The impact of online peer mentoring on first year student transition, problem solving skills, and academic success

Transition to higher education is challenging, and first year students need support to facilitate a positive experience. Key issues include positive transition; problem-solving perceptions; and support from peers. This study examined relationships among student transition, problem-solving ability, and academic success. Student transition was measured using Lizzio's (2006) Student Transition Scale. problem-solving skills were measured by Beccaria and Machin's (2011) Problem-Solving Inventory-12-Item. Academic success was measured using grade point average and overall course grade. The current study (N = 171) involved foundation psychology students who received online peer mentoring from 34 third year students at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in Semester 1, 2012. Results indicated mentees achieved higher academic success and adjusted to university better than did non-mentees. Mentees also became more self-aware of their problem-solving ability, identifying strategies to improve overall university experience, including maximising opportunities for academic success. These findings indicate that peer support can facilitate student transition and enhance the first year student experience

Kinesthetic imagery: does it exist and how can we measure it?

[Introduction]: The emergence of sport psychology has influenced how athletes train and compete. Increasingly, coaches and athletes are incorporating mental as well as physical skills into their training programs and competition routines. Imagery is one such mental skill. To develop an imagery program tailored to the athlete three pieces of information are vital: the imagery ability of the athlete; the effect of imagery on performance; and the motive for using imagery. This paper explores measurement of the imagery ability of the athlete. Specifically, the aim was to create new and valid measures of kinaesthetic imagery and examine the relationship these measures share with existing measures of imagery

Establishing the School Counseling Profession in Bhutan: Reflections from the Field

Counseling is a developing profession in the country of Bhutan. The National Board of Certified Counselors International (NBCC-I) has been collaborating with the leaders and counselors in the country in order to help facilitate this development and provide training to prospective counselors. As a result of this ongoing collaboration, a three-week institute in Bhutan was held in the Fall of 2011. During this institute, 12 counseling professionals traveled to the country to work and provide trainings in various settings, including schools. The authors describe the work in the schools, a personal narrative about the experiences, and the implications for future work in the country. Implications include: Understand clients/students/school systems from their internal frame of reference; Culturally responsive counseling skills and interventions are essential; Some issues are universal across cultures; Be spontaneous and creative when there are limited resources; Consider the impact of globalization when conceptualizing the clients and concerns; and Consider how counseling may need to be adapted to fit with the student’s/school’s cultural frame of reference

The relationships between personality, approaches to learning, and academic success in first-year psychology distance education students

[Abstract]: The first aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the big five personality traits and approaches to learning in a sample of first-year psychology distance students. Approaches to learning are the intentions a student has when faced with a learning task. A deep approach reflects an intention to understand the material, a strategic approach reflects an intention to achieve the highest grades possible, and a surface approach reflects an intention to cope with the course requirements by memorising facts. Consistent with previous research of on-campus students, the Intellect trait predicted the deep learning approach; the Conscientiousness trait predicted the strategic learning approach; and the Emotional Stability trait negatively predicted the surface learning approach. The second aim of this study was to investigate whether approaches to learning predict academic success, as measured by grade point average. As expected, the surface learning approach negatively predicted achievement. However, contrary to expectations, neither the deep nor the strategic learning approach predicted academic success. This finding may partly be explained by these first-year distance students undergoing a transition to the expectations and requirements of their flexible learning environments. Further research is warranted to establish whether the deep and strategic learning approaches become more likely to predict academic success in the latter years of study, after distance students have adapted to the flexible delivery methods. To this end, a longitudinal study that tracks the academic performance of these students until they complete their degrees or leave the university is recommended

A study of the understanding of knowledge and learning of a cohort of mature age students

In 2005 the authors began a longitudinal research project to explore the factors that influence student success in the Master of Engineering Practice program which was offered for the first time in Semester 2, 2004. This distance education program enables experienced Engineering Technologists to use their workplace learning to gain a qualification at the Professional Engineer level. This research was initiated because the admission of some students into the program is based on the recognition of their prior workplace learning. Cantwell and Scevak (2004) highlighted the problems that students may encounter when they gain entry to a university on this basis. To explore this issue four previously validated questionnaires were used to gather data on: student approaches to learning, their epistemological beliefs, learning style preferences, and strategic flexibility. This paper reports on a preliminary analysis of the data gathered from the students who enrolled in the program during the period 2005-2009. In the longer term, when the sample size has grown and more students have graduated, the data will be analysed to explore the relationship between the measured factors and success at university

Beyond the Dark Side of the Port of the Moon: Rethinking the Role of Bordeaux’s Slave Trade Past

Bordeaux is increasingly recognized as a “slave-trading port” (port négrier) that was built upon the wealth of merchants who shipped enslaved people and the fruits of enslaved labour. This article focuses on the enslaved and free women, men, and children whose multidirectional travel has also shaped the city since the eighteenth century. During the height of the eighteenth-century trade, some people of colour had the opportunity to redefine themselves in the city. After the slave trade ended and an era of colonialism in Africa began, others who gathered in the city had new opportunities to imagine a “Black metropolis.” Pushing beyond current, crucial efforts to recognize the role of the slave trade and slavery in France, this article theorizes ways to reconstruct the lives of people of colour and their historical communities in key European port cities like Bordeaux.La ville de Bordeaux est de plus en plus reconnue comme un port négrier dont la richesse des marchands reposait sur le trafic et le travail des esclavagisés. Le présent article est axé sur les femmes, les hommes et les enfants esclavagisés ou libres dont les pérégrinations diverses ont également façonné la ville depuis le XVIIIe siècle. Au plus fort du commerce du XVIIIe siècle, certaines personnes de couleur ont eu l’occasion de se redéfinir dans la ville. Une fois la traite négrière terminée, une ère de colonialisme commence en Afrique, durant laquelle d’autres personnes réunies dans la ville ont pu imaginer une « métropole noire ». Allant au- delà des efforts essentiels actuels visant à reconnaître le rôle de la traite négrière et de l’esclavage en France, cet article théorise sur les moyens de reconstruire la vie des personnes de couleur et de leurs milieux dans d’importantes villes portuaires européennes comme Bordeaux

Emerging spheres of engagement: the role of trust and care in community-university research

Community-engaged research takes place at a complex social site that has both a history and a future as well as encompassing the project activities of the researchers and community members. We argue that a crucial methodological aspect of undertaking such research is the development of trust relationships between researchers and community. We propose that for each research project, this relationship can best be understood as a ‘sphere of engagement’, after Ingold’s ‘sphere of nurture’, and that trust and care are emergent and binding qualities of this sphere. Tracing the development of trust relationships in a case study, using the idea of security-based trust and harmony-based trust, we conclude that trust, and the related concept of care, bind together people, events, histories and futures beyond the dichotomous and time-delimited relationship of a research contract, and carry the sphere of engagement of researchers and community beyond the life of any one project

Race, Class, and College Access: Achieving Diversity in a Shifting Legal Landscape

This is a groundbreaking report examining how legal challenges to race-conscious admissions are influencing contemporary admissions practices at selective colleges and universities around the country. The report is especially timely in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to take a second look at the constitutionality of the University of Texas' admissions policy by granting review in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.Study findings are based on responses to a first-of-its-kind national survey of undergraduate admissions and enrollment management leaders administered in 2014 -- 15. Data reflect responses from 338 nonprofit four-year institutions that collectively enrolled 2.7 million students and fielded over 3 million applications for admission in 2013 -- 14. Among other findings, the authors examine the most widely used and effective diversity strategies; changes in admissions factors after the 2013 Fisher ruling and statewide bans on race-conscious admissions; and the most sought after research and guidance given the current legal and policy landscap