In order to support first-year women in engineering, a program was designed to help their transition to college and promote connection with other women. The program focused on three main areas based in research: mentor matching with mentee input, regular formal meetings in small mentoring groups, and the formation of...
An interpretative philosophical framework was applied to a case study to document the particular experiences and perspectives of ten women engineering transfer students
who once attended a community college and are currently enrolled in one of two university
professional engineering programs. This study is important because women still do not...
University-based makerspaces are receiving increasing attention as promising innovations that may contribute to the development of future engineers. Using a theory of social boundary spaces, we investigated whether undergraduate student users at two university-based makerspaces in the United States viewed these spaces as affording their development as well-rounded professionals equipped...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship
between a measure of anxiety and academic achievement of freshmen
women enrolled in the University of Northern Colorado (U.N.C.).
One thousand and eighty women, eighty-seven percent of the
freshmen women, were included in this study. All subjects completed
the American...
This study examined the relationship between self-esteem and student involvement among American college sophomore women. Self-esteem is defined as "a positive or negative attitude toward the self" (Rosenberg, 1989, xxviii). Student involvement is defined as the amount of time a student spends actively involved in various activities in college (Astin,...
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between career development and locus of control as
they relate to barriers encountered in career development.
The sample included 144 students in the engineering
program at Oregon State University. The Rotter Internal-
External Scale and the Career Development Inventory (Form...
While it is generally assumed that alcohol consumption
plays some role in the advent of negative sexual outcomes
among college students (sexually transmitted diseases,
unplanned pregnancies, and date rape), that role has not
been empirically demonstrated or quantified.
The purpose of this study was to assess the association
of alcohol...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships
that were hypothesized to exist between the variables birth order,
family size, and parents college attendance and the dependent variable,
college graduation. The three general hypotheses tested were:
1. A positive relationship exists between a given position in
birth order...
The major question of this study was why do community
college women choose traditional occupations? The study
examined the characteristics of community college women who
chose preparation for a traditional occupation either immediately
after graduation from high school or after a period
of absence for family responsibilities.
The sample for...
This study explored the lived experiences of graduate students in masters-level academic programs who become pregnant, whether intended or otherwise, and the sources from which they received support in their efforts to balance their dual responsibilities as students and mothers-to-be. Through a series of three, semistructured one-on-one interviews, seven participants...
The extent in which the evangelical Christian perspective influenced the career decision-making self-efficacy of six female college students was qualitatively explored. Interviews and a focus group were utilized to find common themes and influences amongst the women. Literature from the areas of female college student development, career decision-making self-efficacy, and...
Little empirical research has been conducted on self-gifts
as a phenomenon of consumer behavior. A review of
literature demonstrated that the phenomenon of self-gifts has
been studied from the conceptual aspect, such as self-gift
functions. Yet, our knowledge of self-gifts still remains
limited because many of the determinants of self-gifts...
The nutritional impact of snacking on the diets of female,
freshman college students between the ages of 17 and 20 years was
assessed. Sixty-five women living in freshman residence halls at
Oregon State University recorded their dietary intakes and eating
habits for four days. Questionnaires concerning eating and activity
patterns...
This research explores the consequences and effects for men
enrolled in introductory Women Studies courses at Oregon State
University. Men are enrolling in the feminist classroom in larger
numbers due to institutional changes allowing Women Studies to
provide credit for baccalaureate core curriculum. The intention of
this study is to...
This study addresses perceptions, expectations, and values of women who espoused interest in joining National Panhellenic Conference sorority organizations, and the congruence of their beliefs with their first term membership experiences. The sources that informed women's expectations were also explored. Eight participants were selected from the potential new member pool...
This study sought to conduct an in depth analysis of women’s first sexual experiences looking for factors contributing to the experience and the emotional outcomes of first intercourse. Fourteen heterosexual, female, college students were interviewed about their first sexual experience and sexual background using a semi-structured interview format. The narratives...
Engineering students spend a significant amount of their undergraduate careers focused on technical theory and practice. This intensive student prepares them for their technical challenges in the future. This training is so intense that often the more 'soft skills' such as communication, leadership, design, and troubleshooting are left out or...
Retention of engineering students is a problem for many universities, especially during the first year. The problem of introducing students to engineering while increasing retention rates has recently been addressed by many different universities. Implementing novel lab structures, adjusting the lecture to incorporate more effective teaching techniques, and using orientation...
The conversation regarding transgender students in the context of women's colleges is inherently complicated due to the binary gender system that the existence of women's colleges reinforce. The primary goal of this phenomenological research was to examine the lived experiences of transgender college students at U.S. women's colleges. Because the...
Although a concern for gender equity provided the framework for this research,
the results of this study highlighted the fact that the question of equity should be
broadened to include concern for the tier of talented women and men who currently
choose not to persist in an undergraduate computer science...
The central question of this study was to examine the moral orientation and the role of self in subject generated moral dilemmas for information on the developmental and cultural forces contributing to the etiology and maintenance of eating disorders in college women. The research was based on the theories of...
The purpose of this thesis was to gain insight into why female college students initiate smoking. This study examined the major factors influencing the formation of such habit among this group. The tool used to study these factors was the questionnaire. Questionnaires were administered to randomly selected female students on...
This is a phenomenological research study of the lived experience of women student mentors at one community college located in an urban setting on the West Coast. The study participants were women students who served as mentors to other women at the community college who are participants in a returning...
Sororities play an important role in the process by which sorority women become gendered by influencing members' ideas about what it means to be a woman. Women and men become gendered through regular social interaction with other women and men, and sororities have a particularly strong impact on their members...
