The effects of personal and educational variables on repeat attendance at a college tutorial center
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a set of personal and educational variables could differentiate college students who attended a college tutoring center once versus more than once. The personal variables were need for achievement, need for affiliation, and self-efficacy. The educational variables were perceived caring in the tutoring center, perceived caring in the tutor/tutee relationship, and transfer of learning. Subjects for this study were college students who elected to attend a college tutoring center. Of the 188 students who attended the center, 120 returned and 68 did not return. Ninety percent (N = 169) of the 188 returned the data and comprised the sample. Need for achievement and need for affiliation were measured on two scores from the PRFE, a 32-item, forced-choice true-false instrument. Perceived caring in the tutor/tutee relationship and perceived caring in the tutorial center were measured by two Likert-type subscales, five items and eight items, respectively, on the Tutoring Center Instrument I: The Academic and Social Integration Inventory (ASII). Perceived transfer of learning was measured by a 5-item, researcher designed, Likert-type subscale on the ASII. Self-efficacy was measured by the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ), a 6-item, Likert-type scale. The independent variables were the summed scores of the items on the six scales mentioned above. Thus each subject obtained a score based on the ASII, APQ, and PRF-E. The Wilks' Lambda Test of Equality of Centroids indicated that the independent variables did, in fact, separate the two groups of students. The results of the discriminant analysis revealed a discriminant function with three of the variables having a high correlation with this function: perceived transfer of learning, perceived caring in the tutoring center, and perceived caring in the tutor/tutee relationship. The total discriminatory effectiveness of the variables was 12%. Classification was performed in which subjects were assigned to the group that returned or the group that did not return to the tutoring center. Overall, 65.68% of the cases were classified correctly. Research implications of this study and recommendations for college administrators were included.
Subject Area
Adult education|Continuing education|Community colleges
Recommended Citation
Kaiden, Ellen Beth, "The effects of personal and educational variables on repeat attendance at a college tutorial center" (1993). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9328414.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9328414
