Dropping a college course: Factors influencing students' withdrawal decisions

An open-ended survey was used to construct questionnaires for assessing student, instructor, course, and situational variables thought to be relevant to course withdrawal. A total of 204 university students who had dropped one or more courses provided usable responses to questions about courses they...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational psychology 1981-06, Vol.73 (3), p.376-385
Main Author: Reed, Jeffrey G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College Academic Achievement
College Students
College Teachers
Course Evaluation
Educational Counseling
Human
Motivation
Satisfaction
School Attendance
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Summary:An open-ended survey was used to construct questionnaires for assessing student, instructor, course, and situational variables thought to be relevant to course withdrawal. A total of 204 university students who had dropped one or more courses provided usable responses to questions about courses they dropped and courses they continued. Factor analyses yielded 8 dimensions that were congruent for 2 subsamples. Discriminant analyses identified 3 dimensions that provided differentiation between dropped and continued courses. Those 3 factors were Satisfaction with Student Performance, Motivation, and Impressions of Instructor. The probability of a student's persisting in a course was viewed as a function of confidence that he or she could handle the course material, perceptions of the relevance of the course to his or her needs, and impression of how likable and helpful the instructor was. Implications for advisors and instructors and the relationship of withdrawal to course selection are discussed. (19 ref)
ISSN:0022-0663
1939-2176
DOI:10.1037/0022-0663.73.3.376