This article highlights four key behaviors that typify authentic leadership. Authentic leaders (1) exercise influence to reach shared goals; (2) engage in continuous learning; (3) build and nurture relationships; and (4) model behaviors they want others to display. Although the behaviors are presented as distinct, they are inextricably linked and…

Achievement goal theory helps describe how and why students engage in various academic behaviors. Historically, achievement goals have been examined almost exclusively with undergraduate, nonminority samples, and predominately with factor analytic techniques. The present study adds to a growing literature by providing initial validation of a…

Sex education in middle and high school health classes is critically important because it frequently comprises the primary mechanism for conveying information about sexual health to adolescents. Deliver evidence-based information on HIV and pregnancy prevention practices and they will be less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, the theory…

Most people, school teachers and children included, are altogether too sure about what gender is: there are two "opposite" sexes, man and woman, and gender is the inevitable categorical expression of natural sex. Like all commonsense views, however, the gender binary has been socially constructed through normalising discourses that frame…

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the retention rate and 9 first-year student programs at Liberal Arts Colleges in the Mountain South, a region in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the United States. Nine first-year programs were studied: Summer Bridge Programs, Preterm Orientation, Outdoor Adventure Orientation,…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the adjunct faculty's perception of professional development and support services offered and needed at Tidewater Community College, a multicampus community college. This study involved adjunct faculty only. A survey was created and contained 58 survey questions. The majority of these were…

This doctoral dissertation is an empirical study employing the case study research design and aims at gathering the perspectives of fraternity men concerning the utility of anti-discrimination clauses in protecting minority members' interests and contributing to a sense of belonging. The case includes a mixed methodology of a survey, focus group…

The purpose of the phenomenological inquiry was to uncover the lived experiences of at-risk adult students in historically black colleges and universities. The intent was to provide an in-depth understanding of what these at-risk students face as they enter and matriculate at college, either for the first time or as returning students. The ten…

This quantitative study examined the relationship between teachers' sense of efficacy and school organizational health. Teachers' sense of efficacy was measured using three dimensions of teacher efficacy: efficacy in student engagement, efficacy in instructional strategies, and efficacy in classroom management. Organizational health was measured…

The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate the College-Going Self Efficacy Scale for High School Students (CSHS). The CSHS is a measure of self-efficacy in completing college-going tasks (i.e. acquiring knowledge of oneself, acquiring knowledge about colleges, exploring colleges, completing college application tasks, acquiring…

This study examined the hypothesis that mastery orientation would increase for college students enrolled in courses that incorporated self-assessment. Early in the spring 2013 semester, 216 community college students enrolled in 16 different general education and developmental courses volunteered to participate and completed a demographic/goal…

This study describes a program evaluation of a community college adult program for underprepared learners in the eastern lower peninsula of Michigan. The purpose of the program is to make postsecondary education more accessible to those adults who typically would not consider postsecondary education an option. Guided by Cross's adult learning…

This exploratory study investigated how self-perceptions of self-determination and of achievement goal orientation were related to self-perceptions of satisfaction with the learning experience in a population of 495 adults engaged in non-formal lifelong learning through participation as amateur members of the United States Dressage Association.…

Academic resilience has been widely researched in traditional and online educational settings, but it has not been sufficiently studied in three-dimensional (3D) virtual learning environments (VLEs). This inferential research used multiple regression to quantitatively investigate the extent to which psycho-educational factors including academic…

The number of visually impaired people is increasing year by year. Although attention has been given to the needs of people with disabilities, most of the discussion has focused on social welfare, while talk about assistive technology for people with disabilities is rare. The blind need training courses for reconstruction and rehabilitation.…