Dissertation
A mixed-methods utility value intervention to motivate health science students through the generation of career relatedness to biology
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Drexel University
28 Sep 2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000577
Abstract
As higher education prerequisites, service biology courses provide a foundation of biological knowledge for students to build their major-specific expertise. At technical and community colleges, service biology courses often support health science majors. Studies suggest that health science students enrolled in these courses often lack the motivation to learn biology when personal relevance or career relatedness is not recognized for biology course material. Despite research indicating the importance of students experiencing career relatedness to increase motivation and achievement, the literature fails to provide recommendations for how service biology instructors can raise students' utility value and motivation for learning biology in mixed major course sections. Further compounding the problem, biology instructors are typically scientists who may lack the clinical healthcare experience necessary to explicitly connect biology to the different health science career trajectories present in service biology courses. Utility-Value Interventions (UVI) are activities designed to enhance students' abilities to understand how biology relates to their future career goals and can be used by instructors in mixed majors courses to increase students' utility value. When instructors use UVIs, they can help students understand the value of learning biology to support their future career goals increasing their utility value and achievement in the course. Three streams of literature informed the construction of a UVI for this research. The streams included the perceptions and motivation of health science students in service biology courses, the theories supporting cognitive learning, and evidence-based practices linking learning and motivation for service biology courses. The findings of this study aim to help improve students' motivation in mixed major service biology courses. The results showed that students engaging in reflective utility value essays following the conclusion of each learning unit have higher overall motivation and utility value for learning biology than students that do not engage in reflective writing practices. This research adds to the literature by recommending that utility value reflective essays should be administered following each learning unit to maintain students' motivation, obtain higher motivation than Standard Instructional Practice alone, and recover lost motivation following the midterm decline in motivation. The study also indicated students' motivation is impacted regardless of the grade received on the reflective utility value essay, if the reflective essay is relevant and thoughtfully constructed.
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Details
- Title
- A mixed-methods utility value intervention to motivate health science students through the generation of career relatedness to biology
- Creators
- Tammy A. Miller
- Contributors
- Jason Silverman (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- ix, 194 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education (1997-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991015606366504721