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According to the American Counseling Association and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, social justice advocacy is an ethical imperative for counselors and a training standard for counseling students. As a group of socially conscious mental health counseling students and faculty, we developed and facilitated a social justice advocacy group to learn about tangible ways to engage in social justice action. Using the S-Quad model developed by Toporek and Ahluwalia, we formed and facilitated a social justice advocacy group for our peers. This paper will serve as a reflection of our experiences engaging in the process.

Let us lay the context for our conversation: My senior level undergraduate nursing students, all of whom were doing their clinical experience at health care centres in Calgary, appreciated not having to travel to the University after their clinical day to have a face-to-face hour session with myself as their instructor. In previous years, we used a platform called Blackboard, and then Desire to Learn. Each student described what they had learned that day. When we had our face-to-face weekly session on non-clinical days, they reviewed their peer group projects. In providing course feedback, students emphasized that the online approach facilitated their peer group learning and enhanced their confidence in doing classroom presentations. [Articles in this journal were presented at the University of Calgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching.]

Contribution: A peer-mentoring plan designed to support engineering students during their transition from high school to university. This article addresses the adaptation challenges faced by first-year students in engineering programs. Background: The transition to university is a critical period for students, marked by significant lifestyle changes and the inherent difficulties of engineering degrees. This often results in high stress levels, with some students struggling to adapt and consequently dropping out. Previous efforts to support students have shown varying degrees of success, highlighting the need for effective peer support mechanisms. Intended Outcomes: A structured peer-mentoring environment aimed at reducing stress, improving first-year students' adaptation to university life, and decreasing dropout rates. The program is designed to be well received by both mentors and mentees, thereby enhancing the academic experience for engineering students. Application Design: Drawing on existing teaching experiences and literature, the proposed peer-mentoring program involves senior students acting as mentors to first-year students. The program begins with a training session to equip mentors with necessary tools and to define their roles and boundaries. This is followed by an initial meeting during the welcome day, and continues with formal and informal interactions throughout the first semester, under the supervision of the degree coordinator. Findings: Surveys completed by both mentors and first-year students indicate a high level of acceptance and perceived usefulness of the peer-mentoring program. The results suggest that the program effectively supports first-year students in their transition to university life, with strong recommendations for its continuation in future academic years.

In the current article, we describe the development and validation of the Social Comparison Rumination Scale. This measured was developed as a supplement to existing social comparison measures and to enable us to determine its potential relevance to perfectionism and other personality constructs. The Social Comparison Rumination Scale (SCRS) is a six-item inventory assessing the extent to which an individual is cognitively preoccupied and thinking repetitively about social comparison outcomes and information. Three studies with five samples of university students are described. Psychometric analyses established the SCRS consists of one factor assessed with high internal consistency and the measure is reliable and valid. Analyses showed that elevated levels of social comparison rumination are associated with trait perfectionism, perfectionistic automatic thoughts, perfectionistic self-presentation, ruminative brooding, burnout, depression, and fear of negative evaluation. Links were also established between social comparison rumination and both narcissism and dispositional envy. Overall, our findings support the further use of the SCRS and highlight the tendency of many people to think in deleterious ways about social comparisons long after the actual comparisons have taken place. We discuss social comparison rumination within the context of concerns about excessive social media use and young people being exposed to seemingly perfect lives that became a vexing cognitive preoccupation.

The higher education community continues to pursue solutions to the alarming number of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) undergraduates leaving their degree programs. This qualitative study investigated the experiences of 12 STEM scholarship recipients in a near-peer-mentored social support group at a large Midwestern university. The goal of this study was to investigate the scholars' challenges and supports prior to and while participating in a weekly peer group through the lens of the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory model. This case study triangulated the experiences of the peer group participants using pre-group individual interviews, peer leader reflections, and a focus group. The pre-group interviews revealed that the participants experienced challenges associated with the rigor of their courses, self-imposed pressure, and unsupportive relationships. Supports for their persistence prior to the peer group included their internal drive to achieve their goals and supportive relationships, particularly with family. The focus group revealed that the peer group provided a non-academic space to connect with peers, facilitated sense of belonging, and normalized their struggle as STEM majors, broadening their perception of science identity. Paradoxically, although participants highlighted personal disclosure as key to promoting social support, they indicated their greatest challenge in the peer group was discomfort with sharing.

With small liberal arts colleges (SLACs) producing an increased percentage of STEM graduates, whose voice resonates most regarding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree persistence? Chemistry professor? Dad? Best friend? This study investigated if undergraduate student perception of close social subgroup influences affected motivation characteristics (i.e., self-efficacy, STEM interest, and outcome expectations) and STEM major persistence. STEM majors (N = 295) across each college year at a Midwestern, 4-year liberal arts institution were surveyed regarding subgroup influence on motivation toward STEM degree attainment. A hypothesized structural equation model was tested to determine the subgroups that STEM majors perceived affected STEM motivational factors and degree persistence. Results indicate that STEM professors and friends have significant explicit and implicit effects on STEM degree persistence. The model accounted for a significant amount of variance in STEM interest, self-efficacy, and persistence for the overall sample and for underrepresented group members. Educational implications for college administrators and professors, and future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this longitudinal investigation was to examine the effectiveness of a comprehensive, integrated curricular and co-curricular program designed to build community, provide academic and social support, and promote engagement in academically purposeful activities resulting in more equitable environments for historically underrepresented, low-income science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) information technology (IT) students. The study also focused on the role that the sense of belonging and academic hope play in enhancing persistence to degree completion. Program participants had significantly higher persistence rates compared to a matched comparison group. Additionally, STEM-specific belonging and academic hope significantly predicted students' intentions to persist to degree completion in IT. A major finding was that STEM domain--specific belonging was a stronger predictor of persistence than general belonging. Our investigation has implications for the role that cohort-based programs, industry engagement, peer mentoring, proactive advising, undergraduate research opportunities, career preparation, and leveraging need-based financial aid play in ensuring equity in STEM.

