Education Commons^™

Re(Engineering) Student Success: Constructing Knowledge On Students’ Experiences In Engineering Education Programs To Encourage Holistic Student Success, Shaylin Williams

Theses and Dissertations

If a group of engineering deans were asked whether students at their institutions were successful and why, what information might they immediately or subconsciously use to measure or gauge the engineering students’ success? If only academic performance outcomes like GPA, individual course grades, or graduation rate race to their minds, then their rationale aligns with the majority of researchers. My research seeks to shift the mindset that frames engineering student success mainly within the boundaries of academic performance measures. By measuring students’ perceived autonomy, competence, social integration and relatedness within their programs, and aspirations after graduation, one can more accurately …

Special Education Teachers’ Perceptions Of Self-Determination Supports In Inclusion Classrooms, Suzanne Tiffany-Salogub

Theses and Dissertations

The outcomes presented in this dissertation were motivated by a scarcity of research that explores self-determination practices explicitly within inclusive classrooms. Three overarching goals motivated my research. The first was to understand what inclusion teachers know and do in relation to self-determination (Chapter 2). The second was to understand how their practices align with existing knowledge about self-determination in the field (Chapter 3). Finally, I sought to create an accessible, research-based tool tailored to inclusion teachers who seek to support their students in developing self-determination skills (Chapter 4). To achieve these goals, I designed an investigation using a case-study design …

High School Students’ Math And Science Motivation Profiles: Stability And Relationship With Their Stem Career Aspirations, Jiali Zheng

Theses and Dissertations

Motivation to study mathematics and science is an important influencing factor of career aspirations in STEM fields which predicts STEM major choice in college and STEM careers after graduation. Using restricted data from a nationally representative sample HSLS:09, the current study identified U.S. high school students’ motivation profiles in mathematics and science courses in 9^th and 11^th grade, examined the stability of these profiles across the two time points, and studied the association between 11^th grade motivation profiles and STEM career aspirations. Differences between male and female students in motivation profiles, profile stability and career aspirations were …

Improving College Students’ Views And Beliefs Relative To Mathematics: A Systematic Literature Review Followed By A Multiple Case Mixed Methods Exploration Of The Experiences That Underpin Community College Students’ Attitudes, Self-Efficacy, And Values In Mathematics, Marquita H. Sea

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics is particularly important due to its relevance in our daily lives. It is a general requirement throughout schooling. Unfortunately, many students openly declare negative views/beliefs regarding math in their personal and academic lives. These in turn, negatively influence students’ achievement related behaviors and outcomes. First, a systematic literature review was conducted to determine what types of studies/initiatives have aimed to enhance students’ views/beliefs relative to mathematics, including domain general and specific perceptions of math as well as their judgements of who is successful in mathematics and if they themselves can be successful. Specifically, the review centered on the components …

Academic Self-Concept And Master Adaptive Learning In First Year Medical Students: A Validation And Scale Construction Study, Jk Stringer Iv

Theses and Dissertations

Students’ academic self-concepts (ASC) and their orientation towards self-regulated learning are important elements of success. Despite this fact, little work has been conducted exploring these areas medical students. Given the shifting priorities of medical education toward competency-based education and self-directed learning, the goals of this study were to validate an existing measure of ASC and to improve our measurement capabilities for understanding the Master Adaptive Learner (MAL). Evidence for validity and scale reliability was collected for the ASCS with this novel population and a range of motivational and self-regulative variables (Goal orientation, academic emotion regulation, and lifelong learning) were analyzed …

Athletic And Academic Identity, Motivation And Success: An Examination Of Diii Student-Athletes, Savanna M. Love

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine athletic and academic identity and athletic and academic motivation in DIII student-athletes. An additional purpose of the study was to explore the extent to which identity and motivation variables could predict GPA. This study also qualitatively explored students’ perceptions of their success, identity and motivation. Using Expectancy-Value and Identity theories as a theoretical framework, participants (n = 358) were administered an online survey that included AAIS and SAMSAQ scales along with open-ended qualitative questions. Quantitative data were used to conduct confirmatory factor analyses, bivariate correlations, hierarchical multiple regression, and multivariate analyses of …

Academic Motivation Profiles Of 10th Grade Students: Exploring A Relationship With Socioeconomic Level Using A Person Oriented Approach, Sandra Lynn Rogelberg

