Student Persistence Research Articles

A Community College Case Study on Curricular Maps and Student Retention

To understand retention, evaluation of guided pathways (GP) implementation is an important tool. In an effort to help students succeed, colleges often give students a specified set of core courses and a specific or even prescribed pathway to complete their general education requirements. Retention efforts are always a topic with administrators at community colleges across the United States. The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) incorporated GP into retention efforts in the fall of 2015. Over the past 4 years, CCBC has incorporated more activities focusing on increasing knowledge about GP. The pathways are Arts; Business, Law and Education; General Studies; Humanities and Social Sciences; Science and Health Careers; and Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Vincent Tinto’s framework is often presumed to be inappropriate to the study of student persistence at community colleges because social integration is considered unlikely to occur for students at these institutions. Community college students are thought to not have the time to participate in activities like attending concerts, joining clubs, or exploring art galleries that would facilitate social integration. This study examines student and faculty perceptions of GP at CCBC and whether they help with retention of the students for sequential semesters. I interviewed students who were enrolled in English 101 for the first time starting in the fall of 2015 through 2018. I also interviewed full-time faculty who taught English 101 on the same campus.

Examining the Relationships between Teacher Self-Disclosure and Emotional and Behavioral Engagement of STEM Undergraduate Research Scholars: A Structural Equation

Understanding the factors contributing to the persistence and retention of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is among the main issues of concern within STEM post-secondary education. The literature suggests that teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement play a significant positive role in the learning process across disciplines. Such factors may lead to improved academic achievements and retention in STEM disciplines. A variety of studies examined the relationship between teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement within the field of humanities, but less within the fields of STEM. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement of 208 undergraduate students enrolled in a two-year Freshman Research Immersion program. The results showed significant relationships between different aspects of teacher self-disclosure and classroom engagement. Additionally, STEM students view that high amounts of teacher self-disclosure can be related to negative aspects of classroom engagement such as emotional engagement anxiety. The study’s significance lies in practical recommendations associated with the strategic use of instances of teacher self-disclosure while teaching STEM classes and ways to support STEM undergraduate students’ levels of classroom engagement.

Are gender-science stereotypes barriers for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? Exploring when, how, and to whom in an experimentally-controlled setting.

Based on Social Cognitive Career Theory principles, the present study sought to investigate whether stereotype threat experiences could act as a barrier and reduce the persistence of women in math-intensive activities. More specifically, we assessed whether the experimental activation of stereotypes about women's lower math capabilities affected the performance, persistence, and self-selected difficulty of engineering students in a math task which required sustained effort. We also evaluated the relationships between these effects and the participants' pre-testing gender-science stereotypes and math self-concept. A sample of 340 engineering students (175 and 165 self-identified as males and females, respectively) were recruited and randomly assigned to a control (Con) or stereotype threat (StA) condition to form four similarly sized groups. All participants rated their self-concept in four academic domains (math, chemistry, physics, and coding), completed the gender-science Implicit Association Test, and a "reading comprehension task" that served to promote the stereotype threat manipulation immediately before facing a modified version of the Math Effort Task (M-MET). We observed that, in the control condition, M-MET performance, self-selected difficulty, and persistence were similar in female and male participants, independent of their gender-science implicit stereotypes but correlated to their math self-concept scores. In contrast, the StA condition triggered opposite effects in female and male students, so they showed decreased/enhanced M-MET performance and self-selected difficulty, respectively. This experimental condition also resulted in enhanced persistence of the male students without affecting the number of trials completed by female students. These effects were correlated with the strength of the participants' gender-science implicit stereotypes but not with their math self-concept scores. In fact, as revealed by finer-grain analyses, stereotype threat only had a significant impact on individuals harboring stereotypical gender-science implicit associations. Therefore, it is concluded that: (1) stereotypes can promote differences between male and female engineering students in their performance, self-confidence, and persistence in math-related activities; (2) These effects seem to be more prominent in individuals implicitly perceiving science as a masculine domain. The relevance of these findings to explain women's enhanced abandonment rates of math-intensive studies is discussed.

