An examination of volitional strategy use by students who withdraw from community college mathematics classes

Withdrawal from mathematics classes has become a major problem in community colleges (NEMATYC, 2000). A consistent pattern of course withdrawal may be just as damaging to successful degree or certificate completion as other factors (Lucas & Meltesen, 1992; Swager & others, 1995). While the issues related to attrition and withdrawal have been studied, little research has been devoted to the examination of why students withdraw from individual classes (Dunwoody & Frank, 1995). Much of the cogent research has concentrated on students who withdraw because they are failing mathematics, or because of personal reasons such as finances, family, or jobs. But there is another, largely unexamined group of students who are passing mathematics classes credibly, yet fail to maintain their motivation to complete the course.;This study has examined the role that volition, a component of self-regulated learning, plays in retaining motivation over the length of a semester. The overarching question of the study was focused on the degree of the relationship between reported volitional strategy use and the withdrawal behavior of credibly passing community college mathematics students. To explore the question, the researcher has examined the relationship between the personal development maturity level of students and their reported volitional strategy use; the relationship between the personal development maturity level of students who completed a mathematics class and their success in the mathematics class; the relationship between reported volitional strategy use and success in mathematics class for those students who completed the class; and the differences in reported volitional strategy use between students who completed the mathematics class and those who withdrew.;The participants in this study were students at a New England community college, who were enrolled in the developmental mathematics course, Elementary Algebra 1. This course was chosen for the study because it showed a withdrawal rate of close to 50% over a period of six semesters. Sixty-seven of the approximately 350 eligible students volunteered to participate in this study. Seven of the participants withdrew prior to the completion of the class.;To address the research questions, multiple instruments were employed. Each participant completed the Personal Development Test (PDT), the Academic Volitional Strategy Inventory (AVSI), demographic information, and provided his or her final grade for the class. The PDT is a 200 item "agree" or "disagree" survey, created by Cassel and Chow (2001, 2002) to assess the maturity of the test taker. The AVSI, a 30 item list of volitional strategies, was created by McCann and Garcia (1999). The survey requires students to rate how well or how often they use specific volitional strategies in their schoolwork. The authors of the PDT and the AVSI infer that there is a relationship between their tests and academic performance.;The researcher investigated the relationships between all possible pairs of the PDT results, the AVSI scores, and the grades in mathematics class. To collect more evidence on volitional strategy use, semi-structured interviews with 7 students (5 who completed the course and 2 students who withdrew) were conducted.;The analysis of the data showed no significant difference in volitional strategy use among withdrawing and completing students. However, when examining the compilation of all data for the two groups of students, those who completed the mathematics class and those who withdrew prior to completion, there was a distinct difference in the groups. Students who withdrew showed a lower mean on the PDT, a lower mean on the AVSI, showed poorer attendance in class, and completed fewer homework assignments.