584 research outputs found
Institutional Need-based and Non-need Grants: Trends and Differences Among College and University Sectors
This study uses data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey to analyze the use of need-based versus non-need financial aid awarded by colleges and universities in 1989 and 1995. Descriptive and trend analyses were used to examine differences in the use of these types of aid among varying institutional types, and to examine how financial aid awards have changed for full-time undergraduate students from different income backgrounds
Responsive and Responsible: Levels of Faculty Encouragement of Civic Engagement
This study explores how often faculty members encourage students to engage with campus, local, state, national, and global issues. Using data from the 2013 administration of the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), the results show that faculty members are more likely to encourage students to engage in state, national, or global issues than campus or local issues. Differences in faculty encouragement of civic engagement are also presented across gender, racial/ethnic identification, rank and employment status, and institutional affiliation, among other characteristics. Implications for practice are provided
Disciplinary Differences in Faculty Emphasis on Deep Approaches to Learning
This large-scale study compares how Biglan and Holland conceptualizations of academic disciplines in their ability to explain differences in faculty emphasis on deep approaches to learning in their courses. To examine these differences, several multiple regressions models are conducted 6,500 faculty and instructor responses to the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), using effect coding to better compare disciplinary categories. Analyses examining disciplines using Biglanâs three dimensions or Hollandâs theory suggest differences within each conceptualization that largely align with previous research. Comparisons between these two conceptualizations, while showing some overlap, indicate that Biglanâs dimensions explain slightly more variation, with a slightly greater range of magnitude in some effect sizes. These findings underscore for researchers, faculty, and educational developers the need to examine disciplinary effects on teaching practices while also suggesting for researchers the need to appropriately align disciplinary conceptualizations with their area of study
A Multi-Institutional Study of Teaching Development Opportunities & Faculty Practice
To contextualize the myriad of teaching development efforts available to faculty, this large-scale multi-institution study of nearly 4,500 faculty broadens our understandings of who participates in teaching development practices, how their participation relates to their institutional environments, and how their participation connects to their use of effective teaching practices. Results show there are some notable trends by academic field, social identity, the type of courses taught, and institutional characteristics. The overview of professional development participation in this study gives strength to positive findings from smaller-scale research studies and provides a solid base for more specific studies of these practices
Person centered approaches to inclusive data analysis
Demographic questions are critical to our understanding of student and faculty experiences, allowing us to learn about marginalized subpopulations, find areas of inequity, and close gaps in achievement. Although this work is necessary, it does present challenges for critical and inclusive approaches to data analysis. Person-centered approaches, grouping people based on similar experiences or outcomes, allow for more nuanced stories of experiences. To illustrate the benefits of this approach, facilitators will guide participants through a series of examples using person-centered explorations, unpacking the challenges and possible solutions for using such methods for more critical and inclusive quantitative analyses and reporting
Assessing the Faculty Role in High-Impact Practices
High-impact practices are effective educational practices leveraged to improve student outcomes, and often faculty members are key to their facilitation. This session examines faculty roles in emphasizing studentsâ participation and engaging students in these practices. We will share characteristics of faculty who encourage and partake in these activities with an emphasis on assessment practices for gathering more information about faculty experiences with high-impact practices. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from one another through sharing their own challenges and successes in measuring faculty involvement in high-impact practices and how they cultivate a culture of high-impact experiences on campus
Two Sides of a Coin: Patterns of Student & Faculty Participation in High-Impact Practices
The higher education community continues to perpetuate high-impact practices as means for improving student success. Yet, challenges exist for assuring all students participate equitably in these beneficial educational experiences; one inhibiting factor may be a lack of faculty support. We examined the responses from 12,147 faculty and 28,504 seniors at 83 institutions to better understand the relationship between faculty who emphasize or participate in high-impact practices and students who do participate. Results indicate potential inequities in faculty participation in engaging students in high-impact practices. Faculty values of importance in participation relates to whether they participate reveling implications for future conversations about faculty hiring and development
Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 1 Maintaining Inequality: An Analysis of College Pathways among Women at Large Public Institutions
