Approaches to studying and academic performance in short-essay exams

Previous research has generallyfailed to find a relation between the waystudents approach the task of studying andtheir exam grades. The present studyinvestigated why it is that a deep approach tostudying, which has been shown to result in ahigher quality of learning, does notconsistently result in higher exam grades. Theparticipants in the study were 49 third-yearpsychology students. They completedquestionnaires that assessed approaches tostudying, motivation, and intelligence. Theirfinal exam marks, along with indicators of thequality of their final exam responses and thequantity of information reproduced in the finalexam were used as indicators of academicperformance. The results showed that the deepstudy approach was linearly related to thequality of exam responses, but quadraticallyrelated to the quantity of informationreproduced. The use of the deep approach was nomore effective in facilitating high exam marksfor questions that emphasised understanding ofthe study material than for questions thatemphasised reproduction of it. Taken together,these findings suggest that students who usehigh levels of the deep approach fail toconsistently achieve higher exam grades becauseof deficiencies in the quantity of theirresponses, rather than because of theinsensitivity of exams to students'understanding of the study material.     

Classroom behaviour and academic achievement: how classroom behaviour categories relate to gender and academic performance

Latent profile analysis was used to identify different categories of students having different ‘profiles’ using self-reported classroom behaviour. Four categories of students with unique classroom behaviour profiles were identified among secondary school students in Oslo, Norway (n = 1570). Analyses examined how classroom behaviour categories are related to gender and school performance and whether a dual understanding of gender in school is helpful when trying to explain achievement differences as supposed to classroom behaviour categories. Analyses showed that gender was a better predictor of school achievement than classroom behaviour categories, even though the behaviour categories did contribute to the explanation of variance in students’ academic marks above and beyond gender.     

Learned Helplessness and Psychological Adjustment: Effects of age,gender and academic achievement

The present study deals with relations between academic achievement, learned helplessness and psychological adjustment (self-esteem and depression), controlled for gender and age. A preliminary study was conducted to test the direction of the relationship between learned helplessness, assessed by the teacher, and own expectation about academic achievement. The sample consisted of 1580 students with data collected in grades 3 and 4, 6 and 7 and 8 and 9. The relation between these two variables was reciprocal, with the strongest effect between helplessness and expectations. Hypotheses concerning the relations between achievement, helplessness and psychological adjustment were tested by means of a cross-sectional sample consisting of 1575 students in grades 4, 7 and 9. The analyses of structural equation models showed that academic achievement was directly and indirectly related to the pattern of attributions, expectations, helplessness and psychological adjustment. Moreover, helplessness and academic expectations were significantly related to psychological adjustment. The results also clearly found that boys showed more helpless behaviour, as assessed by the teacher, than did girls, while, on the other hand, girls reported more psychological maladjustment. Some practical implications of the findings are reported at the end of the paper.     

Teachers’ sanction in the classroom: Effect of age,experience, gender and academic context

The moral judgement of sanction in teaching and disciplinary practices was studied in a group of 222 teachers to determine the factors that affect sanction in the classroom. Factors studied included pupils' intent, consequences, recidivism, pupils' academic level, and family stability in two contexts: discipline and schoolwork. Results showed the significant effects of these factors for each context. Age of teachers, gender and teaching level (primary or secondary school) were also investigated in the judgement of sanction. Results showed a significant main effect of age, and specific differences in the moral algebra of teachers according to gender and teaching level.     

Intuition-Analysis Style and Approaches to Studying

Rayner & Riding (1997) identified two complementary approaches to the study of individual differences in learning; process-based models include the notion of 'approaches to studying', whilst cognition-centred model encompass 'cognitive styles'. A number of authors have posited theoretical relationships between these two aspects of learning (for example: Curry, 1983; Riding, 1997). The present study sought to provide empirical elaboration for Curry's 'onion' model and Riding's 'cognitive control' model. It employed a questionnaire survey type approach and used the Cognitive Style Index (CSI) which is a measure of intuition-analysis style (Allinson & Hayes, 1996) and a short form of the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) advocated by Gibbs et al. (1988) augmented by a collaborative scale suggested by the author. The hypothesised factor structure of Gibbs' short form of the ASI was not confirmed, however, the collaborative scale appeared reasonably robust and may warrant further development. A number of relationships were observed: females perceived themselves as being more analytical than males; analysts adopted a deeper approach than intuitives; intuitives had a stronger preference for collaborative approaches than analysts; and females were more achievement-oriented than males. The results are discussed with respect to the theoretical frameworks of Curry and of Riding and the practical implications for student learning in higher education.     