Evaluation of Cost-Conscious Course-Embedded Research Projects in a Freshman Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Course

Students who experience research as undergraduates tend to remain in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Since course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are often expensive to implement, we developed a relatively inexpensive first-semester research course for majors entitled “Freshman Research in Biochemistry,” in which approximately 100 students participated in an ongoing research project each year. During this course, students conducted laboratory work related to multiple research veins, and graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and the instructor ensured that sufficient data from the laboratory were made available to the students to analyze. During three unique course iterations, students worked on faculty research projects that included connecting contigs of the draft genome of a native Oklahoma bacterial Arhodomonas isolate capable of degrading petroleum hydrocarbons, cloning antibiotic resistance genes from the genus Elizabethkingia, and analyzing RNAseq data from Elizabethkingia anopheles challenged with cell wall-active antibiotics to determine gene function, gene differential expression, and relative gene genome location. During the course, students scored results, analyzed data, maintained laboratory notebooks, and presented posters in a symposium to faculty and graduate TAs. To determine positive impacts of the course on students, they completed the Laboratory Course Assessment Survey in two course sections. Survey data indicated/students agreed that the course included elements of Iteration, Collaboration, and Discovery and Relevance. Students also reported that they gained scientific skills but were ambivalent about whether instructor feedback was harsh. Examination of Student Survey of Instruction responses showed students thought positively about the course, but some considered it too difficult. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry major cohort tracking revealed no effect of Freshman Research in Biochemistry on student persistence in the major or institution. Nonetheless, we consider the course a cost-conscious model for biochemistry and molecular biology departments for introducing research to first-year students.

Marianismo, Mental Health, and Educational Persistence of Latina STEM College Students

In order to better assist Latinas in STEM, it is imperative to understand the impact of cultural values in their educational persistence. This study uses a national dataset of Latina STEM college students to examine the relationship between positive and negative marianismo beliefs and how this impacts mental health and educational persistence. Findings from the study demonstrated that endorsing positive aspects of marianismo beliefs benefited the educational persistence of Latinx STEM college students. Results can inform institutions on how to develop programs that increase Latina STEM student persistence.

Hypothyroidism Among College Students and Its Association With Academic Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Little is known about the impact of hypothyroidism and its contribution to learning difficulties and academic performance in college-age students. The objective is toassess the frequency of hypothyroidism and its associations with academic performance in college-age students. A cross-sectional study included 395 students studying across various Jeddah universities and selected by non-probability convenient sampling. Students self-answered the survey using Google Forms. The survey included demographic data, thyroid data, academic achievement as measured by overall grade point average (GPA), and student persistence as measured by academic failure and delay. Three hundred ninety-five students were included, their median age was 23 years (17-33), 96 were males (24.3%) and 299 were females (75.7%). Their median GPA was 4 (2.76-4). Thirty-two students (8.1%) had been treated for hypothyroidism and eight students (25.8%) were non-compliant with therapy. Odds of hypothyroidism increased among females (OR 3.33, 95% CI: 0.99-10.78, p=0.048), older age (OR 2.60, 95% CI: 1.33-5.77, p=0.009), those with a positive family history of thyroid illnesses (OR 5.49, 95% CI: 2.30-13.07, p<0.001), and those with academic failure (OR 3.31, 95% CI: 1.43-7.30, p=0.003) and academic delay (OR 2.83, 95% CI: 1.14-7.05, p=0.020). There was no significant association between hypothyroidism and GPA (OR 2.42, 95% CI: 0.83-7.77, P=0.092). Hypothyroidism was prevalent among college students (8%), especially among older females. Hypothyroidism was associated with difficult student persistence, but this association did not reflect on their overall academic achievement. Incompliance with thyroid replacement therapy may be a common issue among hypothyroid patients. Further studies should focus on specific tests of the cognitive function of different learning domains and the role of treatment.

