An analytical summary of Strayhorn (2012)
Strayhorn T.L (2012) describes sense of belonging and graduate students. He pointed out that a good deal of research has been conducted on the student success in higher education focused on undergraduate students, their motivations for attending college, factors influencing their choice of a particular college, and conditions that promote (or inhibit) their academic and social success in college. But far less is known about factors that motivate graduate students for pursuing higher education. According to the survey mentioned by Strayhorn (2012) 50% of all graduate students leave their graduate program before completing their degree, which is one of the biggest concerns. As, there is exorbitant costs associated with recruiting new graduate students, teaching them highly technical skills, and providing them with meaningful interactions with faculty member. This study would help the faulty, understand the factors that influence the student’s choice for choosing a particular program which would give clues for meeting their needs and eventually would lead to their success. The main purpose of this article is to explain and demonstrate the relationship between socialization and sense of belonging, to identify implications, and to recommend strategies to promote a sense of belonging. The findings in this article can be used by university administrators, to enhance graduate student socialization in their respected fields and also help graduate students who might read this article.
A focused analysis on relationship between sense of belonging and success
One of the key concepts in this article was the relationship between sense of belonging and success. Although a few other key concepts were explicitly defined in this article, the relationship between sense of belonging and success was defined by GPA and satisfaction. According to Strayhorn(2012) students who felt stronger sense of belonging to their department peers or faulty members attained better grades in graduate school. Findings show that effective size of sense of belonging on graduate GPA was higher of doctoral students than masters. The authors has given direct quotes by interviewing students, which state that sense of belonging had a positive influence on their grades as they could participate in classroom, group discussions thereby could seek help immediately when needed. One of the key term used by author is a positive, albeit modest, correlation between sense of belonging and GPA in graduate school, which explains how sense of belonging is associated with success in graduate schools.
A focused analysis on language pattern
Strayhorn has paraphrased findings of student motivation from Poock,1999. It’s also true that some students attend graduate school to engage in independent research as a way of advancing knowledge and theory in a particular field (Burgess,1997; Lapidus,1997). These are few of the examples in which Strayhorn shows how these findings from these different researchers are related to his object of study. He doesn’t use the exact words used by these authors. But when using graduate student surveys he uses quotations, unfiltered words directly from the source.