Gary Kennedy

Teaching Learning Strategies to Increase Success of First-Term College Students

In this study, the authors examined the effect of taking a learning strategies course on grade point average, retention, and graduation rate of 351 first-year students over their first 4 terms in comparison with 351 matched non–course takers. The course taught 4 learning strategies and 8 substrategies to help students overcome procrastination, build self-confidence, take responsibility, learn from lecture and text, prepare for exams, write papers, and manage their lives. First-year students who took the course in their first term had statistically significantly higher grade point averages in each of their first 4 terms. They also demonstrated statistically significantly higher retention rates and were six times more likely to be retained. In addition, they had statistically significantly higher graduation rates than did their matched controls. In particular, graduation rates were 50% higher for students initially in academic difficulty. These findings reveal the value of teaching learning strategies to first-year students by means of a structured course based on educational psychology. This research holds potential importance for other universities and colleges seeking to improve the performance and persistence of first-year students.

A Recursive Formula for the Motivic Milnor Fiber of a Plane Curve

We find a recursive formula for the motivic Milnor fiber of an irreducible plane curve, using the notions of a truncation and derived curve. We then apply natural transformations to obtain a similar recursion for the Hodge-theoretic spectrum.

Cartan Prolongation of a Family of Curves Acquiring a Node

Using the monster/Semple tower construction, we study the structure of the Cartan prolongation of the family

Tangential Quantum Cohomology of Arbitrary Order

x_1x_2 = t

Recursive Formulas for the Characteristic Numbers of Rational Plane Curves

of plane curves with nodal central member.

An exploration into the influence of academic and social values, procrastination, and perceived school belongingness on academic performance

Kock has previously defined a tangency quantum product on formal power series with coefficients in the cohomology ring of any smooth projective variety, and thus a ring that generalizes the quantum cohomology ring. We further generalize Kocks construction by defining a dth-order contact product and establishing its associativity.