Academic Majors Research Articles

A Factor-Analytic Investigation of Students' Perceptions Regarding Purpose, Choice of Major, and Future Work

Students make choices about academic majors based on a limited number of factors and with little apparent consideration of what may be meaningful or purposeful to them. This study examines the perceptions of college students across disciplines regarding their choice of majors and future work. Of particular interest is the manner in which college students’ perceptions may vary as a consequence of their areas of study. Results suggest that there are distinct differences across disciplines with regard to those factors that influence students and their perceptions of future work.

Analyzing the Factors Relevant to Students' Estimations of the Benefits and Costs of Pursuing an Accounting Career

Business students were surveyed at a large university in the south-eastern USA to assess their perceptions of the benefits and costs of becoming an accounting practitioner. The current paper examines the extent to which these perceptions are related to whether students took accounting in secondary school and, if they had such exposure, the quality of their experience. Then, we examine whether perceptions differ at relatively early and late stages of a student's academic progress. Finally, we examine these benefit and cost perceptions in relation to the quality of students' experiences in the first university accounting course. The results indicate that experience in the first university accounting course is differentially associated with benefits and cost perceptions, and the nature of the association depends upon whether students took accounting in secondary school. Perceptions also differ between students at early and late stages of their respective academic programs, and accounting vs. non-accounting majors.

Thematic Evolutionary Analysis of Core Agricultural and Natural Resource Academic Journals in Iran

ABSTRACT For a core journal to be developed, fruitful research articles, diversity, and continuity of research topics are essential. The main goal of this study was to trace the thematic evolution (historical development) of agricultural and natural resource academic journals (ANAJs) published by public academic institutions in Iran. To this end, the study analyzed 2,961 articles published from 1905–2003 in all publicly-funded ANAJs in all contributing agricultural and natural resource academic majors (subfields), examining the scientific domain, research subject, research method, citations, impacts, and the aggregation level of journals on academic majors and academic majors on journals. Less than 5% of the articles were qualitative and cited theoretical frameworks. Over 95% were quantitative articles as their publications progressed. Thematically, agronomy and plant breeding, with 31.68%, had the highest aggregation level among academic majors; whereas, agricultural extension and education, with 2.08%, had the lowest.

Institutional Profiles of CAATE Accredited Entry-Level Athletic Training Education Programs in the United States

Context: Educational reform has recently become common thread in athletic training education. The National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) Education Task force suggests that Athletic Training Education Programs (ATEPs) align within colleges of health-related professions and offer academic majors. Objective: To provide a current profile of ATEP programs including departmental nomenclature, school/college affiliation, institutional classification, degree attainment, and identify ATEPs offering an athletic training major. Design: Descriptive study Setting: Internet search of ATEP websites Subjects: 357 CAATE accredited ATEPs (341 entry-level undergraduate; 16 entry-level graduate) Measurements: Frequencies and percentages were calculated for all ATEPs based on Carnegie Institutional Classification, school/college affiliation, departmental nomenclature, degree granted and whether ATEPs offered an athletic training major. Results: Twenty-nine percent of Carnegie classified ATEPs were offered at ‘Master's Large’ institutions. Twenty-four percent of ATEPs were located in Colleges of Education and 25% in Colleges of Health Sciences. Twenty-two percent of ATEPs were located in Departments of Physical Education, followed by 18% in Athletic Training/Sports Medicine, and 16% in Kinesiology. Almost 80% of ATEPs currently offer an athletic training major, with most degrees granted as a Bachelor's of Science. Conclusions: ATEPs are adapting to new accreditation standards and suggested educational reform. Although some ATEPs are aligning with colleges of health-related professions or have evolved into their own departmental entities, the majority remains within departments of physical education or affiliated disciplines. At this point in time, it is unclear if these realignments are a direct result of the NATA's recommendations.

Self Reported Perceptions of Physical Demands on Athletic Training Students

Context: According to the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) Standards for the Accreditation of Entry-Level Athletic Training Education Programs, athletic training students (ATSs) must complete clinical experiences that provide opportunities to integrate cognitive function, psychomotor skills, and affective competence as a part of their coursework. 1 These experiences expose students to the physical demands of the profession, and it is these activities that differentiate the demands of athletic training from other academic majors. Objectives: To assess the self-reported perceptions of ATSs regarding the physical demands of their chosen major and their participation in sport and non-sport leisure activities. Design: Descriptive research design. Setting: Nine undergraduate Athletic Training Education Programs within the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) District 10. Subjects: 112 undergraduate athletic training students enrolled in Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) accredited programs during the 2005–2006 academic year. Main outcome measures: Respondents completed a modified form of the Baecke Questionnaire of Habitual Physical Activity2 which subjectively measured the student's reported 1) school related activity; 2) participation in sport activity and 3) participation in non-sport leisure activity. Results: The index for “school related activity” indicated that athletic training students perceived their chosen major as physically demanding. However, the indices for participation in sport and non-sport leisure activity were relatively low. Conclusions: In spite of the physical requirements of the athletic training curriculum, athletic training student's relatively low rate of participation in sport and non-sport leisure time activity may have future health implications.

