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An Examination Of African American Male Students’ Perceptions Of Academic Success And Their Experiences At The Community College, Shashuna Jenean Gray

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The focus of this research is the perceptions of academic success held by African American male students attending a community college. Community colleges often serve as the gateway for unprepared, at-risk students. However, this group of students frequently fails to persist and matriculate even after six years of attendance. Understanding the perceptions of academic success within two defined groups of students, pre-enrollment and probationary, would allow community college leaders to efficiently allocate resources to ensure high levels of engagement within the college classroom.

An Examination Of Relationships Of Reading And Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Standardized Placement Test Scores, And Diverse Community College Students' Perceptions Of Those Relationships, Ann Woolford-Singh

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Social cognitive theory explains the role that one's level of confidence plays in the accomplishment of a specific task. According to Bandura (1982, 1995), self-efficacy beliefs should align with performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing standardized placement test scores of diverse community college freshmen. Additionally, this study sought to understand the sources of these students' reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs through the descriptions of experiences they feel have influenced those beliefs.

There were three major research questions: (1) What is the strength of the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing …