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…

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…

Although scholars have examined how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ+) students perceive their collegiate environments, few quantitative studies disaggregate data to see how populations within the LGBQ+ community experience certain outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate how student subgroups within the LGBQ+…

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'…

Current literature underscores the need to address unwelcoming campus climates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, questioning, and other sexual minority identities (LGBQ+) students both in and outside of the classroom by taking a critical look at the practices adopted at the institution. Using a large-scale, multi-institution quantitative and…

To promote inclusivity in quantitative research about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) students, scholars must first understand how sexual orientation data are collected in higher education survey research (Garvey, 2014; Rankin & Garvey, 2015). There is one research question that guides this study: How is sexual orientation demographic…

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…

The purpose of this study was to apply several measures of learning and engagement to a comparable cohort of honors and non-honors students in order to generate a preliminary model of student engagement. Specific purposes were the following: (1) to determine the feasibility for use of several measures of student characteristics that may affect…

In this dissertation, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) serves as a nodal point through which to examine the power relations shaping the direction and practices of higher education in the twenty-first century. Theoretically, my analysis is informed by Foucault's concept of governmentality, briefly defined as a technology of power…

A substantial proportion of students doubt whether they should continue their studies, and are consequently more likely to withdraw. In the study described in this article, undergraduates who reported they doubted gave their reasons why they did, outlined support they received and stated why they ultimately decided to continue with their studies.…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and its companion projects serve bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities committed to assessing and improving the quality of the undergraduate experience. While each participating institution receives a detailed, customized "Institutional Report," the "Annual…

Colleges and universities recognize that one of the primary goals of higher education is to promote students' ability to think critically. Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS), this study examined the relationship between faculty teaching practices and the development of students' critical thinking skills,…

Though much research has been conducted about the factors that contribute to overall college student success, little research has been conducted which ties self-efficacy, career focus, and a critical third variable, sense of life calling or purpose to race or ethnicity and the relationship of college classification to this topic. Specifically, the…

The researcher investigated three types of factors, academic, commitment, and social on college sophomore's decisions to persist at predominately White institutions. The academic factors (academic integration, academic rigor), commitment (goal commitment and institutional commitment) and social factors (social integration and racial climate) were…

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) uses a suite of assessment tools to guide and reinforce a cycle of activities that creates an institutional culture of planning and decision making based on evidence. This cycle includes institutional planning (goal setting), implementation of plans, assessment of outcomes, use of findings…