China has actively internationalized its doctoral education by funding students to study abroad via the China Scholarship Council. Nevertheless, little is known about the scholarship recipients' perceptions of their study sojourn, especially those on short-term exchange programs. Based on 100 visiting doctoral students' study reports, the study employed a sentiment analysis and was guided by the ecological system theory to untangle how this cohort affectively evaluated academic and non-academic dimensions of the study sojourn as a multi-layered ecological system. Via a computer-based SKEP analysis, the study contributes new objective insights regarding the perceived nature of an overseas sojourn, which is predominantly positive. In particular, it reveals positive perceptions regarding the funder and institutional prestige, indicating that the recipients' increasing national pride may be harnessed as a soft pulling force for nation-building. This paper ends by offering implications that may potentially benefit doctoral education in China and other countries.

This longitudinal mixed-methods case study aimed to explain why a seemingly ordinary U.S.-affiliated hyper-connected French language learner (Nancy) achieved extraordinary outcomes after 15 weeks in Paris, compared to fifteen Generation Z peers also enrolled in the program. Framed by Complex Dynamic Systems Theory and social pedagogies, the study adopted a retrodictive approach to "explain after by before" and retrace Nancy's complex, non-linear trajectories of success. Adapting to new realities of students going abroad with their smartphones in hand, multiple measures of success (linguistic, intercultural, social, psychological, emotional) were triangulated with reports on smartphone usage, rich interviews, and background data to provide dense time-series and narrative illustrations of changes. Findings revealed the importance of the activation of Nancy's agency to take advantage of the affordances of her study abroad environment through the butterfly effect arising from her initial conditions, judicious smartphone usage, and quality of L1 and L2 interactions.

The present study explored where and how college students sought assistance and information for themselves and their family or friends who may have needed behavioral health and substance abuse disorder assistance. Two hundred and fifty-nine college students responded to the questionnaire at one of the 50 largest public higher education institutions in the Southeastern United States. Findings confirm that help-seeking is a multifaceted process involving social and professional support. Participants indicated that they would seek assistance earlier than they had and also make personal changes in their lives to address well-being. These findings can guide higher education administrators, faculty members, counseling staff on campuses, funders, and policymakers in designing and developing accessible and user-friendly programs and services for increasing student success on campuses.

Although there is a growing body of research that suggests the mental health of graduate students differs from that of their undergraduate counterparts, studies examining international students at the graduate level are scarce. This study therefore compares mental health diagnoses, challenges and stressors experienced, and use of mental health support, of international and non-international students who identified as being graduate/professional students. Data from the 2019 Canadian National College Health Assessment were used to compare the international graduate students (n = 1,876) to their non-international peers (n = 4,809). Significant differences were found on prevalence of conditions, certain specific challenges that are experienced, and help-seeking behaviours. Overall, international and non-international students may experience similar challenges, but international students are less likely to seek support. The findings suggest a need for graduate advisors and student affairs professionals to recognize the unique experiences of international graduate students particularly with their help-seeking behaviours.

This qualitative study explored the benefits of peer group support for first-year South African students who live in university residences. A case study design was adopted and data were collected from first-year students via focus group interviews at a selected South African university. Thematic analysis revealed the benefits for first-year students joining peer groups in the residences, such as a sense of belonging, receiving academic support, developing student leadership roles, and involvement in co-curricular activities. In addition, the study highlights the need for implementing student programmes to assist first-year students in transitioning from school to university.

This paper explores the future of college student mental health from students' perspective. The authors of this manuscript are four undergraduate and graduate students from two different universities. In the context of growing demand and intensity of mental health issues and the increased diversity of student identities on college campuses, the authors outline students' specific needs and what institutions can do to support their mental health needs. Two specific strategies are highlighted -- peer support and mental health days.

Background: During initial teacher education, reflective thinking can have a key role to play in preparing pre-service teachers for professional practice. Therefore, the approaches taken to assist reflection are important to optimise learning from classroom experiences. Purpose: This case study from Finland sought to examine the development of pre-service teachers' reflective thinking during a teaching practicum in which a non-prescriptive, self-guided approach to reflection was implemented. Method: Drawing on best practice, we designed an approach to reflection which placed emphasis on the agency of the pre-service teacher, and involved elements including dialogue, peer interaction and collaboration, and video. The research followed three pre-service teachers who worked in a peer group with their mentor-teacher during a six-week teaching practicum where this approach was employed. The peer-group mentoring discussions were recorded and analysed qualitatively. Findings: The in-depth analysis of data identified three different sequences of self-guided reflection phases, with findings revealing how the pre-service teachers' reflective thinking developed according to their individual and shared trajectories. It suggests that for practicum experiences to be reflected on in a way that supports deep learning, the process must stem from pre-service teachers' individualised learning needs. Conclusions: This case study highlights the rich potential of a non-prescriptive, self-guided approach to reflection as a tool for use during initial teacher education. It can offer a more personalised and active way for pre-service teachers to learn from early teaching experiences, gain practical understanding and develop their reflective thinking.

