A growing body of literature points to the importance of political ideology in the deployment of motivated reasoning, in the formation of packages of policy stances, and in the polarization of groups. However, little research exists on how ideology impacts college students and their experiences in higher education. This study extends the…

The topic of this study was student motivation and intention to graduate at a for-profit university. The research problem addressed is only 23% of bachelor's degree-seeking students at for-profit universities persist to graduate within six years. Students who leave without graduating incur more debt and earn less money over time. Grounded in an…

Data in the United States shows that perceptions of student well-being are low, childhood mental health disorders are rising, and performance on high-stakes tests in reading is stagnant across the early grades. Substantial effort, time, and money have been invested in school improvement policies, high-stakes school climates, and literacy…

Recent research reveals consistent lags in American students' science achievement scores. Not only are the scores lower in the United States compared to other developed nations, but even within the United States, too many students are well below science proficiency scores for their grade levels. The current research addresses this problem by…

This literature review looks at recent research into job burnout and self-efficacy, with an emphasis into the teaching profession. The Maslach Burnout Inventory has been the standard instrument for almost all burnout research. MBI's three subscales include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Research shows…

In the school achievement and motivation literature of African American students, one major theme of the literature is a supposed inconsistency or discrepancy in African American students' value and expectations for their academic achievement and their actual levels of achievement. The discrepancy between Black students' achievement ideologies and…

In this dissertation, I aim to clarify the factors affecting a consumers' choice between the Internet and a financial planner for making saving and investment decisions, based on household production theory. Moreover, I explore the likelihood of an individual being an Internet user (vs. a non-user), a financial planner user (vs. a non-user),…

Explanatory style, the ways in which people explain both good and bad events (Seligman, 1998), shares theoretical components with teachers' sense of efficacy (Tshannon-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001), which is how capable teachers feel about teaching. According to Bandura (1994), efficacy informs explanatory style, but this assertion does not…

In the early years of online retailing, having an online presence and low prices were believed to be key drivers of success. More recently, electronic service quality has become essential as an online marketing strategy. Online stores provide higher service quality to create online customer loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, and keep a…

With declining state support, increased financial need on the part of the fastest growing demographic sections of the population, and public policy that discourages major increases in tuition for public higher education, the only logical source of additional finances for public colleges and universities is increased private funding through…

The present study employed a functional approach to assess the motivations of tutors volunteering at a non-profit tutoring program. Based on the work of Clary et al. (1998), the "Volunteer Functions Inventory" (VFI) was used to differentiate between six different functions or motivations; values, understanding, social, career, protective and…