The combined effect of self-efficacy and academic integration on higher education students studying IT majors in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to examine the combined effect of self-efficacy and academic integration on higher education students studying IT (Information Technology) majors in Taiwan. We introduced self-efficacy, which is a psychological factor that affects students’ academic outcomes, as a new factor in Tinto’ theory, a well-known framework in student retention research. Academic integration is the main proposition of Tinto’s theory affecting students’ decision to dropout. Students from different populations have various reasons from dropping out of their studies. An examination of the relationship between self-efficacy and academic integration is useful to understand the effect of self-efficacy on academic outcomes on the IT student population in Taiwan. Data from a Taiwanese national survey database conducted in 2005 was used to achieve the research objective. A total of 2,895 records were extracted from 75,084 students in public and private institutions studying in two IT-related Majors, namely Information Management (IM) and Computer Science (CS). MANOVA was used to analyze the interaction effects between academic integration and self-efficacy. The independent variables were institution types and students’ majors. The results showed that students from public institutions have higher levels of self-efficacy than students from private ones. Another finding is that IM students seem to have better study strategies and habits than CS students. However, CS students were found to have better collaboration and satisfaction with their institutions than IM students. Team projects, counselling services, and flexible teaching and learning strategy are suggested to enhance students’ academic integration and self-efficacy.     

Students’ perceptions about peer assessment for writing: their origin and impact on revision work

We investigate students’ negative perceptions about an online peer assessment system for undergraduate writing across the disciplines. Specifically, we consider the nature of students’ resistance to peer assessment; what factors influence that resistance; and how students’ perceptions impact their revision work. We do this work by first examining findings from an end-of-course survey administered to 250 students in ten courses across six universities using an online peer assessment system called SWoRD for their writing assignments. Those findings indicate that students have the most positive perceptions of SWoRD in those courses where an instructor graded their work in addition to peers (as opposed to peer-only grading). We then move to an in-depth examination of perceptions and revision work among 84 students using SWoRD and no instructor grading for assessment of writing in one university class. Findings from that study indicate that students sometimes regard peer assessment as unfair and often believe that peers are unqualified to review and assess students’ work. Furthermore, students’ perceptions about the fairness of peer assessment drop significantly following students’ experience in doing peer assessment. Students’ fairness perceptions—and drops in those perceptions—are most significantly associated with their perceptions about the extent to which peers’ feedback is useful and positive. However, students’ perceptions appear to be unrelated to the extent of their revision work. This research fills a considerable gap in the literature regarding the origin of students’ negative perceptions about peer assessment, as well as how perceptions influence performance.     

The effects of quantitative skills training on college outcomes and peers

This paper estimates the causal effect of taking a course in quantitative reasoning on students’ academic performance and classroom peer-group composition at a liberal arts college. To identify effects, the paper compares the outcomes of otherwise similar students who barely passed a baseline quantitative skills assessment (not taking the course) with students who barely failed (taking the course). The regression-discontinuity estimates show little impact on academic outcomes for student close to the passing cutoff, including grades on subsequent courses with quantitative content, but we are unable to distinguish small from zero effects. Exogenous course assignment does affect the composition of students’ classroom peer groups in subsequent years. The effects can only be generalized to students in the vicinity of the passing threshold (but not students with much worse quantitative skills at the baseline). We discuss implications for research and policy on remediation.     

A preliminary research on middle school students’ academic subjective well-being and its major influential factors

This study is conducted with self-developed questionnaire on 910 middle school students, aimed at describing middle school students’ academic subjective well-being and exploring its influential factors. Results show that (1) Academic subjective well-being of middle school students is generally low and there exist differences in different schools and grades. Students from non-key middle schools have lower academic subjective well-being than those from the key schools. Grade 2 students in both junior and senior middle schools have the lowest academic subjective well-being. (2) Factors directly affecting middle school students’ academic subjective well-being are academic experience and the present academic achievements · · with the former playing a major role. (3) Factors indirectly influencing middle school students’ academic subjective well-being are social pressure and expected academic achievements, both of which influence students’ academic subjective well-being through students’ academic experience or their present academic achievements. __________ Translated from Educational Research and Experiment, 2004:4     

Vocational Preferences and College Expectations: An Extension of Holland’s Principle of Self-Selection

Holland’s theory of vocational preferences provides a powerful framework for studying students’ college experiences. A basic proposition of Holland’s theory is that individuals actively seek out and select environments that are congruent with their personality types. Although studies consistently support the self-selection proposition, they have not examined the processes underlying students’ selections. It seems reasonable to presume that many students select academic majors because they believe or expect that the academic environments will be congruent with their personalities. Using data from 631 entering students, this research examined the possibility that self-selection is related to students’ college expectations. Results provided support for the role of expectations in the selection of academic majors.     

