Exploring Graduate Student Success: Motivation and Belonging

832 Words2 Pages

• An introduction of Strayhorn (2012)
Article Sense of belonging and graduate students written by Strayhorn in 2012 revealed the research over academic success has a focus on undergrad students, there motivations for participation in classes, or getting good grades in college. Very little research has been done about the academic histories, motivations, and experiences of masters, doctoral, and first-professional degrees, hereafter referred to as graduate students (p. 90). Such a reason Strayhorn finds motivating to write this article. Author also focuses on another key term in this paper which is a sense of belonging and graduate student. Much less is known about the underlying causal mechanism and ways in which sense of belonging plays out …show more content…

To establish this key concept writer included the findings of survey of graduate students who felt they belonged reported have felt safe, comfortable and respected during their interaction with peers and faculty. (p.100) to further support his argument of sense of belonging, writer introduces various scholarly sources; a shared sense of socially constructed meaning that provides a sense of security or relatedness. To be accepted by others, valued, and respected as competent, qualified individuals worthy of membership in a defined group or particular social context. (Maslow, 1962) Also, the author of this paper used other sources to explain this concept using Poock (1999), Burgess (1997), and LaPidus …show more content…

He further elaborates by mentioning “insider” and bona-fide member of group to which they belong as a student; subjective sense of membership. One of the vital findings mentioned in this article is; sense of belonging has roots in socialization of a student with its society and influences success of a graduate student ergo to ensure the academic success and develop the sense of achievement in graduate students, the scholars, administrators, and graduate students should foster graduate students’ socialization and sense of belonging in graduate school. He used several sources to highlight the relation both a sense of belonging and socialization using Bragg (1976) and Strayhorn (in press b).

•An analysis of a language pattern (look in the assignment directions on Blackboard for which pattern to analyze) that includes
Strayhorn mentions various examples of socialization in order to establish a refrence with the concept of socialization and help understanding the concept. On page 96, he mentioned socialization matters to use many examples that could be happened in actual situations.
-Involvement in socializing activities
-Social gatherings among peers and staff
The fascinating point for me was the writer seemed interested to be helpful for their readers understand the concept by the use of examples of

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