Preservice teachers' metaphors of teaching in relation to literacy beliefs

Metaphors are the constructs under which people organize their thinking and from which they plan their actions, including their teaching and work with students. One area of study that has not been investigated is the relationship between preservice teachers' metaphors of teaching across differing academic majors and their content area beliefs. The purpose of this study was to examine preservice elementary and secondary English and foreign language teachers' metaphors and relate their metaphorical images to conceptions of literacy. Specifically, 66 participants completed a questionnaire that solicited their sense of teaching. We employed a type‐case model to analyze the metaphors. Results indicated that the preservice teachers' beliefs could be categorized into nine themes including nurturing and guiding. An association was found between four metaphors and literacy beliefs. We believe the metaphor will continue to be a powerful conceptual means and future research should solicit preservice teachers' metaphors of literacy. Teacher educators may benefit by comparing preservice teachers' metaphors with the program's conceptual framework.

The Nature of Undergraduate Nonprofit Education: Models of Curriculum Delivery

This research revisits, updates, and expands the research on undergraduate education from the 1996 Berkeley Conference as reported in O'Neill and Fletcher's edited book titled Nonprofit Management Education: U.S. and World Perspectives. First, the nature and types of undergraduate programs in the United States are examined from a national database developed by Mirabella that answers these questions: How many colleges and universities offer undergraduate nonprofit studies? What colleges and departments offer these? Do they award degrees or certificates? What types of courses are offered? Where do their graduates get jobs? Then, four curricular models used by American Humanics (AH) campuses for nonprofit education are examined: certificate programs, academic minors, academic majors, and programs combining the previous three. The relationships of AH programs to higher education trends are identified and undergraduate nonprofit education programs beyond AH are examined.

Assessing College Students' Satisfaction With Their Academic Majors

A six-item measure of global satisfaction with one's major, the Academic Major Satisfaction Scale (AMSS), was developed and validated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a unidimensional structure. The measure had high internal consistency and distinguished between students who remained in their majors versus those who changed majors during 1- and 2-year periods. AMSS scores were positively associated with career decision self-efficacy and negatively associated with career choice anxiety and generalized indecisiveness. AMSS scores were also associated with indices of socially desirable responding, but social desirability did not account for the relationships between major satisfaction and the career decision-making variables. Implications for theory and ideas for using the AMSS in research and practice are presented.

Student response to tuition increase by academic majors: empirical grounds for a cost-related tuition policy

This study explored the responses of students in different academic majors to tuition increase, with a particular focus on the relationship between tuition increase, and future earnings and college expenditures. We analyzed effects of tuition increase on enrollment in six academic majors—Engineering, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Business, and Education—where disciplinary enrollment data were available. The main findings are that students are elastic to tuition level in Physics, Biology, and Business, but not in Engineering, where the rate of return is the highest among the six majors and the college expenditure are the highest. The findings suggest that student enrollment in various academic majors is affected differentially by tuition. Further, the findings support a cost-related tuition policy, one designed to charge students higher tuition for higher-cost majors and lower tuition for lower-cost majors.

Relatedness between jobs and academic majors: its relationship to academic involvement of college students

The study considered 10,072 third-year college students in Taiwan who had paid jobs while studying and found that students who worked in jobs related to their academic majors scored significantly higher on the academic involvement scale than students working in unrelated jobs. In addition, the effect of relatedness between jobs and majors did not interact significantly with either the effect of working on/off campus or the effect of working part-time/full-time.

Students’ Perceptions of Characteristics of Effective College Teachers: A Validity Study of a Teaching Evaluation Form Using a Mixed-Methods Analysis

This study used a multistage mixed-methods analysis to assess the content-related validity (i.e., item validity, sampling validity) and construct-related validity (i.e., substantive validity, structural validity, outcome validity, generalizability) of a teaching evaluation form (TEF) by examining students’ perceptions of characteristics of effective college teachers. Participants were 912 undergraduate and graduate students (10.7% of student body) from various academic majors enrolled at a public university. A sequential mixed-methods analysis led to the development of the CARE-RESPECTED Model of Teaching Evaluation, which represented characteristics that students considered to reflect effective college teaching—comprising four meta-themes (c ommunicator, a dvocate, r esponsible, e mpowering) and nine themes (r esponsive, e nthusiast, s tudent centered, p rofessional, e xpert, c onnector, t ransmitter, e thical, and d irector). Three of the most prevalent themes were not represented by any of the TEF items; also, endorsement of most themes varied by student attribute (e.g., gender, age), calling into question the content- and construct-related validity of the TEF scores.