Objective: To examine how public health policy was reinforced by peer workers who were called Public Health Ambassadors (PHAs) at a West Coast university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Descriptions of PHA community interactions were collected. Analyses were conducted using data from the 12-weeks of the 2020 Fall Quarter. Results: In total, there were 5,112 interactions of which there were three types: (1) educational (4%), (2) noncompliance (90%), and (3) thanking (6%). About 1.3% of interactions were met with resistance. Conclusions: Overall, compliance with campus public health guidance was high. Trends suggest compliance fatigue may have occurred after the first four weeks as evidenced by increased noncompliance rates and test positivity rates. Policy Implications: These results suggest the feasibility of the implementing US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations of using trusted messengers to reinforce critical behaviors to support community health.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among college students is a significant problem that negatively affects their physical and emotional health. This study aimed at examining risk factors, especially childhood adversities at the individual, relationship, and community levels, of IPV perpetration among college students. Methods: The sample from seven universities in the U.S. and Canada (N = 3,725) completed an online survey. Major variables included IPV perpetration, five types of childhood adversities, alcohol and drug use, depression, and demographic information. Logistic regression was performed. Results: Peer violence victimization, witnessing parental IPV, experiencing child maltreatment, drug use, and depression were associated with a higher odd of perpetrating IPV. Conclusions: Research and practice must account for exposure to multiple risk factors when intervening with college students. An integrative approach that combines trauma-informed interventions with substance use and mental health treatment may be most successful at IPV perpetration prevention and intervention among college students.

A study was conducted considering a mathematics learning center as a figured world, that is, as a social space that is treated as if individuals within the space share certain meanings about the space and interactions within it (Holland et al., 1998) from the perspective of the undergraduate peer tutors employed in it (for the larger study, see Bjorkman, 2019). An emergent theme in the collected data was that of "the club" or a sense of group membership and identity that focused on tutors' mathematical abilities, helpfulness to others, being STEM majors, and the tutoring center. The focus of this article is on how tutoring, in this instance, showed benefits in the areas of positive subject-matter identities and a sense of belonging that has been shown as beneficial for student outcomes (Cribbs et al., 2015; Solomon, 2007). How undergraduate tutoring programs can potentially be leveraged as beneficial not only for the tutees - but also for the tutors - is discussed.

Research on reflections and their use in academic support programs has highlighted their benefits concerning student leaders or tutors as an evaluative tool to document performance and measure personal growth. Largely absent from the literature is evidence of the possible benefits reflections could have on the students using academic support services. To address this gap in the literature, a study was conducted with students participating in a cohort-based academic success program to understand what value, if any, they found in using reflection as part of their experience. This article presents findings from a pilot study on the benefits of reflections in a Peer-led Team Learning (PLTL) academic success program. Sixty-five students and leaders were recruited across 12 PLTL sessions. Data were collected through student reflections at the end of each PLTL session and an end-of-semester survey to understand what the students perceived as the benefits of using reflections. Findings from this qualitative study show that the reflections did enhance the student experience by providing them with opportunities to rehearse and review material, perform self-checks for understanding, and develop confidence in their mastery of concepts. More research is needed and encouraged to deepen our understanding of how reflections can be leveraged in peer education.

Learning science is a social enterprise that involves students communicating ideas, observations, and findings. Navigating talk between students about scientific concepts and practices is a complex task for teachers. Traditionally, science educators have used a method called microteaching (teaching to peers) as a context for practicing teaching. In this study, science educators created practice sessions called rehearsals, designed for elementary teacher candidates (ETCs) to participate in deliberate teaching episodes using discourse skills followed by instructor feedback. This NSF-supported work explores the use of rehearsals within virtual simulations software called Mursion® (developed as TeachLivE™) as compared to traditional rehearsals by using treatment and comparison groups. This study found that ETCs in both contexts increased in their use of various talk moves between rehearsal timepoints. Compared to the control group, the treatment group was able to address students' ideas and understanding more frequently in the rehearsal settings as well as the classroom setting (practicum). This finding indicates that ETCs felt comfortable utilizing student avatars when practicing specific teaching skills and were able to transfer some of these skills into the classroom setting. Creating valuable teaching experiences in teacher preparation is essential and this study explores the possibility of using a new innovative context as a space for ETCs to practice those skills.

Purpose: The transition to college presents significant challenges for many students as they navigate new academic and social experiences. In the USA, 30% of first-year students drop out before their second year. Research indicates that mentoring programs help students achieve social integration and likely have a positive effect on their transition to college. This research study was conducted with education students to better understand the potential impacts of peer mentorship. Design/methodology/approach: Student mentors and mentees were matched by attributes such as their concentration within the education major, gender, sports they played and whether they were first-generation matriculants. Data collection utilized two surveys one before the peer mentoring process and one after the process. Findings: The findings suggest that peer mentoring improved first-generation students' sense of belonging to both their major and the college. Peer mentors also experienced increased belongingness. The transfer rate among participants of 2% was a significant drop from previous years. Originality/value: The success of the peer mentoring experience was possibly due to the intentional matching process based on certain attributes. Additionally, taking a leadership role increased a sense of belonging in the peer mentors.

