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.…

Statistics education is increasingly important to our society with enrolment increases of 16% in introductory statistics courses and 85% in upper-level statistics courses. Research has demonstrated many factors related to students' behaviors and outcomes in statistics courses such as past achievement, attitudes, and effort. We sought to model…

Kombucha, a popular probiotic beverage, contains detectable concentrations of ethyl alcohol. To be sold as a nonalcoholic product, alcohol concentrations in kombucha must be shown to be less than 0.5% by volume. This paper describes the use of an inexpensive, commercially available sensor to reliably and accurately measure alcohol concentrations…

Even though it is widely held that the theory of evolution is one of the pillars of the biological sciences, as we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is alarming how little we know about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and non-STEM majors' misconceptions about evolution in countries such as…

Misinformation regarding vaccine science decreased the receptiveness to COVID-19 vaccines, exacerbating the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on society. To mitigate the negative societal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, impactful and creative science communication was needed, yet little research has explored how to encourage COVID-19…

This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of traditional lectures versus active lectures in introductory college biology classes composed of science and non-science majors, a topic of significant importance in the field of education. In a traditional lecture, the researcher used PowerPoint to present class content while answering direct…

This study focuses on the construction of the learner-centered teaching college English teaching mode under big data technology. Traditional college English teaching has issues, such as standardized teaching ignoring individual differences and lagging feedback. However, the development of big data technology offers opportunities for teaching…

This study compares the grammatical errors (GEs) made by non-English major undergraduate students from China and Pakistan, aiming to identify common and distinct types of error and to explore potential reasons behind them. By focusing on these two linguistically and culturally distinct groups, this research seeks to enhance understanding of…

Metacognition plays a crucial role in textbook development for second and foreign language (L2) listening, but research targeting the intersection between metacognition and L2 listening textbooks is scarce. This study examined the extent of the coverage of metacognition in 19 English listening textbook series for college non-English majors in…

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…

Math anxiety involves moderate to extreme fear, anxiety, and occasionally physical pain associated with anticipating or performing mathematical tasks. High levels of math anxiety have been tied to students taking lower levels of math and choosing less quantitatively challenging courses and careers. In a small geoscience program in a primarily…

As the field of data science evolves with advancing technology and methods for working with data, so do the opportunities for re-conceptualizing how we teach undergraduate statistics and data science courses for majors and non-majors alike. In this paper, we focus on three crucial components for this re-conceptualization: Developing research…

Purpose: Communication apprehension (CA) is the fear or anxiety about communicating. In addition, self-perceived communication competence (SPCC) refers to the learners' perception of their competence. CA hampers individuals' ability to communicate effectively in various communication contexts, which has an impact on their employability. Confident…

Colleges throughout the United States typically expect their students to take at least one course in the sciences to fulfill liberal studies curriculum requirements. For nonscience majors, the choice of science class can include introductory chemistry, introductory biology, and astronomy, among others. Based upon interactions both in and out of…