Geography Undergraduate Program Management

Vision and mission statements are the foundations for the types of undergraduate degrees departments confer as well as other types academic programs such as pre-major, certificate, and distance education curricula. Critical to each department should be careful administration of course selections and offerings and management of academic majors, minors, and class enrollments. The key concepts in these processes are detailed planning and conscientious implementation. Ideally, this paper's integrated conceptual model showing administrative relationships within undergraduate programs that link degree types, courses, and enrollments, will become a synoptic guide for departments and nurture a national dialogue about geography undergraduate programs.

Moral Developmental Consistency? Investigating Differences and Relationships Among Academic Majors

Previous study has asserted that education majors score lower on assessments of moral development than do other majors. However, important factors associated with moral development have been overlooked. This study investigated the degree to which moral developmental differences exist by accounting for some of the oversights observed in previous study. Samples of 51, 38, and 62 college students in education, psychology, and other majors were addressed in terms of their moral judgment development, moral sensitivity, nonprejudice, and attitudes about human rights and civil liberties. Although some minor trends are seen in favor of psychology majors, results support that moral developmental differences are not as dire as previous study portends. The authors recommend efforts to account for the individual, academic, and extracurricular experiences associated with majors and universities so that continued understanding of the moral development and functioning of their students can occur.

The Second-Year Experience: Turning Attention to the Academy's Middle Children

Sophomores are the quiet ones, finishing avoided general education courses, changing their academic majors and residences, and worrying about finances. Jimmie Gahagan and Stuart Hunter describe new efforts to bring these students out of the shadows and help them succeed.

Social Dominance Orientation, Gender, and Increasing Educational Exposure1

Using a large panel sample of undergraduates, we measured the social dominance orientation (SDO) scores of men and women once a year across a 4½‐year period. Employing repeated‐measures ANOVAs, we found that, even after controlling for the character of students' academic majors (hierarchy enhancing or hierarchy attenuating), males showed significantly higher SDO scores than did females across the entire college career. The data are discussed in terms of the invariance hypothesis within social dominance theory.

Students' beliefs, attitudes and intentions to major in accounting

This study extends the literature that uses the theory of planned behaviour in examining the factors that impact on students' intentions to major in accounting and non-accounting disciplines. A survey of a sample of business students enrolled in an introductory accounting course in a New Zealand University was conducted to gather data about their intended academic majors, and their beliefs and attitudes towards majoring in accounting and non-accounting. The results show that three factors (personal, referents, and control) are determinants of students' intention to major in accounting or other business disciplines. Further analysis revealed that the students' major intentions are influenced by important referents' perceptions. In particular, parents appear to have a stronger influence on students' intentions to major in accounting. Comparisons of differential personal perceptions by accounting and non-accounting majors revealed that accounting majors hold positive perceptions of some of the qualities of the study of accounting and the accounting profession. Significant differences were also found in the control perception between accounting and non-accounting major students.

Community Colleges: Vital Partners on the Road to Diversity

Community Colleges: Vital Partners on the Road to Diversity

Students’ Personality Types, Intended Majors, and College Expectations: Further Evidence Concerning Psychological and Sociological Interpretations of Holland’s Theory

Because it focuses on the interactions between students and their environments, Holland’s theory of vocational choice provides a powerful framework for studying college experiences. The present study assessed the relative merits of psychological and sociological interpretations of Holland’s theory by examining the relationships among students’ expectations about college, their personality types, and their intended academic majors. Results indicated that both the psychological and sociological aspects of Holland’s theory aid in understanding students’ college expectations.

Rethinking Cooling Out at Public Community Colleges: An Examination of Fiscal and Demographic Trends in Higher Education and the Rise of Statewide Articulation Agreements

Recent data indicate that a large proportion of students entering community colleges are identifying terminal certificate or occupational associate degrees instead of academic majors or transfer as their short-term goal. Despite this, throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, states established articulation agreements as policy instruments to enhance the transfer of students from public 2-year institutions to 4-year institutions. This conundrum raises an interesting two-part question: In the absence of a significant increase in the demand for transfer by community colleges entrants, why have states enacted these agreements, and what potential impacts may arise from these legislative trends? Applying the state relative autonomy theory, we contend that the rise of articulation agreements constitutes a new state strategy to cope with the stagnation of higher education appropriations, the spiraling costs of tuition, and an excess demand for affordable higher education.

Rethinking Cooling Out at Public Community Colleges: An Examination of Fiscal and Demographic Trends in Higher Education and the Rise of Statewide Articulation Agreements

Recent data indicate that a large proportion of students entering community colleges are identifying terminal certificate or occupational associate degrees instead of academic majors or transfer as their short-term goal. Despite this, throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, states established articulation agreements as policy instruments to enhance the transfer of students from public 2-year institutions to 4-year institutions. This conundrum raises an interesting two-part question: In the absence of a significant increase in the demand for transfer by community colleges entrants, why have states enacted these agreements, and what potential impacts may arise from these legislative trends? Applying the state relative autonomy theory, we contend that the rise of articulation agreements constitutes a new state strategy to cope with the stagnation of higher education appropriations, the spiraling costs of tuition, and an excess demand for affordable higher education.