Examining the Effects of High School Contexts on Postsecondary Enrollment

The present study is organized around the central hypothesis that the high school context affects students’ postsecondary outcomes. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of high school seniors from the Educational Longitudinal Survey (ELS:2002), this study broadens our empirical understanding of how students’ acquisition of human, social, and cultural capital at the individual and school level affects 2- and 4-year college attendance. Results highlight the normative role of high schools in promoting college enrollment, particularly the role of socioeconomics, academic preparation, and access to parent, peer, and college-linking networks. This study advances our understanding of the secondary-postsecondary nexus and has implications for policies and practices aimed at realizing the current administration’s promise of providing greater access to postsecondary education for all students.     

From Opposition to Engagement: Lessons from High Achieving African American Students

Influential research on African American students has examined their school failure in terms of students’ opposition to school achievement. Only a few studies have explored school engagement and success among these students, and even fewer have examined the experiences of high achieving black students. This study illustrates the school context and school processes that high achieving African American students identify as contributing to their academic success. The findings reveal three main school effects impacting the students’ performance: 1) teacher practices, engaging pedagogy versus disengaging pedagogy; 2) participation in extracurricular activities and; 3) the state scholarship as performance incentive. According to the students, teacher practices were the most instrumental school effect benefiting their outcomes. Recognizing the processes that promote high achievement among African American students can help to improve our understanding of student performance, while promoting success among these students. The author wishes to thank Ron DePeter and Tekla Johnson for their comments on a previous draft of this article     

Variation in Students’ Experiences of the ‘Oxford Tutorial’

This paper examines Oxford University students’ conceptions of the role of the tutorial in their learning. An analysis of interviews with 28 students constituted four qualitatively different conceptions of the ‘Oxford Tutorial’. These ranged from the tutorial involving the tutor explaining to the student what the student did not know, to the tutorial involving the tutor and the student in exchanging different points of view and both coming to a new understanding of the topic under discussion. These different conceptions also appeared to be related to variations in students’ views of the role of the work done in preparation for the tutorial, their view of the student’s and tutor’s roles in the tutorial, and the conception of knowledge that students adopted in relation to the tutorial. The implications of this study are discussed in terms of the relations between students’ conceptions of tutorials and their anticipated learning outcomes and its implications for contexts outside of Oxford in terms of students’ conceptions of academic tasks.     

Understanding academic performance of international students: the role of ethnicity,academic and social integration

More than 3 million students study outside their home country, primarily at a Western university. A common belief among educators is that international students are insufficiently adjusted to higher education in their host country, both academically and socially. Furthermore, several groups of international students experience considerable amounts of stress while adapting to the culture of the host-institute. Several researchers argue that studies on adaptation of international students should widen its focus to the underlying mechanisms that leads towards this “misalignment”. In a cross-institutional comparison among 958 students at five business schools in the Netherlands, differences in academic performance between local and international students were identified by focussing on their levels of academic and social integration. Students’ academic integration was measured with the Students’ Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), while students’ social integration was measured with a newly developed and validated questionnaire. The results indicate that the degree of academic success of international students is multi-faceted. International students with a (mixed) western ethnic background perform well on both academic and social integration, and also attained higher study-performance in comparison to domestic students. In contrast, international students with a non-Western background are less integrated compared to other international students. Nevertheless, they have a similar study-performance. Finally, academic adjustment is the main predictor of study-performance for Dutch, Western and Mixed-Western students. Social adjustment was negatively related to study-performance. The lack of fit for predicting long-term study success of non-Western students indicates that their academic and social integration processes are more complex and non-linear.     

