Nontraditional Graduate Research Articles

Sustaining Hope Through College

This essay is a reflection of how hope plays a role in in student success. Based on the experiences of a non-traditional international graduate student, the essay explores reasons that inspire as well as challenge hope in college life.

Applying Three Strategies for Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Databases in a Mixed Methods Study of a Nontraditional Graduate Education Program

A central issue for mixed methods research is for researchers to effectively integrate (or mix) the quantitative and qualitative data in their studies. Despite extensive methodological discussions about integration, researchers using mixed methods approaches struggle with translating these discussions into practice and often make inadequate use of integration in their studies. The authors examined their integration practices as they applied three literature-based strategies within the context of one mixed methods study about a nontraditional graduate education program. From this examination, the authors describe the processes, products, uses, and challenges that materialized as they merged their quantitative and qualitative databases to develop a better understanding of participants’ perceptions of their experience in the program.

Sensible Tools of Engagement

In teaching both traditional undergraduates(17-25 years old) and non-traditional graduate students, I've found that age is not necessarily the deciding factor for judging a student's comfort level with technology. Some of my more media-savvy students have been my age or older, while some of those who struggled most were younger. In my experience, the following three types of technology (beyond the threaded discussions that take place online) are within the reach of the majority of my students and are the most useful teaching tools: podcasts, wiki-based group projects, and social bookmarking.

Paying Attention: Feminist Film Studies in the Twenty-First Century

Occasionally, I think back to 1991 and my first Society for Cinema Studies conference in Los Angeles. I was a nontraditional (read old) graduate student, considered myself a feminist, and was particularly interested in classical Hollywood cinema and its stars. I was not yet presenting my own work, but one of the panels I attended, made up primarily (if not completely) of other graduate students, focused on Hollywood stars. The room was packed, and I clearly remember that one of the panelists made remarks about how depressing some feminist film theory was?I heartily agreed with her?and that another presenter mentioned, in the course of her pa per, that Carmen Miranda had some control over the terms of her representation onscreen.1 The evidence was convincing, but during the question-and-answer period all hell broke loose. No fewer than three (women) audience members went after the assertion that a fe male star could have agency (She was completely within the ideol ogy! still rings in my mind), and the hapless student, to get them to back down, ended up retreating and proffering an apology about her work being preliminary. I sided with the panelist?as a woman born in the 1950s I knew that there had to have been politically active, as tute, and resistant women in Hollywood's past, even if they did not proclaim or understand themselves to be feminists. In fact, it will come as no surprise to readers of this journal that those students and their work turned out to represent what arguably was a vanguard of new approaches to women and film history. In the 1970s, film studies had begun to reject anecdotal and untrustworthy history and to theorize about films as purveyors of ideology with a par ticular focus on identity politics and sexual difference. Representation became the object of study and textual analysis the method; historical

A Clinical Supervision Model for Nontraditional Graduate Students in Training

Abstract With the increasing critical shortage of qualified speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the schools, graduate programs are charged with thinking beyond traditional programs in order to train committed candidates to serve school-aged populations in a cost-effective manner. The Department of Speech Pathology at Loyola College engaged in a partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education whereby students would be provided a scholarship for their degree, and in return would complete five years of employment upon graduation. A critical component of this program stipulated that students be employed and supervised in a local education agency. After experimenting with numerous models for clinical supervision in the school, one model emerged as effective. The college, student, and school perspective regarding effectiveness is presented.

Creating an Accelerated Joint BA-MPA Degree Program for Adult Learners

The increase in the number of adult learners in higher education has been dramatic in recent years. However, traditional MPA programs have done little to attract and accommodate these nontraditional students. This article discusses a collaborative effort between a school for professional studies offering B.A. degrees for adult learners and a department of public policy studies offering a traditional MPA degree to create an accelerated BA-MPA degree. The accelerated degree program was designed to address the need for the undergraduate program to expand its program offerings to include graduate degrees in order to tap an unfilled market. The graduate program wanted to address the need to bolster its enrollment and to increase the diversity of its student body. The article discusses several factors that have contributed to the early success of the accelerated BA-MPA program, including institutional merger, leadership support, market need, internal support, adult student support mechanisms, streamlined application process, and program liaisons. The effort to create a new program and implement it has not been without challenges, however. Chief among these have been cultural and programmatic differences between the collaborating department and the school, including traditional versus nontraditional student populations, undergraduate versus graduate education, a business versus public and nonprofit orientation, and a quarter versus semester format.

