Exploring Graduate Students’ Perception of Team Research

• In Event: Doctoral Student Researchers in Theory and Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the motivational factors underlying graduate students’ perception of team research. Guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB), we measured attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) as three major determinants of graduate students’ intentions to conduct research in teams. A total of 281 graduate students from a large, comprehensive university in the southwest United States participated in the survey. Results show that (a) over two-thirds of students have no publications since they started graduate school; (b) graduate students’ attitudes towards team research positively correlate with their attitudes towards individual research; (c) both attitude and subjective norm appear to be influential factors while PBC is not of significance in the model.

Authors

• Tianlan Wei, Mississippi State University

• Alime Nazimovna Sadikova, Texas Tech University

• Lucy Barnard-Brak, Texas Tech University

• Eugene Wang, Texas Tech University

• Fernando Valle, Texas Tech University

• Dilshod A. Sodikov, Texas Tech University