Education Commons^™

The Impact Of Self-Efficacy And Motivation Characteristics On The Academic Achievement Of Upward Bound Participants, Brenda Leigh Brown

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of self-efficacy and motivation characteristics on the achievement of at-risk students. Seventy-nine Upward Bound program participants completed self-efficacy, motivation, and demographic questionnaires. The relationship between GPA and self-efficacy was significant, negative, and low in strength. High GPA was associated with high self-efficacy (as shown by lower numbers on the survey). Gender, length of time in the Upward Bound (UB) program, length of participation in the UB summer program, college sponsor (community or four-year college), self-efficacy characteristics, and motivation characteristics significantly predicted academic achievement as measured by GPA. The relationship between …

Identifying Motivations To Encourage Women To Adopt Positive Financial Behaviors, Megan E. Rowley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Seventeen women between the ages of 25 and 54 who self-identified as having made a positive financial change within the past two years were interviewed in four focus groups. Participants were asked to identify their motivations for financial behavior change.

The analysis of this research data indicated the participants in this study progressed through the stages of change in Prochaska's Transtheoretical Model while making personal financial changes. Factors such as emotion, family influence, and life transition helped many women move from earlier stages (Precontemplation, Contemplation) to later stages (Preparation, Action) of change. Although participants utilized a wide variety of first …

Applied Cognition In Reading: An Analysis Of Reading Comprehension In Secondary School Students, Joshua A. Cuevas

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

This research sought to add to a body of knowledge that is severely underrepresented in the scientific literature, reading comprehension in secondary students. Chapter 1 examines the current state of literacy in the nation’s public schools and the consequences that arise if students leave high school with inadequate reading skills. It discusses the neurological processes involved with reading and posits that independent silent reading (ISR) combined with scaffolding techniques may prove to be an effective method for addressing reading comprehension. The review also analyzes the components believed to be essential to reading, including vocabulary development, prior knowledge and background information, …

Expectancy Theory As A Predictor Of Faculty Motivation To Use A Course Management System, Marian Turcan

All Dissertations

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between the elements of the Expectancy theory and faculty motivation to use a course management system. Specifically it analyzed if the elements of the Expectancy theory (Valence, Instrumentality and Expectancy) were useful in predicting faculty motivation when using Blackboard tools in teaching their courses.
A self-administered survey questionnaire was developed and used as the research instrument for this study. Four hundred and forty eight faculty members were randomly selected from eleven schools from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the data for the …

The Effects Of Interaction On Adolescent Reading Motivation, Greg A. Hoetker

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study had two main purposes: One, to discover the nature of interactions that motivate adolescent students to read; and two, to follow how adolescents’ views of interaction and reading motivation evolve over time. The study’s research question was: What do student artifacts and interviews within both middle and high school contexts reveal about adolescents' perceptions of interactions with peers, teachers, and family and their motivation to read? The concept of interaction used within this study was based on a collaborative group-process learning context (Webb & Palincsar, 1996) and a social constructivist conceptualization of intrinsic motivation for literacy learning …

Voices Of Summer: Interviews With Middle School Students Repeating Academic Courses In Summer School, James Frye

Theses and Dissertations

As the needs of society changed, states faced increasing pressure from the federal government to raise educational standards. States adopted rigorous standards, however many students failed to meet defined proficiency levels, necessitating summer school attendance or grade retention. Factors associated with academic failure have been extensively documented in the academic literature. The factors identified in the research can be organized into six categories, including motivation, age and ability, withdrawal from school, parents and guardians, school practices, and teacher practices. The purpose of the current study was to explore middle school students’ perceptions of factors which contributed to the academic outcomes …

A Conceptual Model Of Career Development To Enhance Academic Motivation, Nancy Creighton Collins

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop, refine, and validate a conceptual model of career development to enhance the academic motivation of community college students. To achieve this end, a straw model was built from the theoretical and empirical research literature. The model was then refined and validated through three rounds of a Delphi study. The Delphi study solicited the opinions of students who had successfully completed community college programs.