Aim/Purpose: This mixed-methods study aims to examine factors influencing academicians' intentions to continue using AI-based chatbots by integrating the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model and social network characteristics. Background: AI-powered chatbots are gaining popularity across industries, including academia. However, empirical research on academicians' adoption behavior is limited. This study proposes an integrated model incorporating TTF factors and social network characteristics like density, homophily, and connectedness to understand academics' continuance intentions. Methodology: A qualitative study involving 31 interviews of academics from India examined attitudes and the potential role of social network characteristics like density, homophily, and connectedness in adoption. Results showed positive sentiment towards chatbots and themes on how peer groups accelerate diffusion. In the second phase, a survey of 448 faculty members from prominent Indian universities was conducted to test the proposed research model. Contribution: The study proposes and validates an integrated model of TTF and social network factors that influence academics' continued usage intentions toward AI chatbots. It highlights the nuanced role of peer networks in shaping adoption. Findings: Task and technology characteristics positively affected academics' intentions to continue AI chatbot usage. Among network factors, density showed the strongest effect on TTF and perceived usefulness, while homophily and connectedness had partial effects. The study provides insights into designing appropriate AI tools for the academic context. Recommendations for Practitioners: AI chatbot designers should focus on aligning features to academics' task needs and preferences. Compatibility with academic work culture is critical. Given peer network influences, training and demonstrations to user groups can enhance adoption. Platforms should have capabilities for collaborative use. Targeted messaging customized to disciplines can resonate better with academic subgroups. Multidisciplinary influencers should be engaged. Concerns like plagiarism risks, privacy, and job impacts should be transparently addressed. Recommendation for Researchers: More studies are needed across academic subfields to understand nuanced requirements and barriers. Further studies are recommended to investigate differences across disciplines and demographics, relative effects of specific network factors like size, proximity, and frequency of interaction, the role of academic leadership and institutional policies in enabling chatbot adoption, and how AI training biases impact usefulness perceptions and ethical issues. Impact on Society: Increased productivity in academia through the appropriate and ethical use of AI can enhance quality, access, and equity in education. AI can assist in mundane tasks, freeing academics' time for higher-order objectives like critical thinking development. Responsible AI design and policies considering socio-cultural aspects will benefit sustainable growth. With careful implementation, it can make positive impacts on student engagement, learning support, and research efficiency. Future Research: Conduct longitudinal studies to examine the long-term impacts of AI chatbot usage in academia. Track usage behaviors over time as familiarity develops. Investigate differences across academic disciplines and roles. Requirements may vary for humanities versus STEM faculty or undergraduate versus graduate students. Assess user trust in AI and how it evolves with repeated usage, and examine trust-building strategies. Develop frameworks to assess pedagogical effectiveness and ethical risks of conversational agents in academic contexts.

This paper focuses on the undergraduate experiences in computer sciences (CS) disciplines of eight Native women and two-spirit undergraduates and how their values and experiences around the communal goal of giving back enable them to persist in computing. The paper draws from a one-year study that included participants across the U.S.A from predominantly White institutions, Native serving institutions, and tribal colleges. Utilizing the decolonizing and participant-centered methods of photo elicitation, our interviews used photographs taken by participants as starting points for conversations. This method resulted in deep understandings of participants' experiences of the supports and barriers in their CS programs, and of the importance of giving back for persistence. We adapt Page-Reeves and colleagues' 2019 framework for giving back and Native students in STEM--particularly the concepts of giving back as a Native value and giving back in the context of CS education--to illuminate the ways in which participants persisted and navigated their identities as Native students and emergent computer scientists. We also introduce a new concept, culturally connected giving back, to describe the ways in which Native undergraduates in computing contributed, or planned to contribute, towards technology sovereignty and cultural preservation. CS, like many STEM fields, is typically viewed as highly individualistic and not aligned with communal goals of helping others. However, Native participants in this study identified computing as having the potential for giving back. They incorporated a broad range of giving back actions into their computing professional identities through teaching, mentoring, serving as role models, creating counterspaces, or preserving their cultures using their computing skills. Through giving back, participants fulfilled a sense of obligation to their communities or counteracted negative stereotypes about Native learners. Beneficiaries of these acts of giving back included Native and other minoritized peers, younger students, home communities, and other Native communities. Importantly, opportunities to give back served as strong motivators to persist in CS in spite of challenges. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy and practice and also explore the implications for how institutions and CS departments can support Native student recruitment, retention, and success.

