Navigating education and career paths presents young people with many choices and challenges. Underserved youth are particularly vulnerable to the challenges that can interfere with navigating their paths effectively. At the same time, young people equipped with the knowledge and skills to overcome obstacles are able to succeed and realize the…

This dissertation presents multiple studies with the purpose of understanding the connections between undergraduate engineering students' motivations, specifically students' Future Time Perspectives (FTPs) and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). FTP refers to the views students hold about the future and how their perceptions of current tasks are…

Through presenting empirical research exploring the connections between popular culture and informal learning, we argue that, as predicted by concepts such as self-directed learning and transformational learning, the experience of transition has a meaningful impact on adult learning. Specifically, transitions encourage adults to engage in learning…

This dissertation examines the strategies that students use for navigating their way through college and the steps they take in preparation for college graduation. I wrote this dissertation because I wanted to understand how students go from being freshmen not long out of high school to young adults prepared (or not prepared) to enter the…

In the United States, there is a national agenda to increase the number of qualified science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) professionals and a movement to promote science literacy among the general public. This project explores the association between formal human evolutionary biology education (HEB) and high school science class…

This paper explores the reasons underlying access students' decisions on their study programmes as they progress through their extended science degree, including the role of career aspirations in these decisions. Data from semi-structured interviews with 20 third year undergraduates show two groups according to their decision criteria.…

Scope and Method of Study: The overall purpose of the study was to describe the perceptions regarding how AAYAF over 16 years of age plan and make career decisions. The study participants included ten AAYAF over 16 years of age. The young women were interviewed fact-to-face using a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire was…

As colleges and universities become increasingly aware of students' need for assistance in career planning, conventional "placement" programs have been pressed into service to provide such assistance. One of the main problems expressed by placement and counseling center directors in this regard is that students fail to seek help in career planning…