The Motivational Factors Of First Generation Student

The article “Motivating Firs-Generation Students For Academic Success and College Completion” by Tanjula Petty describes the additional challenges first generation students have to overcome while attending college. A well-heeled diversity and world of opportunities are a few of the positive outcomes of attending college. According to Tanjula Petty (2014), “Yet, the most cited and widely used definition for first- generation students is someone whose parents has not completed a college degree”. Students whose parents did not acquire a college degree, have a lack of support at home. Their family members are not equipped to provide information required for college difficulties students may have. They lack knowledge and resources that students that students with college-educated parents have. The article states that these students are less psychologically prepared for college. Many low-income families do not understand the benefits of graduating from college. First generation students spend more time working and less time studying unlike their classmates. (Petty 2014) Coming from low-income families, many of these students have to divide their time between college and working. Leading students to prioritize money before school. Many work full time while going to school. Working more hours than studying can potentially harm students ' success.

There are many challenges that first generation students face in pursuit of a college degree:

Over many years college has been known as a main path to success, yet many students find themselves being first-generation college student and face many challenges that come with it, despite the efforts colleges make to remove this stigma. “Thirty percent of higher ed students today are the first in their family to attend college, while 24 percent-4.5 million- are both first generation and low income” (Opidee, 2015, P.1). These percentages are very high, with 30% of students attending college being the first in their family many students and their families don’t know what they’re getting themselves into when they get to school. Students find that being a first-generation college students affects them even before they start college.

“Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation” (1). Many people believe that school isn’t for everyone, and whoever goes is privileged for doing so. Countless people in the world today do not attend college, and this is mainly due to an influence of those in their family. Perhaps they are unsupportive of higher education, their parents and family members may view their entry into college as a break in the family system rather than a continuation of their schooling and higher learning. Most of the first-generation students decide to apply to colleges, because they aspire to jobs which require degrees. However, unlike some students whose parents have earned a degree, they often seek out college to bring honor to their families, and to ensure they make a decent amount of money for their future.

University education, fraught with superstition and tremendous expectations of its young applicants, has lost its true meaning in all of the surrounding noise. In its current state in the United States, ‘going to college’ has been oversaturated in capitalism – especially in the recent decades with skyrocketing tuition rates (Cain). The perception that every accomplishment should have monetary value has seeped into American culture; even side-projects and hobbies come with the expectation of doubling as an extra source of income. This attitude has resulted in a resounding consequence, as “for large numbers of college students the purpose of college is to qualify them for a good job” (Longwell-Grice). This determination accounts for students’ personal drive and motivation towards schoolwork,

Students from all over the United States are told all through their life that they need to attend college if they ever want to be successful, however, this is far from the truth. Often schools are culprits for driving students to attend money driven colleges, in other cases it is family. While schools all too often make the push on students to continue their schooling, parents can cause the same situation, as they may not have a degree and be working a low-paying factory job. Now kids already don’t want to be like their parents when they get older, so seeing them suffer in poverty or barely above the poverty line can cause some dissatisfaction, further seeking a degree to live a life that they never got. What many

Today’s college students have confirmed Zinsser’s prediction that students will have less leisure time, more expensive loan, or even more pressure from their parents and peers. Professor Zinsser points out four inevitably intertwined pressures that haunt the students: “economic”, “parental”, “peer”, and “self-induced”. Due to the economic pressure, parents largely force or persuade their children to go into "practical" fields such as business, economics, pre-medicine, or pre-law. Student and parents are “caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt.”

Baumeister and Bushman referred to culture as “the world of shared ideas” (p. 41). Today, education is one of the many shared ideas that accounts for our culture. Many aspects of twenty-first century society are dependent on and require a higher level of education. This however, was not true for my parents. During their high school years, the importance of continuation to college was not a shared idea. Those who could afford to go to college did, and those who could not afford it, transitioned into the workforce. It was more of an oddity for someone to go to college, continuing education, versus graduating into the “adult world” of a full-time job. This shared idea has changed since then and education, especially that at a college level,