Higher education organizations worldwide, including those in South Korea, are currently facing a major global health crisis caused by coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) since the spring 2020 semester. This study aimed at determining the difficulties that college students perceive in online courses, what strategies they use to cope with the problems they encounter, and what policies they demand the university to implement to enhance the situations. Six students (both undergraduate and graduate) from a university in a metropolitan area in South Korea participated in a series of focus group interview (FGI) sessions. The study conducted its sessions on October 11, 14, 21, and 22, 2021 in the university. Due to the distinct features of the online learning environment, students reported that they have major difficulties in staying academically motivated, suffer from fatigue and boredom, and have a hard time utilizing studying strategies. To cope with the current situation, the results revealed that students voluntarily form study group sessions with peers, and demand the university to provide them with a series of psychological therapy sessions as well as group study sessions. Educators and university leaders may apply the study results in order to better support their college students, so that they would be able to cope with these unprecedented pandemic-related problems, particularly regarding the online learning experience. Adequate supports provided to both instructors and students by reorganizing IT equipments and operating systems would result in better facilitation of online learning.

This qualitative study at the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities, USA, investigated leader identity emergence of study group facilitators. There is a gap in the professional literature regarding study group programs and identity emergence of the student paraprofessionals who facilitate the study sessions. This study built upon previous studies of identity formation by integrating educational theories that help explain the changes that occurred. Peer study group programs are powerful co-curricular experiences. This study provided answers to "why" and "how" identity emergence occurs. The Leader Identity Development Model for peer study group facilitators was developed based on the findings from this study and other experiences with study group leaders over the past three decades by David Arendale to help predict this change and the experiences that supported identity formation. Among those catalysts were written reflections by the study group leaders throughout the academic term on what they learned about themselves and about their conversations with other study leaders and the study group program manager. Implications are provided that explain how peer programs can become a more transformative learning ecosystem. Peer learning programs present an untapped personal and professional development opportunity for student leaders that would be even more powerful if it were intentional rather than serendipitous.

As the world has witnessed an unprecedented pandemic in the living memory, the year 2020 defied all human wisdom in every walk of life. As the scientific community scrambled to search for answers, in the meantime, the world came to a standstill. Physical activity stalled and virtual became the new reality. Education had to embrace virtual classes where all stakeholders were learning to get accustomed to the new normal. Some parts of classroom delivery seamlessly shifted to online methods, while other parts were forced to adopt. Problem based learning in general and case method, was top in the list of delivery methods that had to adopt online classes. This study aims at exploring the experiences of management graduate students regarding online case method. The focus group discussion technique was adopted to understand the experiences of management students from a top tier B-School in India. Findings suggest that the students had a disconnect with the online case discussions due to various reasons ranging from technical glitches and snags to case preparation and discussion, to peer-learning and faculty interactions.

Collaborative learning, social interdependence and computer mediated communication (CMC) have been broadly studied in higher education research. Collaborative learning has often been associated with a social interdependence understanding. However, this study explores the relationship from an exclusively student motivation perspective in order to gain insight over the factors that encourage students' positive interdependence in small peer groups. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 pandemic which, has shifted student learning to online platforms learners have found themselves engaging in computer mediated communication more than ever. Therefore, the study aims to explore CMC's influence over student motivations towards achieving mutual-interest in their small groups. Besides that, past studies concerning these areas have been mostly quantitative in nature, thus, this study used a qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews with 9 participants from the Communications programme of a private higher educational institution in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The interview findings identified few factors that transformed their self-interest motivation to mutual-interest motivation. These being: accountability, quality of work outcome, type of coursework & group size. Additionally, CMC was not directly influential in encouraging students to grow mutual interest in their small group. Besides that, there were no significant difference between the roles of synchronous or asynchronous communication in specifically motivating students towards achieving positive social interdependence. The findings prove beneficial for educators and educational administrators when designing collaborative tasks and relevant policies or guidelines.

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the lockdown measures that were widely implemented in response to the pandemic forced many of the forms of engagement and activities promoted by student affairs and services staff among students at universities to be curtailed or transformed -- at first, so that they entailed no interpersonal contact and later so that they took place in line with health and safety protocols restricting contact. The moment of crisis required decisive, innovative leadership from members of staff as they sought to help meet the needs of students who were now deprived of the benefits of the psycho-social, intellectual and physical engagements that had been provided by in-person contact on highly interactive campuses. Accordingly, the student affairs and services staff at North-West University in South Africa collaborated with students, leveraging their creative potential to reach out, create and implement new student support systems and programmes through structured activities that could take place online and in the form of strictly controlled contact sessions. In this context, two new initiatives were established at the university: a student behaviour project which sought to deploy student peers to promote adherence to COVID-19 occupational health and safety protocols among the student population; and a raft of psycho-social support interventions, including webinars, cultural and sporting activities, and residence activities which promoted student welfare including by helping students to manage the realities of the pandemic more effectively. This reflective article, authored by two of the North-West University student affairs and services staff responsible for launching and leading these initiatives, considers the kinds of collaboration among university staff and with students that informed the establishment and implementation of these projects. Focusing particularly on how these projects may have contributed towards increased levels of social capital among the students at the university at a moment of crisis, with a view to extract lessons that may be learned for the proactive development of student-support measures under similar conditions in future.

In this study, we explore the perceived employability and ambition of student veterans, compare the perceived employability and ambition of student veterans and civilian students, and examine the impact of other variables (e.g., age, gender, GPA, etc.) on student veterans' perceived employability and ambition. An online survey was conducted among 85 students, including 37 veterans and 48 civilian students. The results show that most of the investigated student veterans were confident in their employability and future career success. In addition, student veterans had slightly lower perceived employability and ambition than either active military members or civilian students. The result of descriptive analysis showed clues that explained how other variables impacted the perceived employability and ambition of student veterans.