Ethnic, gender, and socio-economic group differences in academic performance and secondary school selection: A longitudinal analysis

This study examined gender, socio-economic (SES), and ethnic group differences in academic performance (measured at 14 and 16 years) in a sample of 517 British pupils (mean age = 16.5 years). White pupils outperformed their Black and Pakistani counterparts and high SES pupils consistently outperformed their low SES counterparts. Results from two Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) models showed that controlling for IQ variance minimizes these group differences. The MIMIC models also revealed that Pakistani pupils and girls tend to underperform academically relative to White pupils and boys, respectively, at 14 years, once IQ and SES have been partialed out. These and other, more specific, findings are discussed with reference to predictive test bias, selection and streaming procedures, and implications for educational policy.     

Gender and age differences in awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about academic abilities

We measured age and gender differences in children’s awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about math, science, and verbal abilities in 463 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Children reported their perceptions of adults’ beliefs and their own stereotypes about gender differences in academic abilities. Consistent with study hypotheses, fourth and sixth graders had a stronger tendency than eighth graders to favor their own gender group rather than report traditional stereotypes. On average, girls favored girls over boys in all three domains. Fourth grade boys favored boys in all three domains; middle school boys reported traditional verbal stereotypes and were on average egalitarian in beliefs about math and science. Children’s reports of their perceptions of adults’ stereotypes mirrored age and gender differences in their own stereotypes and were correlated with their own stereotype endorsement. In addition to showing beliefs favoring girls in verbal domains and a tendency for most age and gender groups to not endorse traditional math and science stereotypes, the results support a synthesis of developmental and social identity theories regarding individual differences in children’s stereotype endorsement. Children’s tendency to favor girls in verbal domains may contribute to gender differences in educational and career choices by pulling girls toward the humanities and social sciences and discouraging boys from pursuing those domains.     

A comparative study of children's concentration performance on picture books: age,gender, and media forms

The reading development of children depends on various sensory stimuli, which help them construct reading contexts and facilitate active learning and exploration. This study uses sensory stimuli provided by picture books using various forms of media to improve children's concentration performance. We employ picture books using four forms of media: conventional picture books, pop-up books, talking books, and e-books. Children in young (Grade 3) and senior elementary school students (Grade 6) are recruited as participants. The NeuroSky MindBand (electroencephalogram) is used as a tool to measure children's concentration. The results indicate that children in Grade 3 express higher concentration and interest than children in Grade 6 in picture books, and the effect of gender is greater than that of grade on the level of concentration invested in the picture book media form and exhibits a significant interaction and effects on children's concentration performance. As a result, we suggest that talking books or e-books, which provide multisensory stimuli, should be selected for elementary school boys. In addition, talking books should be selected for girls in young elementary school students, while conventional books should be used for girls in senior elementary school students to avoid distraction caused by excessive media stimuli.     

Vulnerability,gender and resistance in transnational academic mobility

Focusing on Tanzanian and Mozambican PhD students funded by Swedish development aid, this article investigates how everyday academic work life is gendered in Sweden and in the students’ home academic departments. In particular, it focuses on the role of ‘important others’, such as international donors, universities, colleagues and family, in enhancing or alleviating vulnerability and how this shifts across spatial contexts. Integral to this is exploring how obstacles are managed and negotiated by PhD students, and how they articulate capability and therefore resist a position as a victim. The results indicate the glonacality of vulnerability as something that stretches over institutional and national boundaries, and how vulnerability can be (re)produced at local university level despite the good intentions of donors and universities operating ata global level. In addition,a translocational and intersectional perspective highlights how situations of vulnerability are gendered and radicalised differently in different academic contexts.

