Sirui Wan awarded Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship

UCI Graduate Division awarded doctoral candidate Sirui Wan a Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship (GDDF) in support of his doctoral research studying students’ achievement-related choices. The fellowship provides $5,000 for summer 2021 dissertation research.
 
Wan’s research seeks to understand the factors that influence students’ achievement-related choices during their school years, and to provide empirical evidence on how to best support all students’ learning and reduce inequities in educational outcomes.
 
“My dissertation research is focusing on understanding the development of students’ beliefs of whether he/she is ‘a math person’ or ‘a reading person’,” Wan said. “Believing that one is either can have fundamental influence on students’ academic achievement and for their educational and career choices. For example, girls may avoid pursuing a math-intensive field for future careers because they perceive themselves more as a reading person than as a math person even though they get good grades in math.”

Wan believes that his research has implications for educational policies and interventions. 

Sirui Wan

​“Society values specialization and pushes students to pursue specific fields early for potential economic benefits,” Wan said. “But if the goal is to help every student pursue what they value and achieve their potential, it might be worth allowing students to delay when to make educational choices and give them more time for exploring to develop and find their passion.”
 
Wan is specializing in Human Development in Context (HDiC) for his doctoral work. Associate Professor Drew Bailey and Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles serve as his co-advisors.