A Quantitative Study of Graduate Students' Enculturation Using a Disposition Scale

Abstract

This study evaluates graduate students' enculturation in graduate schools using a dispositional scale. Earlier studies reveal the intersection among learning taxonomy, disposition, and enculturation; however, instruments for evaluating students' enculturation appear to be lacking, creating an assessment gap. Therefore, this study focuses on three learning domains: knowledge, skills, and attitude through which students' enculturation can be assessed. Using a quantitative approach, Minitab Statistical Software 22 was used for data analysis to address three research questions that guided this study, which included four groups of students in social science graduate programs across the Midwest, based on a 4-point scale, representing Phases 1–4. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were employed. Results revealed that Year 1 students' ratings did not align with their milestones, compared with those of Year 3 and Year 4 students in procedural and metacognitive dimensions. Further, the two-sample t-test was used to compare student and faculty ratings, and the results were not statistically significant in six of seven categories. Accordingly, the test subjects' ratings were closely aligned, except in ownership, with a p-value of 0.019, which is < alpha of 0.05. However, only Year 3 students were included in the initial test. Finally, when examining the relationships among the categories tested across all four groups using Pearson's correlation, results revealed high to moderate positive correlations for Year 1 in the following areas: motivation and professionalism, ownership and motivation, professionalism and norms, and motivation and scholarship. Year 2 yielded positive correlations among ownership and norms, ownership and communication, ownership and persistence, persistence and professionalism, persistence and motivation, ownership and professionalism, and persistence and norms. For Year 3, communication and norms, ownership and norms, and motivation and professionalism were positively correlated. Among the Year 4 group, high to moderate correlations occurred between scholarship and norms, professionalism and norms, motivation and norms, persistence and norms, ownership and norms, professionalism and scholarship, persistence and scholarship, ownership and scholarship, and persistence and motivation.