Over the years it has become more common for practitioners to use the NGSS scientific practices to inform curricula at the undergraduate level. One of these practices is argumentation, the process of engaging in argument from evidence. Argumentation is an important part of the scientific process because scientists must make claims about their…

Literature on stereotypes and implications of stereotype threat has grown considerably over the past decade. While numerous studies examine college major biases, they predominantly focus on STEM and business students. For Music Majors (MMs), some of the conventional musician stereotypes include susceptibility to heavy drinking, drug use, and their…

This dissertation investigates how the numerical representation of women in small collaborative groups influences their learning in a college biology class for non-majors focused on sex, gender, and society. Prior to the start of the semester, the researchers divided students into all-male, all-female, or mixed-gender groups of varying sex ratios.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate non-music major college and university students' self-efficacy beliefs and their perceptions of the four sources of self-efficacy as they related to their participation in active music making and creation in college (e.g., ensembles and musicals, group and private lessons, music theory classes). An…

Academic dishonesty among college students has been an enduring issue within higher education. While prior research has explored this issue, the recent global pandemic has shifted collegiate demographics dramatically, particularly within online courses. As a result, previous findings may prove less applicable, warranting new research into student…

The community college serves a diverse undergraduate student population and community. Since its inception over a century ago, the mission of the community college has been to provide access and to be inclusive by offering courses that support historically disadvantaged populations, university transfer students, developmental education courses to…

Non-major music students are an integral part of university music departments, as they both bolster the department's enrollment numbers and bring diverse perspectives to the ensembles, lessons, and classes in which they participate. Although most non-majors focus their time on ensembles, a few choose to include lessons as part of their experience.…

This dissertation focuses on three different populations of learners served by typical physics departments: STEM majors within a calculus-based introductory physics course, non-STEM majors within a general education survey astronomy course (Astro 101), and in- service STEM teachers within a professional development workshop. The three studies…

The goals of nonmajor science education are to improve scientific literacy and produce pro-science attitudes. Together, these goals are expected to improve an individual's ability to make evidence-based decisions based on newer understandings of the natural world as well as developing technologies. In a post-COVID-19 world, public understanding of…

A growing body of literature focusing on undergraduate biology education calls for students to engage in the ways of thinking, feeling, and doing that reflect those in which biologists engage. Such reform efforts suggest that learning is best fostered when students engage in practices, concepts, and scientific reasoning as they endeavor to explain…

Learning to program has long been known to be a difficult task, requiring a student to develop both fluency in the syntax and grammar of a formal programming language and learn the problem-solving approaches and techniques of computational thinking. The successful teaching strategies of the past have involved maintaining small teacher-student…

This study aimed to increase enrollment in accounting degree programs at Azusa Pacific University's Leung School of Accounting (LSA). Forty-four undergraduate students, four graduate students, and five faculty members participated in surveys and Zoom discussions to provide insight into two potential initiatives intended to increase accounting…

This study sought to determine if music and non-music majors' motivation differed for courses in and outside of their respective majors. This is important because motivation plays a key role in education. In particular the academic contexts and personal characteristics of musicians, may affect their expectations of success and subjective task…

This dissertation describes an experiment to investigate how learners with different levels of background in computer science learn core concepts of computer science, in particular, algorithms. We designed a study to focus on cognitive task analysis for eliciting the empirical mental elements of learning two graph algorithms. Cognitive workload…

The problem to be addressed by this study was the lack of student retention on the part of community college students, how that was perceived by faculty, staff, and students, and how retention could potentially be impacted by student participation in fine arts courses and activities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine fine arts…