Preferred Name
Megan Rodgers Good
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
Spring 2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
Advisor(s)
Keston H. Fulcher
Cara Meixner
Abstract
To improve quality, higher education must be able to demonstrate learning improvement. To do so, academic degree program leaders must assess learning, intervene, and then re-assess to determine if the intervention was indeed an improvement (Fulcher, Good, Coleman, and Smith, 2014). This seemingly “simple model” is rarely enacted in higher education (Blaich & Wise, 2011). The purpose of this embedded mixed methods study was to investigate the effectiveness and experience of a faculty development program focused on a specific programmatic learning outcome. Specifically, the intervention was intended to increase students’ ethical reasoning skills aligned with a university-wide program. The results suggested that this experience did indeed improve student’s ethical reasoning skills. Likewise, the experience was positive for faculty participants. This study provides evidence supporting the connection of assessment and faculty development to improve student learning.
Recommended Citation
Good, Megan R., "Improving student learning in higher education: A mixed methods study" (2015). Dissertations, 2014-2019. 18.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019/18