The Perceived Impact of Online Course Design on the Persistence of Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The Perceived Impact of Online Course Design on the Persistence of Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Reflections: Rethinking Engagement and Student Persistence

We are delighted to feature this timely reflective article on Rethinking Engagement and Student Persistence by Professor Vincent Tinto, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University, United States of America (USA). It’s timely because six years ago Professor Tinto reflected in this Journal on Student Persistence – and that was pre-COVID, and the associated mass transition to online, flexible and hybrid learning modalities. We are delighted because during the STARS 2023 Conference, it was apparent that Professor Tinto’s work continues to inspire and guide practice as he generously offers his thoughts to practitioners and researchers who share his passion for improving student outcomes. In this article, Vincent explores the role that social networks have in fostering student engagement, leading to persistence. As he puts it ’engagement matters’ and indeed it does, although its impact as he says remains relatively under-explored. Vincent considers social networks using the classroom and curriculum as contexts for understanding how different forms of networks: tight or loose, dense or sparse can engender different outcomes for students noting that the mere existence of a network will not always lead to positive student engagement. He gives attention to the formation of networks and notes that some of these connecting relationships are less visible, especially for online students and for those students whose networks exist in virtual social spaces that are outside the realm of our institution. Acknowledging that staff cannot and should not seek to be involved in all student networks, he implores us to do what we can to foster productive networks within our spheres of influence, because put simply ‘student engagement cannot be left to chance.’

The effects of free tuition on the persistence of university students in Chile

This article assesses the impact of free university tuition on the persistence of students from low-income families in Chile. Drawing from 10 universities, a sample of students receiving free tuition was compared, using a discrete time survival model, to one of students without free tuition. The results show that students receiving free tuition were less likely to remain at the end of the first two years than were those who had merit scholarships and a loan that covered all tuition costs. On the other hand, free tuition students were more likely to remain at the end of the third year.

Arabic Teaching Efficacy Model (ATEM): A Language Teaching Model Design

This study investigates the role of self-efficacy (S-e) in teaching Arabic and proposes a model for teaching that encompasses teaching goals, materials, and strategies. The study draws on Bandura's scientific works and other studies that develop S-e theory. The model is developed based on the characteristics of the materials that promote the growth of S-e in students, using three different methods. The resulting Arabic Teaching Efficacy Model (ATEM) improves objective thinking, critical thinking, responsiveness, and student persistence through active mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion from others, social recognition, and reinforcement of physiological and affective aspects. ATEM recommends themes such as Science and technology, What do you think?, I can speak arabic, I speak arabic every day, What is your experience?, Other people's experiences, and Respect for others as teaching materials. Additionally, ATEM suggests teaching strategies such as social modeling, social persuasion, additional feedback, and group work.

Envisioning the future of learning and teaching engineering in the artificial intelligence era: Opportunities and challenges

Envisioning the future of learning and teaching engineering in the artificial intelligence era: Opportunities and challenges

The Persistence Character and Math Processing Skills of Elementary School Students in Thematic Learning

Mathematical process skills and study persistence are indicators of student learning success. Lack of persistence and mathematical process skills can hinder the distribution of knowledge in the learning process to students. So, it is important to conduct this research to measure the effect of mathematical process skills on students' persistence character. The survey method uses a mixed method with a sequential explanatory design. A simple random sampling technique was used as the sampling method in this study. In this study, hypothesis testing with a t-test and simple linear regression test is used as a method of data analysis. The collection method uses observation sheet research instruments, questionnaires, and interviews. This study found differences in students' mathematical processing skills and persistence in the multiplication and multiplication factor subjects in each elementary school. Furthermore, there is a significant influence between mathematical process skills on the character of student persistence in the thematic learning of the material factors of multiples and numbers. It was concluded that by knowing the effect of students' mathematical processing skills on their persistence character, educators should further maximize the learning process to train students' mathematical processing skills.

Addressing the Needs of Diverse Learners in a Christian Online Higher Education Environment

With the growth of online higher education and the increasing diversification of college and university students, there is a need to focus on addressing the inequities of online learning and responding to the needs of diverse students. Students experience greater challenges in academic performance and in persisting and completing online programs, especially among particular student subgroups and course subject areas. Although research has identified some of the facilitating factors and barriers to online student persistence in coursework, supporting diverse online students requires attention not only to course design and instruction, but also broader institutional commitments. Christian higher education can present unique challenges to these students but might also be able to provide support and remedies that are not immediately available at other types of institutions. This paper synthesizes the literature on the needs of diverse learners in online education and provides an example of how the online campus of Abilene Christian University is attempting to meet the needs of its diverse learners.