This study reports the food habits of Vietnamese college women in association with college life and their cultural background. Their food habits, food associated beliefs, and the influences on their food choices were examined. Interviews, using semi-structured questionnaire, were conducted with 25 Vietnamese college women at Oregon State University. The...
This qualitative study seeks to gain knowledge about the motives and barriers of rural adult women students and how these factors impact their decision to pursue postsecondary education. As more adult women choose to enter or return to higher education, it is important to examine the factors that influence their...
The purpose of this study is to examine the learning that occurs in Latina students
who enroll in learning communities designed for underprepared community college
students. The research question guiding this study is: What are the experiences of Latina
students enrolled in developmental learning community courses which have the greatest...
Since the inauguration of the King Abdullah-Aziz Foreign Scholarship Program in 2005, the number of Saudi university students in the United States has increased exponentially, and an unprecedented amount of Saudi women are seeking international degrees. The absence of scholarly research within these women’s home and host countries highlights the...
The purpose of this thesis is to explore civil engineering students’ and professional civil engineers' understanding of concepts within statics and fluid mechanics. The studies described herein begin to examine theories of situated cognition utilizing concept inventories, which are sets of multiple-choice questions where the incorrect answers are based on...
A theoretical argument is presented to suggest that engineering curriculum be
designed to develop social capital. Additionally, the value of social capital in the
retention of students in the College of Engineering, and the development, role, and value
of social capital in an electrical engineering laboratory is evaluated. Data collected...
................................................................................................. 33
Chapter 3 Student Social Capital and Retention in the College of Engineering ............ 35
Reform in science education has often emphasized task-based learning as an instructional method to improve student understanding and retention of concepts, and to promote the development of reasoning and problem-solving. Yet studies assessing student knowledge at the beginning and end of a task-based class show mixed results. Students in task-based...
Since 2005, the United States has experienced a significant influx of international students from Saudi Arabia, particularly women (Bollang, 2006). The American educational structure is something Saudi women have never experienced due to the vast differences between both cultures in all facets. There is very little to no research conducted...
Approximately half of the 6.4 million pregnancies occurring each year in the
United States are unintended (Finer & Henshaw, 2006). Unintended pregnancies, defined
as pregnancies not wanted at the time conception occurs, regardless of contraceptive use
(Chandra, Martinez, Mosher, Abma, & Jones, 2005) can have serious repercussions on
women, children,...
Communication cannot be successful without the
cooperative listening response of an auditor. Auditors must
feel empowered to act as agents of change or their decisions
and actions cannot be influenced by the discourse. Their
every response depends upon their ability to perceive
themselves as potential mediators of change.
A review...
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self-esteem inventory
for Thai college women. Research questions included whether or not the developed
inventory proved to be unidimensional or multidimensional and, if the
latter proved to be the case, how many dimensions underlie the construct. The
item pool...
The purpose of this study is to explore, through their own voices, the higher
education experiences of selected urban American Indian females in California
community colleges. This study is an attempt to identify pathways to academic
success by teasing out college practices and support systems that help Native
women navigate...
Gender has been the subject of study in engineering education and science social research for decades. However, little attention has been given to transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) experiences or perspectives. The role of cisgender or gender conforming status has not been investigated nor considered in prevailing frameworks of gender...
The purpose of this study is to critically explore low-income women's experience as they negotiate post secondary education in community colleges. Three research questions explore the context through which low-income women have entered the college experience, what that experience is like for them, and how the community college experience has...
There is a knowledge gap concerning the outcomes of early adolescent sexual initiation (ASI). In particular, the influence of early ASI upon adult attachment is unknown. A multiple regression study was conducted to address this knowledge gap. Adult partner/spouse attachment was the criterion variable, and the predictor variables included both...
The central problem of this study was to determine
whether ego stage scores are valid predictors of empathy and
mature moral judgment in women graduate counseling students.
The research was based on the theories of ego development
(Loevinger, 1976), empathy (Rogers, 1975; Hogan, 1975) and
moral values (Hogan, 1970).
Forty-three...
Previous research suggests that little is known about female
mentoring relationships, particularly among undergraduate students.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate mentoring
relationships experienced by female undergraduate merchandising
management students. The investigation included the overall
prevalence of mentoring experiences, the specific kinds of mentor
roles, the prevalent...
This ethnographic study describes the patterns of decorating in the study rooms of university sorority women. The primary method of data were collection was by means of interviews with sorority members. Observations and photographs of the study rooms of these members supplemented the interviews and provided validation for categorization purposes....
The increasingly corporatized and privatized public university has resulted in significant role changes for students and faculty. Among these changes includes the development of online education and its proliferation among various disciplines to not only increase educational access, but to sustain budgetary program needs. Such processes are occurring in women's...
The purposes of this study were to examine the experiences of African American female students attending urban community colleges, to gain further understanding of how they interpret the meaning of persistence, and to identify the factors that affect their persistence. African American women attending community college in Los Angeles were...
As people learn new concepts, they experience a process termed conceptual change. There are several theories that attempt to explain conceptual change, and this paper uses the framework theory to explain how students learn mechanics of materials. Semi-structured interviews with ninety students were qualitatively analyzed for this research in an...
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) is an interdisciplinary academic field that addresses gender, sexuality, and social justice issues. The research objective of this project was to examine the attitudes of self-identified male students in introductory Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for winter term 2016 at Oregon State University. This...
The purpose of this study was to compare the proposed women's college styles for day and evening in selected magazines to the documented apparel of college women from Oregon State College in the 1949-1957 time period. The historic method and visual analysis methods were used to complete this study. An...
Student engagement in a course plays a vital role in a student’s ability to process and construct knowledge. Student engagement research has investigated how students engage in and out of the classroom on a macro scale, through observation and survey data collection of large student populations, which lack focus on...
