Dana Longley's List: Amory

Stats in Brief. U.S. Department of Education. NCES 2009-161. July 2009. See table 3 (p 8) and table 8 (p 15) for data by age group.

While comprehensive texts, articles, and literature reviews presenting research in the singular arenas of motivation, help-seeking, and online science learning are relatively easy to find, syntheses and interactions between these constructs are lacking. Part I of this review addresses this knowledge gap by drawing together key research from the domains of educational psychology and adult education, addressing the constructs of motivation, self-efficacy, adult learning, and help-seeking. Part II of this review extends and applies the motivation and help-seeking discussion to the emerging and exciting field of online chemistry education. The result is a comprehensive synthesis of the strengths and limitations of the currently existing body of knowledge related to the motivation and help-seeking behaviors of adult, online chemistry students.

"This study examined attitudes that underlie anxiety of returning adult learners to science classes. Furthermore, the study investigates the existence of relationships between attitudes of returning adult students toward science classes and the following variables: (1) sex, (2) age categories, (3) previous science backgrounds, (4) type of science enrolled, (5) metro/rural geographical school type, (6) frequency responses of each item on Science Opinion Questionnaire of Attitudes (SOQOA), (7) relevancy of instruction, (8) method of instruction, (9) fear of science, (10) past science experience, (11) motivation to continue, and (12) totals attitude relationships. The subjects consisted of 76 returning adult learners enrolled in biology, astronomy, or general physical science courses at two community colleges located in and near Tulsa, Oklahoma. The specially designed Science Opinion Questionnaire of Attitudes (SOQOA) was the instrument used in this study and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. "

Increasing numbers of adults are pursuing higher education. The demand exists, to some measure, on changing demographics, rapid advancements in technology, global interconnectiveness, and more recently, a global economic downturn. Thus, there is a far greater need today for adults to acquire new skills or to be re-trained. Because of this, increasing numbers of higher education programs have begun to focus on the needs of the adult learner.

This study was developed to explore how adult learners at a two-year technical institution perceive instruction and how their perceptions contribute to their overall academic success. The research on andragogy confirms that the methods of instruction are important to meeting the needs of adult learners and their success. The researcher gathered information on how students based their perceptions of instructional strategies, and how these perceptions factored in the students' academic success. The underlying goal was to provide information about how adult learners at this two-year technical institution perceived their instruction as being significant to their needs and academic success.

A quantitative approach was used in this study, administered to students during a one- week period enrolled at this two-year institution. The data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviations. The study resulted in a clear picture of how student perceptions of instructional strategies are connected to academic success.

(FT not available in ESC lib) Hydrology has at its core a focus on real-world applications and problems stemming from the importance of water for society and natural systems. While hydrology is firmly founded in traditional "hard" sciences like physics and mathematics, much of the innovation and excitement in current and future research-oriented hydrology comes through intersection with other disciplines. This leads to combinations of intended learning outcomes (ILOs) in hydrology courses that may not be easily or completely achieved using traditional lecture based learning environments or using basic problem-solving techniques. Problem-based learning (PBL) may work well in hydrology courses due to the focus on real-world applications and cross-discipline nature of modern hydrology. Since PBL differs from traditional teacher centered approaches, student learning must be supported and assessed differently. This article focuses on identifying several non-traditional assessment forms to help facilitate the use of PBL approaches in hydrology courses. We present an example hydrology modeling course employing one such non-traditional PBL-specific form of assessment. Further, we seek to test the hypothesis that non-traditional assessment associated with PBL better reflects the ability of the students to achieve the ILOs in such courses. Results from the example course considered indicate that students not only preferred but also performed better in a PBL environment with its non-traditional form of assessment. This makes a strong case for incorporating both PBL and associated non-traditional forms of assessment into our teaching in hydrology and other applied science courses. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Issues involved in teaching science to nontraditional adult learners are addressed by this article. A survey of students in upper-division science courses confirmed the findings in the literature that adult students approach their education with a different perspective and with a different experiential perspective than traditional college students. A brief review of literature of nontraditional students is discussed. Characteristics and barriers of nontraditional adult students are listed and suggestions for facilitating learning are highlighted.

