Related Literature for Student Persistence / Self-Determination Theory #THESISit

Learning's "Weak" Link to Persistence

Wolniak, Gregory C.; Mayhew, Matthew J.; Engberg, Mark E.

Journal of Higher Education, v83 n6 p795-823 Nov-Dec 2012

"As the nation becomes increasingly focused on improving college completion rates, policy makers, practitioners, and scholars are calling for renewed efforts to help students succeed (e.g., Lumina Foundation, 2009). Central to these plans is the promotion of postsecondary access and opportunity, as well as the improvement of persistence and completion rates. College student persistence, in particular, is a necessary condition for social mobility, bridging access and attainment. We are well aware of a renewed focus on persistence and completion at BRCC and we have implemented interventions intended to improve our rates in both categories. Drs. Gregory C. Wolniak, Matthew J. Mayhew, and Mark E. Engberg have written a paper based on their research in this area and published in the Journal of Higher Education. They note, "Several key areas inform our understanding of students’ likelihood of persisting after the first year of college. These areas consist of student demographics and socioeconomic status, precollege academics, college choice and financial aid, institutional characteristics, the role of academic and social integration, and college grades. Persisting students reported higher levels of academic and social integration during their first year of college in areas related to exposure to quality teaching, frequency of faculty contact, peer interactions, and cocurricular involvement, while also demonstrating greater average scores on three of the five measures of assessed student learning (leadership, need for cognition, and content mastery). Alternatively, compared to nonpersisting students, a smaller share of persisters obtained financial aid in the form of federal grants."

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“How Much Economic Value Does My Credential Have?”
Reformulating Tinto’s Model to Study Students’ Persistence in Community Colleges

1. G. Rob Stuart; Cecilia Rios-Aguilar; Regina Deil-Amen
2. Community College Review October 2014 vol. 42 no. 4 327-341

1. "Community colleges play a key role in educating the large number of non-traditional, low-income, and under-prepared students who have entered higher education in the past several decades. Despite increased access, community colleges are struggling to graduate students. Most, if not all, strategies provided by scholars to improve college completion rates assume increased student engagement will enhance persistence and success. Existing theories of persistence overlook the dynamic influence of job markets for the students community colleges serve. Using National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, this article draws on Tinto’s theory of persistence and proposes a new framework that acknowledges the role of job opportunities and of work–family–schooling quandaries in community college students’ choices about persistence. Our model builds on the following relevant notions: (a) human capital theory, (b) social integration, and (c) socio-academic integration. Our model has important implications for leaders who aim to better align students’ college experiences with their desired careers and available jobs."

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Tinto's Model of Student Retention

Stephen W. Draper,   Department of Psychology,   University of Glasgow. http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/localed/tinto.html#Standard

"These notes are a very personal view, not well researched, and possibly severely flawed. The first topic is what determines whether students stay on or drop out at universities. Various terms may reasonably be used for this area. The negative-looking ones are failure, dropout, attrition; the positive-looking ones are retention, persistence. Tinto offers a theory for understanding this. Elsewhere I also have some notes on basic comparative dropout rates."

This is a WWW document maintained by Steve Draper, installed at http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/localed/tinto.html.

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An Examination of Criticisms made of Tinto’s 1975 Student Integration Model of Attrition 

Ian McCubbin February 2003 
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/localed/icubb.pdf

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Self-Determination Theory and Employee Motivation: An Overview 

Jack McDaniel
http://img.en25.com/Web/AchieveGlobalInc/Employee%20Motivation%20QR.pdf

"The key to SDT is recognizing that there

are two different types of motivation: 

• Autonomous motivation – Doing a

job because it is either intrinsically

interesting or is consistent with the

employee’s deep and abiding personal

values.

• Controlled motivation – Doing a job

because the employee feels pressured by

external or internal forces to do it. "

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Listen to the Founders of Self-Determination Theory, Edward Deci & Richard Ryan

http://mappalicious.com/2014/11/24/listen-to-the-founders-of-self-determination-theory-edward-deci-richard-ryan/ 

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What is Self-Determination Theory? (+PDF)

http://positivepsychologyprogram.com/self-determination-theory/

"Basic psychological needs: The hypothesis is that people have three basic psychological needs: competence, relatedness, andautonomy.

