When will I succeed in my first‐year diploma? Survival analysis in Dutch higher education

The goal of this study was to illustrate survival analysis with higher education data and gain insight into a limited set of factors that predict when students passed their first‐year examination at a Dutch university. Study participants consisted of 565 first‐year students in four departments. Data were collected on when students pass their first‐year examination, prior achievement and procrastination. The analysis showed that 69% of the students had not passed their examination within the nominal study length of 12 months. The estimated median lifetime, the time when 50% of the students had passed their examination, was after 23 months. Students from the 2nd department passed their examination fastest. Female students reached the estimated median lifetime at 20 months, younger students at 16 months, older students at 24+ months and students with high prior achievement scores at 12 months. The analysis finally indicated that age, prior achievement and procrastination predicted passing first‐year examinations.     

Enhancing Self-Efficacy and Learning Performance

The effect of a communication designed to enhance the self-efficacy beliefs of introductory psychology students was examined. The author assigned students (N = 123) into above average, average, and below average performance categories. All students were invited to send the author an e-mail to receive a bonus point. Of the students who responded (n = 76), half were sent an e-mail message designed to enhance their efficacy beliefs, while the other half received a neutral note. As predicted, self-efficacy beliefs were significantly related to exam scores and significantly affected by the efficacy-enhancing communication.     

新疆少数民族本科预科生英语学习动机探究

以英语学习动机问卷为工具,以新疆少数民族本科预科学生为研究对象,探究英语学习动机及其与学习成绩、英语学习自我效能感和元认知策略运用能力的相关性。结果表明:能力目标型—远景性外在学习动机是新疆少数民族预科学生的主导性英语学习动机,而内在学习动机只是作为很多学生的辅助性学习动机;持有高水平内在学习动机的学习者同时也具有高水平能力目标型—远景性外在学习动机;内在学习动机与学习成绩、自我效能感和元认知策略运用能力均呈显著正相关,而成绩目标型—近景性外在动机与学习成绩呈显著负相关。     

Student non‐completion of an undergraduate degree: wrong program selection or part of a career plan?

Institution wide comparisons of students who leave university before completing their degree and students who complete their studies, have identified ‘wrong course selection’ and a lack of vocational focus as common reasons for non‐completion. It is not fully understood, though, whether these trends are constant across different disciplines and programs and whether all relevant contributing factors, in particular career intentions, have been considered. This study was undertaken to explore reasons for student non‐completion in more detail in one program. Students enrolled in an undergraduate health sciences degree completed a questionnaire at enrolment and another 12 months later, regarding their reasons for enrolment, career intentions and expectations for/experiences of learning. Students who did not re‐enrol after the first year were invited to complete a separate exit questionnaire regarding their reasons for not re‐enrolling. Many students who did not re‐enrol after the first year of study transferred to another degree that was more aligned with their career intentions. In this context rather than a ‘wrong’ selection, non‐completion of the initial undergraduate degree formed part of a career plan.     

学业情绪研究及其对学生发展的意义

学业情绪是在教学或学习过程中,与学生学业活动相关的各种情绪体验, 包括在课堂学习活动中和完成作业过程中以及考试期间的情绪体验。学业情绪与成就动机、归因、自我效能感有着密切的联系,良好的学业情绪不仅有助于学生认知活动的开展和主动学习态度的培养,而且有助于建立良好的师生关系,促进学生身心健康发展。因此,在教育教学中应加强对学生学业情绪的管理,并展开相关的研究。     

Initiation rituals in university as lever for group cohesion

The ‘initiation rituals’ of new students in Portuguese Higher Education are viewed as a lever for group cohesion. Using the group dynamics perspective as a theoretical view, this paper reflects on hazing as an initiation ritual that supports and maintains groups by encouraging cognitive, behavioural and emotional processes of social dependency. For the empirical data analysis, a qualitative methodology was chosen, using the students’ spontaneous discourses about their academic integration. The results point to the diversity of freshmen perspectives on and experiences of hazing: either rejecting or subscribing, no student seems indifferent to it. Hazing can work as a positive catalyst to the construction of statutory identity. Furthermore, the relationship of submission which underlies these transition rituals is experienced by freshmen as a ‘price to pay’ for their entrance in the university world.     

Measures of academic motivation: A conceptual review

This review examines the measurement of academic motivation in college students. It distinguishes pencil-and-paper group-administered instruments according to their conceptions of academic motivation: academic motivation taken as a single general motivation, as single specific motivations, or as a complex of motivations. It evaluates these classes of instruments in terms of the interpretability and the utility of the information each type of instrument is likely to provide.     

The benefits of a challenge: student motivation and flow experience in tablet-PC-game-based learning

Advances in technology have led to continuous innovation in teaching and learning methods. For instance, the use of tablet PCs (TPCs) in classroom instruction has been shown to be effective in attracting and motivating students' interest and increasing their desire to participate in learning activities. In this paper, we used a TPCs game – an iPad app called Motion Math: Hungry Fish – to help young students learn to theoretically understand and practically implement the mathematical concepts of addition and subtraction. Based on findings from a pilot study, we categorized the game's 18 levels of difficulty into “challenging” (experimental group) and “matching” (control group) games. We aimed to investigate whether challenging games were more able than matching games to improve the students' motivation, flow experience, self-efficacy for technology, self-efficacy for science, feelings about the TPC game, and satisfaction with the learning approach. The findings showed that the students in the experimental group achieved better flow experience, learning performance, and satisfaction.