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Angela E. Quitadamo, Ph.D. is a 2020 graduate of the PHD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.


Dr. Angela Quitadamo at her Dissertation Defense.

From L-R: Dr. Mitchell Kusy, Committee Chair, Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts, Committee Member, Dr. Elizabeth Holloway, Committee Member

Dissertation Committee

  • Mitchell Kusy, Ph.D., Committee Chair
  • Elizabeth Holloway, Ph.D., Committee Member
  • Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D., Committee Member

Keywords

social-emotional climate, thematic analysis, action research, community college, real-time feedback, informal assessment, instructor engagement

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Community college students often have obligations outside the classroom (supporting dependents or working part-or full-time jobs), preventing them from participating in extracurricular activities and fulfilling their social-emotional needs on campus. As a result, they rely heavily on classroom interactions with their instructors to gain a sense of belonging and motivation necessary for optimal cognitive growth. This action research study was conducted at a rural community college in New England to learn if an informal feedback tool, given to students, could provide real-time data to instructors to enhance the social-emotional classroom environment. An inquiry group (IG) comprised of the researcher and instructors met four times over the course of a semester. The IG reflected on the student data, spoke in-depth about their reactions to the data, offered feedback about the assessment, and discussed the changes they would make in response to the real-time, course-level data in their courses. Thematic analysis was utilized to analyze and interpret the qualitative data from the inquiry group and student assessments. Four themes rose to prominence: True Feelings, Engaging Students, Instructor Approachability, and Remote Learning. At the close of the study instructors completed a summative evaluation and met again to review the synthesized data. This study showed how a more reflective and transformational view of classroom assessment with a focus on engagement benefited students and instructors. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/.

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Angela E. Quitadamo, Ph.D.

ORCID Scholar ID #: #0000-0002-2156-242X

Angela Quitadamo is an academic affairs professional with over twelve years’ experience working at colleges and universities in student success and retention. As a first-generation college student, she has experience, empathy, and respect for traditional and adult learners balancing the demands of employment, family, and school. Her career path has taken her through positions in college-access, to financial aid and into college administration because she recognizes and believes in the transformative power of higher education. She has never lost site that for those of us without generational college knowledge in our communities, helpers are essential. Angela is a past-president of the Massachusetts Educational Opportunity Association, a membership organization of TRiO professionals committed to ensuring that secondary and post-secondary opportunities are accessible to underrepresented students. She has presented at national conferences in areas of student retention, racial equity and justice, enrollment management, and institutional research. Sharing her cross-divisional work in support of student success is always and empowering and enriching experience.

Angela received her doctorate in Leadership and Change from Antioch University where she conducted research on the social-emotional climate in community college courses. Angela has also studied History and Women’s Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (BA), Non-Profit Management at Worcester State University (MS) and Leadership and Change (MA) at Antioch University.

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