Education Commons^™

American Indian Professionals: Educational Decision-Making And Persistence, Colleen M. Burke

Theses and Dissertations

American Indian graduate students are experiencing a higher matriculation rate in higher education today; however, those rates are still lower than other underrepresented minority groups’ rates. The purpose of this study is to conduct exploratory research to investigate the decision-making process of American Indian/Alaskan Native professionals who persisted to graduation from their graduate programs. This study explores the participants’ graduate school experiences relating to education, tribal values, decisions, their social support, and perseverance. The theoretical framework of decisionmaking theory, i.e. Prospect Theory, was used to evaluate the educational decisions of the participants. Decision-making theorists include corporate culture in their discussions; …

Persistence In Stem: Development Of A Persistence Model Integrating Self-Efficacy, Outcome Expectations And Performance In Chemistry Gateway Courses, Shalini Srinivasan

Theses and Dissertations

STEM persistence has been an important issue, especially in the context of underrepresented groups based on race and gender. Researchers in the last decade or so have been examining the powerful impact that affective and cognitive factors can exert individually on performance and persistence. It is only reasonable to hypothesize that combining affective and cognitive measures would offer a more thorough understanding of factors that impact students’ performance and STEM persistence. Evaluating these outcomes in the context of gateway courses is particularly essential due to the non-negligible percentage of students who drop out of these courses or decide to change …

Students’ Expectations And Faculty Approaches To Instructional Activities: Are Faculty Meeting The Needs Of This Generation?, Julie Ann Brines

Theses and Dissertations

Students who engage academically and socially with others on campus are more likely to stay at their institution and graduate, and the continued success of higher education institutions depends on the persistence of those students. An extensive body of literature for student retention and faculty teaching practices exists, but the present study focused on how student persistence may be affected by the interactions between students and faculty, especially when students and faculty were members of different generational cohorts. Investigating those interactions revealed there is a significant difference between students’ expectations and faculty approaches to instructional activities inside and outside the …

Education Master's Students' Perspectives On Leaving The Academy, Amybeth Glass

Theses and Dissertations

Graduate student attrition is arguably one of the most significant challenges facing the higher education community, and determining why master's students attrit is an important consideration for all universities. Despite the vast research on graduate education, little is known about master's student attrition. This dissertation explored why education master's students depart from one institution and provides recommendations for future practice. Key finding of the study indicate that financial, personal, and dissatisfaction with course content were reasons that influenced education master's student attrition.

In-depth qualitative interviews with 12 former students challenged the notion that attrition is intrinsic. Participants' points of view …

Student Involvement As A Mediator Of The Relationship Of Peer Leaders In First-Year Seminars To Academic Achievement And Persistence, Liyun Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Peer leaders as a component of First-Year Seminars (FYS) are designed to assist in the adjustment, satisfaction and persistence of first-year college students. Although previous studies have consistently found the positive and direct impact of peer leaders on first-year students’ academic achievement and persistence, there is still a lack of clear understanding on why peer leaders have this positive relationship with students’ academic achievement and persistence. Thus, drawing on Astin’s theory of student involvement for higher education (1984, 1993, 1996), and Tinto’s interactive theory of departure (1993), this short term longitudinal study examined the process through which peer leaders resulted …