Although international students represent around 5% of the higher education population in the United States, research on psychological factors that result in this segment's academic success remains limited. This study sought to help fill this knowledge gap by exploring success factors that affect international students' academic progress.…

Teacher retention has long been a problem, but recent escalations in retention rates across the country have districts scrambling to correct the problem through incentives such as increased pay and teacher workdays. However, the problem seems to be much deeper and goes beyond compensation. Research has suggested that teachers are inadequately…

Undergraduate STEM retention has been a longstanding concern. Specifically, majors such as engineering have experienced a high dropout rate consistently in the past several decades. This study is aimed at understanding factors contributing to making the engineering major challenging, and individual factors that help first-year engineering students…

Undergraduates often report problematic perceptions of low value and high cost in their initial science courses. These beliefs often predict poor performance and retention, and also strengthen over time. Few studies have examined how profiles of value and cost beliefs emerge, and fewer track students' transitions across profiles over a course and…

The purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of a theoretical model encompassing psychological theories underlying student retention in postsecondary education. New conceptual operationalizations were applied to elaborate Bean and Eaton's theoretical model of student retention. The influences of student entry characteristics,…

This article reports on a study that examined the relationship between language learners' L2 grit and language mindsets and their attitudes toward CALL. The participants of the study were 625 EFL learners (male = 165, 26.4%; female = 460, 73.6%) with the mean age of 24.4 years (SD = 1.74). They were asked to respond to questionnaires on language…

Holistic review is widely practiced in graduate admissions. However, despite its prevalence, there is a need to understand how practitioners approach holistic graduate admissions, how its practice relates to institutional priorities, and its potential implications for equitable access to graduate education. This exploratory mixed method study…

Decades of research suggests that institutional communication can dictate student success, but the COVID-19 pandemic exposed challenges to new demands. Institutions may not have been prepared to adjust communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, and given the ongoing nature of the pandemic, literature has yet to examine how higher education…

This study investigates undergraduate student satisfaction at a small private university in Japan, focusing on factors like social environment, instructors, facilities, support, academic grit, and student engagement. Given Japan's demographic challenges and the heightened competition in higher education, understanding these factors is crucial for…

This study included an investigation of several aspects of fully online programs and their relationship with student connectedness. Bawa (2016) stated retention rates for fully online students lag far behind their traditional in-person counterparts. Green et al. (2017) concluded online students who feel more connected are more likely to persist in…

This study examined autistic undergraduate students' college experiences and their perceptions about their intentions to persist in college. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with 27 autistic undergraduate students (mean age = 21.8 years; 40.7% men), and their responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Students…

College admissions leaders increasingly desire to incorporate non-cognitive factors like grit into admissions decisions. Consequently, we examined the validity of the short grit scale (Grit-S) using data collected on undergraduates attending 38 colleges. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we found that Grit-S does not possess adequate model…

A large proportion of students in the United States is international students. Thus, educational leaders need to facilitate the learning process for this population. This study investigated the characteristics of international students that affect their academic performance. The purpose of this study was to determine how individual characteristics…

Professional Identity is a concept that has been explored over the years in a number of disciplines, but with little attention paid to engineers. A more specific component of professional identity is engineering identity, which warrants further investigation due to positive impacts on retention. The purpose of this study was to investigate how…

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided second language (L2) learners with additional challenges regarding how to obtain an enjoyable experience while achieving a better learning attainment. Despite a growing body of studies that substantiated the predictive effect of grit, foreign language enjoyment (FLE), and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLA)…