Study persistence and academic achievement as a function of the type of competing tendencies

In order to understand and predict students’ achievement and persistence at learning activities, many contemporary motivational models consider how much students are motivated for their school work. However, students’ achievement and persistence might not only be affected by their amount of study motivation, but also by the motivation to engage in competing alternative activities, as suggested three decades ago by Atkinson and Birch in their “Dynamics of Action” (1970). Building on this line of theorizing, the present contribution indicates that it is not only instructive to consider the level of students’ motivation for these competing activities, but also the type of activities they engage in, that is leisure vs. working activities. Two studies demonstrated that whereas time spent on working activities is inversely related to study motivation, attitude, persistence and academic achievement, such relationships were not found for leisure time engagement. Spending some time on leisure time activities does not interfere with optimal learning.     

Students’ assessment preferences, perceptions of assessment and their relationships to study results

The purposes of this study are to gain more insight into students’ actual preferences and perceptions of assessment, into the effects of these on their performances when different assessment formats are used, and into the different cognitive process levels assessed. Data were obtained from two sources. The first was the scores on the assessment of learning outcomes, consisting of open ended and multiple choice questions measuring the students’ abilities to recall information, to understand concepts and principles, and to apply knowledge in new situations. The second was the adapted Assessment Preferences Inventory (API) which measured students’ preferences as a pre-test and perceptions as a post-test. Results show that, when participating in a New Learning Environment (NLE), students prefer traditional written assessment and questions which are as closed as possible, assessing a mix of cognitive processes. Some relationships, but not all the expected ones, were found between students’ preferences and their assessment scores. No relationships were found between students’ perceptions of assessment and their assessment scores. Additionally, only forty percent of the students had perceptions of the levels of the cognitive processes assessed that matched those measured by the assessments. Several explanations are discussed.     

Chinese students’ perceptions of a collaborative e-learning environment and factors affecting their performance: implementing a Flemish e-learning course in a Chinese educational context

This study was set up in a Chinese university in Beijing by implementing a Flemish e-learning course in a Chinese setting. A main feature of the e-learning environment is the asynchronous ‘task-based’ online group discussion. The purpose of the study is to understand Chinese students’ perceptions of a collaborative e-learning environment and the factors that affect their online performance and academic achievement. The results of the study indicate that the students had less positive perceptions of the e-learning environment as compared to their perceptions of a more conventional environment. However, the students reported to a higher level of preferences of peer learning, critical thinking, and problem-based learning (PBL) after one semester e-learning experience. In addition, we examined variables that might have affected students’ performance in e-learning environments. The results show that students with higher motivational orientations perform better in the online group discussions.     

Students’ perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement: Consequences on achievement goals

The present study examined whether students’ perceptions of two major facets of parental and teacher academic involvement (i.e., academic support and academic monitoring), contribute to the process of students’ achievement goals adoption. French junior high-school students completed two questionnaires assessing first their perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement, and then their achievement goals three months later. Factorial analyses showed that students differentiated parental academic monitoring from parental academic support, while predominantly perceiving their teacher academic involvement as reflecting monitoring. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that, as expected, students’ perceptions of parental academic support were positively related to mastery goals while unrelated to performance goals. Also as expected, perceived academic monitoring was associated with performance goals, although the findings revealed an equal contribution of perceived parental and teacher involvement. This new insight about the antecedents of students’ achievement goals emphasizes how important is the role of parental and teacher academic socialization.     

The Interrelation of First-Year College Students’ Critical Thinking Disposition, Perceived Academic Control, and Academic Achievement

While a great deal of research has examined students’ critical thinking skills, less is known about students’ tendencies to use these skills. Specifically, little is known about what factors contribute to students developing a disposition to think critically or what impact this disposition has on college students’ academic achievement. Perceived control, which has been found to be an important factor in college students’ academic success, may be an important factor in developing this disposition. The current longitudinal study examined the reciprocal-effects between critical thinking disposition and perceived academic control, and their comparative influences on academic achievement in 1196 first-year college students. Using a two-wave, two-variable cross-lag structural equation model, a reciprocal-effect was found whereby students’ perceived academic control predicted their subsequent critical thinking disposition, and students’ critical thinking disposition predicted their subsequent perceived academic control. Furthermore, after controlling for high school academic performance, perceived academic control was found to have a stronger impact on students’ GPAs than critical thinking disposition. Implications of fostering a critical thinking disposition and perceived academic control among college students are discussed.

