This essay presents the reflections of four Education Doctorate (EdD) students on the pilot testing strategies used during an online research methods course. Rigorous questionnaire and interview development skills are challenging to acquire. Pilot testing is an under-researched stage of instrument design, yet it is crucial to ensure validity and…

This practice report provides an overview of a podcast series designed to support first-year student transition to university and promote wellbeing and belonging. The podcast was established in 2017 in a compulsory first year law subject (Legal Institutions and Methods) at La Trobe University, Australia. The podcasts record interviews with…

Through exit interviews with Columban College, Inc. EdD graduates, this in-depth study looks into how academic and social integration affects the success of graduate students. Academic integration makes it clear how important it is to have a planned curriculum and the help of teachers. The study found that social interactions, study groups, and…

This dissertation examined the experiences of participants who identified as refugees and had either obtained a graduate degree (master's or higher) or were in the process of obtaining a graduate degree during the time of this study, despite the influence of trauma on their experiences. This qualitative research study utilized Interpretive…

With the increasing mobility of international students to UK universities, the appropriate facilitation of their transition remains a critical issue in terms of higher education practice and research. Much existing research and practice is characterised by assimilationist approaches to transition where international students are seen to 'adapt to'…

Epistemologically oriented reforms of physics courses aim to change the way students think about knowledge and approach learning in physics. A broader goal of these reforms is to impact how students think about knowledge and learning in other courses. We investigate the effects of epistemological reforms in a physics course on knowing and learning…

This critical case study explored how six international students enrolled in two U.S. universities perceived and understood the concept of plagiarism. Through our participants' stories, we challenged a system that insists on international students' conformity, without adequate knowledge or training, to a U.S. or Western system of text borrowing…

This paper contributes to the understanding of how shifting time, space and subject positions can impact on the political habitus of border-crossing students. Employing in-depth interview data from a longitudinal project involving 31 mainland Chinese students whose higher education journeys converged in Hong Kong, it argues that it is often…

This study explored the transition to university as experienced by first-year students of English studies. The first year has been identified by existing research as a critical time for new students in terms of their persistence and success on their degree programme. However, there is a need for further research in the current UK higher education…

Context/Background: Currently, chances for English learners (ELs) to reach higher education in the United States are slim. Almost half of ELs do not attend postsecondary education (PSE), and access to four-year college is particularly limited, but we do not exactly know why. Purpose: To examine what inhibits ELs' four-year-college access in the…

The educational community has made a shift from transmission learning to a type of learning where the student is transformed. The findings produced by a literature study delineate the authors' definition of "transformative learning". The struggle to implement this form of learning has resulted in mostly theoretical approaches; empirical…

Institutions of higher education in the United States enroll the largest number of international students in the world each year (Bain & Cummings, 2005). In 2014-2015, the United States hosted 974,926 international students from around the globe (Open Doors, 2016). The number of students attending college in the United States from Latin…

This dissertation study explores the experiences of 11 undergraduate women in a variety of engineering majors graduating from a Southern, research, predominately White institution and the use of theory to understand those experiences. While narrative inquiry is used throughout, this dissertation study is organized into three separate papers. The…

Retention of students who major in STEM continues to be a major concern for universities. Many students cite poor teaching and disappointing grades as reasons for dropping out of STEM courses. Current college chemistry courses often assess what a student has learned through summative exams. To understand students' experiences of the exam process,…

This document provides the technical appendix that accompanies the study, "Student Experiences in English Corequisite Remediation versus a Standalone Developmental Education Course: Findings from an Experimental Study in Texas Community Colleges. Research Report. RR-A810-1" (ED612531). Between fall 2016 and fall 2018, the authors…