Purpose: The transition to college presents significant challenges for many students as they navigate new academic and social experiences. In the USA, 30% of first-year students drop out before their second year. Research indicates that mentoring programs help students achieve social integration and likely have a positive effect on their…

The importance of student engagement is long recognised. Students who are more engaged will be more motivated and inclined to complete their studies. The aim of this study is to understand barriers to engagement for first-year computing students, a cohort that traditionally have high non-progression rates. A qualitative descriptive design was…

While women entering medical school are faced with a patriarchal system, they also enter into a community with other women and the potential for "resistance." The purpose of this study is to use the theory of temporal agency to explore how first-year medical students who identify as women draw upon past, future, and present agency to…

Recently, researchers have proposed to leverage technology-supported data (log files) to investigate temporal and sequential patterns of interaction behaviors in learning processes. There are two major challenges to be addressed: clarifying the positioning of interaction levels and identifying the evolution of the interaction action patterns in…

This article aims at exploring the correlation of student' perceived parental expectations, academic self-efficacy and academic engagement based on the expectancy value theory. Specifically, this study innovatively integrated the parental expectations, academic self-efficacy and academic engagement from students' perspectives into one model and…

Academic and social deficits, a nine-month secondary school-to-university learning loss, a readiness gap for university-level coursework, and limited cultural capital characterize the transition to university for Botswana's secondary school completers seeking a STEM qualification. This study investigated internationally implemented developmental…

This study explores how students' initial two years at college influence degree GPA and duration of completion. Results highlight the importance of the first two-year cumulative GPA and credits in forecasting degree outcomes. Early college credits and high school GPA impact success, guiding effective course planning. Implications encompass…

The ability to express scientific concepts in mathematical terms and integrate scientific and mathematical reasoning about a phenomenon is a foundational cognitive process involved in scientific thinking. This process called "blended math-science sensemaking" (MSS) is a desired skill for all science, technology, engineering, and math…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine formative first-year practices and motivating factors that encouraged first-year college students to pursue peer mentorship roles. The examination of peer mentorship within undergraduate populations owes much to Jacobi's (1991) study on mentoring and academic success, which more recently has…

Generative AI has prompted educators to reevaluate traditional teaching and assessment methods. This study examines AI's ability to write essays analysing Old English poetry; human markers assessed and attempted to distinguish them from authentic analyses of poetry by first-year undergraduate students in English at the University of Oxford. Using…

Sexual violence is common on US college campuses and can result in negative health and academic outcomes. Credit-bearing courses are a possible innovative intervention, but few have been studied, and little is known about enrolled students' experiences. Our institution, located in the Southern United States, developed a semester-long class as a…

Human Anatomy and Physiology courses are "gateway" courses that students must pass with high grades in order to proceed through their program of study. However, student pass rates are often low, resulting in students attempting the course multiple times and delaying their graduation. Supplemental instruction performed by peer leaders is…

Learning to read primary scientific literature (PSL) is an important part of developing scientific literacy skills. First-year students entering college often have little previous exposure to PSL and therefore face initial barriers in learning how to engage with PSL. Annotations have been shown to be a useful tool in undergraduate education and…

As higher education diversifies, students from underrepresented groups find themselves on campuses unprepared to support them. Academic advising can cultivate belonging or reify" cultural mismatches" when students' norms do not match institutional norms. Leveraging interviews with Chinese international, Chinese American, and European…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify the relationship between grit and anxiety within first-year honors college undergraduate students through student surveys, interviews, and archival data. Identifying this relationship may result in additional supportive honors programming in future years as well as add to the understanding of…