Do Emotional Intelligence and Academic Persistence Mitigate the Relationship Between Lecturer-Initiated Incivility and Emotional Exhaustion?

Supervisor, co-worker, and customer-initiated incivility in the services industry dominate the literature. Incivility studies in academic institutions are beginning to emerge and students’ initiated incivility has taken the center stage, whereas studies on lecturer-initiated incivility are lacking. This study, therefore, seeks to find out the direct and interactive roles of lecturer-initiated incivility, emotional intelligence, and academic persistence on emotional exhaustion among undergraduates. Data were collected from undergraduate students ( N = 254) across Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Nigeria. Moderation analyses showed that both emotional intelligence and academic persistence moderated the relationship between lecturer-initiated incivility and emotional exhaustion. Findings of the study imply that emotional intelligence and academic persistence of students help alleviate emotional exhaustion.

Understanding the factors that influence matriculation and persistence in Black medical students.

The Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC) Strategic Plan lists 10 action plans one of which is focused on understanding how systemic barriers, such as racism and access to quality education, may negatively impact diversity in academic medicine. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand the factors that impact the matriculation and persistence of Black medical students. A qualitative phenomenological study using Tinto's Model of Institutional Departure as an organizing framework was used for this study. Participants were asked a series of questions covering topics related to their goals, their medical school experience, their preparation for medical school, what could improve their medical school experience, and advice for future Black medical students. Forty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted during the fall 2022 term from October to December with Black medical students enrolled in over 16 US or Caribbean medical schools. Findings reported that two factors impacted matriculation for Black medical students (exposure to the medical field and resources, particularly financial resources). Findings also reported that three factors impacted the persistence of Black students once in medical school (diversity, support, and emotional resources). The five factors identified by participants that impact matriculation and persistence for Black medical students can be used by medical schools to increase their enrollment and graduation of Black students.

Peran School Belonging dan Hardiness terhadap Motivasi Berprestasi pada Siswa Keluarga Menuju Sejahtera (KMS)

Motivation is one of the important things for students in the learning process to accomplished the best achievement. This motivation for reaching the best achievement possessed by students provides enthusiasm, direction, and persistence in students’ behavior. As one of the psychological aspects, achievement motivation is influenced by individual factors, such as a sense of belonging to the school (school belonging) and hardiness. Regarding the achievement motivation of KMS students, the status of KMS students who are students from underprivileged families also contributes to individual achievement motivation, this is because families with low socioeconomic tend to prioritize how they survive rather than encouraging their children to excel. This research objective is to examine empirically the role of school belonging and hardiness in predicting motivation to reach the best achievement of KMS students. KMS students are students who come from families towards prosperity who receive educational assistance from the local government so that every underprivileged student can get a proper education. The research subjects were 226 KMS students from three Junior High Schools in the city of Yogyakarta. This research is non-experimental quantitative research with a survey method. The tools of measurement are used in scale of best performance motivation scale, psychological sense of school belonging and hardiness. The results of this study indicate that sense of school belonging and hardiness in collaboration are able to predict achievement motivation in KMS students. The relationship that occurs is positive, the higher school belonging and hardiness, the higher the achievement motivation of KMS students.

