This qualitative case study was designed to collect and analyze the perceptions of youth who experienced foster care regarding their campus involvement experiences at Missouri higher education institutions. This study is designed to understand this population's experiences and evaluate their challenges and successes as they navigate the…

This qualitative case study examines the lateral transfer student experience--students who transfer from one four-year institution to another--at the University of Missouri. Through the lens of transfer student capital, this study analyzed eleven lateral transfer student interviews and three institutional websites to identify a revised framework…

Active teaching methods are believed to facilitate higher-order thinking skills and prepare allied health students for independent clinical decision-making. This quantitative, correlational study aimed to explain the relationships between student preferences for active over traditional methods and their beliefs, the frequency and positiveness of…

Postsecondary education is associated with achieving economic self-sufficiency and other positive outcomes. Young people in foster care face challenges pursuing postsecondary education, which can lead to them being less likely than their peers to enroll in college and less likely to earn a degree when enrolled. One federal initiative meant to…

This qualitative study was designed to explore the experiences of students and student services staff involved in the direct exchange program between University of Central Missouri (UCM) and Orebro University. The researcher explored the impact of student services staff assistance on students participating in this direct exchange. The conceptual…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insight into the lived experiences of preservice teachers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including how such experiences impacted their perceptions of self-efficacy and pedagogical readiness. The participants were preservice teachers (both graduate and undergraduate) enrolled in an educator preparation…

Science fairs offer potential opportunities for students to learn first-hand about the practices of science. Over the past six years we have been carrying out voluntary and anonymous surveys with regional and national groups of high school and post high school students to learn about their high school science fair experiences regarding help…

The higher education landscape is changing rapidly, and with nationwide trends of declining enrollment, colleges and universities are faced with the challenging task of understanding what that means for them. In the state of Missouri, two- and four-year institutions have experienced decreases in enrollment, with an overall decrease of 9 percent…

When institutions engage in discussions regarding improving retention and graduation rates, invariably the conversation focuses on entering student characteristics, especially ACT and SAT scores and high school grades. Clearly, attracting and enrolling well-prepared and motivated high-ability students will certainly improve institutional measures…

Due to the lack of student engagement in the common lecture-centered model, we explored a model of instructional delivery where our undergraduate and graduate classes were structured so that students had opportunities for daily interaction with each other. Specifically, we examined how students perceived the value of social interaction on their…

In Leonard Koos's book, "The Junior-College Movement", he described the establishment of a junior college in an American public school district as the "culmination of the local school system", alluding to the prestige associated with having a junior college in a community. The best-known example of this arrangement was in…

This dissertation examined the perceptions of ten African American male college students persisting in an undergraduate degree program within the state of Missouri. According to Carnegie foundation reports, the campus attended by the ten research participants has a total student population of just over 16,000 students (majority undergraduate &…

This is the second article in a three-part series on reimagining the community college student experience, describing a new model for academic pathways, key design principles, examples from colleges leading the way, and implementation challenges. Community colleges are beginning to embrace the task of reimagining students' educational experiences.…

Many academic departments are making efforts to increase faculty and student community engagement as part of a movement to revitalize the civic function of higher education. A case study of the development of a public sociology program provides examples of steps that can be taken to involve educators and students in communities in multifaceted…

Established in 1873, Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, provided a unique experience for their undergraduate students. A limited amount of research has been conducted on the institution but no work has been done to specifically look at the undergraduate student experience. Using archival research methods and information from literature on…