The Implementation of High Impact Practices at Community Colleges: Insider Perspectives of How Hips Work

High Impact Practices are defined as teaching and learning strategies designed to benefit college students through challenging yet confidence-building coursework, and through establishing connections to faculty, peers, and community, among other positive impacts. The ten High Impact Practices recognized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities include: First-Year Seminars, Common Intellectual Experiences, Learning Communities, Writing-Intensive Courses, Collaborative Assignments/Projects, Undergraduate Research, Diversity and Global Learning/Study Abroad, Service Learning/Community Based Learning, Internships and Capstones. At most community colleges, the students who would most likely benefit from HIPs are the least likely to enroll or "opt-in" to HIPs designated courses. Attrition for underserved and underrepresented minority students places them at a disadvantage in obtaining two and four-year degrees, or persisting to meet goals, which could include completing one course, or obtaining a program certificate. While faculty and administrators cannot control many of the factors which prevent community college students from persisting to meet their personal goals, they can control curriculums and course-based experiences. Embedding High Impact Practices into coursework removes the barrier to "opting in" to courses that promote benefits of engaging in High Impact Practices. Research on HIPs and specific student populations has mostly focused on four-year colleges and universities, but in recent years has expanded to include community colleges. Notably, research on faculty voices and experiences implementing HIPs in their courses is lacking. This study seeks to add to the research on community college faculty experiences providing implementing HIPs and the effect on student persistence. The primary purpose of this study is to offer analysis on what community college faculty talk about regarding implementing High Impact Practices (HIPs) in their classes and to understand the patterns that may lead to student confidence, motivation, and ultimately persistence. Research on High Impact Practices provides a reasonable amount of literature and data on the ten practices that have been identified as "high impact" teaching and learning strategies. Existing research also provides literature and data on one or more combined practices as either contributing or not contributing to student success and persistence, as well as student choice to participate in HIPs course programming. However, there is a lack of available research to draw from to understand faculty decision making on how or why they implement HIPs in their classes. Much prior HIPs research in honors programs is student-centered, and focuses on student experience, engagement, and outcomes. While student experiences and outcomes from participating in HIPs is valuable research and data, an account of faculty voices is consistently missing from the research and literature. Qualitative research in this study will employ collective case study data on what faculty think and how faculty implement HIPs in their classes and offer a thematic analysis of results. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]