Three research goals guided this study: (1) identify the components of modern motivation theory that apply to the academic motivation of community college students, (2) identify key components of …

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 …

Contextualized Motivation Theory (Cmt): Intellectual Passion, Mathematical Need, Social Responsibility, And Personal Agency In Learning Mathematics, Janelle Marie Hart

Theses and Dissertations

Student motivation has long been a concern of mathematics educators. Here, I characterize motivation, defined as an individual's desire to act in particular ways, through analysis of students' extended, collaborative problem solving efforts. Grounded in a longitudinal research project in calculus learning and teaching, Contextualized Motivation Theory (CMT) offers a means for understanding the complexities of student motivations in mathematics learning. Students in this study chose to act upon various intellectual-mathematical motivations and social-personal motivations, existing simultaneously, within a supporting "web" of motivations. Students exhibited intellectual passion in persisting beyond obtaining correct answers to build understandings of mathematical ideas. CMT …

The Impact Of Motivation On Pre-College Level Students Enrolled In A Learning Community At An Historically Black College/Univers, Jontoinette White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is believed that purposefully constructed learning communities can have academic, social, and motivational advantages for its participants. In an effort to improve graduation and retention of students, some HBCUs have sought new ways to construct learning environments that are conducive to the learning styles of students of color. This study sought to investigate the impact of a learning community on pre-college level students standardized test scores and final grades. The Repeated Measures One-Way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference in COMPASS score change between groups with the comparison group demonstrating a greater change than did the learning community group. …

Comparison Of Learning Experiences And Outcomes Between A Serious Game-Based And Non-Game-Based Online American History Course, Taryn Hess

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of online courses continues to increase despite the small amount of research that exists on the effectiveness of online educational environments. The little research that has been conducted has focused on evaluating factors taken into consideration during the adoption of online learning environments. One notable benefit often cited is the ability to incorporate multimedia such as video games. Although game researchers and developers are pushing for the use of video games for educational purposes, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness of serious video games. When paring the increasing use of online educational environments, the push …

Environmental And Psychological Factors Contributing To Student Achievement In A High School Online Mediated Credit Recovery Program, Sheila B. Huckabee

Education Dissertations and Projects

School districts around the country have sought to mitigate students' reasons for dropping out through a variety of approaches. A repeated theme in the dropout research is student course failure in key academic subjects needed for on-time promotion with grade-level peers. The crux of the problem is that within the traditional classroom environment, a significant number of students do not demonstrate the required level of academic skills and knowledge needed to pass specific state and district mandated courses, which ultimately decreases their ability to advance to the next grade and graduate in 4 years.

The purpose of this dissertation study …

What Motivates Young Latina Females Along The U.S. Mexico Border Region To Participate In Team Sports?, Dora A. Pichardo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Physical activity gives women and girls an overall better quantity of life and positive health benefits. Statistics indicate lack of participation in physical activity and exercise by the U.S. general population and among the Latino population in particular. The primary purpose of this study is to explore the variables that motivate young Latinas to play and eventually continue to stay involved in team sports. This is a survey correlational study including young Latina females a U.S.-Mexico border community. Statistical analysis included frequencies, means, and Pearson Product Momentum Correlations. Sixty-nine participants (12 to 15 years old) completed the survey. The response …

A Relationship Study Of Student Satisfaction With Learning Online And Cognitive Load, George Bradford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to explore if a relationship exists between cognitive load and student satisfaction with learning online. The study separates academic performance (a.k.a., 'learning') from cognitive load and satisfaction to better distinguish influences on cognition (from cognitive load) and motivation (from satisfaction). Considerations that remain critical to the field of instructional design, as they apply to learning online, were described and used to guide a review of the literature to find directions to fulfill the goal of this study. A survey was conducted and 1,401 students responded to an instrument that contained 24 items. Multiple analysis techniques found a …