Interdisciplinary education offers a collaborative approach to multifaceted topics, such as environmental sustainability. In this article, we present the conceptual framework and lessons learned from a team-taught course, entitled Sustainability, Energy, and the Green Economy (SEGE). Faculty from the departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology…

The widening gap between the demographics of faculty and students in higher education is exemplified by the racial, ethnic, and economic disparities in student achievement outcomes. Expecting students to adapt to an unwritten set of rules to successfully navigate higher education is not the solution. Understanding the strengths of students is…

First-generation students, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, have low persistence rates. Research shows that one of the barriers to their low persistence is a need for a student-centered pedagogical approach. Research has shown that if an instructor incorporates a pause technique during a standard lecture,…

In 2005, Louisiana implemented the "Master Plan for Public Postsecondary Education: 2001" (Board of Regents, State of Louisiana, 2001) to restructure its higher education system in an effort to provide its citizens with high quality postsecondary educational choices. This restructuring forced its two-year and four-year institutions to…

Data from the National Student Clearinghouse points to an inequity in persistence and completion rates of racially and ethnically diverse students, especially African-American students. To address issues of enrollment, retention, and completion among African-American students on college campuses, a number of researchers have long emphasized the…

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate whether students who completed the accelerated learning program (ALP) in English at Butler Community College in fall 2016 perceived a three-part, structured approach to the course as having been a significant factor to their persistence and successful completion of the course. These perceptions…

Creating engaging student-faculty interactions has been a challenge for instructors teaching at community colleges in the United States. The purpose of this research study was to explore the relationship between student-faculty interactions and students' course engagement and completion. To explore this relationship, the research study collected…

The purpose of this Executive Position Paper was to research how to design an online, synchronous, asynchronous, or face-to-face training program for higher education instructors to serve the needs of a diverse student population of emergent learners, specifically in the community college sector. The subsequent research resulted in a faculty…

Student resistance in the language/literacy classroom has been an important focus of research in TESOL and applied linguistics. This article examines resistance by two adult-arrival immigrant students in a developmental literacy classroom, drawing from a larger ethnographic case study focused on students' transition into community college. The…

Community colleges play a vital role in postsecondary education, enrolling more than one in every three postsecondary students. While their importance has grown over the past 50 years, their students' success rates remain low. Consequently, community college stakeholders are searching with mounting urgency for approaches that increase students'…

This groundbreaking volume is the first to concentrate specifically on the experiences, challenges, and triumphs of immigrant-origin community college students. Drawing on data from the Research on Immigrants in Community College Study (RICC), chapters highlight the unique needs of these students, the role of classrooms and campus settings,…

High Impact Practices are defined as teaching and learning strategies designed to benefit college students through challenging yet confidence-building coursework, and through establishing connections to faculty, peers, and community, among other positive impacts. The ten High Impact Practices recognized by the American Association of Colleges and…

The focus of this research is to provide a framework for community colleges and community-based organizations to partner in a manner that improves student outcomes in persistence and graduation rates. The proposed framework encourages digital student engagement that assists students with their non-academic needs, such as hunger or homelessness.…

This research examined the influence formative self-assessment had on first/second year community college student self-regulatory practices. Previous research has shown that the ability to regulate one's learning activities can improve performance in college classes, and it has long been known that the use of formative assessment improves…

Objective: Traditional-age students attending a rural community college in Kentucky's Appalachian region were interviewed, along with faculty members and administrators, to identify phenomena serving as sources of encouragement or as barriers to retention from the point of entry to the point of transfer. Method: Students' perspectives were…