Although student engagement has been a widely researched area known to improve student learning and a topic of scholarly debate for many decades now, this has yet to be the case in Azerbaijan. Data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, conducted among 433 undergraduate students of the 18-23 age range (M = 21.37, SD = 1.43) at eight…

Research on student engagement in higher education (HE) has addressed the conceptualisation, measurement and criticism of the phenomenon over the last two decades, predominantly in Western countries. The conceptualisation of student engagement has received little attention in countries of a lengthy association with the Soviet realm. This study…

Previous research has suggested mixed results concerning gifted populations and achievement goal orientation. This study investigated achievement goal orientation in honors and general education undergraduate students, exploring the factor structure of a commonly used assessment and looking at ability level differences using two types of…

With the use of social media for academic purposes gaining in popularity, the underlying motivation for this study was to seek a detailed understanding of its impact on students' academic performance. A survey of 334 first-year students in accounting courses at five Australian higher education institutions was undertaken to evaluate the different…

Student retention and graduation in higher education are important goals for institutions across the U.S., yet improving rates of first-year retention and graduation has proven challenging. One strategy promoted for improving these rates of student success is increasing levels of student engagement in the classroom and within the larger academic…

The nation is at a critical juncture in history as it seeks to increase the number of students who enter the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. The national push to have a properly trained STEM workforce was at the forefront of the past administration's top priority list. The higher education community has a unique…

Achievement goal orientation has been studied within education for decades, and previous research has linked the construct to student achievement and engagement. This study uses the 2x2 achievement goal orientation as a framework for exploring high-impact practice (HIP) participation for approximately 8,000 college students across 15 different…

This study validated the factor structure of 29 items from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that were hypothesized to represent six social capital constructs. There were 837 complete freshmen's responses to the 2009 and 2012 NSSE. One half of the sample was used to conduct an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to provide further…

Purpose: Faculty-in-Residence (FIR) programs are implemented based on research that shows positive effects on student success when students interact with faculty outside of the classroom. However, most research is limited by cross-sectional studies of only students and does not look at the Faculty-in-Residence programs from a holistic perspective…

The development of undergraduate students' soft skills is crucial because their chances to satisfactorily deal with the demands of various environments and interlocutors increases with the development of their soft skills. Based on the achievement goal theory, this study aimed to examine the role of the school environment in fostering students'…

Based on the detrimental effects of stereotypes such as the model minority myth, the purpose of this study was to examine the engagement rates of first-generation and non-first-generation Asian American students at various types of institutions compared to their peers and to explore whether the engagement rate differs depending upon institution…

This dissertation's two primary purposes were to construct an alternative socioeconomic status model and estimate how it predicts student success in higher education. This research filled a gap in knowledge about the widely acknowledged disparities in higher education based on socioeconomic status. Prior research has often relied on parental…

Residential learning communities (RLCs) are residence hall environments designed to deliver academic and social benefits. For decades, many have argued RLCs are an effective means for increasing student success. Yet substantial changes in the defining characteristics of campus housing and student diversity have led to new questions about the…

Inherent challenges affect first-generation students' persistence from as early as the first college year. Using cultural capital as a guide, this study is unique in that it investigates the contribution of first-year policies and programs to the success of first-generation students in 57 bachelor's degree-granting institutions across five states…

In the United States, colleges and universities have not promoted the academic success of their students of color as effectively as their White students (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2016). While much research has been conducted to explore how racism impacts higher education attainment of Black/African American and…