TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the motivators and blockers in second year undergraduate students: an ecological system approach
AU - Loh, Jennifer MI
AU - Robinson, Ken
AU - Muller-Townsend, Katrina
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the contribution of Dr Fiona Foxall and Dr Alex Rassau in allowing us to interview their students in Nursing, and in Engineering, respectively. The authors would also like to acknowledge financial support from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities ?Small Internal Funding (Edith Cowan University). There is no conflict of interest arising from this research.
Funding Information:
We acknowledge the contribution of Dr Fiona Foxall and Dr Alex Rassau in allowing us to interview their students in Nursing, and in Engineering, respectively. The authors would also like to acknowledge financial support from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities –Small Internal Funding (Edith Cowan University). There is no conflict of interest arising from this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - This study explored second year undergraduates’ academic motivators and blockers at multiple ecological system levels. A total of 47 second year undergraduate students from Engineering, Nursing and Psychology in an Australian city university took part in participant-led interviews regarding their academic experience beyond their foundational semester. Using an ecological system approach as the overarching theoretical framework, Tinto’s model of student retention/persistence and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) were merged within this framework to identify potential motivators and blockers across individual, microsystem, mesosystem and macrosystem levels. Results revealed that academic motivators and blockers existed at multiple ecological levels and wielded direct as well as indirect impacts on student persistence. Cohort and context-specific challenges were also identified and this demonstrated the need to better understand the contributions of an ecological approach to student persistence experience.
AB - This study explored second year undergraduates’ academic motivators and blockers at multiple ecological system levels. A total of 47 second year undergraduate students from Engineering, Nursing and Psychology in an Australian city university took part in participant-led interviews regarding their academic experience beyond their foundational semester. Using an ecological system approach as the overarching theoretical framework, Tinto’s model of student retention/persistence and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) were merged within this framework to identify potential motivators and blockers across individual, microsystem, mesosystem and macrosystem levels. Results revealed that academic motivators and blockers existed at multiple ecological levels and wielded direct as well as indirect impacts on student persistence. Cohort and context-specific challenges were also identified and this demonstrated the need to better understand the contributions of an ecological approach to student persistence experience.
KW - Blockers
KW - Ecological system model
KW - Motivators
KW - Student persistence
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/167e4278-6344-30ad-9261-246cb4ae6dc4/
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083371592&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13384-020-00385-w
DO - 10.1007/s13384-020-00385-w
M3 - Article
VL - 48
SP - 85
EP - 106
JO - Australian Educational Researcher
JF - Australian Educational Researcher
SN - 0311-6999
IS - 1
ER -