     

An investigation of gender and age differences in academic motivation and classroom behaviour in adolescents

This study investigated gender- and age-related differences in academic motivation and classroom behaviour in adolescents. Eight hundred and fifty-five students (415 girls and 440 boys) aged 11–16 (M age = 13.96, SD = 1.47) filled in a questionnaire that examined student academic motivation and teachers completed a questionnaire reporting student classroom behaviour. Interestingly, early adolescent boys’ (11–12 years) self-reported academic motivation was significantly more closely associated with reports of student classroom behaviour completed by teachers. However, a surprising result was the significant drop in girls’ adaptive motivation from early to mid-adolescence (13–14 years) and a significant increase in mid-adolescence (13–14 years). Furthermore, teachers reported a significant increase in negative classroom behaviour in mid-adolescent and late adolescent girls (15–16 years). The need to further understand the association between academic motivation and classroom behaviour at different stages in adolescence, and to design interventions to improve classroom behaviour, is deliberated.     

Students' Studying and Approaches to Learning in Introductory Biology

This exploratory study was conducted in an introductory biology course to determine 1) how students used the large lecture environment to create their own learning tasks during studying and 2) whether meaningful learning resulted from the students' efforts. Academic task research from the K–12 education literature and student approaches to learning research from the postsecondary education literature provided the theoretical framework for the mixed methods study. The subject topic was cell division. Findings showed that students 1) valued lectures to develop what they believed to be their own understanding of the topic; 2) deliberately created and engaged in learning tasks for themselves only in preparation for the unit exam; 3) used course resources, cognitive operations, and study strategies that were compatible with surface and strategic, rather than deep, approaches to learning; 4) successfully demonstrated competence in answering familiar test questions aligned with their surface and strategic approaches to studying and learning; and 5) demonstrated limited meaningful understanding of the significance of cell division processes. Implications for introductory biology education are discussed.     

Approaches to learning,evaluations of teaching,and preferences for contrasting academic environments

Previous research has demonstrated that the academic environments provided by departments in higher education have direct effects on students' approaches to studying. But other studies have indicated that these effects are mediated by the students' own perceptions of those environments. Here two studies are reported which explore the relationships between approaches to learning, or study orientations, and perceptions of the academic environment. Those perceptions are measured in two distinct ways, one which minimises the effects of differential perceptions, and one which highlights them. Factor analyses of the responses of three groups of students taking engineering and psychology are used to clarify the nature of the relationships between study orientations and perceptions of the academic environment. It is found, as in earlier studies, that there are relationships which associate deep approaches with perceptions of relevance, and surface approaches with a heavy workload. But here it is also shown that students with contrasting study orientations are likely to define effective teaching in ways which reflect those orientations. Implications both for the design of feedback questionnaires and for the improvement of teaching and learning in higher education are discussed.     

Effort allocation in tournaments: The effect of gender on academic performance in Italian universities

We consider the academic performance of Italian university graduates and their labor market position 3 years after graduation. Our data confirm the common finding that female students outperform male students in academia but are overcome in the labor market. Assuming that academic competition is fair and that individual talent is equally distributed by gender, we suggest that the gender gap evident in degree scores is endogenously due to the greater effort exerted by female students. We find that females face a greater increase in labor market returns from signalling through academic performance. This higher prize explains the greater effort exerted by females and the higher probability of winning the academic competition.     

Relation of gender,course enrollment,and grades to distinct forms of academic dishonesty

A thorough understanding of academic dishonesty and the students who engage in it is necessary to develop appropriate policies and educational interventions to discourage such actions. The present study examines the frequency of academic dishonesty and the characteristics (i.e. gender, course enrollment, and grades) of students who engage in distinct forms of the behavior by surveying undergraduates at a large public university in the USA. Of 292 students, 57.19% reported some form of academic dishonesty in the previous six months, with cheating on a test being the most frequent form (51.71%). Men and students in a study strategies course had a significantly higher report rate for both plagiarism and making false excuses in comparison to women and students in a science course, respectively. Low grades corresponded with high rates of academic dishonesty, specifically in terms of having provided false excuses. Implications for college teaching settings are discussed.     

