Poster Presentations - Guzman Lecture Hall
Differences in Achievement Goals and Study Behaviors Between Adult Learners and Traditional Learners
Location
Guzman Lecture Hall Poster #22
Start Date
4-23-2015 6:30 PM
End Date
4-23-2015 7:30 PM
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
William Philips, Ph.D.
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Many colleges and universities offer degree programs and courses for both traditional college students as well as returning adult professionals. In planning and implementing these programs, college administrators and professors need to understand if differences in motivations and goals exist between the two groups. It is often believed that adult students are more driven by goals of wanting to gain a mastery of the course material than compared to traditional learners, and that adult students adopt study methods that assist them in more fully understanding their coursework (Remedios & Richardson, 2013). The purpose of this study is to determine if there are any correlations between the age of a student, their college goals and their study styles. Specifically, we will look at whether students are motivated by mastery-related or performance-based goals, whether they implement deep, strategic, or surface level approaches in their studying, and whether their grade point average shows any relationship to their goals and approaches. Participants (n=60) will be solicited from Dominican University undergraduate programs that have a corresponding Dominican University Pathways program, namely Psychology, Humanities, Business, and English. Studentswill be sent an email link in order to fill out an online survey on surveymonkey.com. They will voluntarily respond to a combined 70 questions from the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised (Elliot & Murayama, 2008), the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (Entwistle, McCune & Tait, 2013), and demographic questions regarding age, gender, major, program, reason for taking course, and GPA. It is hypothesized that a) adult learners will tend to adopt mastery goals more often than traditional learners, b) traditional learners will be more motivated by performance goals, and c) adult learners will employ more deep approaches to studying as compared to traditional learners. Data collection for this study will occur in February and March of 2015.
Differences in Achievement Goals and Study Behaviors Between Adult Learners and Traditional Learners
Guzman Lecture Hall Poster #22
Many colleges and universities offer degree programs and courses for both traditional college students as well as returning adult professionals. In planning and implementing these programs, college administrators and professors need to understand if differences in motivations and goals exist between the two groups. It is often believed that adult students are more driven by goals of wanting to gain a mastery of the course material than compared to traditional learners, and that adult students adopt study methods that assist them in more fully understanding their coursework (Remedios & Richardson, 2013). The purpose of this study is to determine if there are any correlations between the age of a student, their college goals and their study styles. Specifically, we will look at whether students are motivated by mastery-related or performance-based goals, whether they implement deep, strategic, or surface level approaches in their studying, and whether their grade point average shows any relationship to their goals and approaches. Participants (n=60) will be solicited from Dominican University undergraduate programs that have a corresponding Dominican University Pathways program, namely Psychology, Humanities, Business, and English. Studentswill be sent an email link in order to fill out an online survey on surveymonkey.com. They will voluntarily respond to a combined 70 questions from the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised (Elliot & Murayama, 2008), the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (Entwistle, McCune & Tait, 2013), and demographic questions regarding age, gender, major, program, reason for taking course, and GPA. It is hypothesized that a) adult learners will tend to adopt mastery goals more often than traditional learners, b) traditional learners will be more motivated by performance goals, and c) adult learners will employ more deep approaches to studying as compared to traditional learners. Data collection for this study will occur in February and March of 2015.