From Uncertain to Confident: The Power of an Intentional Decision-Making Course for Undecided Freshman

Abstract

This research explores the impact of a theory backed course, Exploratory Investigations, which was designed to guide undecided first-semester freshmen through an intentional decision-making process for their academic major on career decision-making self-efficacy (their confidence in making decisions about their academic major and career). A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used to evaluate whether the course was associated with changes in students’ career decision-making self-efficacy and persistence from first to second semester relative to a comparison group who did not take the course.