Serving nontraditional graduate students

According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, 1 1. National Center for Education Statistics, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2002/analyses/nontraditional/index.asp. the percentage of undergraduate students who attended college part-time grew from 28% to 39% between 1970 and 1999. This suggests a need for nontraditional graduate study as well. Still, few physics programs actively work with nontraditional graduate students. As more students and universities become involved in lifelong learning, developing physics programs that cater to non-traditional students will become more important. Many master’s programs in business administration are already beginning to focus on nontraditional students; it’s time for physics programs to do the same.Instead of following the traditional path in which graduate students are recruited exclusively from undergraduate physics programs and are expected to attend full-time, the University of Houston–Clear Lake (UHCL) developed a program that focuses on parttime, nontraditional students. As a result, we can educate students who would not normally be able to complete a graduate physics degree because of nonacademic obligations.A nontraditional upper-level undergraduate and graduate university, UHCL was established as a commuter campus for the University of Houston system. About half of its students take classes part-time. The average age of students is 30 years for undergraduates, and 32 for graduate students. In the fall of 2002, we began to develop the university’s first physics degree, an MS. The program began operations in fall of 2004 and currently has 40–50 graduate students; seven MS degrees were awarded in 2005. However, unlike most physics programs, almost all of our classes are offered in the evenings, and a majority of our students work full-time.We developed the physics MS program based on community interest as determined by an online survey of employers and potential students in the local aerospace and petrochemical industries. Overall, the respondents wanted a program that could prepare students with engineering backgrounds for PhD study in physics, astronomy, or related areas while broadening the technical backgrounds of practicing engineers. The most difficult part of developing the curriculum was working within the restrictions of the part-time students. Almost all of our classes are taught in the evenings, and many involve group learning. Although we included both thesis and non-thesis options in the curriculum, the majority of students choose the non-thesis option. The capstone experience for those students consists of at least one semester of independent study research and a class in writing and publishing scientific papers and giving oral presentations. Our part-time students also seem to prefer theoretical and computational work that better allows them to schedule research time. Experimental work is typically done in collaboration with labs at the neighboring Johnson Space Center, where many of our students work full-time.Because of the immediate popularity of this program among working students, we developed a professional physics sub-plan for the training of technical managers. The plan combines the physics core with business and organizational training from UHCL’s systems engineering and management programs.Overall, the response to the physics MS program has made it clear that a lot of people would love to pursue an advanced degree in physics but can only do so as nontraditional students. In physics we tend to follow an old model that expects students to work continuously from bachelor’s degree through graduate school and postdoctoral study. Those who digress from the standard path are accused of leaving physics and are rarely welcomed back. In the wake of September 11, and as relative enrollments in science, mathematics, and engineering continue to decline nationwide, perhaps it’s time to consider a new approach.REFERENCESection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCE <<1. National Center for Education Statistics, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2002/analyses/nontraditional/index.asp. Google Scholar© 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Self‐definition of women experiencing a nontraditional graduate fellowship program

AbstractWomen continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One factor contributing to this underrepresentation is the graduate school experience. Graduate programs in STEM fields are constructed around assumptions that ignore the reality of women's lives; however, emerging opportunities may lead to experiences that are more compatible for women. One such opportunity is the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K–12 Education (GK–12) Program, which was introduced by the National Science Foundation in 1999. Although this nontraditional graduate program was not designed explicitly for women, it provided an unprecedented context in which to research how changing some of the basic assumptions upon which a graduate school operates may impact women in science. This exploratory case study examines the self‐definition of 8 women graduate students who participated in a GK–12 program at a major research university. The findings from this case study contribute to higher education's understanding of the terrain women graduate students in the STEM areas must navigate as they participate in programs that are thought to be more conducive to their modes of self‐definition while they continue to seek to be successful in the historically Eurocentric, masculine STEM fields. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 852–873, 2006

Pedagogical Practices for Social Justice: A Movement Approach

This article describes the structure and social justice orientation of Gonzaga University's Leadership Formation Program, an innovative, nontraditional graduate program preparing principals, program administrators, and superintendents. Highlighting the virtual school district and complex case study approach used in the program, the article details three pedagogical practices central to preparing leaders to engage issues of social justice. Through the use of seminar readings, rigorous coaching of specific skill capacities, and case study simulations, the faculty engage candidates in the program to understand their roles as educational leaders and work as activists for social justice. The program teaches educational leaders that the answer does not lie “out there” but rather “inside” and that individuals committed to collectively reducing injustice can be a powerful force. Finally, a movement approach to confronting issues of social justice and taking action underscores the program's mandate that justice demands transforming the system.