DE programming in higher education should be designed to increase student success, and well-designed corequisite models have shown great potential as an accelerated option for completion of the first college-level course in math. With the support of a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board grant, Tarleton State University, a member institution of the Texas A&M University System, revamped its developmental education (DE) program to exceed requirements for the Texas Success Initiative by fully scaling up student enrollment in corequisite models to 100%. Along with a multi-pronged approach to help students satisfy any TSI liabilities, Tarleton's revamped DE program includes holistic advising practices that use multiple measures to inform placement decisions, a robust expansion of corequisite models, refinement of assessment protocols, inclusion of peer mentoring services, and two intervention options to address academic underpreparedness and issues with self-efficacy in math. Findings from the first year of implementation were favorable and demonstrated a significant increase in course completion when compared to the previous year. Limitations of this study and areas for future research were also discussed.

Using Celious and Oyserman's (2001) Heterogeneous Race Model as a conceptual framework, this article discusses how historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) helped participants to better appreciate the heterogeneity among Black students in Black colleges. This article also delineates how intraracial diversity among Black students at HBCUs led to some students feeling excluded from peer groups. This study concludes with implications for HBCU officials to help make the campus environment more inclusive for all students and considerations for future research.

An important factor for First Generation High School students (FGS) in higher education is social capital. To highlight differences in social capital between FGS and their Non-FGS peers (NFGS) by analysing the structure of their ego-centred social networks and its' effect on their career planning, we conducted two cross-sectional studies: on high school students during their first career planning stage and on college students at the beginning of their first semester. FGS have significantly less social capital in their networks than NFGS during school and university. Having academic supporters is associated with career planning amongst high school students, having instrumental support for career planning amongst college students.

In group activities, students work collaboratively to accomplish specific objectives. Students have to engage and interact with each other in order to complete collaborative assignments. One way that students stay engaged is through asking questions. In the research reported here, we looked at peer-to-peer questions in the context of a collaborative activity. Specifically, we examined the frequency of questions, types of questions, types of responses elicited by student questions, whether peer question-and-answer interactions led to verbalized learning, and the disciplinary content of the questions asked by students in their groups. Our results show that there was a wide range in the frequency of questions asked across groups. The types of questions asked were broadly classified as confirmation seeking, clarification seeking, information seeking, and questions seeking understanding. Types of responses elicited included explanations (conceptual), informational, unsure, and no response. Most of the question-and-answer exchanges did not lead to verbalized learning. Some types of question-and-answer combinations were more likely to lead to verbalized learning than others. The most commonly asked disciplinary content questions sought facts and descriptions of procedures. Questions seeking conceptual understanding, which are more likely to lead to learning, were least common. Implications for instruction and research are discussed.

College-based transition programs offer students with intellectual disability and autism (ID/A) the opportunity to navigate adult learning experiences with similar-aged peers, accessing college coursework and employment experiences while continuing to receive support from or coordinated by their local school system. The present study used data from college-based transition programs included in the Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disability (TPSID) model demonstration program to examine the composition of employment preparation activities including paid employment and the association with having paid employment upon exiting from the program. The findings suggest that college-based transition programs hold promise as a model for supporting the transition to paid employment for students with ID/A. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Variationist researchers are increasingly adopting intersectionality approaches to analyse identity-linked practice. However, the field of sociolinguistic variation is yet to embrace the full ramifications of intersectionality as an analytical framework. The current paper offers a new method for integrating intersectional approaches into variationist studies by operationalising Blommaert, Jan & Anna De Fina. 2017. Chronotopic identities: On the timespace organization of who we are. In Anna De Fina & Jeremy Wegner (eds.), "Diversity and super-diversity," 1-14. Washington: Georgetown University Press chronotopic frame theory. This method is used to examine how the intersectionality of ethnic, national, and peer-group identities is structured and reproduced in different ways through Chinese Indonesian youths' selection of multilingual variants of an agreement marker in their peer-to-peer interactions at educational institutions in Pontianak city, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The results illustrate how chronotopic frame approaches to studying identity-linked variation heed calls for integrations of intersectionality to move beyond accounting for intracategorical complexity and instead examine the dynamic mutual constitution of social categories that better represents marginalised people's lived experiences.

The Dunning-Kruger (DK) effect is a form of meta-ignorance of knowledge (Kruger & Dunning, "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology," 77(6), 121-1134, 1999) that has not been explored regarding mental illness public stigma. The current study examined the DK effect in this field by comparing participants' actual stigma (measured by a social distance scale) and their perceived stigma (measured by a self-rating scale compared to their peers). In addition, the effectiveness of two types of feedback on stigma reduction was explored. Undergraduate participants (N = 393) with low actual public stigma perceived their public stigma level to be higher than it was, while those with high actual public stigma perceived it to be lower, supporting the DK effect. Generalized feedback did not reduce public stigma, whereas personalized feedback reduced public stigma for participants with high public stigma. This study revealed the existence of meta-ignorance in the field of mental illness public stigma and the effectiveness of personalized feedback.

