At the Heart of Retention Programs and Practices: Creating an Environment of Mattering and Validation for Community College Students

This webinar presents the connection between community college student persistence and the important roles mattering and validation play in student success. Based upon Schlossberg’s (1989) Mattering Theory and Rendon’s (1994) Validation Theory, the webinar demonstrates practical and simple ways faculty members can communicate to students that they matter to the institution and that they have the ability to be successful, powerful learners. Calling upon an extensive literature review, as well as data gathered from a qualitative study of community college faculty, this webinar encourages participants to engage in practices that affirm and help students connect to course content and the institution.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Recognize the challenges faced by today’s community college students, particularly those students who are especially at risk for attrition.
  • Develop an understanding of Mattering and Validation theories and the role that mattering and validation play in retention and attrition.
  • Become familiar with specific interventions, strategies, activities, behaviors, and attitudes that community college faculty members have identified as particularly effective in promoting student persistence in their courses.
  • Examine your behaviors and practices to assess in what ways you are or could be promoting a sense of mattering and validation among your students.

Kim RussellProfessor, English and Chair, Professional Development, West Kentucky Community and Technical College
Kimberly Russell is the English Program Coordinator and a professor of English at West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC). She has coordinated the WKCTC new faculty training program, Reach for the Stars, and has served as a peer consultant for faculty in the promotion process. Kimberly also chairs the WKCTC Professional and Organizational Development Committee, with her favorite part of that job being the opportunity to provide meaningful professional development programming on campus. Educated at Southeast Missouri State University, Kimberly has a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and a master’s degree in composition. In spring 2019, she earned a doctorate in education from the University of Kentucky. Her dissertation research focused on the role of mattering and validation in community college student persistence, as well as concrete ways in which community college faculty can use their interactions with students to promote student persistence by letting students know they are important and that they can be powerful, successful learners.

Please Note:

Only those attending the LIVE webinar will receive a certificate of attendance. Thank you!