Life issues leading to success in community college degree seekers

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this qualitative study was to obtain the in-depth descriptions of the life issues which either contributed to the success or failure of high-load adult students in obtaining associate degrees. The sampling strategy for the study was purposive in nature. Participants in the study were fifteen former high load adult students of a community college located in Oklahoma. High-load adult students were defined as those over twenty-five years of age whose community college experience coincided with the responsibilities of supporting and maintaining a household in which a dependent child or parent lived. Current community college instructors, counselors, administrators of student service programs, and students were queried to identify past students whose descriptions of their community college experience and head of household roles might prove to be particularly informational. Ten of the students had been successful in obtaining their associate degrees while five failed to complete their programs. A phenomenological approach of individual interviews was used to gather the data from each of the former students. The data were then logically linked to one of eleven preordained categories of life issues identified by the Harrison (2004) study which used McClusky's Theory of Margin as a framework.Findings and Conclusions: The participants described not only an initial anxiety upon returning to school but also an overriding feeling of excitement. Math and science were cited as providing the most daunting academic challenges. A "you just do what you gotta do" attitude was described in dealing with the balancing of outside responsibilities and economic challenges incurred while maintaining their duel head of household and student roles. Serving as a role model for their children was described as being a key element of their motivation to return to school as well as their determination to finish. The descriptions of good time management methods consisted primarily of multitasking, task integration and task elimination. Only two of the participants indicated that they made any concentrated effort to institute improved self-care practices while in school. Support from family and friends as well as positive relationships with the college faculty, staff and fellow students were described as being helpful in allowing the students to complete their programs. The major value in this study comes from the high-load adult students' descriptions of life's load and power issues, which may have influenced their success or failure in community college. These real-world student perspectives may serve as an expedient to further evaluate the current literature on adult student retention as well as add new insight to community colleges when making policy decisions

Behavioral type - environment correlations in three-spined stickleback

The aim of the research included in this dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of how consistent individual differences in behavior, so called animal personality, influences differences in how individuals within populations interact with their environment. The specific aim of the work reported herein was to understand how non-random associations between the behavioral phenotype of individuals and the environment in which they occurred in the wild, hereafter referred to as behavioral type-environment correlations, affected important evolutionary and ecological processes in the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). In the first chapter I documented two such behavioral type-environment correlations, one between boldness and social environment and the other between exploratory behavior and habitat type. In the second chapter I test the hypothesis that behavioral type-environment correlations are generated via natural selection. My goal in the third chapter was to compare the predictive power of different factors that might explain why certain individual three-spined stickleback disperse greater distances than others, including exploratory behavior, social environment, habitat type, and physiological well-being. In the final chapter, I present an improved methodological approach for quantifying consistent individual differences in schooling behavior that utilizes a model ‘school’ in place of live conspecifics. This work advances our understanding of how the ecological niche is shaped by the behavior of individuals. Through my own empirical evidence and a review of literature, I argue that behavioral type-environment correlations are likely to be prevalent in nature. I provide a framework for future research by describing various mechanisms that might generate behavioral type-environment correlations. Much of the fieldwork presented is aimed at elucidating the causes and consequences of behavioral type-environment correlations in nature. For example in chapter two, I provide evidence that natural selection might generate a correlation between boldness and social environment. Chapter three provides a cautionary tale about jumping to conclusions concerning the ecological implications of consistent individual differences in behavior by showing that exploratory behavior is a relatively poor predictor of dispersal distance, a result that defies several previous field studies. Instead, the habitat in which the fish occured and its physiological well-being were better predictors of dispersal distance. This dissertation is a step forward in research at the intersection of animal personality and ecological niche. The data, collected mostly in the field, fills an empirical gap in our understanding of animal personality, which has been based heavily on laboratory-based research. This collection demonstrates the important evolutionary and ecological implications of behavioral type-environment correlations. My hope is to inspire future work that teases apart the causes and consequences of behavioral type-environment correlations through fieldwork and carefully planned experimentation

Chapter Four Predictors of Individual Variation in Movement in a Natural Population of Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Species abundances and distributions are inherently tied to individuals' decisions about movement within their habitat. Therefore, integrating individual phenotypic variation within a larger ecological framework may provide better insight into how populations structure themselves. Recent evidence for consistent individual differences in behaviour prompts the hypothesis that variation in behavioural types might be related to variation in movement in natural environments. In a multiyear mark-recapture study, we found that individual sticklebacks exhibited consistent individual differences in behaviour both within a standardized testing arena designed to measure exploratory behaviour and within a river. Therefore, we asked whether individual differences in movement in a natural river were related to an individual's exploratory behavioural type. We also considered whether body condition and/or the individual's habitat or social environment use was related to movement. There was no evidence that an individual's exploratory behavioural type was related to movement within the river. Instead, an individual's habitat use and body condition interacted to influence natural movement patterns. Individuals in good condition were more likely to move further in the river, but only if they inhabited a vegetated complex part of the river; body condition had no influence on movement in those individuals inhabiting open areas of the river. Our results suggest that individual traits could help improve predictions about how populations may distribute themselves within patchy and complex environments

Data from: The effects of age, sex, and habitat on body size and shape of the blackstripe topminnow, Fundulus notatus

Lake and stream habitats pose a variety of challenges to fishes due to differences in variables such as water velocity, habitat structure, prey community, and predator community. These differences can cause divergent selection on body size and/or shape. Here, we measured sex, age, length, and eight different morphological traits of the blackstripe topminnow, Fundulus notatus, from 19 lake and stream populations across four river drainages in central Illinois. Our goal was to determine whether size and shape differed consistently between lake and stream habitats across drainages. We also considered the effects of age and sex as they may affect size and morphology. We found large differences in body size of age 1 topminnows where stream fish were generally larger than lake fish. Body shape mainly varied as a function of sex. Adult male topminnows had larger morphological traits (with the exception of body width) than females, in particular longer dorsal and anal base lengths. Subtle effects of habitat were present. Stream fish had a longer dorsal fin base than lake fish. These phenotypic patterns may be the result of genetic and/or environmental variation. As these lakes are human-made, the observed differences, if genetic, would have had to occur relatively rapidly (within about 100 years)

Fundulus notatus raw data

Excel file containing the raw data (morphometric measurements as well as data on population, drainage, habitat, age, and sex)

Predictors of Individual Variation in Movement in a Natural Population of Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Species abundances and distributions are inherently tied to individuals' decisions about movement within their habitat. Therefore, integrating individual phenotypic variation within a larger ecological framework may provide better insight into how populations structure themselves. Recent evidence for consistent individual differences in behaviour prompts the hypothesis that variation in behavioural types might be related to variation in movement in natural environments. In a multiyear mark-recapture study, we found that individual sticklebacks exhibited consistent individual differences in behaviour both within a standardized testing arena designed to measure exploratory behaviour and within a river. Therefore, we asked whether individual differences in movement in a natural river were related to an individual's exploratory behavioural type. We also considered whether body condition and/or the individual's habitat or social environment use was related to movement. There was no evidence that an individual's exploratory behavioural type was related to movement within the river. Instead, an individual's habitat use and body condition interacted to influence natural movement patterns. Individuals in good condition were more likely to move further in the river, but only if they inhabited a vegetated complex part of the river; body condition had no influence on movement in those individuals inhabiting open areas of the river. Our results suggest that individual traits could help improve predictions about how populations may distribute themselves within patchy and complex environments