Keywords
Motivation, subjective well being, doctoral education, ed.d., ph.d
Abstract
Background: Doctoral attrition has been the subject of significant research over the past several years (Bair & Haworth, 2004; Cohen & Greenberg, 2011; Gardner, 2008; Lovitts, 2001). Prior research on doctoral students has focused on substantive differences in the Ed.D. and Ph.D. in education degree programs, rather than on potential differences among the students themselves. Purpose: To assess whether there are baseline differences in motivation and subjective well-being among the three groups of doctoral students in education: Ed.D. and Ph.D. students, part-time enrolled and full-time enrolled students, and first-year and secondyear students. Setting: University of Central Florida, College of Education Subjects: First-year and second-year students drawn from all three doctoral programs offered in the College, including Education, Ed.D., Education, Ph.D., and Educational Leadership, Ed.D. Data Collection and Analysis: A 131-item electronic survey to assess student motivation and subjective well-being was distributed to all 142 enrolled first-year and second-year doctoral students, of which 28.2% responded (n = 40). Cumulative motivation and separate subjective well-being scores were calculated for each participant, and MannWhitney tests were performed to compare the distribution of student scores within each group (Ed.D. and Ph.D., part-time enrolled and full-time, and first-year and second-year). Findings: No statistically significant differences were found in motivation and subjective well-being among the three groups of students. However, some findings on measures of motivation did approach statistical significance between Ed.D. and Ph.D. students. iv Conclusions: These findings may demonstrate that relative well-being and similar levels of intrinsic motivation exist among several groups of doctoral students. Recommendations for future research include an increase in the sample size by expanding the study to multiple institutions offering doctoral programs in education, as well as a modification of the instruments from ordinal scales to Likert-type instruments
Notes
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Graduation Date
2013
Semester
Spring
Advisor
Boote, David
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
College
College of Education and Human Performance
Department
Teaching, Learning, and Leadership
Degree Program
Applied Learning and Instruction
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0004714
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004714
Language
English
Release Date
May 2013
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Masters Thesis (Open Access)
Subjects
Dissertations, Academic -- Education, Education -- Dissertations, Academic
STARS Citation
McAfee, Morgan, "Differential Impacts Of Doctoral Education On Ed.D. And Ph.D. Students: Examining Student Motivation And Subjective Well-being During The First Two Years Of Doctoral Study" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2557.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/2557