Date

4-7-2026

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education Administration (PhD)

Chair

Matthew Ozolnieks

Keywords

Assessment, Outcomes Assessment, Higher Education, Faculty Attitudes, Faculty Beliefs, Career and Technical Education

Disciplines

Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this case study was to understand career and technical education (CTE) faculty members’ attitudes toward assessment at a community college in Kansas. This study explored how faculty members perceived and engaged with outcomes assessment, including their beliefs about its effectiveness, their level of influence in assessment-related decisions, and their sense of being valued within a culture of assessment. The research questions were: 1) What are faculty members’ attitudes toward various assessment methods in career and technical education, including the assessment of both knowledge and skills?, 2) How much do faculty members believe assessment contributes to improving teaching and student learning in career and technical education?, and 3) How do faculty attitudes toward a “culture of assessment” and the value they place on outcomes assessment influence their teaching in career and technical education? Understanding how individuals form attitudes and beliefs was generally defined as the attributes, values, and goals related to student learning outcomes assessment. The theory guiding this study was Daniel Katz’s functional attitude theory (FAT), which attempts to understand attitude formation and motivation. Data was collected from multiple sources in this qualitative research: individual interviews, observations of assessment meetings, and public and internal documents. The 11 participants were community college CTE faculty in Kansas. Data was analyzed using naturalistic inductive analysis. The findings revealed that CTE faculty attitudes toward assessment are largely shaped by workload, institutional context, and perceived alignment with disciplinary and industry expectations, rather than inherent resistance to assessment itself.

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