Spirituality is associated with a variety of positive life outcomes, and the university experience has long been regarded as a critical period of spiritual identity development. A key explanation for why gender differences exist in the importance of integrating spirituality in one's life may be that civic engagement is intervening in the…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how learners describe what factors lead learners to abandon a learning strategy and adopt another learning strategy and how the new learning strategy differs from previously learned and implemented learning strategies to reduce the extraneous cognitive load on a single science,…

This article challenges the "remedial" and "developmental" framing of summer bridge programs. The study used semi-structured interviews and focus groups to assess 63 students of Color who participated in a 5-week summer bridge program. Through the theoretical concept of counterspace, findings showed that the intentional…

This study examines, using structural equation modeling, the mediating effects of ethnic identity and intercultural competence on historically marginalized identities (HMIs) and cognitive empathy. Participants received an Identity Scale score summing each identity marker for groups that have experienced systemic, historic marginalization (i.e.,…

The study sought to explore how Latino students' views on college-going influenced their first-year experiences and the adjustments they made to enhance their persistence. Narrative interviews with six Central Valley (California) Latino students provided an understanding of their college journeys, emphasizing aspirational, linguistic, familial,…

Given the negative effects that anxiety and stress can have on university students' academic performance, work, and relationships, it is important to identify factors associated with intentions to seek personal counselling. We identified social self-concept, students' beliefs about their abilities and confidence in social situations, as a mediator…

Purpose: The study's purpose is to present and empirically test a model that identifies academic self-concept as a mediator of the relationship between gender, sexual orientation and self-perceptions of leadership ability. Design/methodology/approach: Surveys were administered to 964 first-year undergraduate students. Findings: Academic…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if, and to what extent, community college first-year learners' (FYL) selection of the mode of instruction (MOI), online courses (OLC) or face-to-face courses (FTFC), is related to their persistence into a second year or their academic success within a southern California…

This article reports on a study of academic experiences and outcomes for a sample of 1,346 freshman students who completed a virtually taught first-year mathematics course during the fall 2020 semester. Overall student achievement during the fall 2020 semester, during which courses were taught in a virtual modality, remained at the same level as…

In scholarly conversations of college readiness, the academic performance of Latinx students largely hinges on questions of culture. College success necessitates fluency in dominant cultural capital and community cultural wealth. Inner-city high schools, however, inadequately endow Latinx students with dominant cultural capital and are often…

The purpose of this study was to measure to what extent an experimental method of teaching argument incorporating elements from both Toulmin's (2004) structural approach and Walton's (2013) dialectical approach effects first-year college students' ability to write strong arguments. This experimental instruction used critical questioning as a…

Existing research indicates that underrepresented-in-STEM racially minoritized students with similar academic preparation are less likely than their counterparts to persist in STEM, raising the question of factors that may contribute to racial disparities in STEM participation beyond academic preparation. We extend the current literature by first…

English 299 is a two-unit credit/no credit elective, capped at fifteen students per section, intended to help first year composition students become more effective editors of their own writing. The class provides a hands-on environment to help students with sentence-level editing since the writing center on campus traditionally focuses on more…

Assembly Bill 1705 (AB 1705) seeks to strengthen students' completion of the first STEM Calculus course for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs across the California Community Colleges. The law sets new standards for students' placement and first math enrollment to ensure STEM students begin in transfer-level coursework that…

This study explored expertise in searching for online information on a contentious historical and political question. Fact checkers, historians, and college students thought aloud while conducting online research on the question, "Did Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, support euthanasia?" Analyses of screen recordings…