This study examines how young adults evaluate gender-based social inclusion and exclusion from academic peer groups. Participants included 199 college students (M[subscript age] = 19.18; SD = 1.37, Range = 18-25), who made judgments about the acceptability of gender-based social exclusion of female and male peers from a Physics group (a stereotypically masculine field) and bystander responses to gender-based social exclusion. Equitable attitudes and acceptability of gender-based social exclusion were examined as predictors of bystander responses to social exclusion. Findings showed that participants were less likely to see the exclusion of a female as acceptable compared to the exclusion of a male. However, regarding expected bystander intervention, models differed based on condition (exclusion of a male compared to exclusion of a female peer). Specifically, in the female exclusion condition, participants' gender predicted equitable attitudes, which then predicted expected bystander intervention and ratings of acceptability. In the male exclusion condition, equitable attitudes predicted acceptability, which then predicted expected bystander intervention. These findings have important implications for understanding how to shape inclusive campus climates.

With the rise of mental health issues occurring on college campuses, college counseling centers are increasing their efforts to meet the needs of students by ensuring that students are able to matriculate in their educational journey. Over the past few years, national data indicated that annually about 38% of college students "felt so depressed it was difficult to function," 10.4% said they "seriously thought of ending their lives," and 1.9% actually made a suicide attempt (ACHA annual survey, 2016). These percentages become palpable when translated to actual numbers on any given campus with these concerns. In order to meet the mental health needs of students, the University of South Alabama's Counseling and Testing Center developed and implemented a broad-based, student-centered training program intended to improve the network of peer support on campus. This program was designed to identify and train a wide range of connected and concerned students in how to recognize and best support students who are in distress. Once trained, these students became part of the University of South Alabama's Jag Student Support Network (JSSN), a group of students dedicated to and supported in reaching out and helping others in distress.

Purpose: General language abilities of children with cochlear implants have been thoroughly investigated, especially at young ages, but far less is known about how well they process language in real-world settings, especially in higher grades. This study addressed this gap in knowledge by examining recognition of sentences with complex syntactic structures in backgrounds of speech babble by adolescents with cochlear implants, and peers with normal hearing. Design: Two experiments were conducted. First, new materials were developed using young adults with normal hearing as the normative sample, creating a corpus of sentences with controlled, but complex syntactic structures presented in three kinds of babble that varied in voice gender and number of talkers. Second, recognition by adolescents with normal hearing or cochlear implants was examined for these new materials and for sentence materials used with these adolescents at younger ages. Analyses addressed three objectives: (1) to assess the stability of speech recognition across a multiyear age range; (2) to evaluate speech recognition of sentences with complex syntax in babble; and (3) to explore how bottom-up and top-down mechanisms account for performance under these conditions. Results: Results showed: (1) Recognition was stable across the ages of 10-14 years for both groups. (2) Adolescents with normal hearing performed similarly to young adults with normal hearing, showing effects of syntactic complexity and background babble; adolescents with cochlear implants showed poorer recognition overall, and diminished effects of both factors. (3) Top-down language and working memory primarily explained recognition for adolescents with normal hearing, but the bottom-up process of perceptual organization primarily explained recognition for adolescents with cochlear implants. Conclusions: Comprehension of language in real-world settings relies on different mechanisms for adolescents with cochlear implants than for adolescents with normal hearing. A novel finding was that perceptual organization is a critical factor.

While interest in the learning of a language other than English (LOTE) has increased, research on how to foster learners' motivation towards learning a LOTE is still scarce. With a specific focus on learners' ideal LOTE and multilingual selves, this article reports on an intervention study which employed near peer role model (NPRM) to construct Chinese undergraduates' LOTE learning motivation. The research aim was to explore the role of the near peer role modeling in nurturing the development of the LOTE-related facets of learners' ideal selves. Open questionnaires, interviews and written journals were used to collect data at one Chinese university over the course of one academic term. Findings provide context-dependent evidence that the presentation of NPRMs in class may strengthen both of learners' ideal LOTE and their multilingual selves, mainly because it demonstrates approachable examples which manifest the value of learning a LOTE in a particular social context. With the help of the NPRMs, learners may not only alleviate their ambiguity about the availability of LOTE-using opportunities in their situated contexts but also deepen their understanding of how 'being multilingual' could benefit their future development. Pedagogical implications emphasize the effectiveness of near peer role modeling in developing learners' self-identification with being a LOTE user or a multilingual in the future.