Theses and Dissertations

Motivation is an important predictor of educational success, as is socioeconomic status. This study used Expectancy Value Theory (EVT) and a person oriented approach as the framework to explore how motivation profiles may be related to context, namely socioeconomic status (SES), and the roles these profiles have in predicting education outcomes. Five motivation variables: math self-efficacy, reading self-efficacy, control expectation, action control, and utility value (instrumentation motivation) were used in latent profile analysis to determine four latent motivation profiles from a national sample of 10,981 10th grade students using ELS:2002 data. Family income and education level (SES) were considered a …

One In Eight: Deciding To Pursue A College-Going Possible Self In A High-Poverty High School, David B. Naff

Theses and Dissertations

There is considerable research evidence suggesting that low-income, racial minority students value education and aspire for postsecondary educational attainment (Bloom, 2007; Destin & Oyserman, 2009; Wigfield & Eccles, 2002). However, their performance in school often does not align with those values and ambitions, as these students tend to underachieve in comparison with their higher-income, non-minority peers (Reardon, 2011), with particular gaps found in those attending schools of concentrated poverty (Rowan, 2011). This gap between educational ambition and attainment suggests that the experience of living and going to school in a high-poverty context could be related to the motivational processes driving …

Empirical Connections Between The Construct Of Value, The Quality Of Stability, And The Construct Of Regret, William Samuel Morris Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The term value is a psychological construct frequently used in the social sciences. This research addresses the issue of stability of ratings of perceived value of participants for monetary, tangible, and intangible items that cross contexts. Also elucidated is the relationship of value to regret. Hypothesis one stated that value would be stable across time and different rating conditions. Forty-four participants rated the value of 72 stimulus items at two time points and in different contexts. Paired samples t-tests indicated 28 participants had no statistical difference in scores. Twenty-eight scores out of 44, when applied to a binomial test, indicates …

Becoming An Altruistic Learner, Aaron W. Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

This master’s thesis is a qualitative research project that explored the transformation of multiple individuals who initially learned for self-interested purposes, but later had a shift in their desire to learn so as to benefit others. The author collected rich narratives that described this phenomenon and provided insight into the following question: what is the experience of a learner who transitions from learning out of self-interest to learning out of altruistic purposes? The author found the following five major themes across six participants as they transitioned to more altruistic learning: humility, self-efficacy, resources, success and agency. These themes give insight …

Self-Regulated Learning (Srl) Microanalysis For Mathematical Problem Solving: A Comparison Of A Srl Event Measure, Questionnaires, And A Teacher Rating Scale, Gregory Lee Callan

Theses and Dissertations

The current dissertation examined the validity of a context-specific assessment tool, called Self-regulated learning (SRL) microanalysis, for measuring self-regulated learning (SRL) during mathematical problem solving. SRL microanalysis is a structured interview that entails assessing respondents' regulatory processes as they engage with a task of interest.

Participants for this dissertation consisted of 83 eighth grade students attending a large urban school district in Midwestern USA. Students were administered the SRL microanalytic interview while completing a set of mathematical word problems to provide a measure of their real-time thoughts and regulatory behaviors. The SRL microanalytic interview targeted the SRL processes of goal-setting, …

Relationships Between Motivation, Self-Efficacy, Mindsets, Attributions, And Learning Strategies: An Exploratory Study, Christopher Lackey

Theses and Dissertations

Motivation, self-efficacy, beliefs about intelligence, and attributions about academic performance all play important roles in student success. To determine the relationships between these factors and the influence of demographics upon them, an online quantitative survey was taken of college students measuring their self-perceptions of these factors. The survey was comprised of items from three existing surveys: the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale, and the Revised Causal Dimension Scale. First- and second-year students, generally at the highest risk of attrition, were targeted in order to explore whether these factors could shed light on persistence. …

Turning Points: Stories Of How Students Get Beyond Antipathy Toward An Academic Course, Cheryl Lynn Morse

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the narratives of 10 students who began an academic course with strong negative attitudes but finished the course with strong positive attitudes. In the beginning of the course, each student exhibited one of these three tendencies: apathetic, compliant, or disillusioned; however, by the end of the course, they exhibited a transformed disposition. This study attempts to answer the question of what the turning points were for their transformation and how they made the change. The findings of this study were that regardless of individual tendencies, the ability to exercise agency was …