What motivates students to strive for academic success in college? The college experience is different for each and every student that decides to take the leap into higher education. When students first enter college, there are many challenges that face them and there are certain challenges that differ due to socioeconomic background, race, culture, gender and if they are a first generation college student. “Certain factors may allow some students to succeed academically, such as academic self-efficacy.” (Khan 2013 p.1). Self-efficacy can be generally explained as a person’s own expectation of what they can accomplish. Academic self-efficacy (positive self-motivation) can be very important to a student’s academic success in college. Educators

Parents, whether they're ready to go, financial aid, career choices, or to simply just get away, are all things that can influence a persons choice to go to college. Take parents for example, some of our parents may or may not have gone to college. For those parents who have, they would want to push their kids to be like them. For those who haven't, they would want to push their kids to be better than they were, to have a better education, and ultimately, a better job to take care of their own kids someday. They sometimes put too much pressure on their kids to go to college that their kids feel like that's their only option.

There are a number of factors that can contribute to the academic success of a student in college – motivation, learning preferences/styles, socioeconomic status, whether or not the student is a first generation college student, gender, and even race. With so many factors potentially contributing or hindering a student’s academic success in college; it is important for teachers to attempt to connect with students in the classroom. Adjusting instructional methods that focus on students’ learning preferences/styles can increase student motivation and can lead to academic success.  Studies have been conducted to determine if teaching methods, learning preferences/styles and motivation can predict academic success in college. Some of the challenges facing educators in college classrooms across the nation include: how to make valuable connection with students, understanding students’ learning preferences/styles, motivating students and promoting student academic success. When effective instructional methods are used in correlation with focusing on students’ learning preferences/styles and incorporating current technology – student motivation and academic success increases.  Understanding the purpose of motivation in the classroom, the different learning preferences/styles of the students, how to incorporate new instructional methods and using current technology can ultimately lead to positive student outcomes such as increased academic motivation and success.

“You are going to be the first person in this family to receive a college education.” The moment I received knowledge that I would be a first in my family- that I would begin a new path for those who come after me in the Andrades, my perspective on everything changed. I felt honored; so honored that my pride took over and I became overfilled with emotions that led me to a joyful sob. I have been in school for nearly thirteen years, pouring my heart and soul into my education simply for myself; for my future. In that moment, I knew it had all payed off. A conversation originally about how nervous I was to be beginning my senior year turned to a conversation about me being a first generation. I realized I was benefiting myself from the start for a bigger purpose than I thought. I had known prior to this conversation with my uncle that neither my mother nor my absent father had college educations, just high school diplomas. I never thought about the rest of my family; including my aunts, uncles, and cousins. However, when my Uncle Nelson shared this simple piece of unanticipated news with me, I realized that I am going to be the greatest generation of this family. I will leave a mark on our name.

Although many of us have chosen to continue on to higher education, we still have to live with the fact that there are a number of issues in education that affect many of us students in different ways. Some problems do not affect every single one of us, but there are many problems that affect a large proportion of our student population. For the most part, these problems lead to negative impacts in the our lives that make it harder for us to succeed in our education. These issues can vary in form, affecting different groups of students depending on what problem it is that is present. These contemporary issues are all different and can be anything such as highschool not adequately preparing us to succeed in college, being a commuter student, the appearance of racism in our institutions, student loan debt, and many other different reasons that affect a wide range of students. Although I believe that there are many issues in education today, I feel like one of the biggest concerns in education is the number of students that are affected by being a first-generation student in college and the experience that we have to go through being the first in our family to go to college.

Teachers should show that they care about their students by being kind, showing compassion and asking about students’ life’s outside of the classroom setting. I agree with Lavoie when he discusses how teachers should ask questions about student’s personal life’s because this way students can feel like they have a special connection with their teacher. Out of all of these motivational approaches, I feel like I am a student who is motivated by people. For example, when an adult figure in my life, like my parents for instance compliment me on my achievements, I feel way better about myself and I feel accomplished for making them proud. The six motivational approaches Lavoie describes help motivate all different types of students.

These students only want to graduate college to get a job afterwards. This group is not interested in anything but obtaining a degree. The main reason for going to college is to graduate and to move on to better things. This is another group many different students can fall under because everyone wants to move up in the world. The better the degree the better the job. “Education may not be something they want, but they benefit from it.”