여자대학생의 스포츠활동이 그릿, 학업적 자기효능감, 대학생활적응 간 관계

This study analyzes the relationship between grit, academic self-efficacy, and college life adaptation of female college students" sports activities, and prepares measures to induce increased sports activities and college life adaptation of female college students through this in the future. The purpose is to provide useful data for establishing an effective operation plan for preparation. In order to secure basic data for the study, female college students who had experience directly participating in sports activities during college life from November 15 to December 28, 2022 were selected as the population, and the convenience table ball extraction method among non-probability sampling methods was used. A sample of 222 people was drawn. For the data used in the actual analysis, 215 questionnaire data were used for the actual analysis, excluding the questionnaires of 7 persons who were judged to be difficult to use due to missing survey details or double answers. The research results are as follows. First, it was found that the persistence of effort of female college students participating in sports activities had a significant effect on academic self-efficacy, but it did not have a significant effect on the consistency of interest. Second, it was found that the persistence of female college students participating in sports activities had a significant effect on their adaptation to college life, but it did not have a significant effect on the consistency of interest. Third, the academic self-efficacy of female college students participating in sports activities was found to have a significant effect on college life adaptation.

Exploring Individual Feature Importance in Student Persistence Prediction

Student persistence is of great importance for all stakeholders in higher education. There have been numerous studies using data mining and machine learning tools to predict student persistence. However, very little research has explored individual feature importance and their distinctive roles in predicting individual outcomes. In this study, we compare the predictive performance of two widely used machine learning models, logistic regression, and random forest, and use the SMOTE to improve the model performance. We analyze the feature importance in both aggregated form and their varied impact on individual predictions using a real-world student persistence dataset. In the discussion section, we propose practical approaches for monitoring and predicting student persistence.

The impact of guidance counselling on gender segregation: Major choice and persistence in higher education. An experimental study.

Gender segregation in higher education is considered one of the main drivers of persistent economic gender inequality. Yet, though there has been considerable research identifying and describing the underlying mechanisms that cause gendered educational choices in higher education, little is known about how gender segregation in higher education could be changed. Accordingly, this article aims to determine the potential of educational interventions during high school to foster gender desegregation in higher education. We focused on two different processes that contribute to gender segregation in majors among higher education graduates: first, the selection into specific majors and, second, the selection out of specific majors. We investigated whether an intensive counselling programme leads to more gender-atypical choices among high-school graduates and examined whether intensive counselling supports several indicators of students' persistence in gender-atypical majors. Based on data from an experimental study of a counselling programme for German high-school students (N = 625), we estimated the programme's effect with linear probability models and intention-to-treat analysis. Our results show that high-school graduates are more likely to choose a gender-atypical major if they have received intensive counselling. This applies more to men than to women. In addition, the programme improved some persistence indicators for students in gender-atypical majors. Although we found a significant programme effect only for perceived person-major fit and student satisfaction, the coefficients of all aspects of students' persistence show a trend indicating that the programme was beneficial for students in gender-atypical majors. As experimental studies can also be affected by various types of bias, we performed several robustness checks. All analyses indicated stable results. In conclusion, we suggest that intensive counselling programmes have the potential to reduce gender segregation in higher education. More students were motivated to choose a gender-atypical major, and different aspects of student persistence were supported by the programme for students in gender-atypical majors.

Moving Across 2-Year Institutions: Who Are Lateral Transfer Students? What Are Their Degree Outcomes?

Objectives/Research Question: This study aims to explore who transfers between 2-year colleges (lateral transfer students) and how these students fare in terms of degree attainment. More specifically, this research explores two research questions: (1) What are the predictors of lateral transfer? (2) Is lateral transfer associated with degree attainment outcomes, time to earn a degree, or cumulative loan debt by the sixth year? Methods: Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students 12:17 data, I compared lateral transfer students to students who never transferred (non-transfer students) to identify the predictors of lateral transfer and examine degree attainment outcomes. I used multinominal logit, logistic regressions, and inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment matching models. Results: Lateral transfer students were more likely to be female and take college courses in high school than non-transfer students. Six years later, lateral transfer students were more likely to earn all types of college credentials, except for an associate degree, complete a degree more quickly, and still attend college if they had not yet earned a credential than non-transfer students. However, lateral transfer students took out a greater amount of federal loans than non-transfer students. Conclusions: Given the positive degree attainment outcomes, policymakers, and practitioners should reconsider the role of lateral transfer in the college completion agenda and pay more attention to why students make lateral transfers and the nature of their college pathways. This study suggests that lateral transfer has great potential to improve persistence and graduation for students who start their education at a community college.