Abstract Armstrong and Hamilton (2013) proposed a framework of three college pathways -party, professional, and mobility -that lead to economically unequal post-graduation outcomes, and vastly different college experiences for female students. Using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, we examined the responses from 42,504 women seniors at 183 four-year large public institutions to identify how the potential income of their college major choice relate to the pathways. We found that the economic advantage of major choice is not equally distributed among students: party pathway students selected the least lucrative college majors, professional pathway students selected the most lucrative majors, and first-generation students on all pathways tended to select majors with less potential income than their peers with collegeeducated parents. Students on the three pathways also engaged differently in three measures of Maintains Inequality by Other researchers have also attempted to classify students according to their college experience, and/or how they spend their time while in college. The purpose of our study is to build on the work of Armstrong and Hamilton Conceptual Framework Lucas Armstrong and Hamilton (2013) provide many clues as to why college experiences should be different for students on the three pathways (see The college pathways, and the choices students make (or, in the case of students who have to support themselves by working for pay, are pressured to make) about how they spend their time in college may be a representation of so-called "temporal capital -the amount of time the student is able to dedicate to scholarly pursuits" (Gardner & Holley, 2011, p. 79). We argue that in this light, a student's pathway itself is already, potentially, a (loose) manifestation of student's cultural and/or socio-economic capital. Support for this argument can be found in another equally insightful book on how student's SES shapes college experience -Inside College Gates: How Class and Culture Matter in Higher Education by Stuber (2011), who posits that it is through the process of experiencing college life and qualitative differences of college experiences that social inequality manifests itself, as opposed to quantitative studies of students' SES. It is the rich descriptions of the differences in academic experiences of the women of Paying for the Party that informed our decision to focus on qualitative outcomes (reflective and integrative learning, learning strategies and student-faculty interaction) for women on the three pathways, in addition to examining their college major choice. Relevant Literature In this section we present some relevant literature about our main variables of interestpotential college earnings, Reflective and Integrative Learning, Learning Strategies, StudentRunning head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 7 Faculty Interaction, and first-generation students. We conclude this section with an argument and evidence from research literature for why gender and institution type are important for our study. Potential college earnings One of the reasons students attend college is the expectation of making more money and securing a good job after graduation Another key factor that leads to different levels of income among college graduates is an individual's college major/field of study, with the difference ranging between 25 to 35 percent depending on an individual's major The highest-paid fields of study tend to have a well-defined body of content knowledge, often with an emphasis on quantitative skills, and a direct link to functional/applied occupations One significant drawback of many of the studies of the relationship between major and income is that they tend to group individual majors into larger categories, which does not allow for a more refined analysis of the effects of a particular major on earnings and career outcomes. For example, in a study by Reflective and Integrative Learning The NSSE "Reflective and Integrative Learning" scale was originally part of the "Deep Approaches to Learning" scale in the NSSE survey Rogers (2001) examined several theoretical approaches to the reflective process, and found four common elements: reflection as a cognitive activity " Integrative learning is defined broadly as "an umbrella term for structures, strategies, and activities, that bridge numerous divides, such as high school and college, general education and the major, introductory and advanced levels, experiences inside and outside the classroom, theory and practices, and disciplines and fields" (Klein, 2005, p. 8). Integrative learning is widely recognized as a valuable learning outcome in and of itself Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 10 Learning Strategies In general, being strategic about studying involves effective time-management, finding conditions and materials conducive to effective studying, and understanding course requirements and assessment criteria Learning strategies have been defined as "any thoughts, behaviors, beliefs or emotions that facilitate the acquisition, understanding or later transfer of new knowledge and skills" Learning strategies, such as identifying key points in a text, notetaking, review of notes, and summarizing, significantly improve recall, factual learning, retention of information, and academic performance Student-Faculty Interaction The higher education literature overwhelmingly supports the positive impact studentfaculty interaction (SFI) can have on student development. Decades of research have documented a vast variety of benefits of SFI on student academic achievement, persistence, intellectual and personal development, satisfaction with college, and career and educational aspirations First-generation students Armstrong and Hamilton (2013) demonstrate that SES, class background, and cultural capital of the students in the sample of Paying