Approaches to learning,their context and relationship to assessment performance

Relationships between approaches to learning, as measured by the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ), prior knowledge of subject area, and performance on a multiple-choice test following a 15 × 2 hour unit in basic psychology were investigated. Subjects were 105 first year tertiary students, of mean age 19.9 years, and predominantly female (82.9%). Approaches to learning were unrelated to assessment performance, and prior knowledge did not relate to a deep approach although it did predict performance. The findings were interpreted in terms of additional elements in the teaching-learning process, and the role of the SPQ was seen as a stimulus to thinking about that process.     

Relationships among gender,age, and intellectual development

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among gender, age, and intellectual development. Random samples of 70 females and 70 males were selected with each sex group equally divided into a low-age and a high-age group. The low-age group ranged in age from 16.25 years to 16.75 years and the high-age group from 16.76 years to 17.25 years. The Piaget tasks selected to measure cognitive development were: Conservation of Volume, Separation of Variables, and Equilibrium in the Balance and Combination of Colorless Chemical Liquids. Data from this research produced these findings: (1) males demonstrate a higher level of intellectual development than females, (2) males mature intellectually earlier than females, (3) the value of the conservation of volume task as a component of a battery of formal tasks depends upon whether the decisions are to be made on the basis of the total-task results or on individual task performance, and (4) there appear to be factors other than age and gender that are related to the development of formal operational reasoning. These investigators hypothesize that experiences is another important factor.     

Approaches to Studying of Australian and Overseas Chinese University Students

This article takes up the question of whether the approaches to study adopted by Australian students and overseas Chinese students differ. Participants in the study consisted of 202 first‐year Australian students and 248 first‐year overseas Chinese students drawn from two Australian universities. The students were tested using the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI). The data obtained from the two groups were subjected to factor analysis (with orthogonal rotation). For Australian students, a four‐factor structure in studying approaches, which accounted for 55.6% of the total variance, was obtained. The factors were: Meaning Orientation; Non‐Academic Orientation; Anxious‐Rigid Orientation; and Goal Orientation. For the overseas Chinese students, a four‐factor structure in studying approaches which accounted for 52.8% of the total variance was obtained. The factors were: Anxious‐Surface Orientation; Self‐Motivated Reflective Orientation; Efficiency Orientation; and Comprehension Orientation. Although Cattell's (British Journal of Psychology, II, 1949, pp. 134–138) salient similarity sindex indicated some resemblance between the factors obtained for Australian and overseas Chinese students, confirmatory factor analyses failed to confirm a common factor structure in approaches to studying for both groups. It is concluded that the studying approaches of first‐year Australian and overseas Chinese university students are summarized by somewhat different factor structures. Several implications of the research findings are discussed.     

Student access of online feedback is modified by the availability of assessment marks,gender and academic performance

We used educational data mining to quantify student access of online feedback files and explore the underlying drivers of feedback file access in a learning management system (LMS). We collated LMS access logs for 32 individual pieces of assessment representing 1462 feedback files for 484 students (males = 45%, females = 55%) that originated across three undergraduate years, from 20 different degree pathways. Over a third of assessment feedback files (38%, 553 files) were never accessed by students. When students could obtain their assessment mark without opening the associated feedback file, 42% of feedback files were not accessed by students (513 of 1224 files). When assessment marks were integrated into the feedback file (and not reported within the LMS), the proportion of unopened feedback dropped significantly to only 17% of files (40 of 238 files). We uncovered strong gender-specific differences in how students accessed feedback within the LMS that were dependent upon academic performance and the integration of marks within the feedback file. Poorly performing males were less likely to access feedback; however, integrating marks into the feedback files meant that males were over 27 times more likely to access the feedback file. In contrast, females exhibited a much weaker and more variable response to marks being reported within feedback files. Assessments with deadlines earlier in the semester were also viewed more often than those later in the semester.