This study examined the extent to which minority individuals with baccalaureate origins as non-traditional students (baccalaureates completed at age 25 or over) completed doctoral degrees in science and engineering. It compared the efficacy of their degree completion, i.e., elapsed time and registered time to degree, with that of counterparts with traditional baccalaureate origins, along with a number of other educational and demographic attributes. This study also examined the potential of corporations and the U.S. Armed Forces as talent pools from which minority applicants for doctoral study in science and engineering could be drawn. The statistical sample comprised all Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Alaskan Native recipients of doctorates in science and engineering for the period 1981-1990 (N=7,235) drawn from the National Doctorate Database of the National Research Council. Collaborative interviews were conducted with a small sample of the recipients. Interviews were also conducted with science and engineering corporate professionals and military personnel. Among the findings are: Minorities with non-traditional backgrounds comprised 16.9% of the doctorate recipients in the study. Nearly 27% of the non-traditionals and well over 9% of the traditionals had attended a junior or community college. The recipients were well represented in all the major fields, i.e., physical science, life science, social science, and engineering. The non-traditionals were over-represented in the social sciences. The average recipient completed the doctorate in 10.6 years after completing the baccalaureate. The groups were identical in elapsed time to degree.

Nancy Nestor-Baker and Sandra Kerka The Ohio State University October 2009. This document attempts to bring clarity to the issue by distilling research and best practices related to college and university efforts to retain and recruit minority populations and to diversify STEM majors. To further shed light on possible approaches, it identifies a number of programs with effective track records.

"This study was based upon the issues surrounding science education and how they impact students' further science education as well as their everyday lives. The research was a qualitative study that used an interview guide. Six adult college students who had graduated from the Pre-Health Sciences Program and continued with Health Science Programs were interviewed for this study. Their perceptions on how science education had influenced their further science education as well as everyday lives were analyzed and similar themes evolved from the data. Findings revealed that high school science education for these students generally did not generate interest or desire to learn science, except when they participated in lab activities. In contrast, these students found that the college science education interested them and inspired them to learn. This may be more due to intrinsic values for learning science since students articulated that they needed to learn the science because they wanted to enter Health Science Programs after the science prerequisites were fulfilled. The findings showed that students wanted labs and hands-on activities as part of their learning. Also, science literacy in the students was evident from the stories they shared about their everyday lives. "

In this article, Marie-Elena Reyes presents the issues faced by women of color in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as they transfer from community colleges to universities. Community colleges offer a great potential for diversifying and increasing participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. Many women of color enter higher education through community colleges, but transfer rates are low, and retention rates of transfer students into STEM at universities are lower still. Through interviews conducted with participants in the National Science Foundation-funded Futurebound program, Reyes reveals an atmosphere in which women of color transfer students experience attitudes and treatment signaling that they do not belong because of age, ethnicity, and gender as well as preconceptions that transfer students are not adequately prepared. Reyes proposes that programs and policies to integrate responses to these challenges could improve the transfer rates and retention of women of color into STEM fields.

2010 Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education
Indianapolis, IN

(FT not available in ESC lib) Unlike so many other fields, the sciences tend to sort people early in their lives between insiders and everyone else. Those excluded early--or who eventually drift away from science--are rarely, if ever, welcomed back. As a result, scientific understanding, except for those who make it their career, atrophies over time. The sciences do not welcome late bloomers, career changers, dabblers or dilettantes. Belated junctures to get on the train in "STEM" (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields are rare and uninviting. Adults--no matter how bright, curious and industrious--are not able to circle back to a serious pursuit in the sciences. The problems all lead in the same direction: Future scientists are screened early on, weeded out in their late teens, demoralized in their college years--and never recruited again as adults. Part-time, professional education--so often the device to recalibrate careers and respond to new opportunities--rarely accommodates those who want to opt into an applied science. Rarely do professional master's degree programs welcome those without technical academic backgrounds, no matter how strong their grades might have been, and few programs (especially at more prestigious institutions) are designed for part-time, working adult students. Often the number of prerequisites are comparable to a second major and as numerous as the master's degree itself. Rarely do technology companies fund tuition reimbursement at the same levels as other industries. Schools of continuing education have little in their portfolios for those who want to reinvent themselves as scientists. This purely linear, ever-diminishing assembly line approach is not in the best interests of individuals, corporations, scientific advancement or national policy.

