Graduate Student Attitudes: An Exploratory Study.

The study examined attitudes of graduate students (N=172) in the College of Education at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) toward their programs. A 12-item self-administered questionnaire was developed in which 6 questions addressed administrative issues and 6 related to instructional ones. Initial analysis of results utilizing computer database capabilities led to further investigation which compared students in Educational Leadership with other doctoral students, Ed.D students to Ph.D. students, and male to female doctoral students. Students rated the six instructional items higher than the administrative ones. Ed.D students ranked adequacy of communication of program requirements significantly lower than did Ph.D. students. Doctoral students in Educational Leadership had significantly less favorable attitudes than other doctoral students toward: (1) professors' knowledge of subject matter; (2) quality of orientation; and (3) relationship of course content to recent research. There were no significant differences between male and female students' attitudes. The survey is appended. 12 references. (DB)