Though higher education scholars have long known that undergraduate student engagement is associated with student persistence, they have yet to fully unravel its character and how it evolves over time. We argue that this is in part due to the individualistic, static ways engagement is measured even though scholars recognize it as a fundamentally…

Students who have dropped out of high school--and those at risk of doing so--are at greater risk of lifelong poverty, involvement with the criminal justice system, dependence on government welfare programs, and even premature death. In the last few years, however, the problems at high schools have compounded, as pandemic-era school closures led to…

Understanding the multidimensional process of college student retention and success and faculty's pivotal role in making a positive difference can be daunting without an easily adaptable organizing framework. Although classic models of college student attrition provided an essential, valuable foundation and a guiding framework for early nursing…

The relationship between frustration tolerance and academic behavior is well documented in the existing literature, specifically in regard to students with learning disabilities. This column addresses these connections and then provides specific strategies to address low frustration tolerance and increase emotional self-regulation in the…

Spaced practice is a recognized effective study approach that fosters mastery of learning and retention of information. In this paper, we share one instructor's experience in introducing a spaced practice intervention in a large general chemistry course and in encouraging students to continue the strategy in the next semester organic chemistry…

This article discusses the role of student motivation and learning experiences in online course environments at the post- secondary level. We offer guidance for instructors to design online experiences that encourage students to learn actively, allowing them to persist at academic goals and get the most out of the material. In discussing relevant…

Teachers struggle to reach all students and to lead them to mastery of the various disciplines they teach. However, only a few student display persistence and tenacity to accomplish academic assignments and goals set by teachers, schools, and districts. This paper explores the concept of persistence and how to develop persistence in students.…

In recent years, increased attention has been given to the ideas of growth mindsets, brain science, and mathematical mindsets thanks to the important contributions by Dweck (2008), Boaler (2015), and their research teams. Many math teachers invest the time and energy into thinking about what motivates students to learn. The body of work on…

Student persistence to graduation remains a critical measure of institutional success. Degree attainment is not only essential to the personal achievement of students arriving on campus each fall but has become a high-stakes measure for performance-based funding. It is telling, that even now, the pursuit of a college degree is characterized as…

This paper discusses the ways that community connections serve to sustain and support scholarly growth, retention, and success, particularly in longer-term online contexts. These strategies are seen through the reflective experience of a faculty mentor and two recent graduates who co-developed community support strategies that help doctoral…

First-year students' literacy deficits are not the problem. They are emblematic of an overall skill set which can be scaffolded from the first year of university study. If we treat literacy deficits as contingent upon other items of motivation, and as an element of Academic "Motivational" Literacy, we can usually also see these deficits…

The role of gamification in Australian higher educational learning has gained increasing currency in recent years, with many proponents promoting its usefulness for improving the university student experience by increasing progression and lowering attrition, particularly among first year students (Charles, Charles, McNeill, Bustard, & Black,…

Mindset theory is an achievement motivation theory that centers on the concept of the malleability of abilities. According to mindset theory, students tend to have either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset about their intelligence; students with a growth mindset tend to believe that intelligence is malleable, whereas students with fixed mindsets…

Many subareas share a common interest in students' "motivational resilience," defined broadly as patterns of action that allow students to constructively deal with, overcome, recover, and learn from encounters with academic obstacles and failures. However, research in each of these areas often progresses in relative isolation, and…

The impacts of COVID-19 have been widespread, and the education sector has not been immune to its effects. In March 2020 Australian universities were forced into a shutdown, which prompted an unanticipated, sudden shift in education, from on-campus and face-to-face to an off-campus and online mode of teaching and learning. This paper describes the…