Bradley E. Cox

Faculty-Student Interaction outside the Classroom: A Typology from a Residential College.

Faculty-student interaction is an important component of the undergraduate experience. Our year-long qualitative study explored the complex nature of faculty-student interaction outside the classroom. Our resulting typology identifies five types of interaction: disengagement, incidental contact, functional interaction, personal interaction, and mentoring. This typology provides researchers with a new lens through which they can examine faculty-student interaction and suggests that even non-academic interactions between students and professors can be meaningful to students. Finally, the typology will allow faculty, staff, and administrators to improve current practices and develop initiatives that build bridges between faculty and students outside the classroom.

Working with Missing Data in Higher Education Research: A Primer and Real-World Example.

Nearly all quantitative analyses in higher education draw from incomplete datasets--a common problem with no universal solution. In the first part of this paper, we explain why missing data matter and outline the advantages and disadvantages of six common methods for handling missing data. Next, we analyze real-world data from 5,905 students across 33 institutions to document how one’s approach to handling missing data can substantially affect statistical conclusions, researcher interpretations, and subsequent implications for policy and practice. We conclude with straightforward suggestions for higher education researchers looking to select an appropriate method for handling missing data.

Faculty and Institutional Factors that Promote Student Encounters with Difference in First-Year Courses

Research clearly indicates that faculty members have the potential to influence student learning outcomes through their pedagogical practices, but we know less about what influences faculty members’ choices to employ specific pedagogical practices. This study, based on data from 2,853 faculty members who teach courses that serve primarily first-year students on 45 campuses nationwide, identifies the individual, organizational, environmental, programmatic, and policy factors that individually and collectively influence faculty members’ decisions to engage in one particular pedagogical practice requiring students to engage with difference.

College Experiences for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Personal Identity, Public Disclosure, and Institutional Support

Abstract: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are completing high school with reasonable expectations for postsecondary success. College educators are likely ill prepared to provide appropriate support for these students. Based on personal interviews with a diverse group of students with autism, this study (a) amplifies these students’ voices, (b) describes tensions between their public and private identities, (c) outlines the academic, social, emotional, self-advocacy, and communication challenges they face in college, and (d) proposes both general principles and specific practices that could be leveraged to facilitate postsecondary success for students with autism.

Hidden Trauma, Quiet Drama: The Prominence and Consequence of Complicated Grief Among College Students

Previous studies suggest the loss of a loved one is a common experience among college students. This paper draws from 2 independent but complementary studies to (a) update statistics regarding the scale of student grieving, (b) characterize the short and long term consequences of loss among college students, and (c) identify factors that deter grieving students from seeking professional assistance at campus counseling centers. The paper concludes with suggestions for ways in which institutions can help affected students stay on track to college success.

Parental Disclosure of ASD Diagnosis to the Child: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Despite increased rates of diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in recent years, literature examining when and how parents of newly diagnosed youth disclose their diagnosis to them is scarce. Given the increasing number of newly diagnosed individuals, an exploration of the effects of disclosure on children with ASD is warranted. We conducted a systematic review to identify articles describing the process of disclosing a diagnosis of ASD from the perspective of children, parents, or both. The current review identified five articles reporting qualitative data on the disclosure process. Across studies, most parents were found to have disclosed ASD diagnoses to their children by adolescence, with children and parents exhibiting a variety of reactions. Concerns frequently identified by children and parents included time taken to process the emotional impact of diagnoses, delay between parents receiving diagnoses from clinicians and delivery of those diagnoses to children, concern that the ASD label would result in stigmatization, and the sense that an individual’s past behaviors or symptoms were well explained by the new diagnosis. Identification of these potential problems may serve as an initial step to inform the development of best-practice guidelines for parental disclosure of ASD diagnoses to youth and further research on this understudied part of the diagnostic process.

Lip Service or Actionable Insights? Linking Student Experiences to Institutional Assessment and Data-Driven Decision Making in Higher Education

ABSTRACT Despite an increasing focus on issues of accountability, assessment, and data-driven decision making (DDDM) within the postsecondary context, assumptions regarding their value remain largely untested. The current study uses empirical data from 114 senior administrators and 8,847 students at 57 institutions in five states to examine the extent to which institutional assessment and data-driven decision making shape the experiences of first-year students. Nearly all these schools regularly collect some form of assessment data, and more than half report using assessment data to inform decision making. However, the institutional adoption of policies related to the collection of assessment data or the application of data-driven decision making appears to have no relationship with student experiences or outcomes in the first year of college. Thus, findings from the current study are consistent with the small, but growing, body of literature questioning the effectiveness of accountability and assessment policies in higher education.

Bridging the Cultural Gap: Relationships Between Programmatic Offerings and First-Generation Student Benchmarks:

Inherent challenges affect first-generation students’ persistence from as early as the first college year. Using cultural capital as a guide, this study is unique in that it investigates the contribution of first-year policies and programs to the success of first-generation students in 57 bachelor’s degree–granting institutions across five states (California, Florida, Iowa, Texas, and Pennsylvania). We identified at least three policies that seem to hold promise toward improving the experience and outcomes for first-year first-generation college students. These policies were (a) residential life or campus support staff who are available and knowledgeable, (b) faculty who attend faculty orientation that includes information about first-year student experiences, and (c) faculty who attend first-year student orientation or attend first-year conferences or workshops. However, policies we might naturally expect to have been useful (e.g., information dissemination to parents, early alert intervention initiatives) showed no statistical significance. The article concludes with implications and recommendations.

Self-Authorship in Student Affairs: A Developmental Paradox

The emerging millennial generation of young professionals in student affairs, often accused of being shielded from many of life’s developmentally stimulating challenges, may not be sufficiently self-authored to effectively facilitate epistemological, intrapersonal, and interpersonal development among their students. Contrary to expectations, however, results from this study suggest current graduate assistants and recent job-changers have higher levels of self-authorship than their colleagues. Implications for graduate preparation, professional practice, and future research are discussed.