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Eric.ed.gov – Strategies for Promoting Gatekeeper Course Success among Students Needing Remediation: Research Report for the Virginia Community College System

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Virginia Community College System (VCCS) is engaged in a strategic planning process to improve performance beyond the goals in “Dateline 2009,” the system’s current vision and plan. A key objective is to encourage colleges to improve retention and academic success for students, particularly the substantial numbers who arrive unprepared for college-level work. Specifically, the VCCS seeks to improve the rates at which underprepared students complete developmental coursework and advance to take and pass college courses, particularly the initial college-level, or “gatekeeper,” math and English offerings. The VCCS asked the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University, to conduct analyses to inform its efforts to improve student outcomes. In response, CCRC designed a study to address the following question: What student characteristics, course-taking patterns,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – How Much Do Study Habits, Skills, and Attitudes Affect Student Performance in Introductory College Accounting Courses?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Background: Financial accounting is a skills course which to a large extent can be best learned through deliberate practice. Teachers implement this by continuously assigning homeworks, encouraging good study habits, asking students to budget time for studying, and generally exhorting students to “work hard”. Aims: This paper examines the impact of “study habits, skills, and attitudes” (SHSAs) on the performance of students in an introductory financial accounting college course. Sample: 395 2nd year business students in a Philippine university. Method: Data related to variables found to have influenced accounting performance in previous researches as well as SHSA variables are collected through student survey and school records. They are treated as independent variables using multiple regression analysis, with the accounting course final grade as the dependent variable. The… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Beyond Introductory Programming: Success Factors for Advanced Programming

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Numerous studies document high drop-out and failure rates for students in computer programming classes. Studies show that even when some students pass programming classes, they still do not know how to program. Many factors have been considered to explain this problem including gender, age, prior programming experience, major, math background, personal attributes, and the programming language itself. Research in this area has mainly been confined to introductory programming courses. This study explores the problem at a higher level. It tracks students longitudinally as they move from the first introductory programming class, to the second introductory class, and finally, to completion of an advanced programming course. The research question answered was: What are the factors contributing to the success or lack of success in advanced programming? The success… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – American Higher Education: Journalistic and Policy Perspectives from “National CrossTalk”

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in teaching and learning, intense policy ferment, and debates over the future of colleges and universities and their roles and responsibilities in American society. Parts one and two of this book describe several of the most interesting and significant developments in higher education, and in public policy, reported by leading journalists in the field of higher education. In part three, observers of American higher education comment on critical issues facing colleges and universities, the states… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Instruction Quality or Working Condition? The Effects of Part-Time Faculty on Student Academic Outcomes in Community College Introductory Courses

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: More than half of community college courses are taught by part-time faculty. Drawing on data from six community colleges, this study estimates the effects of part-time faculty versus full-time faculty on students’ current and subsequent course outcomes in developmental and gateway courses, using course fixed effects and propensity score matching to minimize bias arising from student self-sorting across and within courses. We find that part-time faculty have negative effects on student subsequent enrollments. These negative effects are driven by results in math courses. We also find that course schedules could explain substantial proportions of the estimated negative effects, while faculty individual characteristics could not. Survey results on faculty professional experiences suggest that part-time faculty had less institutional knowledge regarding both academic and nonacademic services. We infer that… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teaching and Learning Experiences with Enhanced Books in Engineering Math and Science Courses

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study focuses on understanding the implementation of three interactive digital products in the first-year foundational courses (General Chemistry, Physics I & II, Calculus I & II) at the Faculty of Engineering, and the perceptions of teaching and learning experiences with those products. The data were gathered from the instructors, students and Distance Education Unit Coordinator through in-depth interview of purposeful sample of the academics, student online survey and product platform usage data. The study reveals the nuances of the institutional change prompted by the initiatives for advancing teaching and learning through the integration of technology. The study findings are discussed through themes that address the benefits of integrating digital products as well as challenges experienced by the instructors, students, and by the institution during this period… Continue Reading