in the Party play a critical role in shaping students' experiences while at MU and beyond. Having highly educated parents provided a significant competitive advantage to students on the professional pathway; students on the party Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 12 pathway were expected to be financially supported by their parents in order to maintain the party lifestyle; while students on the mobility pathway had to compensate for lack of family resources by working for pay, which took their time and attention away from academics and forming relationships with peers. In our study, we use first-generation student status as a proxy for student SES and cultural capital, as first-generation status and SES are closely related (Terenzini, Spinger, Yaeger, Pascarella, & Nora, 1996). In their review of the literature on first-generation students, Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, and Terenzini Students of low SES background display similar patterns of outcomes with regards to persistence, educational degree aspirations, and achievement Findings of Pascarella et al. 's (2004) own research study indicated that first-generation students tend to work more hours per week compare to students with parents with a high level of education, which may explain the fact that they had lower grades, on average, than their peers Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 13 with highly educated parents, despite having lighter academic workloads. It appears that firstgeneration students particularly benefit from contact with peers, which impacts their educational degree plans, among other outcomes However, some disadvantages first-generation students experience in college may not necessarily be due to the lack of cultural resources. For example, Gender Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 14 Armstrong and Hamilton (2013) focused on women students. They noted that many affluent students on the party pathway were not expected to reproduce their parents' success but were rather oriented towards a successful marriage. According to 249), echoing earlier findings of a similar peer culture at Duke University Sons from comparable families may be oriented to college and professional success differently, thus possibly changing the entire three-pathway framework of Paying for the Party. In fact, indirect evidence of this thesis can be found in a study by Institutional setting Armstrong and Hamilton (2013) made a convincing case for why an institutional setting was a significant factor for the emergence of these three college pathways. At a large institution the professional pathway is highly competitive and, effectively, zero-sum in nature, where only the most capable and best-prepared students with appropriate aspirations can take advantage of the rewards this pathway offers (e.g., high-paying jobs, or admission to graduate and professional school), while all others on this pathway are left behind. Public institutions also rely on the tuition and fees brought by the affluent students, and are thus compelled to service students, both socially and academically: partying, socializing, and college athletics events make the party pathway highly visible on campus, and the availability of undemanding academic majors helps students maintain the party pathway. Further, women on the mobility pathway often felt alienated by the campus culture, and with inadequate academic advising services were left on their own to figure out how to navigate academic life. Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 16 Other institutional settings may present a different framework of student pathways altogether. As Armstrong and Hamilton (2013) demonstrate, regional campuses of MU turned out to be a better fit for some students, because of the absence of a robust party scene. Mullen (2014) explored how female and male students select majors at a private liberal arts college and found that because all students developed strong personal identification with bodies of knowledge (as opposed to pre-professional fields), it became important for male students not to select a major considered too "feminine". A student body composition at institutions of other types may present some different social and academic life patterns. For example, Martin Combined together students from these groups represented more than 40 percent of the entire student body at both Duke and a sample of similar institutions Thus, the type of institution may be a significant feature of the three-pathway framework proposed by Purpose Our study aims to test these findings on a broader scale by examining the college experiences of women at over 180 four-year large public institutions. In particular, we focus on the college pathways of women in the senior year and the impact of their chosen pathway on a quantitative educational outcome, future potential earnings of an earned bachelor's degree, and qualitative education outcomes, three forms of effective educational practices -learning Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 17 strategies, student-faculty interaction, and reflective and integrative learning. We also examine the college pathways of first-generation students and students with college-educated parents to determine to what extent, if at all, students may experience a quantitative and/or qualitative advantage. Guided by the rich descriptions of women's academic experiences in Paying for the Party, this study applies students' estimated time spent on three activities-socializing with friends, studying and preparing for class, and working for pay-as proxies for three distinct college pathways. For example, it is possible that students who spend a significant amount of time socializing and relaxing with friends (party pathway) are less engaged in effective educational practices but tend to seek advantage by majoring in fields with