The article presents an analysis which builds on a 1999 study of factors related to degree completion for adult learners at a research university in Pennsylvania. The analysis, which is intended as practical, action-oriented research, examines adult learner use of financial aid and factors associated with completion of degree programs. It is found that provisional students, those who entered without adequate college preparation for admission to a degree program, had the lowest odds of graduating.

In this article, learning how to learn for non traditional adult students is discussed with a focus on police officers and firefighters. Learning how to learn is particularly relevant for all returning non-traditional adults; however in the era of terrorism it is critical for the public safety officers returning to college after years of absence from the pedagogy classroom to be successful

Economic globalization, rapid advances in technology and cognitive science, and a worldwide movement toward outcomes-based program accreditation increasingly require changes in the traditional model of engineering education design and delivery. As yet, no validated framework exists for designing instructional development programs that would equip engineering educators to make those changes. Existing programs consequently vary considerably in scope and effectiveness across countries and institutions. This article reviews the content and structures of instructional development programs around the world and to formulare a robust framework for designing and delivering effective programs for engineering educators. Literature on the design, implementation, and evaluation of instructional development programs is reviewed and summarized. Five criteria drawn from Raymond Wlodkowski's theory of adult learner motivation (expertise of instructors, relevance of content, choice in application, praxis [action plus reflection], and groupwork) are proposed as a framework for designing engineering instructional development programs, and the framework is applied to formulate recommendations for making programs effective. Research questions that should be explored to validate the framework are suggested. Wlodkowski's five-factor theory of adult learner motivation provides a good framework for the design of engineering instructional development programs. The criteria are compatible with the cognitive science-based How People Learn instructional model and also with recommendations of faculty development authorities. Making engineering instructional development effective at an institution will require applying the criteria to program design and delivery and creating an institutional expectation of faculty participation in the programs.

The aim of this study is to argue for alternative assessment methods (i.e. concept map) considering the changes in demography in higher education. In the case of school of dentistry, for example, there is an urgent call for a catalyst for new assessment methods in dental education in view of the drive to comprehensively assess professional competence to cater to the current work requirement; this quantitative study compared two different approaches to assessment following a first-year undergraduate course for dental and hygiene and therapy students. The assessment methods compared were multiple-choice questions and concept mapping. The data suggest that concept mapping can be appropriate for non-traditional students (i.e. adult learners), particularly those who already have professional experience in related practice. This is because concept mapping allows learners to locate their new knowledge in a broader social and experiential frame. The implications are discussed. (Contains 5 notes, 4 tables, and 3 figures.)

This paper examines the relationship between goal orientation and grades in two groups of college students: 369 students aged 18 to 23 and 71 students 24 years of age and older. Older students tended to earn higher grades than their younger counterparts. Non-traditional aged students also endorsed learning goals more than traditional-aged students. In both groups, students who endorsed learning goals over performance goals earned significantly higher grades and displayed more persistence after they had failed an examination. Students who endorsed performance goals over learning goals earned markedly lower grades under these circumstances. However, when students did not fail an examination, goal orientation was not associated with differences in grades.

"This study investigates the process of adjustment among adult learners by focusing on their own perceptions as they make the transition to higher education in an Irish setting, in order to gain a richer understanding about early university experience. The analysis of the journal-based reflections confirms existing insights about the complexity of the adjustment process, emphasizing that adult students seem to face particular challenges and opportunities that may not prevail among their younger counterparts. The data provides a more personal and subjective picture of adjustment issues than has typically been available to date. The benefits of keeping and using insights from reflective journals are explored and in conclusion a "V-curve" model of mature student adjustment is proposed that suggests a more extreme form of the long established "U-curve" theory derived from organizational literature on adjustment. "

The current economic and political environment has increased the pressure on higher education to deliver education that is cost-effective, standardized, and accessible. Summer bridge programs have traditionally been one of the economical ways to increase the access and retention of non-traditional, first-generation, or at-risk students. Retention efforts like summer bridge programs often require the collaboration of administrators and basic writing instructors who each may possess a different set of values and priorities. This article examines how administrators, basic writing instructors, and students define a successful summer bridge experience and how varying definitions of success influence programmatic revision.