Programming is a major subject in various Information Systems (IS) programs, with students often finding it a challenging skill to acquire. While there is extensive literature on factors helping students learn to program, most of which focuses on non-IS students. Due to the increasing demand for professionals with programming skills, there is a…

Aim: Literature suggests that young people living in low-income households are likely to have lower aspirations than their peers. Facilitating aspirations has been suggested as a possible means of preventing intergenerational cycles of low attainment and subsequent disadvantage. This research explored how a group of young people from low-income…

Purpose: Entrepreneurial identity aspiration refers to the desire to occupy an entrepreneurial role in the future and is an essential impetus for initially engaging in entrepreneurial activities. Building on identity theory, the article investigates the effects of personal attitudes, experiences and inclination towards specific practices on the…

Although Malaysia is moving towards a universal system of higher education, the issue of participation and access is complex. Related research has tended to focus mainly on socio-demographic aspects and less on the personal and social variables preventing people from participating. The study presented here was an attempt to learn more about the…

Many countries desire more students to study science subjects, although relatively few students decide to study non-compulsory physics at upper-secondary school and at university. To gain insight into students' intentions to study non-compulsory physics, a longitudinal sample (covering 2258 students across 88 secondary schools in England) was…

This study extends the classic constructive dialogue/debate between self-concept and self-efficacy researchers (Marsh, Roche, Pajares, & Miller, 1997) regarding the distinctions between these 2 constructs. The study is a substantive-methodological synergy, bringing together new substantive, theoretical, and statistical models and developing…

A new survey for measuring students' astronomy and science attitudes that has been validated for use with high school students (with a future intent to expand to middle school and university) is presented. We initially present a short review of instruments in the literature that attempt to measure attitudes in astronomy together with the…

There is a gap in research on access to universities in South Africa. The research that exists focuses on quantitative methodologies, although some qualitative studies are now emerging. These research methodologies, although necessary and substantial for the development of equity measures and policies, might be less successful in their impact on…

Contrary to the rhetoric around a post-racial United States, Black male students are not experiencing equitable outcomes in higher education. Community colleges are a critical access point to higher education for Black males; however, they are not graduating, transferring, or entering the workforce at an acceptable pace. The purpose of this…

Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010), our study aims to understand how community college transfer students' STEM degree attainment behavior is shaped by their beliefs, intentions, contextual factors and social-demographic characteristics. This study drew upon data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002…

The aim of this paper is three-fold. First, we review and briefly synthesise the main points of the recent debate around the concept of 'attitudes to mathematics'. We then present the measurement methodology we employed to capture 'attitudes to mathematics' in the context of a large scale U project with secondary school students, and how these…

Though much research has been conducted about the factors that contribute to overall college student success, little research has been conducted which ties self-efficacy, career focus, and a critical third variable, sense of life calling or purpose to race or ethnicity and the relationship of college classification to this topic. Specifically, the…

Surveys of 371 European American, African American, Mexican American, Vietnamese American, and Armenian American adolescents in ethnically diverse high schools in Los Angeles found that most adolescents set high goals for the future and expected to reach them. Compared to European American adolescents, minority group adolescents attributed…

Female Mexican American high school students attended presentations by Hispanic female role models in business, academic, and professional careers. Although student questionnaires suggested high levels of career and educational aspirations and self-efficacy, focus-group comments indicated external locus of control and feelings of isolation and…

This paper summarizes results of a survey examining educational attitudes, lifestyle, and aspirations of Hispanic students in south Texas. Many students live in impoverished, rural, unincorporated subdivisions called "colonias" that are growing around Laredo, Texas, and other border cities. An introduction to the Texas/Mexico border…