Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Sanders, Megan
Language:	English
Published:	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2016
Subjects:	Educational Psychology Educational Tests and Measurements Relevance educational psychology motivation instrument development
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1466416573

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spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu14664165732021-08-16T05:10:40Z Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education Sanders, Megan Educational Psychology Educational Tests and Measurements Relevance educational psychology motivation instrument development Within both K-12 and higher education contexts, there is increasing debate about the relevance of education (Belkin, 2014; Weston, 2015). "Making content relevant" is framed in K-12 as a solution to the decrease in engagement as students enter early adolescence (Anderman & Maehr, 1994) and in higher education as a necessary response to the increasing cost of college combined with graduates' decreasing skillsets (Arum & Roska, 2011). However, educational practices at both levels seem grounded in different conceptions of relevance. These different implicit definitions of relevance are problematic because they sometimes conflict. Furthermore, most of these definitions are not grounded in students' lived experiences in courses that feel relevant, a disconnect that limits their applicability. Finally, there are no existing survey measures that can be used to empirically examine which educational practices are more or less effective at facilitating experiences of relevance. Existing measures do not map onto an appropriate definition of relevance or have not been rigorously developed and validated. Thus, a shared definition of relevance that is grounded in students' lived experiences and reflected in a rigorously-developed measure is necessary to begin addressing the concern about the relevance of education. This dissertation provides preliminary versions of this definition and a corresponding measure. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the problem. Then, Chapter 2 reviews the educational psychology literature and argues for appreciation (Brophy, 1999, 2008a, 2008b) as the most appropriate conceptualization of relevance. To help substantiate this definition, Chapter 3 presents interviews with college students about their experiences in courses that felt relevant to their lives outside of school, analyzed using a grounded theory approach (Charmaz & Belgrave, 2013; Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Finally, Chapter 4 presents a preliminary measure of appreciation, developed from the lived experiences of students explored in Chapter 3 and refined using parallel analysis, factor analysis, and Rasch analysis. Chapter 5 synthesizes the findings of the three central chapters.Taken together, the results of the dissertation suggest that appreciation (Brophy, 1999, 2008a, 2008b) is an appropriate conceptualization of relevance. Examining students' lived experience of appreciation suggests that it can be understood in terms of three dimensions: a cognitive dimension, a behavioral dimension, and an affective dimension. Finally, exploring the psychometric properties of the preliminary measure of appreciation suggests that it is reliable and valid, but nonetheless could be further refined. Taken together, the results provide a starting point for examining what makes education relevant. 2016-11-03 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1466416573 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1466416573 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	Educational Psychology Educational Tests and Measurements Relevance educational psychology motivation instrument development
spellingShingle	Educational Psychology Educational Tests and Measurements Relevance educational psychology motivation instrument development Sanders, Megan Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education
author	Sanders, Megan
author_facet	Sanders, Megan
author_sort	Sanders, Megan
title	Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education
title_short	Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education
title_full	Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education
title_fullStr	Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education
title_full_unstemmed	Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education
title_sort	defining, exploring, and measuring relevance in education
publisher	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate	2016
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1466416573
work_keys_str_mv	AT sandersmegan definingexploringandmeasuringrelevanceineducation
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Defining, Exploring, and Measuring Relevance in Education

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