Although there is a growing interest in mobile learning, there are limited studies that focus on student knowledge acquisition. As applications and usages of mobile technology have become more and more accepted, it is important and meaningful that researchers and practitioners of mobile learning understand the potential factors that could influence learning outcomes. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of mobile technology playfulness, users' resistance to change and self-management of learning in mobile English learning outcomes (MELOs). A case study approach was utilized in this study mainly because the questions of interests were closely related to the usage of electronic dictionaries and their effects on mobile learning outcomes. The participants of this study were all undergraduate students from 10 undergraduate programs of the center for general education at one university in Southern Taiwan. A total of n = 167 undergraduate students with experience using an electronic dictionary to learn English participated in this study. The study results indicated that perceived playfulness and self-management of learning had positive influences on MELO and that users' resistance to change was negatively associated with MELO.

The study utilized the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06) data set to examine persistence outcomes over a 3-year period across the national sample of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds at public 2-year institutions in the United States. More specifically, the purpose of our study was to investigate how demographic characteristics, in-college attributes, environmental factors, and personal goals of lowincome students who enrolled in public 2-year institutions with the intentions of degree attainment or transfer affected their decisions to persist to degree completion, transfer to another institution, or leave. The results from multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that different sets of factors predicted persistence and transfer for low-income students in our study. Early identification of who will be more likely to leave, transfer, or persist to degree completion will help community colleges better serve the needs of their students.Two-year institutions represent an important element of the American higher education pipeline and are often applauded for their ability to provide supportive

No abstract

This commentary outlines the efforts taken to provide doctoral students with purposeful reflection questions to help them enhance the value and utility of qualitative data. It is based upon experiences teaching a doctoral level qualitative research methods course for students enrolled in an executive format doctoral program. Reflexivity of the researcher, reflection, and research design decisions are discussed. Suggestions for purposeful reflection questions are also discussed and listed in four categories. The categories of purposeful reflection questions include (1) Research Setting Access, (2) Examining Norms and Cultures, (3) Positionality of Research Subjects, and (4) Positionality as an Observer. These four categories of questions provide a paradigm that could help many qualitative researchers take a more systematic in-depth approach to the collection, transcription, and analysis of field notes and other forms of qualitative data.

This study examined the teaching perspectives among faculty from a research extensive university in the southern United States. A simple random sample was drawn from the institutions faculty, and a total of n = 131 responded to the survey. Respondents were asked to complete the Teaching Perspectives Inventory via the Internet and complete a demographic survey. The Analysis of Variance procedure was used to determine if dominant teaching perspectives were discipline-specific. The results of this analysis concluded that a significant difference existed among respondents, with Apprenticeship as a dominant teaching perspective [F(12, 118) = 2.036, p = .027].