the wiki pages, and by their instructors during the class sessions.

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