J. Schwartz

Publication Date

2017

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Tonks, Stephen M.

Degree Name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Legacy Department

Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations

LCSH

Educational psychology

Abstract

Previous research has suggested examining the mindsets, learning beliefs, and academic identity of students enrolled in developmental education could contribute to identifying and describing factors that have a positive impact on students' academic performance and completion of their developmental education courses. Two new, adapted measures were developed, a Stigma Consciousness Questionnaire for Developmental Reading (SCQ-DR) and a Student Mindset Survey for Developmental Reading (SMS-DR), to investigate how community college students experience stigma associated with being enrolled in a developmental reading course, and the relationships between stigma and students' theory of intelligence, learning goals, effort beliefs, and academic performance in a developmental reading course. One hundred and ninety eight students enrolled in a developmental reading course offered at a community college in a metropolitan area in the Midwest United States were surveyed. Results indicated about a quarter of the students' perceived or experienced stigma associated with their enrollment in the developmental reading course. Results also indicated there was a negative relationship between stigma consciousness and theory of intelligence, learning goals, and effort beliefs. Interaction effects were also found. For those students who reported higher learning goals, associated with mastery goal orientation, greater stigma consciousness was associated with lower course grades. However, for students who reported lower learning goals, there was no relationship between stigma consciousness and course grade. Also, for students with higher effort beliefs, associated with valuing hard work, greater stigma consciousness was associated with lower course grades. For students who reported lower effort beliefs, there was no relationship between stigma consciousness and course grade. These findings encourage further examination of how stigma consciousness influences academic performance for students with varying learning goals and effort beliefs. Results also suggest an importance in continuing to examine the relationships between stigma consciousness, student mindset, and academics for developmental education programs, specifically developmental reading programs.

Comments

Advisors: Stephen Tonks.||Committee members: Sonya Armstrong; Lindsay Harris; Jodi Lampi; Kelly Summers.||Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

vi, 105 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS