Q

Assignment is all about important aspects of comparisonbetween Non Traditional StudentsVSTraditional Students Motivation

Home, - Non Traditional Students VS Traditional Students Motivation

What is a non-traditional student? According to Marcus Lee Johnson and Jessica L. Kestler (2013) a non-traditional student is usually over the age of twenty - four years old. Chung (2017) agrees that non-traditional students come from a very diverse background with very different circumstances. With that being said  Hoyert and Odell (2014) stated that more nontraditional students are going back to college to complete their degree and that number will double in the next couple of years. Nontraditional students may also lack the support from their spouses or family members which may make it very challenging for them to pursue college without emotional support. According to Xuereb (2014) most of the time they have children and they also may have full time jobs so they can take care of their responsibilities.

Although they may have several challenges that may  prevent them from completing their academic goals, they seem to persevere in their desires to accomplish their goals (Johnson &Kestler, 2013). The question is what make a person intrinsically motivated to complete a personal goal.

Lee and Johnson stated when one thinks of a non-traditional student trying to enter school at a later stage in life one has to understand that there might be many obstacles  that may work against them in their endeavors (2017). Due to the many responsibilities of the non-traditional students they may have less time to actually study (Martin, Galentino, & Townsend, 2014). Most times if they do not have difficulty with their studies they may not be able to utilize the many benefits that the colleges have to offer like tutoring. In order for us to determine if the non-traditional students are more motivated than the traditional students we looked at two approaches. First we measure the students achievement goals; According to Johnson and Jessica L Kessler achievement goals have two subdivisions (2013).

The first one is Mastery goals and that is best described as a “master new knowledge or master new skills”(2013).  Mastery goals are the most beneficial because they have the most long-term benefits and are associated with higher levels of academic achievement.   When a non-traditional students set their mind to completing  their degree they may feel that it is very important and it will yield them something positive in the end. Besides that one of the main reasons why people go back to school is to reap the financial benefits of earning their degree (Tumuheki, Zeelen, &Openjuru, 2016). Agrees that many times it is not just the financial gain that motivates a student but it is also the acknowledgement from their peers and the feeling of satisfaction are completing their degree.

 The second division that was performance goals and they are best described as “a desire to demonstrate high ability and make a great impression”. For examples most nontraditional students are going to try to well in school and prove that they have the ability to do well.

Kestler and Johnson stated that this seem to be the weaker of the two due to the fact that it has shallow learning process and strategies which lower a student's achievement (2013). 

Non-traditional students  may also have an more experience in this field for example, when they go to their employment they have to exhibit that they are qualified to do their job adequately daily and by demonstrating that their competency skills on a daily basis they are able to keep their jobs and help them with their obligations. 

After reading several articles I understand that there needs to be more research done on this topic due to the total lack of full understanding of non-traditional needs. Mandy J. Brimble (2015) stated that colleges need to implement more pilot programs to aid in the efforts of helping non-traditional students succeed in college. Brimble (2015) agrees that more research needs to be done in attempts to adequately assist students with their specific needs as well.

  Once the colleges  truly understand the obstacles that non-traditional face they can serve them on a much better scale. Nontraditional students may have an advantage over their non-traditional students because of their life circumstances. The hypothesis is  that non-traditional students are more intrinsically motivated to finish  their degree than their traditional counterparts.


Leave a comment


       
Captcha

Related :-