Research methods and statistics are cornerstones of undergraduate psychology degrees. However, many students find the subject uninteresting and anxiety provoking, while educators find it challenging to teach. This multi-method action research project explored how e-learning activities within a blended learning context affected students' experience of learning statistics. Data were gathered with first year undergraduate students via a survey (N=89), two focus groups (N=12), and interviews with educators (N=2). The e-learning activities were valued by students and staff, owing to the interactive, flexible approach to learning they afforded. The blended strategy provided an opportunity for students to develop intrinsic motivation to learn statistics, completing a range of activities to develop competence with autonomy. Social support from peer-networks and tutor feedback during face-to-face sessions facilitated deeper learning. These findings are timely, given increases in online teaching resulting from changing higher education landscapes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, educational systems, including teaching a foreign language, have been interrupted and classroom-based teaching paradigms have rapidly shifted to online platforms. Despite the emphasis of technology in language education, Thai tertiary educators are now in urgent need of identifying the best pedagogical approaches to foster this abrupt change in teaching platform. This study investigated how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers acquired information and communication technology (ICT) literacy for online class delivery. Using a qualitative inquiry, the study employed an in-depth interview to gather data from three Thai EFL university teachers from three different north-eastern government universities in Thailand. The thematic analysis revealed that the acquisition of ICT literacy included three stages -- before, during, and post-online teaching. Specifically, EFL teachers acquired ICT literacy through self-exposure to existing tutorials, peer-to-peer learning, student-to-teacher collaboration, ongoing teaching practice, expert-to-teacher learning, and engagement in formal workshops. EFL teachers also raised the issue of confidence in using technology and future integration of technology in a classroom-based paradigm. Pedagogical implications for other contexts encountering similar challenges are also discussed.

Objective: College students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience elevated drop-out rates, peer difficulties, and mental health concerns compared to their neurotypical counterparts. Thus, the firsthand concerns of college students with ASD were examined, so that supports can be appropriately tailored. Methods: Responses of 31 college students with ASD were examined in relation to 39 demographically similar neurotypical students regarding students' college experiences (e.g., social interactions, mental health, daily living habits). Students with ASD also provided recommendations for improving college support programs. Results: Difficulties unique to students with ASD included trouble conversing with peers, feeling isolated despite preferences to be alone, inaccessible extra-curricular activities, and experiencing anxiety and depression resulting from social demands. Notably, these students endorsed desire for a "social group" to learn from the experiences of successful students. Conclusions: Practical targets were identified for university-implemented support groups, such as navigating social interactions and processing experiences with peers.

In this article a cadre of Daryl's former doctoral students and/or close colleagues from The Ohio State University offer their personal descriptions/interpretations of Daryl's vision for physical education, physical education teacher education (PETE) and doctoral programming (D-PETE). Daryl mentored over 80 doctoral students at Ohio State, many of whom went on to be productive researchers, teachers, scholars and doctoral mentors themselves, allowing many of his seminal ideas to endure for more than four decades, and which are still considered "best practice" today in physical education and physical education teacher education around the world.

This study investigates the evolution and associations between exam grades and social comparison concern (SCC) among students in an introductory calculus-based physics course. We begin with a descriptive characterization of midterm and final exam scores as well as pre-post SCC scores, including the concurrent evolution of these scores during the course. We hypothesize a feedback loop in which changes in SCC scores are mediated by exam grades, and changes in exam scores are mediated by SCC scores. We employ a structural equation model to determine whether the data are consistent with these hypotheses. Results indicate that there were significant within-student changes in the relative grade standing from exam to exam and that changes in SCC scores depended on both the pre-SCC scores and scores on the first midterm exam. Further, we find evidence that exam scores partially mediate the association between pre- and post-SCC scores, and in turn, post-SCC scores partially mediate associations between midterm and final exam scores, though the mediation effects are somewhat small, comprising 5%-10% of the total effects between exam scores and SCC. We also find that while SCC scores are somewhat correlated with exam scores, they are only very weakly correlated with nonexam grade components, consistent with the idea that exam scores (rather than nonexam scores) are driving changes in SCC and vice versa. Overall, the results provide empirical, correlational evidence to motivate further experimental investigation into a hypothesized dynamic and iterative feedback loop in which student concern about ability or performance compared to others (SCC) can either negatively or positively interfere with student performance on exams.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the student psychological contract in the post-pandemic induced hybrid mode of the academic ecosystem in residential business schools of India. The study puts forth three facets of understanding student expectations for contract fulfillment: the business school, academic staff (faculty) and peers. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sequential mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative), data were gathered and analyzed in two phases. Perceptions of students regarding their expectations were captured through in-depth semi-structured telephonic interviews. The sample comprised 64 students pursuing two years of full-time master's in management courses at four residential business schools in India. Data obtained through interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The themes extracted were prioritized using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in the second phase. Findings: The study provides insight into the prioritized expectations of students from their peers, academic staff and the institute. The findings of the study propose that though the expectations may differ across different groups, the mutual interdependence of these groups was mandatory for contract fulfillment. Originality/value: Research on student psychological contracts in the hybrid mode of business education is scarce. The study provides a holistic perspective on this from the lens of students.

While several studies have investigated gender inequities in the social learning environment of biology lecture courses, that same phenomenon remains largely unexplored in biology laboratory contexts. We conducted a mixed methods study to understand the influence of gender on student perceptions of their peers' research aptitude in introductory biology CUREs and traditional laboratory courses. Specifically, students (N = 125) were asked to complete a name generator survey at three time points across the semester. This survey asked students to list the names of peers whom they viewed as "most proficient" in the course investigations and to justify their choice via an open-ended response prompt. Using social network analysis, exponential random graph modeling (ERGM), and thematic analysis, we demonstrate that student gender identity did not influence nomination behaviors in CURE or traditional laboratory courses. However, the ERGMs reveal the presence of a popularity effect in CUREs and demonstrate that mutual nominations were more prevalent in traditional laboratory courses. Our qualitative data further provide insights into the reasons students nominated peers as proficient in CURE and traditional courses.