Examining Individualism in College Student Retention Theory and Practice

College student retention and completion rates correlate with the production of societal benefits such as community engagement, human capital, diverse campus communities, and social mobility. While ideas vary, most contemporary retention practices and strategies rely on foundational studies that focus on individualism, the student-institution relationship, and inhibiting factors to student integration into a collegiate environment. This meta-synthesis examines the individualistic nature of foundational historic and contemporary retention theories and practices as well as recommends a collectivist, culturally-responsive alternative paradigm for retention theory and strategy development moving forward.

The Development and Validation of the Distance Doctoral Program Integration Scale

Research indicates academic integration and social integration are predictors of doctoral student persistence at any program stage. However, researchers have not defined, operationalized, and measured academic or social integration consistently. Further, no instruments exist that specifically measure both academic and social integration of doctoral students in distance programs. The purpose of this research was to define distance doctoral program integration, and in turn, develop and analyze the structure, validity, and reliability of the Distance Doctoral Program Integration Scale. Instrument development followed a multi-step process including expert review, pilot test, and exploratory factor analysis. Instrument reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest. The results indicated a three-factor structure (i.e., faculty integration, student integration, and curriculum integration). The 32-item instrument is valid and reliable, measuring program integration of doctoral students studying at a distance.

Latinder -Modernizando Adoções de Animais Pets

The abandonment of animals is a recurrent problem in Brazilian society. This abandonment results in several problems to public health and very often go unnoticed by society and public policies. The Latinder mobile application was born from the Student Integration Project of the Integrated Computing Technical Course at an institution located in the interior of Santa Catarina state. The mobile application has the aim of combating pet abandonment and works like a social network with the purpose of facilitating the process of animal adoption.

WWH-dropout scale: when, why and how to measure propensity to drop out of undergraduate courses

PurposeThis study aims at developing an instrument to measure the latent trait propensity to drop out in face-to-face higher education.Design/methodology/approachBased on Tinto's student integration theory, a 27-item scale was created to measure student propensity to drop out of undergraduate programs. Item response theory was used to evaluate the psychometric analysis of the items. Furthermore, different methodologies were used to evaluate and provide evidence for content validity, response process validity, internal structure validity and criterion-related validity.FindingsWith the support of specialists in the construct, the interpretation of the scores for the use of the scale was defined in four levels of propensity: high, moderate, low and very low.Research limitations/implicationsThe latent trait propensity to drop out in face-to-face higher education allows the inclusion of new items and aspects in the instrument. Thus, it can be adapted to distance education.Practical implicationsThe students' propensity to drop out score can be useful for researchers and administration units in colleges and universities in the planning of permanent institutional actions and programs to take preventive measures.Social implicationsMinimize dropout in order to raise the educational level of the population and make better use of the resources invested in education.Originality/valueThis study points out when, why and how propensity to drop out can be measured and how scores can be interpreted in the context of the problem.

How to support mobility students to gain soft-competences: Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes

Students participating in mobility experiences have a great learning opportunity, but in many cases they hardly realise about the soft-competences they developed during mobility. In this context, the supporting role of universities is key for students to make the most of their mobility and be able to communicate their learning outcomes. This study analyses the support services that students receive for the development and acknolwledgement of mobility soft comptencies (related with the three dimensiones: knowledge, skills and attitudes or KSAs) in order to define the university strategy in this field. Results show two types of support for outgoing and incoming students: (i) passive initiatives based on delivering relevant information for the mobility period to students; and (ii) active initiatives based on training activities and activities for student integration in the host university/city/culture. No support initiatives on mobility related KSAs for returned students or academic staff have been identified.