Chinese higher education has a long history of conducting and facilitating university students' study through the tutorial system. Tutors are an integral component of Chinese master students' academic careers and can even have a significant impact on students' day-to-day life. However, some students have been experiencing a dilemma of indecisiveness before approaching their instructors for academic assistance. Therefore, the purpose of our study is to explore the specific behavioral manifestations of students' indecisiveness, unravel the factors that contribute to this dilemma, and explain why these factors can influence students' indecisiveness.
As for the data collection, a qualitative approach is adopted through conducting semi-structured interviews and group discussions among 20 linguistics master students in a Chinese university. Furthermore, the Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1997; Oktay, 2012) is borrowed to provide an in-depth analysis of the data gathered and serve as the instrument to puzzle through the mechanisms behind their indecision. Additionally, based on the theoretical framework of Triadic Reciprocal Determinism (Bandura, 1986) from Social Cognitive Theory, we make efforts to categorize and summarize the major factors that lead to this phenomenon.
We discover that nearly 90 % of these participants have experienced a sense of indecisiveness before contacting their instructors for academic assistance. They frequently experience anxiety before contacting their instructors. For instance, some of them require a significant amount of time to be mentally prepared for contacting their instructors and organize their messages before sending them to their tutors. In general, the factors behind students' hesitation are intricate and complex, and their hesitancy is a manifestation of their self-defense strategy. We contend that both environmental (e.g. childhood experiences, peer effects, instructors' personalities) and personal factors (e.g. students' self-positioning, students' presuppositions of instructors' reactions, and students' personalities) lead to this indecision. Meanwhile, we anticipate facilitating the construction of a benign instructor-graduate relationship and contributing to teacher development in higher education by presenting this dilemma of Chinese master students.
References:
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1986(23-28).
Oktay, J. S. (2012). Grounded theory. Oxford University Press.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. M. (1997). Grounded theory in practice. Sage.