higher potential income. Students who spend a significant amount of time working (mobility pathway) may have less time to engage in effective educational practices and tend to choose majors in fields with lower potential earnings. Students who do not have heavy working responsibilities and spend a significant amount of time studying (professional pathway) may engage in effective educational practices more and choose a major leading to lucrative career. Using how students structure their time as a measure of college pathway, we may gain additional insights as to if these college pathways are advantageous for students from lower-SES backgrounds, such as first-generation students. Alternatively, we may also better understand the mechanisms in which non-firstgeneration students maintain their social status; by choosing majors leading to lucrative incomes while also gaining qualitatively better educational experience through their engagement with effective educational practices such as learning strategies, interacting with faculty, and reflective and integrative learning. The specific research questions guiding this study are: Methods Data and Sample Using data from the 2014 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), we examined the responses from 42,504 women seniors enrolled full-time at 183 fouryear large public institutions. Slightly less than half (47%) of the sample were first-generation students, and nearly three-quarters (71%) expected to earn a graduate degree. About two in five (18%) were majoring in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Around half (51%) earned mostly A grades at their current institution with slightly less than half (44%) earning mostly B grades. Three-quarters of the sample (75%) were of traditional age (23 years old or younger). Over two-thirds of the sample identified as White (65%) with smaller proportions identifying as Asian (7%), Black or African American (8%), Hispanic or Latino (9%), multiracial (6%), another race (2%), or preferred not to respond to race (3%). For more details about the sample, see Measures College pathways. The survey asks students a series of questions about how they chose to spend their time during a typical 7-day week. Response options ranged from 'zero' to 'more Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 19 than 30 hours per week'. Students who spent over 20 hours per week relaxing and socializing and less than 11 hours per week working for pay or preparing for class were coded as being on the party pathway. Students who spent over 20 hours per week working for pay and less than 11 hours per week on socializing activities and preparing for class were coded as being on the mobility pathway. Students who spent over 20 hours per week on class preparation and less than 11 hours per week working or socializing were identified as being on the professional pathway. Students who balanced their time among all three activities were coded as being on the balanced pathway, a pathway we created to capture those students who did not meet the criteria for the other pathways. The majority of the sample (80%) were on a balanced pathway with smaller proportions in the professional pathway (13%), mobility pathway (5%), and the party pathway (2%). To check if the trends found by Armstrong and Hamilton (2013) are represented by our proposed coding scheme, a frequency crosstab was calculated by select demographics and academic variables. Running head: MAINTAINTING INEQUALITY AND COLLEGE PATHWAYS 21 Reflective and Integrative Learning. Reflective and Integrative Learning is a subscale measuring students' uses of Deep Approaches to Learning (Nelson Laird et al., 2005). This scale consists of seven survey items asking students how often they connect ideas to societal problems or issues and from prior knowledge; combine ideas from different courses; examine strengths and weaknesses of their own viewpoints as well as try to better understand someone else's point of view; and include diverse perspectives in their course discussions or assignments (for details, see Appendix). Students provide responses to these items from a four-point scale ranging from 'very often' to 'never.' The internal consistency of this measure is deemed acceptable for research (Cronbach's alpha=.89). Learning Strategies. Learning Strategies scale on NSSE consists of three items related to how students approach studying (Appendix A). Students were asked how often they engaged in identifying key information from reading assignments, reviewing notes after class, and summarizing what they learned in class or from course material. Four-point response options ranging from 'very often' to 'never' were presented to students. The internal consistency of thi
Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay
channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7
TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector,
and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No
significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper
limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the
standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at
95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE
Recommended from our members
A Search for Dark Higgs Bosons
Recent astrophysical and terrestrial experiments have motivated the proposal
of a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge boson force carriers and new Higgs
bosons. We present a search for a dark Higgs boson using 516 fb-1 of data
collected with the BABAR detector. We do not observe a significant signal and
we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product of the Standard
Model-dark sector mixing angle and the dark sector coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, published version with improved plots
for b/w printin
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