College students--Attitudes

Objective. This study examined the association between commuting time and/or distance and body mass index (BMI), and dietary and exercise behaviors in college students. Methods. Behaviors were assessed using self-report, dietary screeners, and an exercise questionnaire in 400 college students ages 18--35 taking classes on a commuter campus. BMI was determined through measurement of height and weight. Results. Pearson correlations revealed no relationship between commuting time and/or distance and BMI, and dietary and exercise behaviors. However, total meals eaten out the week prior and number of meals obtained from any away-from-home food vendors was related to total, saturated, and percent fat in the diet, as well as cholesterol. Conclusion. Commuting distance nor time were related to BMI, dietary or exercise behaviors. Regardless of commuting behaviors, better dietary behaviors should be recommended among college students.

Dogmatism is an uncritical, rigid way of thinking that correlates strongly with prejudice. Prejudice is an attitude, usually unfavorable, toward individuals or groups, arrived at through an uncritical thought process and a disregard of the facts. Dogmatism, because of its connection with prejudice, vitiates students' chances for learning. Dogmatism in teachers creates an inequitable distribution of education to the extent that marginalized minority students are shortchanged educational opportunities. The nature of dogmatism and its impact on education is covered in the literature. Moreover, pedagogical and andragogical strategies which utilize the cognitive and affective domains to heighten critical thinking ability and empathy for others are also addressed in the literature. A Strategic Prejudice-Reduction Framework, the Dogmatism Diminution Model (DDM), was developed, implemented, and evaluated in a university setting. The DDM is not designed to be a discrete course; rather it is meant to be infused within a multicultural education class. The key features of the DDM are its domains, the Cognitive, Reflective, Emotive, and Active through which the course content is relayed. The Cognitive and Emotive domains of the DDM correspond to the cognitive and affective literature, the Reflective domain corresponds to the literature on critical thinking, but the Active domain of the DDM is not associated with the behavioral domain of the literature. Instead it is related to the research on service learning. Three hypotheses were tested. Two dealt with the DDM and the third with a demographic correlate of dogmatism. In order to determine the effectiveness of the DDM, Milton Rokeach's (1960) Dogmatism Scale was administered in a pretest/posttest design. The data were submitted to an ANCOVA and subsequently to a post hoc Scheffe test to determine between which pairs of groups differences in means occurred. ANCOVA was used to compensate for the effect that the pretest might have on the results of the posttest. The comparison of means among the four groups identified a significant reduction in the level of dogmatism at the alpha = .05 level between the DDM group and the Control group as well as one of the other two experimental groups. However, in a paired-score comparison of the treatment group itself, no significance was found with the sample of 31 subjects. This could be attributed to a lack of power in the sample size. Finally, a Pearson Product Moment Correlation of .154 was significant at the 95% confidence level between the variables of dogmatism and degree of religiosity.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not differences exist between perceptions regarding aging and the realities of aging between graduate and undergraduate education students within the College of Education at Florida Atlantic University. Data was gathered from 143 undergraduate and graduate students who were enrolled in various majors in the College of Education, on the Boca Raton and Davie campuses during the Spring 2002 semester. The Aging, Learning and Work Quiz (Galbraith and Venable, 1985), was the inventory that was utilized. It has six subscales: Biology, Psychology, Learning, Decision-Making, Work Performance and Health. Six hypotheses were tested that there was no significant difference between the dependent variables of Biology (Ho1), Psychology (Ho2), Learning (Ho3), Decision-Making (Ho4), Work Performance (Ho5), Health (Ho6) and one or more of the independent variables of Educational Level, Degree type, Gender, Age and Ethnicity. The seventh hypothesis tested was that there is no difference in the perception of aging between pre-baccalaureate individuals and post-baccalaureate individuals (Ho7) with regard to each of the dependent variables. The statistically significant results of the study were: (a) Biology (Ho1), there was a difference found between ethnic groups of White and Other (p < .045), with White's being more accurate in their perception of the biology aspects of aging, (b) Learning (Ho3), a gender difference was found (p < .003), with males being more accurate in their perception of an individual's ability to learn, retain information and accumulate knowledge, (c) Decision-Making (Ho4), a difference was found between Educational Psychology majors and Reading Education majors (p < .012), with Reading Education majors being more accurate in their perception of how aging affects decision-making ability, (d) Work Performance (Ho5), there differences found between Reading Education majors and Educational Psychology majors (p < .001), with Reading Education majors being more accurate in their perception of work. Differences were also found between majors of Other and Educational Psychology (p < .014), with Other being more accurate in their perceptions of Work, and (e) (Ho 7) there was a difference found between pre-baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate participants for the variable of psychology at the (p < .05), with post-baccalaureate participants scoring higher.

In recent years, most literature has contrasted self-directed and conventional methods of learning. Although some research has indicated parity between the two groups in achievement, other results have shown self-directed learners have scored better and had less attrition than conventional learners. Several researchers support the viewpoint that matching academic self-concept with learning styles is related to achievement. This study determined the effects of matching learning styles of community college students with their instructors' teaching styles. At Palm Beach Junior College (fall, 1980), 604 students in three general curriculum areas were administered the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory. Their instructors were given the Instructional Styles Inventory. Results of the inventories' administration were used to divide the students/teachers into four groups: independent self-paced, independent teacher-paced, lecture, and lecture-laboratory. Match or mismatch of students' LSI profiles with their instructors' ISI profiles indicated whether learning approach was satisfied or not. Educational and statistical comparisons were made between the satisfied and the non-satisfied learners to determine differences in achievement and attrition among these subgroups. Students' expectations of achievement were correlated with their college grade point averages. Within academic areas correlational differences were significant only for two satisfied groups: independent teacher-paced science learners and lecture-laboratory English-reading learners. For all disciplines combined results favored the non-satisfied subgroups in independent teacher-paced and lecture, one exception favoring the satisfied lecture-laboratory learners. Satisfaction of learning experience had a more favorable educational rather than statistical effect: better grade percentages for satisfied students than those for non-satisfied students--two to one, fewer low grades and much less attrition. Results support the worth of using the LSI to match students with teachers for greater effectiveness.