• First, the need for competence means the desire to control and master the environment and outcome. We want to know how things would turn out and the results/consequences of our actions.
• Second, the need for relatedness deals with the desire to “interact with, be connected to, and experience caring for other people”. Our actions and daily activities involve other people and through this we seek the feeling of belongingness.
• Thirdly, the need for automony concerns with the urge to be casual agents and to act in harmony with their integrated self. However, Deci and Ryan stated that to be autonomous does not mean to be independent. It means a sense of free will when doing something or acting out of our own interests and values."

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Autonomous Motivation, Controlled Motivation, and Goal Progress

Richard Koestner;  Nancy Otis;Theodore A. Powers; Luc Pelletier, and Hugo Gagnon
Journal of Personality 76:5, October 2008

http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2008_KoestnerOtisPowesPelletierGagnon_JOP.pdf

"Although the self-concordance of goals has been repeatedly shown to predict better goal progress, recent research suggests potential problems with aggregating autonomous and controlled motivations to form a summary index of self-concordance ( Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). The purpose of the present investigation was to further examine the relations among autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress to determine the relative importance of autonomous motivation and controlled motivation in the pursuit of personal goals. The results of three studies and a meta-analysis indicated that autonomous motivation was substantially related to goal progress whereas controlled motivation was not. Additionally, the relation of autonomous motivation to goal progress was shown to involve implementation planning. Together, the three studies highlight the importance for goal setters of having autonomous motivation and developing implementation plans, especially ones formulated in terms of approach strategies rather than avoidance strategies. The present research suggests that individuals pursuing goals should focus relatively greater attention on enhancing their autonomous motivation rather than reducing their controlled motivation."

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Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation

Edward L. Deci
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1971 , Vol. 18, No. 1, 105-115

http://www.quilageo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/fn103.Deci_.pdf

"Two laboratory experiments and one field experiment were conducted to investigate the effects of external rewards on intrinsic motivation to perform an activity. In each experiment, subjects were performing an activity during three different periods, and observations relevant to their motivation were made. External rewards were given to the experimental subjects during the second period only, while the control subjects received no rewards. Of interest was the difference in the experimental group's motivation between Period 1 and Period 3, relative to the difference in the control's. The results indicate that (a) when money was used as an external reward, intrinsic motivation tended to decrease, whereas (b) when verbal reinforcement and positive feedback were used, intrinsic motivation tended to increase. Discrepant findings in the literature were reconciled using a new theoretical framework which employs a cognitive approach and concentrates on the nature of the external reward."

More on SDT: 5th Conference on Self-Determination Theory

Sometimes I understand it better in videos... I'm a multi-intelligence learner like that =D

Self-Determination Theory: An Approach to Human Motivation & Personality

On Self Determination Theory & Student Persistence / Student Retention

Understanding the Self-Determination Theory from Ed Deci himself

 (one of the founders of the theory)

Edward Deci: Promoting Motivation, Health, and Excellence

In my thesis, I am going to use the Self-Determination Theory (SDT).

What can affect the persistence of students benefiting from financial aid? 

Given that financial aid is already an "extrinsic/external" motivator, students benefiting from financial aid still have various levels of motivation.

What else can influence their motivation? What can influence them to persist with their enrollment and eventually to finish their college education?

Let's first learn more about Self-Determination Theory by taking points from Ed Deci's Ted Talk.

"If you are interested in some activity and you enjoy doing it, the motivation is right there inside you ready to come out and move you into action" 

"If you really have something that is important to you, something that you truly value, you're perfectly willing to engage in the behavior that are consistent with that" 

"So both of these things, these two types of autonomous motivation, are all about being fully willing to behave." 

"There are literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds now of scientific investigations that have shown that when you are autonomously motivated, your behavior will be more creative. You'll be a better problem solver. When you encounter obstacles you will be able to think outside the box and figure out what to do about them." 

"Your performance will be better." 

"Your emotions will be more positive." 

"Autonomous motivation is associated with both physical and psychological health."

"Autonomy support is a way of getting people more autonomously motivated."

"Don't ask how you can motivate other people. That's the wrong way to think about it. Instead, ask, 'How can you create the conditions within which other people will motivate themselves'. And the answer, quite simply, is autonomy support." - Edward Deci. 

Let's go back to my thesis on student's persistence. 

Given that students who are benefiting from student financial aid are already "externally" motivated by the financial aid (controlled motivation), what else contributes to their student persistence?

If the answer is autonomous motivation, then what are those conditions/situations that are autonomy supportive for students benefiting from student financial aid?