First wave of non-traditional graduate workers will have to win over sceptics

First wave of non-traditional graduate workers will have to win over sceptics

Information literacy needs of nontraditional graduate students in social work

The increased use of technology in academia combined with the challenges posed by growing enrollments of nontraditional graduate students have forced institutions to adapt educational programs to insure student retention and academic success. This case study examines student perceptions and responses to a required information literacy workshop, developed for a Masters in Social Work, herein referred to as an MSW program. A review of the literature on information literacy needs of graduate students (specifically nontraditional students entering MSW programs) is presented below. Also included are the results of a pre/post-questionnaire that was developed and administered in the fall of 2003/2004 along with classroom observations to determine if additional information literacy instruction was necessary. The findings suggested that there was significant need for additional instruction and that graduate students recognize the need for information literacy instruction throughout their MSW track.

Strategies to meet the educational needs of non-traditional graduate students*

This paper examines some of the issues involved in offering graduate programs that meet the educational needs of nontraditional graduate students. The strengths and weaknesses of two models—a weekend program and a satellite program—are reviewed, and the impact of technology on these models is discussed. We also make recommendations for developing successful alternative graduate programs. The discussion includes the characteristics of the student population, considerations for course scheduling, use of technology, access to facilities, and the availability of academic resources. A challenge for criminal justice academicians in the twenty-first century is to create an environment both enriching and stimulating for students and faculty members engaged in nontraditional programs.

The Personal Touch

The Personal Touch

Class scheduling and academic achievement in a non-traditional graduate program

This study examines the relationship between scheduling format and academic achievement in a nontraditional master's degree program. At the beginning of each of three successive semesters, a pretest was administered to juvenile probation officers enrolled in a research methods course. Each group was exposed to the same course content but under varying conditions: “intensive,” eight hours a day for five consecutive days; “compacted,” eight hours a day for two and one-half successive week-ends; and “normal,” four hours each day on weekends spread out equally over five weekends of a regular 15-week semester. A posttest was administered at the conclusion of each class and results compared to a control group that had experienced the course under a traditional format of three hours per evening, one day a week for 15 successive weeks. Findings indicate no effect due to scheduling format. However, of interest is the finding that academic achievement is positively associated with having had a research methods course as an undergraduate but negatively associated with the elapsed time between receiving a baccalaureate degree and commencing graduate study. Implications from the finding for nontraditional graduate programs are discussed.

A comparison of students enrolled in nontraditional and traditional graduate education programs in terms of grade point average and graduate record examination scores

The quality of graduate students enrolled in nontraditional, field-based education was compared to that of graduate students in traditional, on-campus professional education degree programs through grade point average (GPA) and graduate record examination scores. The comparison of mean scores indicated that there is no statistically significant difference (P<.05) between the two groups of students. It was concluded that there is no difference in quality of students enrolled in the two types of graduate programs.

Evaluating nontraditional degree programs in post-secondary education

A process for evaluating non-traditional programs at post-secondary institutions is presented. Three major stages are outlined for conducting the evaluation: 1) the preoperational stages; 2) the implementation stage; and 3) the postoperational stage. A description of how the model has been utilized in evaluating a specific non-traditional graduate program, the Master of Liberal Studies Program, is given. Preliminary results of that evaluation are also outlined.

Experiential education at the graduate level: A perspective on faculty role and development

Adult development is an implicit component of graduate education. Yet, this idea is often ignored as traditional programs continue to view graduate education as largely a process of intellectual growth, usually detached from other life experience. Sponsored experiential learning provides one context through which adult developmental and intellectual goals may be simultaneously recognized and pursued. Required are a recognition of new roles for faculty and new efforts to help faculty in implementing these roles. The issues surrounding faculty role and faculty development are addressed in the context of a nontraditional graduate program which maximizes opportunities for the use of experiential learning.

Issues in quality education and the evaluation of nontraditional graduate programs

The traditional hallmarks of quality graduate education may be few but they are powerful. Graduate schools are seen by most academics as fixed entities with no viable alternatives. Accreditation associations, while claiming flexibility, often represent these traditional interests. Ultimately, few institutions, including the traditional, view accreditation with enthusiasm. Is accreditation worth the effort for nontraditional graduate institutions? Despite the weaknesses of the process, nontraditional graduate programs should seek full accreditation. Recognition is likely if, among other suggestions, nontraditional programs don't overpromise and do identify their program design with conceptual clarity.

Adult development and adult learning styles: The message for nontraditional graduate programs

Both the content and process of graduate education promote adult development. As developing people, adults usually enroll in graduate programs at times when they are building or changing the structure of their lives. Graduate programs, particularly nontraditional programs, can address both the growing adult as well as uphold relevant standards of intellectual excellence and professional expertise.

Issues in alternative graduate education

Most educators are aware that alterantive graduate programs exist in the United States. Few educators understand the exact nature and scope of these programs or the variety of issues that confront their development and viability. This introductory article defines alternative graduate education and identifies the issues and concepts considered to be critical to the conduct of nontraditional graduate study.