Exploring the potential impact of reciprocal peer tutoring on higher education students’ metacognitive knowledge and regulation

It is widely recognized that metacognition is an important mediator for successful and high-level learning, especially in higher education. Nevertheless, a majority of higher education students possess insufficient metacognitive knowledge and regulation skills to self-regulate their learning adequately. This study explores the potential of reciprocal peer tutoring to promote both university students’ metacognitive knowledge and their metacognitive regulation skills. The study was conducted in a naturalistic higher education setting, involving 67 students tutoring each other during a complete semester. A multi-method pretest–posttest design was used combining a self-report questionnaire, assessing students’ metacognitive knowledge and their perceived metacognitive skilfulness, with the analysis of think-aloud protocols, revealing students’ actual use of metacognitive strategies. Results indicate no significant pretest to posttest differences in students’ metacognitive knowledge, nor in their perception of metacognitive skill use. In contrast, significant changes are observed in students’ actual metacognitive regulation. At posttest, students demonstrate significantly more frequent and more varied use of metacognitive regulation, especially during the orientation, monitoring, and evaluation phases. Furthermore, our findings point to an increase in more profound and higher-quality strategy use at posttest.     

Factors affecting bioscience students’ academic achievement

The examination of academic progression has become an essential tool for measuring the effectiveness of educational systems. Research concerning the relationship between student learning and how they progress in their studies, however remains scarce. The aim of this study is two-fold: Firstly, the study aims to analyse first-year bioscience students’ perceptions of their teaching–learning environment and their approaches to learning as well as the relationship of these to academic achievement as measured by students’ progression in studies and how they succeed. Secondly, the present study explores factors students feel either enhance or impede their studying as well as the relationship of those factors with their approaches to learning and academic achievement. The data consist of responses from 188 first-year students who began their studies in the fall 2007 and 2008. The data were collected in a Finnish context with a modified and shortened version of the Experiences in Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ). The analyses were carried out using factor analysis, one-way ANOVA and structural equation modeling. According to the results, organised studying was related to both academic progression and study success. In addition, academic progression was positively related to peer support. Furthermore, most of the students found that problems in time management impeded their studies and that pre-set schedules enhanced them. Results indicate that social support and self-regulation skills are important for academic achievement.     

Situational and Personal Causes of Student Cheating

The causes of students’ academic dishonesty behavior were explored using survey and experimental vignette methods. Participants were surveyed about their own cheating behavior, neutralizing attitudes, performance/mastery orientation and perceptions of peer attitudes and behavior. As predicted, neutralizing attitudes influenced cheating behavior directly, but also indirectly, increasing the effect of individual attitudes. Observing others cheating was strongly correlated with one’s own cheating behavior. These variables are also shown to have different effects on exam cheating and plagiarism and cases of giving and receiving unauthorized information. Correlations were tested using experimental vignette methods, which supported the claims made from survey data.     

Socio-political influences on EFL motivation and attitudes: comparative surveys of Korean high school students

This paper investigates Korean high school students’ English learning motivation and attitudes. In this regard, the results of a 2002 study were compared with those of a 2006 study. Questionnaire data were obtained from a total of 1,037 high school students in a major city in South Korea, and the data were compared with those on the students’ English proficiency. Statistical analyses verified two distinctive Korean-specific constructs: competitive motivation and attitudes toward Americans among the participants. The results suggest that negative washback effects of the College Scholastic Ability Test in Korea and influences of peer group cohesion, mass media, and the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure play a crucial role in EFL motivation and attitudes among Korean high school students.     

Faculty and peer influences on academic integrity: college cheating in Romania

The purpose of this research was to examine student perceptions of academic integrity among faculty and peers at a sample of public universities in Romania. The study explores the factors that influence academic dishonesty among college students and compares the relative importance of faculty influences and peer influences on students’ intent to cheat. The study differs from the existing literature on academic integrity in that it examines the degree to which student cheating in college is influenced by the quality and relevance of instruction and the academic dishonesty of instructors and peers.