Developing a STEM Transfer-Self Efficacy Survey: Soliciting feedback on survey items*

Research suggests that self-efficacy is a productive lens that can provide potential for better understanding the complicated experience [1] of transferring from two-year colleges (associate-granting institutions) to bachelor’s degree granting institutions. We have begun the development of a survey to measure community college student’s STEM Transfer Self-Efficacy (S-TSE). We have generated items by adapting existing items from the Laanan-Transfer Students’ Questionnaire developed by Lanaan [2] and refined by Moser [3-4]. Additionally we adapted results from qualitative work studying transfer self-efficacy [1,5], and from reflections on the first author’s personal transfer experience. In order to refine these items into a survey instrument we are seeking feedback from scholars familiar with the transfer process or self-efficacy and motivational constructs through a thirty minute qualtrics survey as a part of our content and construct validation process. 

[1] S. H. Buenaflor, Transfer Student Self-Efficacy: A Success-Oriented Narrative of the Transfer Student Experience, Community College Journal of Research and Practice 47, 123 (2023).

[2] F. S. Laanan, STUDYING TRANSFER STUDENTS: PART I: INSTRUMENT DESIGN AND IMPLICATIONS, Community College Journal of Research and Practice 28, 331 (2004).

[3] K. Moser, Redefining Transfer Student Success: Transfer Capital and the Laanan-Transfer Students’ Questionnaire (L-TSQ) Revisited, Doctor of Philosophy, Iowa State University, Digital Repository, 2012.

[4] K. Moser, Exploring the Impact of Transfer Capital on Community College Transfer Students, Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition 25, 53 (2013).

[5] Facilitating Transfer Student Success: Exploring Sources of Transfer Student Capital - Casey Maliszewski Lukszo, Shannon Hayes, 2020, https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/doi/10.1177/0091552119876017.