Barnes, G.R., Cerrito, P.B., & Levi, I. (2004). An Assessment of general education mathematics courses via examination of student expectations and performance. The Journal of General Education, 53(1), 20-36.

A study investigated the relationship between the performance expectations and outcomes of 1,613 college students in a general education mathematics course. Findings revealed that 96 percent of students expected to study less than faculty generally expected them to study. Moreover, students' grades reflected this disconnect between student and faculty expectations. Further findings are presented.

Kouyoumdjian, H. (2004). Influence of unannounced quizzes and cumulative exam on attendance and study behavior. Teaching of Psychology, 31(2), 110-111.

Instructors often use grade-related contingencies to motivate students to attend and prepare for class. This study compared the influence in infrequent and minimal-weight unannounced quizzes to a cumulative exam on students' self-reported motivation to attend class and regularly keep up with class material. Results indicated that the unannounced quizzes had more influence on self-reported motivation to attend class and study regularly than a cumulative exam. Students rated the use of these quizzes favorably, and there are several benefits for their use in addition to motivating students to better attend and prepare for class.

Kuech, R. (2004). Collaborative and interactional processes in an inquiry-based, informal learning environment. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 39(1), 30-41.

This study was conducted on informal aspects of an inquiry-based physics course and reports findings about learning interactions and discourse observed during the first three semesters the course was offered. The course offered an alternative to the large lecture instruction typical in introductory university physics and promoted learning in an informal environment. The course organization attempted to engage students in investigations with only a small fraction of time devoted to lecture/discussion. Students collaborated in groups of three to conduct investigations with the use of computer tools and laboratory apparatus. The instructor and teaching assistants interacted directly with the students with the intent to ask probing questions to guide the students through conceptually meaningful problem solving. Researchers video taped student groups as they worked through investigations. Field notes and students' investigation reports provided additional information about student performance. The study reports detailed accounts of student interaction through discourse during the class investigations and comments on the nature of the student collaborations. The study showed that during collaborative problem solving, the students engaged in informal elaborative and reflective discourse that critically examined the data the students had collected during the investigations. The author comments on possible relationships of these interactions and cognitive processes to knowledge construction in an informal setting.

Burdge, J.R. & Daubenmire, S.W. (2001). Raising success rates in freshman chemistry. Journal of College Science Teaching, 30(5), 295-299.

This article in part considers attendance and completion of written and other homework assignments on performance. Although homework assignments were only six percent of the final grade, there was a strong correlation to proper completion of homework assignments and final grades. Of all the students receiving passing grades on the homework portion of the course, only one did not receive a passing grade in the course. ACT scores strongly correlated with student success, especially combined ACT scores with an R^2 of .737 compared with an R^2 of .616 for the ACT math section only. This makes sense because exams were given in story problem form.

Nippert, K. (2001). Influences on the educational degree attainment of two-year college students. College Student Retention Research, Theory & Practice, 2(1), 29-40.

With increasing numbers of students enrolling at two-year colleges, it is clear that additional research is needed to understand and predict the persistence behavior of this group of students. The central purpose of this study was to examine the effects of students' backgrounds, academic and social integration, external influences, and institutional satisfaction on the educational degree attainment of students who began their college experience at two-year colleges. The findings of this study are consistent with previous research and confirm the relationship of college academic activities and college grade point average with student persistence. Students' willingness to re-enroll in their freshman college was also found to positively influence educational degree attainment.

Kuh, G.D. (1999). How are we doing? Tracking the quality of the undergraduate experience: 1960s to present. The Review of Higher Education, 22(2), 99-119.

This paper examines outcomes and student efforts devoted to educationally purposeful activities at different points. While substantial proportions of students make noteworthy progress in intellectual and communication skills, personal and social development, and vocational training, declines occurred in literature, arts, science, and values development. One explanation for the declines is that students on average expend less effort in many areas since the mid-1980s, even though they are getting higher grades.

Schutz, P.A., Drogosz, L.M., White, V.E., & Distefano, C. (1998). Prior knowledge attitude and strategy use in an introduction to statistics course. Learning & Individual Differences, 10(4), 291-309.

The results of the study show that motivation variables influenced performance in the introduction to statistics class. In addition, there was mixed support for the use of deeper-level processing strategies. In the regression analysis, the learning strategies did not account for unique variance, but in the interviews and the cluster analysis, their use tended to be related to performance in the course. Finally, there were differences in the patterns of reported use of different motivation and learning strategies between successful and unsuccessful students in a beginning-level statistics course. These results help to expand our understanding of what is involved in the process of learning statistics.

Terenzini, P.T., Springer, L., Pascarella, E.T., & Nora, A. (1995). Academic and out-of-class influences on students' intellectual orientations. The Review of Higher Education, 19(1), 23-44.

This study estimates the extent to which students' learning orientations are shaped independently and jointly by their academic and nonacademic experiences. Findings indicate not only that students' academic and out-of-class experiences make statistically significant and unique contributions to gains in intellectual orientation after controlling for precollege characteristics, but also that the two domains exert a modest joint effect.