This study investigates the critical literacy practices of adult learners at a community college. Student participants were selected from four different leveled reading courses. In this study, four guiding questions that were adopted from Klenner and Sandretto (2011): (1) How do students make personal connections to text?; (2) In what ways do…

Students in developmental math classes have been documented to struggle with arithmetic. This dissertation research was a response to the calls in the literature to qualitatively understand what students are learning in a classroom. Number sequences have been well researched to document the connection of student understanding of math in elementary…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how educators and students described the socio-cognitive aspects of collaborative learning in community colleges of Midwestern US. The theoretical framework of this study included the social cognitive theory which speculated three main elements of learning such as behavior,…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to understand the community college online instructors' and online students' perceptions of the underlying reasons for academic underachievement at a California community college. The study comprised eight online instructors and seven online students at a community college in California.…

Math anxiety has become an alarming social justice concern, as it results in negative academic consequences, contributes to disinterest and lack of persistence in STEM programs for underrepresented students, and limits their opportunities in STEM careers. According to research, this fear of math occurs long before students begin working on math…

School officials, policymakers, administrators, and colleges and universities express concerns express concern regarding issues that affect the persistence of community college students. Graduation rates from community colleges continue to decline at colleges across the United States. The problem investigated in this study was how the negative…

Community colleges rely heavily on their adjunct faculty to provide instruction; however, institutions often fail to fully engage and support adjunct faculty in the work of student success. Although adjunct faculty represent approximately two thirds of all faculty at community colleges (American Association of University Professors [AAUP], 2018),…

Student success and campus safety are two key issues in higher education. Efforts to maximize both issues are the focus of campus administration. Behavioral Intervention Teams (BITs) are implemented as a dual mechanism to improve student success and campus safety. BITs increasingly are becoming best practice and an essential component in…

Work-based learning (WBL) has been sought as a strategy to produce better equipped graduates to enter the workforce. This quantitative, quasi-experimental study used Liptak's Career Planning Scale to examine differences that existed between community college student and alumni completion of WBL through enrollment in a Work Experience class and…

As students need to attain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to live and work in a diverse global society, they participate in study abroad opportunities offered by higher education institutions to assist them with intercultural learning. However, prior research shows that the level of intercultural learning in study abroad programs can vary…

This phenomenological study described the experiences of student military veterans in a community college with physical and psychological health needs. Each participant enrolled in the community college by utilizing the benefits of the post-9/11 GI Bill and transitioned from active duty to civilian life. More than 40,000 programs in the United…

This study investigates the impact of community college students' participation in mentored undergraduate research, with an emphasis on STEM transfer students. The STEM Academic Research and Training (START) program at Wake Technical Community College was designed and implemented by community college faculty and staff and was evaluated in a…

This study investigated the lived experiences of Black male student-athletes (BMSAs) participating in football and basketball at a community college. Their psycho-social-emotional experiences and development were emphasized before, during, and after college. The study deployed Afropessimism to frame the experiences of BMSAs; as such, I assumed…

This study explored student learning outcomes related to virtual international exchange, namely global perspective-taking and self-efficacy, among a sample of 76 community college students in the United States. Viewing virtual exchange as a possible high-impact educational practice, we anticipated that participation would have a positive…

Effective engagement with course readings can provide a pathway to success for students in higher education. However, only about one-third of college students are completing assigned readings and among those who do, many students struggle with successful interpretation and analysis of the content (Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates…