Reframing Retention Strategy: A Focus on Process
The third “P” within a 4 Ps framework of student retention—process—gives priority attention to institutional processes and policies that either help or hinder the continuous enrollment of all students, not just students defined as “at risk.”
Curiosity and Connection: An Undergraduate Perspective on Community Research
In this paper, I will explore the effects of experiential undergraduate research and subsequent conference participation on my self-identity as a scholar and contributing member of the university community and its surrounding urban centre. In particular, I will examine the impact that participation in undergraduate research and conferences has had on my perception of student engagement and learning outcomes. For the past forty years, extensive research into the goals of undergraduate education has generated much discussion about student retention, student engagement in the process, and learner outcomes. The consensus appears to be that independent undergraduate research is an essential component to providing a comprehensive education in conjunction with traditional lecture hall and seminar session teaching practices. A review of research literature written by faculty members and undergraduate students in diverse disciplines, as well as by administrators providing support and program underpinnings for innovative undergraduate research, reveals several common threads within post-secondary institutions. As well, I will analyze how my particular research projects and the dissemination of my findings connected my two communities: Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and the small city of Kamloops. The opportunity to disseminate the research process and subsequent findings of my research to undergraduate students in-class and to students, faculty and the general public at two undergraduate conferences held annually at TRU intertwine the history of our small city with the academic community of the university, thus emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between the two. Community-based undergraduate research, in particular, oral history research, reveals the voices of people engaged in the building of the Kamloops community, thus connecting stories of personal accomplishment to the sphere of academia within our small city. Reflective consideration from an undergraduate student’s perspective on research and conference presentation will add to the knowledge-base of student engagement in research, the learning outcomes of the conference forum, and the impact of community research within and outside of the university campus. “Learning is based on discovery guided by mentoring rather than on the transmission of information. Inherent in inquiry-based learning is an element of reciprocity: faculty can learn from students as students are learning from faculty.”
The chromosomes of Chrysanthemum,
NEW varieties of the garden chrysanthemum arise primarily from seed. They are propagated vegetatively and many give rise to bud sports in sequence and in parallel to give whole families of varieties. The original sports would naturally be chimras and it is not surprising therefore that they often revert to the previous type. Whereas some varieties sport continually from the time of their origin, others remain stable for many years. Those considered in this account do, mostly, sport freely. Since varieties may remain stable for a considerable number of years and then suddenly sport it is probable that all varieties possess the ability to sport. The origin of bud sports is unpredictable. Some confusion in naming has arisen as the same or similar sports have occurred and been propagated in different places under different names. Consequently there are, for example, several forms similar to, but not identical with, the original Favourite Supreme raised by Messrs A. G. Vinten. It might well be that each individual variety would be better termed a sub-family to include all its minor variants. The different Chrysanthemum sports are described in scattered numbers of the R.H.S. Journal—more particularly, for the Favourite family, in Vol. 63, 1938, pp. 139-141. The object of this study is to discover the cause of sporting.